This lady was more beautiful than Lady Russell, had a
brighter genius, more information, a more refined taste, and, at
least, her equal in the virtues of the heart; equal fortitude and
firmness of character, equal resignation to the will of Heaven, equal
in all the virtues and graces of the Christian life. Like Lady
Russell, she never, by word or look, discouraged me from running all
hazards for the salvation of my country's liberties; she was willing
to share with me, and that her children should share with us both, in
all the dangerous consequences we had to hazard."
Will a woman who loves flattery or an aimless excitement, who wastes
the flower of her mind on transitory sentiments, ever be loved with a
love like that, when fifty years' trial have entitled to the
privileges of "the golden marriage?"
Such was the love of the iron-handed warrior for her, not his
hand-maid, but his help-meet:
"Whom God loves, to him gives he such a wife."
I find the whole of what I want in this relation, in the two epithets
by which Milton makes Adam address _his_ wife.
In the intercourse of every day he begins:
"Daughter of God and man, _accomplished_ Eve."
[Footnote: See Appendix H.
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