Let what will be said of the pleasures of society, there is after all, “no place like home.” How beautiful are the relationships of home! How exquisitely touching to feelings! All are linked to each other by the most intimate and endearing ties; – a power like that of electricity; so that one cannot enjoy pleasure, without the others participating therein; one cannot sorrow, but all must mourn; nor one be honored, but all must share the joy.
And as home is that place which has the strongest ties upon the feelings, so it is the place in which woman has the power of exerting her influence in the greatest degree. This is her true and proper station; the duties of home are peculiarly hers; and let it not be thought that, in assigning home as the appropriate sphere for her action, we are assigning her a mean and an ignoble part. It is, in truth, far otherwise. The sphere of her operation may be a limited one; but as many rivers make up the ocean’s waters, so the conjunction of many homes makes up the world; and, therefore, in performing her duties at home, she is performing her part in the world at large; and as a man carries with him, through the world, those same habits and feelings he has gathered in his home – and as these habits and feelings are principally derived from the influence of woman – woman, in performing her home duties, takes a vast share in the concerns of community.
Equally to mothers and daughters is it true, that they should concern themselves in domestic economy; for, in so doing, they are performing their duties, adding to their own happiness, and making home a place where the feelings of a family meeting in peace, harmony, and love.
A sister should share all the plans and prospects of her brother, striving to add to his happiness, and to contribute to his pleasures. She will often become his confident, – the keeper of his secrets; and, if she forfeit no his esteem, she will obtain a vast power as a monitress and adviser, so that she may guide him to honor, and stimulate his exertions to noble purposes; and home, to him, will be endued with a special charm, because made radiant with sister’s love.
To her sisters, also, she may prove a true friend, especially if the eldest. By nature she is endowed to teach, mentally and morally, those younger than herself. She seems to share one mind and one heart with the rest of her sisters, so that they seem to partake alike of joys and sorrows – joys and sorrows particularly their own, and such as no stranger intermeddles with. Thus, then, may she teach piety, virtue, compassion, and love; and by never letting a word of jealousy, envy, or ill-will, escape from her own lips, she thereby puts a seal upon the lips of others; and by her own gentleness of manner and speech, forbids every thing of rudeness or clamor; and attraction which neither wealth nor rank can purchase, – creating happy faces and contented hearts; and this is mantling both her own and her sister’s cheeks with beauty, – a beauty of worth and virtue, – a beauty which will last long after the tints of youth have faded, – that true beauty, which arises from purity of mind and goodness of heart.
So might woman, in various capacities, act upon home, and make it literally an oasis in the desert – a bright and peaceful spot in the midst of a dark and stormy world.
There is a moral beauty in the relationship of woman, at every period of her life; but this beauty displays itself nowhere so much as at home. That venerable woman, the representative of the past generation, who sits in the majesty of age before the fire, and who, after having seen her family settled in life, and closed her husband’s eyes, has come to die in the home of her daughter, – even in that grey-haired woman there is a moral beauty; a thousand hallowed associations are surrounding her, making her beautiful, though, her eye has lost its brightness, and wrinkles cover her cheek. And that fair-haired girl, who is kneeling at the old woman’s feet, is she not beautiful, as, in the simplicity of childhood, she awaiteth her evening blessing? And that matronly woman, who is nestling her sleeping babe to her bosom, how beautiful is she! beautiful though the tints of youth are fled. And the unconscious babe how beautiful is that! beautiful in its innocency and helplessness. All are beautiful! The decayed and the expanded flower, the blossom, and the bud, – all are beautiful. There is a moral sublimity and beauty which the most exquisitely tinted features could not give, and which neither age nor plainness of features can take away. Wherefore, then should women be so eager before the world, to display their charms, upon which the eye rests but for a moment, and then seeks for another, when, by the mere associations and links of home, there is a moral beauty upon which the mind can dwell, and experience the greater delight, the more it contemplates the entrancing picture?
It is not much the world can give
With all its subtle art,
And gold or gems are not the things
To satisfy the heart;
But O! if those who cluster round
The altar, and the hearth,
Have gentle words and loving smiles,
How beautiful is earth!
(Publication information: J.M. Fletcher: Nashua, N.H. 1850)
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