and to men, is the benign mother of happiness.

We read in the Norse mythology, that the gods tied Loki, the
impersonation of the evil principle, to three sharp rocks, and hung a
snake over him in such a way, that its venom should drip on his face.
But, in this dreadful case, there was one who did not forsake him.
His wife Sigyn sat close by his head, and held a bowl to catch the
torturing drops. As often as the bowl was full, she emptied it with
the utmost haste; because, during that time, the drops struck on his
face, and made him scream with agony. Her patience in holding the
bowl, and her speed in emptying it, never failed. It is a forcible
emblem of the ministration of woman to man. But, for man to impose a
service of this nature on woman as her duty, is a cruel arrogance and
wrong. The voluntary spirit of such a service teaches the one lesson
which man himself needs to learn for his own salvation.

The laborious life of a statesman, a merchant, a banker, or a
mechanic, is not rewarded by tender emotions, but by power, applause,
or money. The heart of such a man, too often, gradually ossifies,
becomes insensible to those fine and noble fruitions which
imperatively demand leisure, and a steady lucid sensibility. The hard
devotions of an external utility devour the riches of the
imagination, and destroy the overflow of the affections. But the
woman, who, shielded from the harsh frictions of the world, makes her
soul a pure and still mirror of every form of celestial truth and
good, may well be an inspiring prophetess for those who reverence and
love her. Such a woman is, in some degree, a living representative of
that star-girt face of the Virgin Mary which the medieval Church
lifted into the night, and floated above the boiling nationalities of
Europe. A Poppiea drawn by mules shod with gold, five hundred asses
kept to supply her with baths of milk for the softening of her skin--
is the enemy--and disgrace of both sexes. The true type and glory of
the one sex, the admiration and salvation of the other, are displayed
in such an example as that of the last hours of Madame Roland, who,
riding in the death-cart to the guillotine, with an infirm and aged
man who was broken down with terror and grief, devoted herself with
heroic benevolence to comfort and sustain him. In order to spare him
the double agony of seeing her execution previous to his own, with a
sublime abnegation she refused the offered privilege of being th