And women, too, who are more fortunately situated, in
possessing somewhat kinder husbands, or in being possessed by them,
shaping their views according to those entertained by the sterner sex,
unite with them in the condemnation of a sorrow-stricken sister; and,
instead of making her burden lighter, contribute to increasing its
weight. Such women having never felt the iron pierce their own souls,
can not realize the woes of those in whose bosoms the barb is rankling
at every pulsation, and they weakly fancy that the sorrows of those
suffering ones are but the inventions of an ill-ordered mind, or, at
most, that the picture has been overdrawn.
Unkind men are not the only class, however, who assert the inferiority
of the gentler sex. If they were, they might be disposed of in a very
summary manner. There is another class not less dangerous, not less
tyrannical or less arrogant, though somewhat more plausible. These
speak, when occasion suits, quite eloquently, often with indecorous
flippancy, of the "great influence which the _ladies_ are capable of
exerting upon society;" and for the qualified good which the orators
graciously concede that women have accomplished, or may be capable of
accomplishing, they bespatter them with a sort of sneering praise that
is absolutely insulting to a woman of common sense. This style of
fulsome flattery, with some degree of soft attention, graciously
bestowed upon women, these men deem adequate compensation for all the
indignities put upon their so-called inferiors.
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