one
is fitted for the discharge of the sacred trust of wife and the
endearing relation of mother. While the man is contending with
the sterner duties of life, _the whole time_ of the noble,
affectionate and true woman is required in the discharge of the
delicate and difficult duties assigned her in the family circle,
in her church relations and in the society where her lot is cast.
When the husband returns home weary and worn in the discharge of
the difficult and laborious tasks assigned him, he finds in the
good wife solace and consolation which is nowhere else afforded.

But a still more important duty devolves upon the mother. After
having brought into existence the offspring of the nuptial union,
the children are dependent upon the mother _as they are not upon
any other human being_. The trust is a most sacred, most
responsible and most important one. She molds the character. She
educates the heart as well as the intellect, and she prepares the
future man, now the boy, for honor or dishonor. Upon the manner
in which she discharges her duty depends the fact whether he
shall in future be a useful citizen or a burden to society. She
inculcates lessons of patriotism, manliness, religion and virtue,
_fitting the man by reason of his training_ to be an ornament to
society, or dooming him by her neglect to a life of dishonor and
shame. Society acts unwisely, when it imposes upon her the duties
that by common consent have always been assigned to the stronger
and sterner sex, and the discharge of which causes her to neglect
those sacred and all-important duties to her children and to the
society of which they are members.[41]

In the church, by her piety, her charity and her Christian
purity, she not only aids society by a proper training of her own
children, but the children of others, whom she encourages to come
to the sacred altar. In the Sunday-school room the good woman is
a _princess_ and she exerts an influence which purifies and
ennobles society. In the sick room and among the humble, the poor
and the suffering the good woman is an _angel_ of light....

If the wife and the mother is required to leave the sacred
precincts of home and to attempt to do military duty when the
State is in peril; or if she is to be required to leave her home