The universal testimony would be
that she was a shockingly wicked wretch.
Women, as well as men, have to contend with infirmities of temper; and
they quite as well succeed in controlling or keeping them in check.
There are both men and women, unfortunately, who let their evil passions
run riot till they are torments to all who have any thing to do with
them. Some women, naturally gentle and kind, have been so ill-treated,
so shamefully tyrannized over, that in process of time the "milk of
human kindness in their breasts has turned to gall;" and the gall is
then bitter enough. Would not men, in similar circumstances, be just as
bitter?
There is a certain class of women, however, who as a rule are likely to
become fretful and ill-tempered as they grow in years: girls who are
allowed to grow up with uninformed judgments, who are taught that the
chief end and aim of woman is to captivate and please the opposite sex,
who are taught to think a pretty face and delicate figure of more
importance than good sense or a thorough education. And yet it is a fact
worthy of notice, that those who most eloquently assert their great
superiority over the entire sex, are the very men most easily led--ay,
and duped--by dressy, frivolous, brainless women. It would be a
misfortune, scarcely to be endured, for such men to have wives who know
too much.
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