own deficiencies, we should
constantly aim to extend to all, who cross our feelings and interfere
with our plans.

The last, and most important, mode of securing a placid and cheerful
temper and tones, is, by a right view of the doctrine of a
superintending Providence. All persons are too much in the habit of
regarding the more important events of life, as exclusively under the
control of Perfect Wisdom. But the fall of a sparrow, or the loss of a
hair, they do not feel to be equally the result of His directing agency.
In consequence of this, Christian persons, who aim at perfect and
cheerful submission to heavy afflictions, and who succeed, to the
edification of all about them, are sometimes sadly deficient under petty
crosses. If a beloved child be laid in the grave, even if its death
resulted from the carelessness of a domestic, or of a physician, the eye
is turned from the subordinate agent, to the Supreme Guardian of all,
and to Him they bow, without murmur or complaint. But if a pudding be
burnt, or a room badly swept, or an errand forgotten, then vexation and
complaint are allowed, just as if these events were not appointed by
Perfect Wisdom, as much as the sorer chastisement.

A woman, therefore, needs to cultivate the _habitual_ feeling, that all
the events of her nursery and kitchen, are brought about by the
permission of our Heavenly Father, and that fretfulness or complaint, in
regard to these, is, in fact, complaining and disputing at the
appointments of God, and is really as sinful, as unsubmissive murmurs
amid the sorer chastisements of His hand. And a woman, who cultivates
this habit of referring all the minor trials of life to the wise and
benevolent agency of a Heavenly Parent, and daily seeks His sympathy and
aid, to enable her to meet them with a quiet and cheerful spirit, will
soon find it the perennial spring of abiding peace and content.

CHAPTER XIV.

ON HABITS OF SYSTEM AND ORDER.

The discussion of the question of the equality of the sexes, in
intellectual capacity, seems frivolous and useless, both because it can
never be decided, and because there would be no possible advantage in
the decision. But one topic, which is often drawn into this discussion,
is of far more consequence; and that is, the relative importance and
difficulty of the duties a woman is called to perform.

It is generally assumed, and almost as generally conceded, that woman's
business and cares are contracted