The First Charter of Womanhood
“The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs; and the rib made He a woman. And Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” — Genesis ii. 21-23.
Where did this scene occur? In the outer world? I do not think the narrative wishes us to take that view. I understand the writer to say that Adam had a dream. The word here rendered “a deep sleep ‘’ elsewhere means” a vision of the night.” I would paraphrase the narrative thus:” Adam slept; and as he slept, God caused a vision of the night to pass before him. In that vision it seemed to him as if a rib were taken from his body by the hand of the Lord. And as he looked at the separated member, it appeared to take form and grow, until it assumed a
IT shape of great beauty. And as he looked at that form, lo! it was the very woman who had been by his side from the beginning, but whom he had hitherto despised! And Adam said, From this time forth I will despise her no more; I will give her the dignity I have denied her; she is now, from this time forth, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Such I take to be the narrative. It is not, as people think, an account of woman’s creation. It is rather the first record of her marriage — the earliest assertion of her equality with man. This is not the day of her birth; it is the day of her nuptials — the hour when man recognised her to be a part of his own life and a sharer of his own fortunes.
I thank Thee, O Father, for this first dream of the human heart! Thou trainest the heart by its dreams as much as by its actions. I thank Thee that its first dream was a dream of chivalry. I bless Thee that the primitive thought of man’s fancy was, not the river of Paradise, not the trees of the garden, not even the birds of the air — lofty though be their flight, but the love of home and the home of love. I praise Thy name that the earliest imaginings saw woman as the equal, not the slave. In sleep or waking Thou hast sent no lovelier vision to the soul. Not a bower of Eden has so green a memory as that oldest dream. It is the only leaf which we have carried unsullied from Thy garden. It has consecrated our hearth; it has wreathed our domestic altar; it has beautified our home; it has hallowed our family tree; it has made our fireside; it has enthroned motherhood; it has softened society; it has bettered morals. Send forth that dream again, O Lord! Send it into every forest primeval, into every heart of uncultured man! Send it wherever the male claims monopoly! Let it break the power of the zenanas; let it repeal the caste of the Brahman; let it purify the paradise of the Mohammedan! Nay, send it nearer home — nearer ourselves! Lead it to the man amongst us who forgets his manhood — whose hand is raised to strike the weaker frame! Our vaunted culture has not outgrown Thy primitive Eden; quicken us anew by man’s first dream!
T %