I wish Woman to live, _first_ for God's sake. Then she will not
make an imperfect man her god, and thus sink to idolatry. Then she
will not take what is not fit for her from a sense of weakness and
poverty. Then, if she finds what she needs in Man embodied, she will
know how to love, and be worthy of being loved.
By being more a soul, she will not be less Woman, for nature is
perfected through spirit.
Now there is no woman, only an overgrown child.
That her hand may be given with dignity, she must be able to stand
alone. I wish to see men and women capable of such relations as are
depicted by Landor in his Pericles and Aspasia, where grace is the
natural garb of strength, and the affections are calm, because deep.
The softness is that of a firm tissue, as when
"The gods approve
The depth, but not the tumult of the soul,
A fervent, not ungovernable love."
A profound thinker has said, "No married woman can represent the
female world, for she belongs to her husband. The idea of Woman must
be represented by a virgin."
But that is the very fault of marriage, and of the present relation
between the sexes, that the woman does belong to the man, instead of
forming a whole with him.
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