of happiness, usefulness, and respect, she will probably
become a miserable, helpless, lonely, irritable woman--perhaps seeking
marriage at any price to escape from the condition she dreads; or
failing that, finding life without purpose, occupation, or delight.

But if she has learned that Providence is boundless in its resources,
and that when one way is closed, another is opened, so that "all things
work together for good;" if she knows that her nature will be far nobler
without the form of marriage unless the spirit and truth can be present
also, she will find that there is a life open to her a life of devotion
to truth, right, and beauty, of service to humanity, and of love just as
noble and true as she could attain in marriage. She is not fit to marry
until she is fit to stand alone. Unless life has a purpose and meaning
of its own to her as well as to her husband, she cannot bring him an
equal dower, and she has no test of the new feeling which should take
its value from the richness of the life that she is ready to blend with
another's.

Nothing marks the progress in the elevation of woman, during the last
half century, more than the passing away of the opprobrious use of the
term "old maid," which is now rarely heard.

It is possible to remain unmarried from low motives, shrinking from the
duties and responsibilities of the relation, or from a worldly ambition
for higher station than love can offer. Such sin brings its own terrible
punishment with it. But far more often it is from a high ideal of
marriage, from true nobility of character, or from devotion to some
other relation which seemed paramount, that a woman remains single. How
many a woman, hiding in her secret heart the romance that gave a charm
to her youth, but did not find its reality in life, has devoted herself
to the service of humanity with all the passionate devotion of a lover
to his mistress! Of such an one, to whom hundreds of helpless babes
looked up as to a guardian and protector, an artist said, "She has the
mother in her face." We owe too much to this noble class of women, in
art, literature, and philanthropy, and in the service of the country in
its most trying hour, ever to forget their claims, and he will be
forever stigmatized as unworthy of the name of pure and noble manhood
who sneers at the virtue which he cannot understand, or vilifies with
opprobrious epithets the noble women whom Theodore Parker--God bless him
for the word--cal