a
harsh domestic tyrant, must needs be a very inadequate judge, and of
course a very unfair delineator, of female accomplishments. These fair
cavilers draw their inference from premises, from which I have always
been accustomed to deduce a directly contrary conclusion. They insist
that it is highly derogatory from the dignity of the sex, that the poet
should affirm that it is the perfection of the character of a wife,

To study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote.

Now according to my notion of "household good," which does not include
one idea of drudgery or servility, but which involves a large and
comprehensive scheme of excellence, I will venture to affirm, that let a
woman know what she may, yet if she knows not this, she is ignorant of
the most indispensable, the most appropriate branch of female knowledge.
Without it, however she may inspire admiration abroad, she will never
excite esteem, nor of coarse, durable affection, at home, and will bring
neither credit nor comfort to her ill-starred partner.

The domestic arrangements of such a woman as filled the capacious mind
of the poet resemble, if I may say it without profaneness, those of
Providence, whose under-agent she is. Her wisdom is seen in its effects.
Indeed it is rather felt than seen. It is sensibly acknowledged in the
peace, the happiness, the virtue of the component parts; in the order,
regularity and beauty of the whole system, of which she is the moving
spring. The perfection of her character, as the divine poet intimates,
does not arise from a prominent quality, or a showy talent, or a
brilliant accomplishment, but it is the beautiful combination and result
of them all. Her excellencies consist not so much in acts as in habits,
in

Those thousand decencies which daily flow
From all her words and actions.

A description more calculated than any I ever met with to convey an idea
of the purest conduct resulting from the best principles. It gives an
image of that tranquillity, smoothness, and quiet beauty, which is the
very essence of perfection in a wife; while the happily chosen verb
_flow_ takes away any impression of dullness, or stagnant torpor, which
the _still_ idea might otherwise suggest.

But the offense taken by the ladies against the uncourtly bard is
chiefly occasioned by his having presumed to intimate that conjugal
obedience

Is woman's highest honor and her praise.

This is s