family circle.
When the change is effected, the mind emerges from the clouds in which
it has seemed lost. Thankful that they have escaped from real
sufferings, women cease to torture themselves with imaginary woes, and
as they feel the ground grow steadier underfoot, they are less dependent
on others--for, like the body, the mental faculties then assume a
masculine character. The change of life does not give talents, but it
often imparts a firmness of purpose to bring out effectively those that
are possessed, whether it be to govern a household, to preside in a
drawing-room, or to thread and unravel political entanglements. When
women are no longer hampered by a bodily infirmity periodically
returning, they have more time at their disposal, and for obvious
reasons they are less subject to be led astray by a too ardent
imagination, or by wild flights of passion.'

Changes in the moral character also frequently show themselves, and for
a time astonish friends and relatives. These shades of moral insanity
all disappear in a little while, if there be no family tendency to
insanity to prolong and intensify them.

THOSE WHO SUFFER MOST.

Those women especially may anticipate serious trouble at this epoch in
whom the change at puberty was accompanied by distressful and obstinate
disorders,--those in whom the menstrual periods have usually been
attended with considerable pain and prostration, and those in whose
married life several abortions or several tedious and unnatural labors
have occurred; also those who from some temporary cause are reduced in
health and strength,--as from repeated attacks of intermittent fever, or
disorders of the liver and digestive organs. Still more predisposed are
they who are subject to some of those displacements or local ulcerations
which we have mentioned in our chapter on Health in Marriage. It becomes
of great consequence, that any such deviation from the healthy standard
shall be corrected before a woman reaches this trying passage in her
career.

The constitution and temperament have much to do with the liability to
disease and suffering during the change of life. Those of weak
constitutions sometimes fail of the necessary stamina to carry them
easily through the trials of this transition period. It has been
remarked that the _lymphatic_ temperament is the most favorable to an
easy change. Women with this temperament suffer less from nervous or
bilious disorders, and quickly show sig