energy for adventure, for war, and for conquest, wherever war is just, wherever conquest necessary. But the woman's power is for rule, not for battle,?and her intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision. She sees the qualities of things, their claims, and their places. Her great function is Praise; she enters into no contest, but infallibly adjudges the crown of contest. By her office, and place, she is protected from all danger and temptation, The man, in his rough work in open world, must encounter
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all peril and trial;?to him, therefore, must be the failure, the offence, the inevitable error: often he must be wounded, or subdued; often misled; and always hardened. But he guards the woman from all this; within his house, as ruled by her, unless she herself has sought it, need enter no danger, no temptation, no cause of error or offence. This is the true nature of home?it is the place of Peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division. In so far as it is not this, it is not home; so far as the anxieties of the outer life penetrate into it, and the inconsistently-minded, unknown, unloved, or hostile society of the outer world is allowed by either husband or wife to cross the threshold, it ceases to be home; it is then only a part of that outer world which you have roofed over, and lighted fire in. But so far as it is a sacred place, a vestal temple, a temple of the hearth watched over by Household Gods, before whose faces none may come but those whom they can receive with love,?so far as it is this, and roof and fire are types only of a nobler shade and light,?shade as of the rock in a weary land, and light as of
the Pharos1 in the stormy sea;?so far it vindicates the name, and fulfils the praise, of Home.
And wherever a true wife comes, this home is always round her. The stars only may be over her head; the glowworm in the night-cold grass may be the only fire at her foot; but home is yet wherever she is; and for a noble woman it stretches far round her, better than ceiled with cedar, or painted with vermilion, 2 shedding its quiet light far, for those who else were homeless.
This, then, I believe to be,?will you not admit it to be??the woman's true place and power. But do not you see that, to fulfil this, she must?as far as one can use such terms of a human creature?be incapable of error? So far as she rules, all must be right, or nothing is. She must be enduringly, incorruptibly good; instinctively, infallibly wise?wise, not for self-development, but for self-renunciation: wise, not that she may set herself above her husband, but that she may never fail from his side: wise, not with the narrowness of insolent and loveless pride, but with the passionate gentleness of an infinitely variable, because infinitely applicable, modesty of service?the true changefulness of woman. In that great sense?'La donna e mobile,' not 'Qual pium' al vento';3 no, nor yet 'Variable as the shade, by the light quivering aspen made';'1 but variable as the light, manifold in fair and serene division, that it may take the colour of all that it falls upon, and exalt it.
1864 1865
1. A lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (its island is now part of the city of Alexandria). The phrase 'rock in a weary land' alludes to Isaiah 32.2. 2. Cf. Jeremiah 22.14. 'Ceiled': roofed over. 3. 'Women are as fickle as feathers in the wind,' the first two lines of the famous aria by the womanizing Duke in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto (1851). 4. Sir Walter Scott, Marmion (1808) 6.30.
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1 589
HARRIET MARTINEAU
Martineau (1802?1876), who grew up in the town of Norwich, suffered a painfully unhappy childhood and adolescence both because of recurring illnesses and because of the strict and narrow lifestyle of her middle-class Unitarian family. A prolific author, she produced many kinds of books?history, political and economic theory, travel narratives, fiction, translation. She was best-known for her collection of instructive stories, Illustrations of Political Economy (1832?34); but she also dealt with a wide variety of other issues, such as slavery in the United States (she was an early supporter of the abolitionists). Her Autobiography, written in 1855, was published in 1877. In the first selection she is eighteen years old.
From Autobiography
When I was young, it was not thought proper for young ladies to study very conspicuously; and especially with pen in hand. Young ladies (at least in provincial towns) were expected to sit down in the parlour to sew,?during which reading aloud was permitted,?or to practice their music; but so as to be fit to receive callers, without any signs of bluestockingism1 which could be reported abroad. Jane Austen herself, the Queen of novelists, the immortal creator of Anne Elliott, Mr. Knightley,2 and a score or two more of unrivalled intimate friends of the whole public, was compelled by the feelings of her family to cover up her manuscripts with a large piece of muslin work, kept on the table for the purpose, whenever any genteel people came in. So it was with other young ladies, for some time after Jane Austen was in her grave; and thus my first studies in philosophy were carried on with great care and reserve. I was at the work table regularly after breakfast,?making my own clothes, or the shirts of the household, or about some fancy work: I went out walking with the rest,?before dinner in winter, and after tea in summer: and if ever I shut myself into my own room for an hour of solitude, I knew it was at the risk of being sent for to join the sewing-circle, or to read aloud,?I being the reader, on account of my growing deafness.3 But I won time for what my heart was set upon, nevertheless,?either in the early morning, or late at night. I had a strange passion for translating, in those days; and a good preparation it proved for the subsequent work of my life. Now, it was meeting James at seven in the morning to read Lowth's Prelections4 in the Latin, after having been busy since five about something else, in my own room. Now it was translating Tacitus,5 in order to try what was the utmost compression of style that I could attain.?About this I may mention an incident while it occurs. We had all grown up with a great reverence for Mrs. Barbauld6 (which she fully deserved from much wiser people than ourselves) and, reflectively, for Dr. Aikin,7 her
1. Female intellectualism or literary activity (from tures oil Hebrew Poetry, 1753?70), by Robert the so- called bluestocking clubs of the 18th cen-Lowth (1710?1787), an English bishop and tury?informal gatherings of women with literary scholar. 'James': James Martineau (1805?1900), interests and select men of letters; as the derisive Harriet's younger brother, who later became a name implies, some of the men attending habitu-renowned Unitarian preacher and moral philosoally wore unconventional blue worsted rather than pher. silk stockings). 5. Roman historian (ca. 55?ca. 120), whose writ2. Major characters from, respectively, the novels ings offer a model of concise prose. Persuasion (1817) and Emma (1815) by Austen 6. Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825), poet and (1775-1817). writer of prose for children. 3. Martineau's hearing problems worsened in ado-7. John Aikin (1747- 1822), English physician, lescence, and she became almost entirely deaf. author, and biographer; he collaborated with his 4. Praelectiones de Sacra Poesi Herbraeorum (Lec-sister in some publications.
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brother,?also able in his way, and far more industrious, but without her genius. Among a multitude of other labours, Dr. Aikin had translated the Agricola8 of Tacitus. I went into such an enthusiasm over the original, and
