"--SAINT AUGUSTINE.--'DE CIVITATE DEI.'
"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
rubies.... Her husband is known in the gates, and he sitteth
among the elders of the land.... Strength and honour are her
clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her
mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She
looketh well to the ways of her husband, and eateth not the bread
of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed; her
husband also, and he praiseth her."--PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
THE character of men, as of women, is powerfully influenced by
their companionship in all the stages of life. We have already
spoken of the influence of the mother in forming the character of
her children. She makes the moral atmosphere in which they live,
and by which their minds and souls are nourished, as their bodies
are by the physical atmosphere they breathe. And while woman is
the natural cherisher of infancy and the instructor of childhood,
she is also the guide and counsellor of youth, and the confidant
and companion of manhood, in her various relations of mother,
sister, lover, and wife. In short, the influence of woman more or
less affects, for good or for evil, the entire destinies of man.
The respective social functions and duties of men and women are
clearly defined by nature. God created man AND woman, each to do
their proper work, each to fill their proper sphere.
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