nothing from the
lips of Adam which supposes it. It was only after having violated her
duty by leading him astray to whom she had been given as a support, that
she heard these words: 'Thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he
shall have dominion over thee.''

Now, in the book under consideration, we are led to suppose that even
the 'exceptional women' find submission and dependence, not only
delightful, but absolute necessities of their being. They are only too
happy to succumb to the powerful magnetism attributed to men by reason
alone of their manhood. (A doctrine too repulsive to admit of
discussion.) I fancy that thinking, sensitive, and high-spirited women
have not yet ceased to find submission and dependence a _punishment_.
They may take up their cross cheerily, and wear it gracefully, but none
the less do they feel it to be a cross. As for pecuniary dependence, so
long as all goes smoothly and matters are so arranged that the wife is
not obliged to ask the husband for funds, the power of custom and of
legal provisions may be sufficient to prevent any disquietude; but after
the first misunderstanding, the first unkind word, _his_ money, as it
passes through _her_ hands, burns like coals of fire, and the bitterness
of her heart, as she perhaps vainly longs for some means of employment
by which to procure at least sufficient for her own personal expenses,
would cause him a new and strange sensation, did she not deem it her
_duty_ to suppress all evidence, even the existence, of such
self-assertion, and quietly shoulder this with the rest, as a portion of
the burden to be borne through the valley of humiliation into which she
has entered, and wherein, by reason of the especial power granted her of
knowing and loving God, she usually finds herself Heaven's own
missionary, the keeper and guide of souls. Now, do not misunderstand me,
Uncle Paul; when I say that marriage is a valley of humiliation, I
intend no reproach to men; I simply state a fact dependent upon the
nature of things, and upon the primal sentence passed against the pride
that, in spite of the prohibition of the Almighty, sought to know all
things, 'to become as gods.' Meekness, humility, self-abnegation,
affection, are the beautiful flowers that grow by the wayside; but the
pathway is not the less thorny, and no good can be accomplished by
denying or sugar-coating the fact.

PAUL. I do not doubt the correctness of your views, Dorcas; but
your ra