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TULLIA,

A DAUGHTER of Servius Tullius, king of Rome, married Tarquinius Superbus, after she had murdered her first husband, Arunx; and consented to see Tullius assassinated, that she might be raised to the throne. She is said to have ordered her chariot to be driven over the dead body of her father, which had been thrown all bloody into one of the streets. She was afterwards banished from Rome, with her husband. Tarquinius Superbus had been before married to Tullia's sister, whom he murdered, in order to marry Tullia.

TULLIA, or TULLIOLA,

A DAUGHTER of Cicero, and Terentia, his wife. She married Caius Piso, and afterwards Furius Crassippus, and lastly P. Corn. Dolabella. Dolabella was turbulent, and the cause of much grief to Tullia, and her father, by whom she was tenderly beloved. Tullia died in childbed, about B. C. 44, soon after her divorce from Dolabella. She was about thirty-two years old at the time of her death, and appears to have been an admirable woman. She was most affectionately devoted to her father; and to the usual graces of her sex having added the more solid accomplishments of knowledge and literature, was qualified to be the companion as well as the delight of his age; and she was justly esteemed not only one of the best, but the most learned of the Roman women. Cicero's affliction at her death was so great, though philosophers came from all parts of the world to comfort him, that he withdrew for some time from all society, and devoted himself entirely to writing and reading, especially all the works he could meet with on the necessity of moderating grief.

TYMICHA,

A LACEDEMONIAN lady, consort of Myllias, a native of Crotona. Jamblichus, in his life of Pythagoras, places her at the head of his list, as the most celebrated female philosopher of the Pythagorean school. When Tymicha and her husband were carried as prisoners before Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, B. C. 330, he made them both very advantageous offers, if they would reveal the mysteries of Pythagorean science; but they rejected them all with scorn and detestation. The tyrant not succeeding with the husband, took the wife apart, not doubting, from her situation at the time, that the threat of torture would make her divulge the secret; but she instantly bit off her tongue, and spat it in the tyrant's face, to show him that no pain could make her violate her pledge of secresy.

V. VASHTI,

THE beautiful wife of Ahasuerus, (or Artaxerxes,) king of Persia, gained her celebrity by disobeying her husband. Ahasuerus, who was then the most powerful monarch of the world, reigning over a

| kingdom stretching from "India to Ethiopia," gave a great feast to the governors of his provinces, his courtiers, and the people who were at his palace of Shushan. This feast lasted seven days, and every man drank wine "according to his pleasure," which means they were very gay, at least. Queen Vashti also gave a feast, at the same time, to the women of her household. On the seventh day, "when the king's heart was merry with wine," he commanded Vashti to be brought before him with the crown-royal on her head, "to show the people and the princes her beauty."

She refused to come. The sacred historian does not inform us why she refused; the presumption is, that the thing was unprecedented, and she considered it, as it was, an outrage of her modesty to show her face to these drunken men. Her courage must have been great as her beauty, thus to have braved the displeasure of her royal and drunken husband.

In his wrath the king instantly referred the matter to his "wise men," who knew law and judgment;" for since the days of Cyrus the Great, the kingdom of Persia had been, ostensibly, governed by established laws. But it appears there was no law which reached Vashti's case; so the king was advised to repudiate his wife by a royal decree, unjust because retrospective, and issued expressly for her conjugal disobedience. The speech of Memucar, who delivered the opinion of the council, is curious, as showing the reasons which have, usually, (in all countries more or less,) influenced men in making laws for the government of women, namely-what man requires of the sex for his own pleasure and convenience, not that which would be just towards woman, and righteous in the sight of God. See chap. i. of the Book of Esther. What became of Vashti after she was repudiated is not known. These events occurred B. C. 519.

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DAUGHTER of Virginius, a citizen of Rome, and betrothed to Icilius, was seen by Appius Claudius, a Roman decemvir, as she was going to and returning from school. Captivated by her beauty, he resolved to obtain possession of her. In order to carry out this determination, he suborned an abandoned favourite to claim her as the daughter of one of his slaves, who had been placed for a temporary period under the care of Virginius. Though evidence was brought that this story was a fabrication, yet Appius Claudius, who himself filled the office of judge upon this occasion, decreed the young Virginia to be the property of his tool. Virginius, under pretence of wishing to take a last farewell of his child, drew her aside

from the wretches who surrounded her, and plunged a knife into her bosom, while she was clinging around his neck.

The soldiers and people, incensed against the cause of this sanguinary catastrophe, instantly dragged Claudius from the seat of justice, and an end was put to the decemviral power, B. C. 450.

The popular tragedy of "Virginius," written by J. Sheridan Knowles, is a vivid portraiture of these events.

VOLUMNIA,

A ROMAN matron, and mother of Coriolanus. When her son, incensed at his banishment from Rome, was marching against it with the Volsci, she went out to meet him, accompanied by his wife Virgilia, and many other Roman matrons, and by her entreaties and persuasions induced him to withdraw his army, though that step was fatal to his own life. To show their respect for the patriotism of Volumnia, the Romans dedicated a temple to Female Fortune. She lived B. C. 488.

In Shakspeare's tragedy of Coriolanus the character of Volumnia is exquisitely portrayed, and appears to have been of a far higher order of moral developement than that of her distinguished son. She was forgiving, self-sacrificing, patriotic: he, proud, selfish, revengeful. Her noble mind subdued his stubborn will because, with womanly fortitude and fidelity, she firmly but lovingly upheld

the right, and thus prevented the wrong he would have done. His physical strength was shown to be weakness when contrasted with the power of truth which sustained her gentle spirit. Thus will moral suasion and the faith of love finally triumph over physical strength and mental power. XANTIPPE,

WIFE of Socrates, the Athenian philosopher, was remarkable for the moroseness and violence of her temper. It is said that Socrates was aware of her character, and married her to exercise his patience. She, however, loved her husband, and mourned his death, which took place about 398 B. C., with the deepest grief. If we take into the account this true love she felt for her husband, and consider what she must have suffered while he was passing his evenings in the society of the beautiful and fascinating Aspasia, we shall hardly wonder at her discontent. If his wife loved him, it must have been for his mind, as he was not endowed with attractions that win the eye and fancy of a woman; and thus loving him, she must have keenly felt the discord between the wisdom of his teachings and the foolishness of his conduct. That he acknowledged her influence over him was good, is a sufficient proof of her true devotion to him; had he been as true to her, he would have been a wiser and a better man; and she, no doubt, a much milder as well as a happier woman..

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REMARKS ON THE SECOND ERA.

In this Era we include the fifteen hundred years following the birth of Jesus Christ. Had an angel been gifted with power to look over the whole inhabited globe on the opening of the eventful year 4004 of the old era, what would have appeared? Everywhere the spectacle of demoralization, despair, and death. Rome, representing the Gentile world, had trodden down with iron heel alike the civilized Greek and barbarian Goth, into a passive state called peace! The temple of Janus was shut; but the flood-gates of sin were opened wide as those of death; and from the corrupt hearts of wicked men such foul streams were poured forth as threatened to overwhelm the race. The moral power of woman was nearly lost; the last struggle of her spirit to retain its love of the Good, that inner wisdom with which she had been gifted for the special purpose of moulding the souls of the young to her standard,—seemed fast approaching. Patriotism, the holiest emotion of the pagan mind, the proudest virtue of the Roman people, which had given such wonderful power to the men and women of that regal nation- patriotism had hardly a votary in the Eternal City.

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The Jews, the chosen people of God, had also touched the lowest point of national degradation—subjection to a foreign power. Their religion had lost its life-giving faith, and become a matter of dead forms or vain pretences, used by the priests for their own profit, and to foster their own pride. Everywhere sins and crimes filled the world. There was no faith in God; no hope in man; no trust in woman. The selfish passions were predominant; the evil, animal nature, triumphed; love had become lust; and the true idea of marriage, the hallowed union of one man with one woman, faithful to each other through life, was treated as an idle jest, a mockery of words never intended to be made true. That this degradation of woman, through the practice of polygamy or by the licentiousness an easy mode of divorce had made common, was the real source of the universal corruptions of society, there can be no doubt. The last of God's inspired messengers, the fervent Malachi, thus reproves the Jewish men, and denounces their sin; adding this emphatic declaration :

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"Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away."

Yet not only in Rome and throughout the Gentile world was this licentiousness become the rule and fashion of society, but even in Jerusalem, the holy city, king Herod lived openly with his brother's wife, and the people were not troubled by the shame or the sin.

If the angel, whom we have imagined as regarding the awful condition of humanity, had looked around for some barrier to stay this torrent of iniquity, would he have found it in the nature of man? No-there was none who had faith for the office; not even Zacharias, when Gabriel appeared to him and announced the birth of John, would believe the heavenly messenger.

Man's power to sustain the Good and the True being wholly overborne, woman was called to the ministry of salvation. That her nature was of a purer essence, and more in harmony with the things of heaven than man's was, we have shown, conclusively as we think, in the General Preface and in the Biographies of the women of the Old Testament; but the fact that the Saviour of the world, the Son of God, inherited his human nature entirely from his mother, can hardly be too often pressed on the attention of Christians. The Virgin Mary was the human agent, through whose motherly ministry the divine Saviour was nurtured and instructed in his human relations and duties. Women were the first believers in Christ; the first to whom he revealed his spiritual mission; the first to hail his resurrection from the tomb. It is worthy of note, that none of the apostles saw the angels at the sepulchre; to the women only these heavenly messengers revealed themselves; as though the veil of a more earthly nature darkened the vision even of those men chosen by the Saviour to be his especial friends and disciples. But why, if women were thus good, and gifted, and faithful, why was not the public ministry of the gospel committed to them?

We have, in the general preface, shown the reasons why the government of the world and the administration of the ritual laws were confided to men rather than to women. The same reasons apply to the apostleship and to the preaching of the gospel. Where both sexes were to be instructed and reformed, it was necessary each should have its distinct sphere of duty; men were sent forth.

to preach the word and organize the church; women were to keep their homes sacred as the house of God, and instruct their children in the true faith. The distinctive characteristics of each sex were thus made to contribute their best energies to the advancement of the truth. Yet throughout the whole life of the blessed Redeemer-from his manger-cradle to his blood-stained cross, we trace the predominant sympathy of his nature with that of woman. We trace this in his example and precepts, which were in unison with her character; in his tender love of children; in the sternness with which he rebuked the licentious spirit of man in regard to the law of divorce. When the Pharisees told him what Moses had permitted

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Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this precept. "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.
"And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain but one flesh.
"What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

Thus was the true idea of marriage restored; and it is now, as it was in the beginning, and will be till the end of the world, the keystone in the temple of social improvement, and true civilization. Wherever the Gospel is preached and believed, polygamy is annihilated. What no law or power of man could have done, the law of God, re-affirmed by Jesus Christ, and baptized by the Holy Ghost into the hearts of regenerated men, effected. Then the Christian wife took the Eden seat beside her husband; his soul's companion, his best earthly friend. And soon she was recognised and acknowledged as "the glory of the man." How beautiful are the glimpses we gain of the feminine character as developed under the first influences of the preached Gospel! Besides the host of female friends whom St. Paul names with warm affection and approval, there was the 'honourable women" who waited on his ministry; and Priscilla who was always an helper; and the "elect lady and her children," to whom the gentle, pure-minded St. John wrote his epistle of love and faith.

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Thanks be to God that this blessed Gospel, which seems to have been revealed purposely for the help of woman, was not like the Jewish dispensation, to be confined to one people! No: it was to be preached throughout the world, and to every creature. Wherever this Gospel was made known, women were found ready to receive it. Queens became the nursing mothers of the true Church, and lovely maidens martyrs for its truth. The empress Helena has been widely celebrated for her agency in introducing Christianity into the Roman empire. It may not be as well known that many queens and princesses have the glory of converting their husbands to the true faith, and thus securing the success of the Gospel in France, England, Hungary, Spain, Poland, and Russia. In truth, it was the influence of women that changed the worship of the greater part of Europe from Paganism to Christianity. No wonder these honourable ladies were zealous in the cause of the religion which gave their sex protection in this life and the promise of eternal happiness in the life to come. The zeal with which women-one-half of the human race-sustained the faith and labours of the apostles and first missionaries, was one of the greatest human elements of their success. Could this simple teaching and believing have gone on unhindered, the whole world would long ago have received the Gospel. But truth was perverted by selfish men; monachism established; and the woman's soul, again consigned to ignorance, was bowed to the servile office of ministering to the passions and lusts of men.

Then came the deification of the Virgin Mary; a worship, though false to the word of God, yet of salutary influence over the robbers and tyrants who then ruled the world. Next, chivalry was instituted, partly from the religious sentiment towards woman the worship of the Virgin had awakened, and partly from the necessities of worldly men. But religious sentiment, as a barrier against vice, has never been sufficiently strong to control, though it may for a time check, the corruptions of sin. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, every light of hope was fading or extinguished. The Christian world—so called-was one wide theatre of wars, rapine, and superstition. France, beautiful France, was the focus of anarchy and misery such as the world had not witnessed since the Roman empire was overthrown. The British, brave but brutal soldiers, seemed about to trample the sacred oriflamme of St. Louis in the dust. Charles VII. was a king without a country— all he possessed was a few provinces in the south of France; and even these seemed likely to be soon wrested from him. At this juncture, when the strength of the warriors was overborne, the arm of a simple country maiden interposed, and was the cause of beating back the haughty foe to the limits of his own island home, there to learn that colonization, not conquest, was to make his glory. The Maid of Orleans is the most marvellous person, of either sex, who lived from the time of the apostles to the end of the Era on which we are now entering.

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