it to be,--the
woman's true place and power? But do not you see that to fulfill this,
she must--as far as one can use such terms of a human creature--be
incapable of error? So far as she rules, all must be right, or nothing
is. She must be enduringly, incorruptibly good; instinctively,
infallibly wise--wise, not for self-development, but for
self-renunciation: wise, not that she may set herself above her
husband, but that she may never fail from his side: wise, not with the
narrowness of insolent and loveless pride, but with the passionate
gentleness of an infinitely variable, because infinitely applicable,
modesty of service--the true changefulness of woman. In that great
sense--"La donna e mobile," not "Qual pium' al vento"; no, nor yet
"Variable as the shade, by the light quivering aspen made"; but
variable as the _light_, manifold in fair and serene division, that it
may take the color of all that it falls upon, and exalt it.

70. II.--I have been trying, thus far, to show you what should be the
place, and what the power of woman. Now, secondly, we ask, What kind
of education is to fit her for these?

And if you indeed think this is a true conception of her office and
dignity, it will not be difficult to trace the course of education
which would fit her for the one, and raise her to the other.

The first of our duties to her--no thoughtful persons now doubt
this--is to secure for her such physical training and exercise as may
confirm her health, and perfect her beauty, the highest refinement of
that beauty being unattainable without splendor of activity and of
delicate strength. To perfect her beauty, I say, and increase its
power; it cannot be too powerful, nor shed its sacred light too far:
only remember that all physical freedom is vain to produce beauty
without a corresponding freedom of heart. There are two passages of
that poet who is distinguished, it seems to me, from all others--not by
power, but by exquisite _right_ness--which point you to the source, and
describe to you, in a few syllables, the completion of womanly beauty.
I will read the introductory stanzas, but the last is the one I wish
you specially to notice:--

"Three years she grew in sun and shower,
Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower
On earth was never sown.
This child I to myself will take;
She shall be mine, and I will make
A lady of my own.

"'Myself will to my darling be
Both law and impulse; and with m