SCRoots, WOMAN

WOMAN

By Charles R. Carroll
Published in The Southern Literary Journal, November 1836

When we compare the present with the past condition of woman, we congratulate ourselves on the change in her disposition and the accomplishments of her mind. She lives among us, a being of sentiment and love, folding her affections around the other sex, animating his nature, and infusing into his heart the wholesomest lessons of peace. Unlike the women of other times, who were masculine and sensual, she possesses the responsibilities of a moral agent, and virtues and attractions absolutely necessary to elegant society. In a word, she differs from her ancient kind, in the measure of her estimation among men. She is now a part of the moral economy of states - a person of intelligence, not of sense; of sociability, not of exclusion; of sentiment, not of appetite. It would be interesting, could we spare time, to trace her history up to this period, as it appeared in different ages. The result would exhibit her progressively improving with the moral and intellectual culture of society. We would behold her, at one time, amid barbarians, servile and disgusting; with no accomplishments for social converse; and having no communion with the other sex, save in the gratification of passions common to animal life. At another time, we would see her advanced one step further in civilisation; that is, extending her privileges and adding new charms to the graces of her person; and, then, we would see her next in the chivalrous age - the age of emprise and gaudy romance; of love-sway and brilliant feats of arms; of talismanic keepsakes and the daring gage; when the brave knight, amid the deafening applause of the thronged circle, kneeling before his lady Queen, and, presenting her, on the point of his spear, the emblem of his affection, wet with the blood of a vanquished rival, she forsooth smiled upon him. In that age, her influence doubtless produced admirable effects upon society. Not to say much of the punctilious laws of knight-errantry, then substituted for merciless assault and private assassination, her situation at that time, as the fascinating meed of the brave, elevated her in the admiration of men, and prepared the way for her social improvement; and, of course, for the dissemination of those principles of religion, which inculcate peace. With this era commenced her legitimate sway; for, surely, her charms seem fairest under an unclouded sky. True, she can bare her bosom to the wars, and stand before misfortune with a fortitude as unbending as the bravest heart; yet, after all, unalloyed pleasure is to be mostly enjoyed with her in days of peace. The dazzle of arms and the strifes of public life, wean the affections of man from home; it is only when the heart goes on in the even tenor of its course, unagitated by stirring events, that it throbs for the amiable endearments of the female presence. And the apparent hankering of the world now for peace; the substitution of negotiation for war; and the umpirage of the law, instead of arms, have so predisposed the other sex to enjoy the delicate pleasures of her society, that she is more than ever essential to his comfort and his felicity.

We have remarked, that she is now esteemed a being of intellect, and one of the elements of a moral intercourse. This constitutes the height of her commendation. Considered in any other light, she appears of very little more value than an object pleasing to the senses. Some of the French writers may say to the contrary, but we are confident there is a love without even a blush of what is called passion. We know that a beautiful woman will awaken desire; that the languor of her eye, the flush of her cheek, and the developments of her figure, will, and ought, as so ordained by our Creator, to excite pleasurable sensations; but, at the same time, we contend, that there is an emotion arising from the reciprocal and intimate endearments of the sexes, more lasting and grateful than any passion. It is a love, growing out of their peculiar relations; vivified by a sentiment, that brightens up the realities of life into an adorning romance.

An author has somewhere remarked that love ends with the first kiss. If he alludes to those who love without sentiment, we may grant what he asserts; but if he means that, after marriage, there can be no love, as we have heard a learned professor once affirm, we must declare that his paradox befits a sensualist, and one who claimed no higher communion after death, than the mingling of his remains with the dust of brutes. It is to authors like him, that we must attribute the disinclination of some to matrimony - the holiest of connexions - of all others, the most dignified and productive of unsullied felicity. We here speak of the union of two persons of moral principles, and of well attempered dispositions. Their love comes from a mutual pride, a mutual interest, and mutual endearments - a pride that blends their reputations into one name and destiny, teaching them that the merited reproach of either would be agony to both; - an interest that induces them to depend on concerted prudence, to obtain either the luxuries or the necessaries of life, as their conditions may be elevated or humble; - and mutual endearments to create sentiment, and move in their hearts the indescribable emotions of a romantic affection. These influences are necessary to connubial happiness; and naturally result from that principle of our laws, which considers the parties to the marriage bond one person in all the concerns of life. By this means, their hopes and their fears, their fames and their fortunes, their pains and their pleasures, are identified. Whatever redounds to the credit of one, reflects credit on both,; and there is seldom, if ever, a rivalry between them, except it be to set off one another to the best advantage. Envy, too, that source of almost every sort of human anguish, can rarely come between them, to fester their hearts and turn their sweets into bitterness and hate. The difference in their physical and moral constitutions precludes this; for their attractions are peculiarly interesting, because of the separate spheres in which they revolve. She is timid, confiding, and submissive; he is bold, arrogant, and self-willed. She limits her wishes to the precincts of home, to the innocent prattle of her "little ones," and their young features reflecting in her fond anticipations a name of excellence; - he courts the bustle of the world and its loud praises. She lives under an Italian sky, lit up by the pale moon, and modest stars blushing in the distance; - he endures the heat of the sun, and gazes at it with the eye of an eagle. His aspirations are for thrones and large dominion; she is queen of the household; her diadem is the social affections; her sceptre, love; her robe, chastity, pure as the driven snow, enveloping her form, so that the imagination can find naught to blush at, even in the impropriety of an attitude. Her measures are those of peace; her ministers, the virtues; and her smiling subjects, the children of him to whom she owes fealty, as the paramount lord of her heart and her treasure.

These are the matters of her exclusive dominion, these the charming influences flowing from her intellectual and social refinements. Did man bring himself to look on her in this posture, with a feeling of sentiment, she would always be to him as nature designed her - his solace and his passion! We repeat the word sentiment; for, as the appetite can be cloyed, so sure as one mixes no romance in his affections, will he tire of the partner of his house. We do not mean that morbid sentiment, which expects more of a lady than nature has allotted her. Far from it; it is a healthy mood, which, being insensible to her trifling frailties, gains its pleasure from contemplating her excellence; which does not busy itself to find out spots in the sun, but admires it, and is exhilarated when it rises. It is a disposition like this, which distinguishes the benevolent from him, who sees all things through a cynical medium - a disposition, moreover, easily acquired, since we know that the frequent contemplation of an object not sensual or disgusting, will attach to it an interest far above its real value, so as to exclude whatever of unpleasantness may be incident to it, more especially if it affords satisfaction to his pride or his propensities. Besides, men generally forget that sensibilities the most attenuated quicken the female heart - that she is all impulse, and sensitive as that plant which shrinks from the slightest touch. Her love is not what some have imagined. It is not a burning passion, exhausting itself by its own intensity; it is not a sublime impression, lessening every time the object which produced it, is gazed at. It is a prolonged emotion of beauty, filling her soul with the most delightful images and the gentlest pleasures. Delicate in nature, he that would retain her affections must approach her in demeanor respectful, and with language refined. The quiet of her pastimes conduces to raise in the mind creations of romance, of sentiment and warm anticipations. She looks up to man for protection, and should he assume a self-superiority and frown upon her, so as to make her feel it, that instant will her heart wither in hate, or break with grief. Would he, then, have her fulfil the destiny for which God hath created her, let him place her nigh his bosom, as a precious and beautiful flower, requiring the nicest attentions to preserve its fragrance and its bloom.

Constituted, then, as woman now is, with virtues to adorn society, the next question is, what should be the extent of her acquirements? They should be, in our opinion, such as will make her an object of social attraction. Her pursuits, whether literary or otherwise, should not, for a moment, interfere with her domestic duties. Those embellishments which are the offspring of a delicate taste, she should cultivate - such as music, polite literature, poetry, history, painting, and, in fine, every study which will enable her to impart information to her children, and render home interesting to the partner of her love. Let our fair friends dwell on this last remark, for we assure them it unfolds the secret of female influence. Her pride should be, to convert home into a paradise, to fix her affections there, and to have an eye to this in everything she says and does. For this is her proper place, wherein she shines most, and is everywhere else a stranger. If she have no content here - if home be not a temple, at whose alter she can offer the incense of her love - what other spot will she find so sacred? She cannot go into the world like the other sex, and catch pleasure in the shifting scene; she cannot outlive unrequited affections in the whirl of public life and the schemes of a vaulting ambition. If there be no solace at home, the universe beside is a troubled sea, whereon she can find no resting-place. This truth, then, should urge her to consecrate her dwelling with every refinement, so that, if her love have a sympathy there, it will, with these embellishments, be enlivened; and if not, such a misfortune she can alleviate by her own resources of intellectual enjoyment.

Charles R. Carroll was a planter from Barnwell District, South Carolina. After moving to Charleston he enrolled at the bar in 1826. In addition to practicing law, Carroll co-edited "The Cosmopolitan", an occaisional.

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