asked her opinion upon a subject then very much discussed, said, "I can't tell you. I know I think just as my husband does, but I forget how that is." If a man likes that sort of obedience in a wife, I hope he may have it. A woman must not be merged in her husband, but simply united to him. She cannot be, at the same time, a nonentity and a helpmeet. Any difference in a point of conscience between man and wife would be a most painful occurrence; but the law of conscience must, in all circumstances, be recognized as "the higher law."

There is no state on earth so dreadful as an unhappy marriage. I hesitate whether I shall add outside the prison and the mad-house. If you are, or should be, wedded, to a selfish imperious man, whom you can in no way please, or satisfy, or improve; and whose unreasonable requisitions from you, and the cruel privations he imposes upon you, make your life one long torment; accept the fiery trial as well as you can, and improve it for your own benefit, if possible. Talk not of it, especially to your children; at least until they are old enough to become your companions and counsellors.

If he is intemperate, the same counsel is to be given. Your own instincts will tell you whether to remain with him, and try to aid him, or not. If your children suffer from his brutality, or his in

fluence in any way, you have to decide the matter with reference to them, as well as to yourself. Keep his fault from them as long as you can. I have known a great reward come from this, in a case where, after years of intemperance on the drunkard's part, and dreadful martyrdom on that of his wife, the fear that his children, of whom he was very fond, might become cognizant of his fault, was an almost perfect restraint upon him.

Some women think the marriage contract of such obligation that they have no right to separate from a drunken husband. My own belief is, that when man reduces himself to the level of a brute, the obligation of keeping a contract, made with him when he was a man, ceases. Contracts, in all cases, I believe, cease to be binding when the conditions are not fulfilled by both parties. Nevertheless, if you have promised to take your husband "for better, for worse," as I said before, you must settle this point with your own conscience.

The worst case of all remains to be consideredand that is, of finding that you are forever and intimately connected with a man who is deficient in integrity of character, or grossly sensual, to a degree amounting almost to complete demoralization. If you are conscientious and refined, you will live in such a hell of suffering that no water can cool your tongue. Think how, in all these cases, a woman has to suffer for her children, as well as her

self!

Think of being part owner of children with such a man, who must, to a great degree, control their destiny-of having such tainted blood in their veins! and oh, beware, beware how you ally yourselves unworthily-either through incautiousness, or from low and unworthy motives!

6

CHAPTER XI.

MATERNITY.

WE hear, occasionally, of married women who have such a dread of bringing children into the world, and more still, perhaps, of the trouble and care involved in their training, as to wish that they may never become mothers. We cannot help regarding them as wanting in some essential element of woman's nature, and therefore as monstrous productions. I have no words to express my sense of the greatness of the gift of a living child. It is an immense boon to be self-multiplied, and so have an extension of our being-an increased number of feet to stand upon, of hands to help ourselves withal, and hearts to diffuse life-blood into the current from which we derive our strength, our an

imation, and our joy. But it is a still higher privilege to be made instrumental in the creation of a human soul and body—to have a being born of us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh-who is kindred with God, partaker of his nature, capable of becoming his "fellow-worker" and of fitting himself to dwell with him forever, in a state of endless pro

gression. Were it not for our habitually low and grovelling perceptions-for our insensibility to the wonders and mysteries of human existence, we should find something positively sublime in this part of our allotment, and strive to make ourselves nobly worthy of it-capable of fulfilling its high and mighty trusts.

If a flower could be made to speak, to smile, and to incline lovingly towards us, as we approached it, what curiosity and interest it would excite! What multitudes would flock to see it! What an amount of admiration would be given to it! What sums would be expended upon it! What care would be bestowed upon its cultivation! What nice judgment would be exercised in the selection and preparation of the soil most favorable to it-what pains would be taken not to have the exposure too sunny or too shady, nor the irrigation too little nor too much-what diligence would be used in keeping it free from weeds, and in loosening the soil about it, so that it might be easily penetrated by all needful influences!

Fathers and Mothers! would you do so much for a perishable flower, whose bloom is the evanescent glory of a single season; and will you leave it for your children to relate truly the whole history of their childhood and youth, in the words of poor Jerry, "I was born and up I grew." Even this is a better fate than that of many, not allowed such