This faculty is more
conspicuous in woman than in man, for it exercises in her a decisive
influence which extends over the entire period of her life. Hence,
God, "who ordereth all things, sweetly," (Wisdom, viii. 1), desired
that its existence should be made known to us by a woman, and that,
too, while she was visiting another woman.
In answer to the salutation of her cousin St. Elizabeth, Mary,
filled with the Holy Ghost, breaks forth into that sublime Canticle,
called the "Magnificat:" "He hath scattered the proud," she sings,
"_mente cordis sui;_" literally, "in the _mind_ of their
heart." This is the faculty of which I speak; that _mind_, that
_intellect of the heart_, if I may so term it, which is the
hidden recess, the secret chamber of the soul, either blessed by the
peaceful presence of humility, or cursed by the baneful restlessness
of worldly ambition or pride.
It is not going too far to say that a woman's mind is in her heart;
it is the source both of the thoughts which ennoble and elevate, and
of those which are selfish and worldly; it is the key to all the
powers of her soul, so that he who becomes the possessor of her heart
is master of her whole being, and can exercise over her a power of
fascination which has no parallel in nature.
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