ings will put asunder. Obstinacy in trifling
matters in the marriage state is an evidence of little love and a bad
heart; but if trifling matters appear important, and the gaining of
every point be as the taking of a citadel, the person is wrong in his
judgment; he is insane, or partially so. Many worthy women have been
cursed with worthless husbands; but, unfortunately, the grievances of
the female sex have been less frequently known than those of the men;
for women are not authors, and men are frequently so; consequently, in
all estimates of the comparative merit of the sexes, it must be
remembered that more has been said on the one side than on the other.
Home, however, is the castle of the wife, if she be a good one; here she
keeps her permanent abode, agreeably with the injunction of St. Paul.
The husband is absent the principal part of his time, may there not
therefore, on some occasions, be too greet an inclination in the lady to
consider herself as the governor of the establishment, while the husband
may be deemed a visiter, rather than the master? This would not arise in
the breast of an amiable and affectionate wife, but it has sometimes
arisen; for, unfortunately, all wives have not been good ones. Jerome
Cardan was so unfortunate as to have a wife who was proverbial for her
ill temper and arbitrary conduct. John Knox said of Lord Erskine, "He
has a very Jezebel to his wife." Salmasius, the opponent of Milton, was
made perpetually uneasy by a similar thorn. The unfortunate husband was
a Frenchman, and Milton said (as Dr Johnson observes,) "Tu es Gallus,
et, ut aiunt, nimium gallinaceus." Milton himself seems to have suffered
from a similar cause, for he evinces so much hostility to the female
sex, that no other reason would so naturally account for it. He
exclaims,

"O why did God,
Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven
With spirits masculine, create at last
This novelty on earth, this fair defect
Of nature, and not fill the world at once
With men and angels without feminine?"

Milton adds a great deal more, which, if he had a high opinion of woman,
even his anxiety to make his character of Adam consistent would not have
demanded. An amiable temper on the part of a wife, with her own natural
softness, and an inclination to yield in unimportant matters, will not
only increase love, but power; for in this respect, agreeably to the
opinion of Prince Eugene, love is pow