A creature not too bright and good
For human nature's daily food:

For transient sorrows, simple wiles,

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

· And now I see with eye serene,

The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller 'twixt life and death;
The reason firm-the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman-nobly plann'd
To warn, to comfort, to command;

And yet a spirit too, and bright

With something of an angel's light.'"

WORDSWORTH.

DIGNITY OF WOMAN.

Honour to woman! she twines and inweaves

Heavenly roses with life's earthy leaves,

Weaves for her favour'd ones Love's happy band:

Veiled in fair grace, and in modesty's tire,

Watchful she feeds with perpetual fire,

High sensibilities, holy of hand.

O'er the barriers of the true

Man's wild powers for ever sweep :
Thoughts unstable, projects new,

Drive o'er Passion's stormy deep-
Wild he grasps at distant gleams,
Peace with restless purpose mars,

And the phantom of his dreams

Chases thro' the distant stars.

Woman's bright glances, that gleam on his track, Beckon bewitching the fugitive back,

Back to the present with dutiful feet

She in her mother's retired abode

Tarried, and bashful with modesty glowed,

Nature's own daughter, untouched with deceit.

With the man, emprise is strife

He with crushing foot unblest,

Tramples with the ways of life
Without halting-place or rest-

He destroys his project sped:

War of wants is ne'er subdued,

Never, as the Hydra's head,.

Falling still, is still renewed.

Woman, contented with quieter cares,

Gathers the blossom the moment prepares
Nurses it sweetly and values it dear;
Freer, in charity's velvet-soft chain,
Richer than he in his wisdom's domain,
And in the poet's unlimited sphere.

Stern and proud man stands apart:
Cold, his breast can never prove,

Heartily embracing heart,

The celestial joys of love-
Nor the soul's exchange he feels,

Nor dissolves in tears that yearn;

E'en his life's contention steels

Sterner still his temper stern.

Lightly, the while, as to Zephyr's light wings

Tremble and stir the Eolian strings,

Trembles, all sensitive, woman's heart too,

Tenderly troubled at misery's sighs

Heaves her soft bosom in pity; her eyes Pearl-budding, glisten with heavenly dew.

Might in man's domain is lord:

Right obeys the strong and brave;
Proves the Scythian with the sword,

And the Persian sinks a slave

Internecine warfare wage,

Passions wild with fury fed,

Hoarse contention rules with rage
Where the charities have fled.

Woman, with gentle persuasion and prayer,
Knows the mild sceptre of manners to bear,
Quenches dissensions that fiery start,

Teaches the powers that hate one another
Peaceful embraces, as brother and brother,

And unites what flies ever apart.

PRAISE OF WOMAN.

SCHILLER.

"Through many a land and clime a ranger,
With toilsome steps I've held my way,

A lonely unprotected stranger,

To all the stranger's ills a prey.

While stealing thus my course precarious,
My fortune still has been to find
Men's hearts and dispositions various,

But gentle woman, ever kind.

Alive to every tender feeling,

To deeds of mercy ever prone;

The wounds of pain and sorrow healing
With soft compassion's sweetest tone.

No proud delay, no dark suspicion,
Stints the free bounty of their heart;
They turn not from the sad petition,
But cheerful aid at once impart.

Formed in benevolence of nature,
Obliging, modest, gay and mild,
Woman's the same endearing creature,
In courtly town and savage wild.

When parched with thirst, with hunger wasted,
Her friendly hand refreshment gave;
How sweet the coarsest food has tasted,
What cordial in the simple wave!

Her courteous looks, her words caressing,
Shed comfort on the fainting soul;

Woman's the stranger's general blessing,

From sultry India to the Pole!"

Mrs. BARBAULD.