osed to have any opinions at all on such a subject. Nor was it
desirable that they should have. To every woman her husband and no other
is and must be the Ideal Man. So it was always in the past; so it must
ever be. There are certain things which it is dangerous to question or
discuss, and how can ladies who have never spoken with any other man
than a parent or a brother judge such matters?

"How, indeed," asked this lady of exalted merit, "can the bat form
an idea of the sunlight, or the carp of the motion of wings? If his
Celestial Majesty had commanded a discussion on the Superior Woman and
the virtues which should adorn her, some sentiments not wholly unworthy
might have been offered. But this is a calamity. They come unexpectedly,
springing up like mushrooms, and this one is probably due to the lack of
virtue of the inelegant and unintellectual person who is now speaking."

This she uttered in the presence of the principal beauties of the
Inner Chambers. They sat or reclined about her in attitudes of perfect
loveliness. Two, embroidering silver pheasants, paused with their
needles suspended above the stretched silk, to hear the August Aunt.
One, threading beads of jewel jade, permitted them to slip from the
string and so distended the rose of her mouth in surprise that the small
pearl-shells were visible within. The Lady Tortoise, caressing a scarlet
and azure macaw, in her agitation so twitched the feathers that the
bird, shrieking, bit her finger. The Lady Golden Bells blushed deeply
at the thought of what was required of them; and the little Lady Summer
Dress, youngest of all the assembled beauties, was so alarmed at the
prospect that she began to sob aloud, until she met the eye of the
August Aunt and abruptly ceased.

"It is not, however, to be supposed," said the August Aunt, opening her
snuff-bottle of painted crystal, "that the minds of our deplorable and
unattractive sex are wholly incapable of forming opinions. But speech
is a grave matter for women, naturally slow-witted and feeble-minded as
they are. This unenlightened person recalls the Odes as saying:--

'A flaw in a piece of white jade
May be ground away,
But when a woman has spoken foolishly
Nothing can be done-'

a consideration which should make every lady here and throughout the
world think anxiously before speech." So anxiously did the assembled
beauties think, that all remained mute as fish in a pool, and the August
Aunt co