of character, unless they be generously supported and protected by the stronger sex.

In Irishmen, the fear of losing, by incautiously yielding to a usurping spirit in women, their own just supremacy, and the sense of being much more powerful than they, are remarkably well adjusted to each other. Both stir in their heart with great vivacity, but yet the latter predominates, and it is it that stamps a character on all the leading principles that they form, relatively to the deportment which they ought to observe towards women. Ever remembering, with deep compassion, their dependent weakness, and their own superior power, their heart continually warns them of its being their duty generously to uphold them in the highest place in the social fabric, which their fully unfolded mental qualities might render them competent to fill: it urges them, also, to endeavour, by a liberal, respectful treatment of them, to give to those qualities a desirable developement. The lively, jealous sense which they commonly have of the regards due to themselves from women, only serves, in the main, to counterpoise sufficiently their desire to prove themselves their generous friends and protectors, to make it act with rational caution, and forbear alluring them into extravagant measures contrary to a good system of order.

The Irishman's sensibility to female charms, where they do not directly emanate from a virtuous, well regulated mind, is much less overpowering than that of the Frenchman, and more particularly of the Italian. For which reason his calmer, more unclouded feelings suggest to him more constantly the idea of what women ought to be; urge him more to behave to them in a manner corresponding to the impressions which truly virtuous, respectable ones ought to make on him; and more incessantly remind him of the power that he would possess to behave to them as a haughty master, if his own generous, honorable sentiments, were not warmly opposed to his doing so.*

The diversity, which I have just noticed, between those sentiments of the Irish and Italians that determine their treatment of women, causes the former, when they take any step in compliance with a wife's wishes, much more openly to avow to companions the motive that decided them to it, than VOL. III.

2 A

I conclude, from these remarks on the disposition of Irishmen, that, owing to the vivacity with which they apprehend women's feelings, and the comparatively unchecked flow of their generous sentiments concerning them, they are singularly adapted tenderly to assist to guide them to the highest pinnacle of moral perfection, placed by nature within their reach.

Till Irishmen learn to take full advantage of nature's liberality, in conferring on them, to a remarkable degree, the faculty of widely developing, in the mind of women, the germs of all its native good qualities, their national character will not shine forth with a steady, brilliant lustre, commanding the respect of all other countries.

Let circumstances in Ireland change as they may, as long as effectual pains are not taken there majestically to elevate to its proper height the mind of women, and wisely to ordinate the opinion of society, it will be found that the faults at present obvious in the Irish character, will still continue to pervade it sufficiently to render it, as a national one, much inferior to that of Great Britain; whereas, if it were properly developed, according to the principles that I have exposed, the Irish people would stand firmly by the side of the British one, an equally respectable and prosperous coadjutor, receiving from it, and imparting to it, invulnerable strength.

CHAPTER IV.

A WIFE'S DUTIES TO HER HUSBAND, PARTICULARLY THAT OF OBEDIENCE. PRINCIPLES WHICH SHOULD DIRECT THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

It is the custom of men, when they talk to women of a wife's duties, to lay such an emphasis on that of obedience,

do the latter in like case. The Italian husband shuns above all things the appearance of being too much under his wife's government; the Irish one is more anxious not to subject himself to the imputation of allowing his too little influence over him.

that you might suppose them convinced that, in counselling a woman implicitly to obey a wedded chief, they afforded her an infallible rule, by a scrupulous adherence to which she could secure herself against the commission of any error.

Easy, indeed, would it be for wives to fulfil, exemplarily, their duties, were they thus bound to submit implicitly to a husband's will: did no more blame attach to them, for taking steps in compliance with it, ruinous to their families, than attaches to the military subaltern who executes, without hesitation, some injudicious order given to him by his commanding officer.

The obedience, however, due from a wife to a husband, seems to me to be a duty, the right performance of which may at times require her greatly to exercise her understanding: she must try to reconcile it with the determination ever to act as may become the real, warm friend of him, and their children.

It is evident that such a determination may possibly oblige her firmly to oppose his intentions.

The counsels, which men are so fond of giving to wives, implicitly to obey their lords, appear to me to be partly suggested to them by the disposition,—to which mankind are so prone, completely to simplify their laws of conduct; for the sake of erecting them into sure guides for the persons the least accustomed to exercise their reason. Whereas the laws by which nature requires us to regulate our practice are so complex, that we ought to be well and early accustomed to exert the powers of our understanding, in order to acquire the ability, on all occasions, clearly to apply them to our

use.

"Tis by meekness and submission, no doubt, that a wife ought to wish to fix her empire in her husband's heart; yet, where she endeavours to adorn herself in his eyes, with virtues of this nature, she may, if her mind be not enlarged and firm, easily commit the fatal mistake of decking herself with spurious ones.

Against such a mistake she ought to be well precautioned, and to that end something more is necessary than merely to preach to her the duty of obeying her husband.

When a woman's amiable dispositions have sufficiently comprehensive, noble bearings, to entitle them to the rank of virtuous ones, her civilizing influence is naturally felt by all the persons in close relationship with her. It is the tendency of virtue to propagate itself from one individual to another, when it originates in the mind of a woman; and it is this arrangement in nature's social plan, which causes the right formation of the female character to be of such national importance.

When, therefore, a wife is taught, by truly virtuous principles, to manifest towards her husband an amiable submission, we may justly expect to see his character bear the marks of an exposure to a soft, benign influence. If we knew him before marriage, we hope that the changes which after it may, insensibly, take place in his disposition, shall all testify his continual progression in goodness, meekness, and an aptitude deeply to relish the sweets of domestic life. We likewise expect to see the children of such parents prove a comfort and honour to them, owing to their imbibing from them pure, civilized tastes, along with a deeply felt attachment to every virtue. We conclude, also, that the servants in such a family will naturally, by their affectionate zeal, and cheerful alacrity in performing the duties of their station, bear witness to the enlightened attention with which they are regulated by the chiefs of the family, and to the virtuous emulation with which these beloved chiefs have inspired them.

But if, instead of beholding this pleasing exhibition of the pure rays of sympathy, which a virtuous and truly meek spirited mistress of a family may shed around her, we see the man, possessed of a very mild, obedient consort, remarkable for his quarrelsome temper, or implacable, tyrannic one; that we observe their children to be wilful, and ill bred; and find their servants to be insolent and riotous, I think that we may fairly suppose, that the mild, obedient spirit exhibited towards her husband by the mistress of the family, is not the result of steady, virtuous principles; that she only comports herself towards him with humble submission from abject timidity, or from such a love of a peaceable life, that, in order to secure it, she refuses to make any painful exertion to promote the well being and true happiness of her family.

The exclusive inculcation to women of the duty of obedience to a conjugal lord, may, if they be naturally, tranquilly or timidly inclined, encourage them fondly to think that they do their duty, in deplorably smothering, on account of their love of personal ease, the dictates of their heart and reason, when they engage them to stand forth the firm, unfaltering friends of a husband and family, on occasions wherein it may be requisite for them to act with independent energy and spirit.

On the other hand, if women's own understanding lead them to perceive, that their duties, as wives and mothers, may sometimes sanction them in a resolute opposition to a husband's will, the attempt to enforce on them an unexceptionable obligation tamely to yield to it, may only induce them to conclude, that it is the tyranny of men, and not the enlightened law of justice, which has classed among a wife's duties that of obedience to her lord.

The preceptors of girls ought then to manage, with especial delicacy and tenderness, the inculcation to them of the duty prescribed to wives to obey a husband. I do not mean that they should shrink from a clear enunciation of it, for every duty which the order of nature imposes on mankind or any portion of them, ought, by those who fill the office of their instructors, to be firmly expounded to them.

But great care should be taken to give girls a clear comprehension of the extent and bearings of a wife's duty of conjugal obedience. They should be taught, especially, that it is one which she is bound to consider secondary to that of proving herself a sincere, devoted friend to her husband and children.

But they should also, at the same time, be warned that, in order to her complete accomplishment of this latter and paramount duty, it is in most cases needful that she comport herself to her wedded lord with warm tenderness, and cheerful, unreserved submission.

They ought also to be made to comprehend, that a woman is almost always, in some degree to blame, when any of those extreme cases occur which justify her peremptory refusal to comply with her husband's injunctions: she has either origi