A Heroine

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies,” — xxxi. 10-31

THE last page of the Proverbs displays the full-length portrait of a heroine. There is an extraordinary fulness in this description; it is a model character, brought out in high relief, and finished with elaborate minuteness. In the original, the peculiar resources of Hebrew poetry are all employed to beautify the picture and fasten it on the memory.

Verses 10-12 serve to introduce the theme. They constitute a stately porch through which we enter the gorgeous galleries within. The interrogation, “Who can find a virtuous woman 1” seems to intimate that few of the daughters of men attain or approach the measure of this model As usual with rare things, the price is high; it is “above rubies.” The meaning obviously is, that a virtuous woman is above all price. Woman is the complement of man — a necessary part of his being. As no man would name a price for his right arm or his right eye, woman shoots over all the precious things of earth; and there is no standard by which her value can be expressed. “The heart of her husband trusts in her;” and he is not deceived, for he trusts “safely.” A woman’s nature and gifts are provided by the Creator as a pillow for man to rest his head upon when it is weary with the journey. An help-meet designed and bestowed by our Father in heaven, “she will do him good and not evil all the days of his life.”

At the 1 3th verse the details begin. The design of the picture is to display the practical virtues that operate day by day in the common affairs of life. Many leafy branches, bearing useful fruit in abundance, wave before us in the wind all through the chapter; and not till the very close do we reach the root of godliness that nourishes them all. Look at some leading features of the portrait — some of the larger jewels in this woman’s crown.

Industry. — Her hands are full of useful occupation. Nor is this the eulogy of a woman in a lowly condition of life; these are not the qualifications of a menial servant, but the accomplishments of a noble matron. Lemuel learned this poem from his mother’s lips, and delighted to rehearse it after he became a king. People make egregious mistakes in regard to the qualifications which go to constitute a lady. In a wealthy mercantile community these mistakes are at least as rife as in families that are related to royalty. It is generally observed, indeed, that the shorter the period of time which separates a rich family from daily labour the more careful they are to obliterate all its marks. Although there are outstanding exceptions, in which sound common sense has put conventional falsehood to flight, we need not attempt to conceal the fact, that a numerous class of females practically count uselessness an essential constituent of ladyhood.

I do not frown upon refinement — I do not counsel rudeness; but I warn womankind that error on one extreme is as common and as great as error on the other. Here, as in other regions of human duty, there is a path of safety in the midst, and a dangerous pit on either side of it. Some females, in the effort to avoid vulgarity, are bound body and spirit in swaddling-clothes, and blanched into a sort of full-grown infancy. Their greatest dread seems to be lest others should suspect them of being able to put their hands to any useful employment. They may dismiss their fears, for generally the matter is made so plain, that there is very little risk of misconception. I most earnestly counsel mothers to throw off artificial trammels, and dare to be sensible and free in judging how their daughters should be trained. The power of helping themselves, besides affording a line of retreat in the event of disaster, will double the enjoyment of life, although prosperity should continue to the end. The lady who has lost, or never acquired, the faculty of performing occasionally with her own hands an ordinary operation about her house or her person, has bartered independence for ease. We smile at Chinese notions of feminine refinement; but if all the elements were fairly valued, the balance in our favour would perhaps not be great.

The form of the industry is primitive. The spindle and the distaff are its instruments; wool and flax its raw material. In the rural districts of our own land, this species of skill continued till very lately to be considered an essential feminine accomplishment. In my younger years, when the goods of a richly dowered bride were conveyed on the evening before the marriage to her future home, it was still the euston to set a spinning wheel, fully rigged with its “rock” of flax and its thread begun, aloft on the top of the hindmost cart in the glad procession. I have seen this significant symbol, and it is quite possible I may have joined in the joyous hurra that greeted the emblem of industry as it passed. My mother, whom I never saw, span with both hands every afternoon; and as her eyes were not fully occupied with the work, she kept a Bible lying open on the “stock” of the wheel, that by a glance now and then she might feed her soul while she was employed in clothing her household.

This form of female industry, we may presume, is now conclusively superseded amongst us. It is not necessary, it is not expedient, that industrious mothers in this country should now handle the distaff or ply the wheel. Human nature is pliant, and fitted for progress: we are constituted capable of accommodating ourselves to changes. Other lines lie open for enterprise and effort: some line should be chosen by each, and prosecuted with vigour. The future of the country will be dark indeed if indolence take possession of its homes. When the progress of art drives out one form of industry, others should be admitted to occupy the space; if the space stand empty in our homes, our progress in art will be a declension in happiness.

Activity. — She is an early riser. This is a great victory over a great enemy. Slothful habits make a family miserable. Early hours appointed, and appointed hours punctually kept, cause the economic arrangements to move softly and easily, like well oiled machinery, without noise and without jars.

Benevolence. — “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor.” Industry and activity would only make a female character more harsh and repulsive, if it wanted this. The presence of the poor is, like the necessity of labour, a blessing to mankind: it provides a field for the exercise of affections which are necessary to the perfection of human character. When material acquisitions are great, and benevolent efforts small, the moral health cannot be maintained: when much flows in, and none is permitted to flow out, wealth becomes a stagnant pool, endangering the life of those who reside upon its brim. The sluice which love opens to pour a stream upon the needy, sweetens all the store. The matron who really does good to her own house, will also show kindness to the poor: and she who shows kindness to the poor, thereby brings back a blessing on her own dwelling.

Forethought. — “She is not afraid of the snow for her household,” because she foresaw its approach, and prepared to meet it. While the summer lasted, she laid up stores of food and clothing for the winter’s need. Miserable is that family whose female head is destitute of forethought. It is a common and a great evil: in a land of plenty such as this, ten homes are made unhappy by want of method, for one that is made unhappy by want of means. Look forward, and so provide that you shall not be obliged to run for the covering after the snow has come.

Elegance. — When she has provided all the necessaries of life for her family, and contributed to relieve the wants of the poor, she puts on ornaments suited to her station and her means: “Her clothing is silk and purple.” She deserves and becomes it. It is precisely such a woman that should wear such garments: the silk hangs all the more gracefully on her person, that it was wound and spun by her own hands. There is a legitimate place for ornamental female attire; but it is not easy either to define what its limits should be or to keep it within them. Perhaps there is no department of human affairs for which it is more difficult to lay down positive law: we shall venture, however, to give a few simple suggestions, which, if taken by those interested, may be of use as supports on our weaker side.

The dress should, in the first place, be modest. In pure eyes, nothing is aesthetically beautiful which is morally awry. It should not be in form so peculiar, or in bulk so great, as to attract attention .from the wearer to the robe. It should not be oppressive to the finances of the family j as a luxury, it should only come in after works of necessity and mercy have been suplied. If it cannot, as in this example, be fabricated by the wearer’s hand, it ought at least to be paid from her purse. Dames who sail along the street in silk and purple which is not their own, have no right in any respect to the honour which belongs to women who work with their hands and pay their own way. By the common practice of the country, the man who distributes cotton cloth in cart loads from a wholesale warehouse is of higher rank in commercial heraldry than his neighbour who measures off the same cotton cloth by yards across the counter. On the same principle, women who wear mountains of silk for which other people must pay, should be reckoned greater operators in their line, than the bare-footed, half-naked, shaggy-haired girl, who has snatched a handkerchief from a passenger’s pocket and discounted it at the “wee pawn.” The same principle which gives the wholesale merchant the higher honour, should consign the wholesale swindler to deeper disgrace. Finally, those who hang purple on their shoulders should have a change at hand: the silk that must be worn every day will soon grow shabby. This matron is not limited to the silk and purple; — “strength and honour are her clothing” too. She may safely wear elegant garments, who in character and bearing is elegant without their aid. If honour be your clothing, the suit will last a life- time; but if clothing be your honour, it will soon be worn thread-bare.

Discretion and Kindness. — “She openeth her mouth.” Ah! this is the sorest strain to which her character has been subjected yet. But if a wife’s words are habitually sensible and prudent, her husband’s heart learns to trust her, and he experiences no misgiving when she begins to speak. Another lovely feature of feminine excellence is added, “The law of kindness is on her lips.” This is one grand constituent of woman’s worth. They call her sometimes in thoughtless flattery an angel, but here an angel in sober truth she is, — a messenger sent by God to assuage the sorrows of humanity. The worn traveller, who has come through the desert with his life and nothing more; the warrior faint and bleeding from the battle; the distressed of every age and country, long instinctively for this heaven-provided help. Deep in the sufferer’s nature, in the hour of his need, springs the desire to feel a woman’s hand binding his wound or wiping his brow, — to hear soft words dropping from a woman’s lips. The women who, during the late war, smoothed the sick soldier’s pillow in the hospital, have as high a place this day in the esteem and affection of the nation as the heroes who led the assaulting column through the breach. Woman was needed in Eden; how much more on this thorny world outside! Physically the vessel is weak, but in that very weakness her great strength lies. If knowledge is power in man’s department, gentleness is power in woman’s. Nor is it a fitful, uncertain thing; it is a law. When the heart within is right, the kindness is constitutional, and flows with the softness and constancy of a stream. Among the things seen and temporal it is the best balm for human sorrows.

Moral Discipline. — “She looketh well to the ways of her household.” This is the key-stone which binds all the other domestic virtues into one. A watchful superintendence of children and servants, with a view to encourage good and restrain evil in their conduct, is a cardinal point in the character of a mother and mistress: a serious defect here is sufficient to dislocate the whole machinery of home. Servants have in their nature all the instincts of humanjty: the affections and capacities which find scope in the relations of the family circle are ingredients in their constitution. When by the pressure of poverty they are compelled in early youth to leave their own homes, these instincts, bereft of their objects, are paralyzed for want of exercise. Young persons suddenly separated from all that glued their hearts to home, are like branches cut from the parent tree: if they are not permitted to grow like grafts into a master’s family, the best emotions of their nature will wither for want of sap, or seek the dangerous sweetness of stolen waters. It is disastrous to the interests of all, when love is not bestowed on the one side, or expected on the other. Some measure of a mother’s care will, as a general rule, produce a corresponding measure of a daughter’s devotion. A portion of the time and energy devoted to expensive entertainments, turned into the channel of consistent, considerate kindness and faithfulness toward the servants, would greatly augment the usefulness and happiness of many families. Servants severed from home by the poverty of their parents, and through the neglect of a mistress not ingrafted into a new moral relationship, become avenging thorns in the transgressor’s side; opulent families can neither live without them nor be happy with them. There is only one way of relief, and that is the way of confession and amendment. The thorns will continue to prick, as long as the law of the Lord in that matter is despised. The Father of the fatherless is mighty, and the orphans cannot with impunity be defrauded of their right. While a mistress looks well to the work which the servants do, and ill to the way in which the servants go, the economy of the house will halt painfully through all its complicated movements. There are two classes who do not look well to the ways of their households; — those who do not look to them at all, and those who look to them with a stern, unsympathizing, indiscriminating stringency. For the bones of its strength let the moral superintendence exact obedience from the subordinate, and maintain untarnished the dignity of the chief; but cover these bones deeply with the warm living flesh of human love, so that, while all their force is exerted, none of their hardness shall be felt.

In general, as to the education of females, let parents beware of sacrificing solid attainments for superficial polish. From the time when Salome won her hideous prize by dancing well before Herod and his lords, down to our own day, the world’s history teems with examples to teach us that seven devils may hide- under the ample folds of all the fashionable accomplishments in a hollow female heart. Sow the vital seed of God’s word betimes, and fill their hands with useful employment. Beware of emptiness. As the rich owner of a ship who sails for his own pleasure, and does not need to carry merchandise for profit, loads his ship notwithstanding, for her safety in the sea; so, parents who do not need a daughter’s winnings for their own sake, should for her sake make her skilful and keep her busy. Empty hours, empty hands, empty companions, empty words, empty hearts, draw in evil spirits, as a vacuum draws in air. * To be occupied with good is the best defence against the inroads of evil.