elapsed before it could have been done. The moment of her appearance was to him the moment of breathless admiration. When first his eyes looked up to her, he felt, and saw, and recognised, in the beauty dwelling there, the glory of his existence. She was then the glory of the man, however much she has been degraded since, or is degraded now. The tribes of earth, in mute astonishment, in silent wonder, instinctively looked up to man; and he in his turn, rationally, to her who came after him; and she, angel-like, to her God. And there is nothing strange that such should have been the case, for man was formed from the dust of the earth; woman from a warm, a living part of him. Nobler still! The Divine artist moulded up this living part "with all the virtues that attend the good," and produced the "wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best."* "Yours was the nobler birth, For you from man were made;-man but of earth, There was no time lost before the first man and the first woman knew each other. "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," he said. The dearest things and closest ties were to be given up for her. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." Such are the conditions of the matrimonial law. Nothing less can fully answer its sacred purpose. Speech by instinct, and knowledge by intuition, the first human pair felt the joys of earth. They needed no other joys just then. That day was to them the preparation day of life. They had a good starting point in the race which they had to run. Woman came later in the day than man, in order that he might finish his work and then attend to her, she not having so much laborious work to do as he. A helpmate truly. So let her be. Nature's, and the God of nature's, last creative act was done, the sixth day's work was now complete, and the teeming week days of creation at an end. After labour what so good as rest? God was now about to rest from all His works, and nature in her creative force, and all other things. The coming day was to be one of rest for all, The Sabbath was drawing nigh. The first human pair were prepared to meet and welcome the rising day. CHAPTER III. WOMAN IN SOCIETY. SECTION 1.-UTILITY. "Our interests are always advancing towards what is better." Theophylact. All There is symmetry in all the works of God. things are in proportion one part to another, and to all the world besides. Society has its proportions, and in addition its exaggerations. In society, things and persons go by valuation in these days; and who so frequently as woman? "What has she?" and not "What is she?" has become the question of an utilitarian age. The relative nature of the different classes of persons in society may be seen in the dream image of an eastern king. The head of gold and breast of silver, thighs of brass and legs of iron, with feet of iron and clay. As a marketable commodity clay is always plentiful. Here we have the lowest type, the last extremity of the community. There is generally a stock in hand of this article, offered at a low price, and frequently thrown aside as "not wanted."* Iron people know their value, at times they will condescend to move with the toes of the commonalty, * Appendix C.. but knowing their worth they keep their distance, even as iron is not mixed with clay, but subject notwithstanding to get rusty, and like the markets, sometimes up and sometimes down, and very much like the weather, not always to be depended on. Of brass how can it be classified but by the term "middling?" occupying as it does the middle place in our figure, and known in the market as the middle class. Silver is in the ascending scale, embodied in the learned professions, represented in the powdered wig, and passed off in the market and over the counter. The value of gold is known to most persons if not practically tested. It takes its place as number one among the metals, and looks down with golden smiles upon those who are found below. In relative value in creation and society woman is the head of gold, and like Babylon of old, "the glory of kingdoms" and the MOTHER of them all. Gold of the right "stamp"-not base or counterfeit is at all times current coin of the realm. Woman as she was intended to be-not base or degraded-is always the best defender of virtue, the stoutest upholder of morality, the constant companion of truth, the warmest cherisher of the best affections and of the noblest feelings. Never weary of attention to the sick; or tired of watching over the dying. The ever patient follower of a soul's religion; gold of the true mint, coin of lasting worth, not emblazoned in front and preaching to all the world" Defender of the Faith," but a rich treasure found in the heart, and a currency kept up in every course of duty. Money put out to use finds a wide and rapid circulation, interest paid augments the sum, and its compound interest will in time make it double. Let women put the sterling coin of virtue and religion in circulation, and it will increase the amount, in some cases to thirty, and in others to sixty and an hundred-fold. Interest and compound ditto shall be realized. The first law given to human nature may be interpreted with as much truth in a moral as in a physical sense, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." Society is made up of class and order; genus and species. "Creatures that, by a rule in nature, teach Classmen, family distinctions and supporters, the idols of the market and of the den, take their appointed places and act their different parts. Society, as well as geography, has its oceans, seas, and rivers; continents, peninsulas, and islands. Empires and kingdoms, countries with their boundary lines, cities, towns, and villages; with climates, monsoons, and trade winds; zones and extremities from the equator to the poles. Society, civil and domestic, has its chapters of accident and incident. Periods of prosperity and the reverse. Great men dying and little men doing the same. Insurrections taking place not only in kingdoms, but in the market, the family, and the shop. In each there are wars and rumours of wars, noise, and bustle, and strife; victories and defeats; triumphs and degradations. Kings are raised to the throne, receive the holy oil of consecration and are crowned; they rule; and in due time, either in life or by death, are dethroned or depart, and their heirs apparent or presumptive, or nothing at all, reign in their stead. As in the human frame so in society there must be a head and hands and feet. The head to rule, the hands to work, and the feet to walk. All things are placed under law and have to submit to authority. The head gives notice to the feet to go, and they go, and to the hands to work and they obey. Such is the mutual dependance of the various parts of the body politic, that insubordination in one part, if not put down, would end in the destruction of the whole. This society holds together by a mutual friendship. And if established upon, and continued by the laws of nature, it cannot give up any one part without a loss being felt throughout the whole. A serpent, so the fable says, in following the example of other serpents, moving with its head foremost according to its wont, the tail raised itself erect and began to address the head. In complaint it said that ever since it had been a tail it had been doomed to be behind; and after debating the question within itself for several days, it had resolved with a fixed determination to bring up the rear no longer. If things must come to extremities there could be no help for it; but if the head moved one way, it, the tail, must go the other. The head began to expostulate, but expostulation to a tail was all in vain; then reasoning was tried, but the head might as well have attempted to reason down the thunder. The tail flung itself about, determined to take the lead. The head, not willing to lose the tail, on account of the services formerly rendered to the body, submitted to follow the leading propensity of the nether part. The body followed and the head brought up the rear. Away went the tail, but not able to see where it went, got into strange places, and had it not been for the frequent service rendered by the head, the tail, and body and all, must have been destroyed together. Still it took the lead. The body had all but determined to make its protest to remain perfectly still, and move neither one way nor the other; but at last, after many hairbreadth escapes, the tail got into the fire. It floundered about from right to left, and a pretty smoke was made; the tail was burnt, and the body was burnt; the head escaped, and saved the rest by |