See upon the nations the influence of this powerful example. In Spain
look only at the ballads. Woman in these is "very Woman;" she is the
betrothed, the bride, the spouse of Man; there is on her no hue of the
philosopher, the heroine, the savante, but she looks great and noble.
Why? Because she is also, through her deep devotion, the betrothed of
Heaven. Her upturned eyes have drawn down the light that casts a
radiance round her. See only such a ballad as that of "Lady Teresa's
Bridal," where the Infanta, given to the Moorish bridegroom, calls
down the vengeance of Heaven on his unhallowed passion, and thinks it
not too much to expiate by a life in the cloister the involuntary
stain upon her princely youth. [Footnote: Appendix C.] It was this
constant sense of claims above those of earthly love or happiness that
made the Spanish lady who shared this spirit a guerdon to be won by
toils and blood and constant purity, rather than a chattel to be
bought for pleasure and service.
Germany did hot need to _learn_ a high view of Woman; it was
inborn in that race. Woman was to the Teuton warrior his priestess,
his friend, his sister,--in truth, a wife. And the Christian statues
of noble pairs, as they lie above their graves in stone, expressing
the meaning of all the by-gone pilgrimage by hands folded in mutual
prayer, yield not a nobler sense of the place and powers of Woman than
belonged to the _altvater_ day.
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