Part 11 (1/2)
It was on this one subject that a venerable champion of good, the last representative of the spirit which sanctified the Revolution, and gave our country such a sunlight of hope in the eyes of the nations, the same who lately, in Boston, offered anew to the young men the pledge taken by the young men of his day, offered, also, his counsel, on being addressed by the princ.i.p.al of a girl's school, thus:--
REPLY OF MR. ADAMS.
Mr. Adams was so deeply affected by the address of Miss Foster, as to be for some time inaudible. When heard, he spoke as follows:
”This is the first instance in which a lady has thus addressed me personally; and I trust that all the ladies present will be able sufficiently to enter into my feelings to know that I am more affected by this honor than by any other I could hare received,
”You have been pleased, madam, to allude to the character of my father, and the history of my family, and their services to the country. It is indeed true that, from the existence of the republic as an independent nation, my father and myself have been in the public service of the country, almost without interruption. I came into the world, as a person having personal responsibilities, with the Declaration of Independence, which const.i.tuted us a nation. I was a child at that time, and had then perhaps the greatest of blessings that can be bestowed on man--a mother who was anxious and capable to form her children to be what they ought to be. From that mother I derived whatever instruction--religious especially and moral--has pervaded a long life; I will not say perfectly, and as it ought to be; but I will say, because it is justice only to the memory of her whom I revere, that if, in the course of my life, there has been any imperfection, or deviation from what she taught me, the fault is mine, and not hers.
”With such a mother, and such other relations with the s.e.x, of sister, wife, and daughter, it has been the perpetual instruction of my life to love and revere the female s.e.x. And in order to carry that sentiment of love and reverence to its highest degree of perfection, I know of nothing that exists in human society better adapted to produce that result, than inst.i.tutions of the character that I have now the honor to address.
”I have been taught, as I have said, through the course of my life, to love and to revere the female s.e.x; but I have been taught, also--and that lesson has perhaps impressed itself on my mind even more strongly, it may be, than the other--I have been taught not to flatter them. It is not unusual, in the intercourse of Man with the other s.e.x--and especially for young men--to think that the way to win the hearts of ladies is by flattery. To love and to revere the s.e.x, is what I think the duty of Man; _but not to flatter them;_ and this I would say to the young ladies here--and if they, and others present, will allow me, with all the authority which nearly four score years may have with those who have not yet attained one score--I would say to them what I have no doubt they say to themselves, and are taught here, not to take the flattery of men as proof of perfection.
”I am now, however, I fear, a.s.suming too much of a character that does not exactly belong to me. I therefore conclude, by a.s.suring you, madam, that your reception of me has affected me, as you perceive, more than I can express in words; and that I shall offer my best prayers, till my latest hour, to the Creator of us all, that this inst.i.tution especially, and all others of a similar kind, designed to form the female mind to wisdom and virtue, may prosper to the end of time.”
It will be interesting to add here the character of Mr. Adams' mother, as drawn by her husband, the first John Adams, in a family letter [Footnote: Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams, vol. i., p. 246.]
written just before his death.
”I have reserved for the last the life of Lady Russell. This I have not yet read, because I read it more than forty years ago. On this hangs a tale which you ought to know and communicate it to your children. I bought the Life and Letters of Lady Russell in the year 1775, and sent it to your grandmother, with an express intent and desire that she should consider it a mirror in which to contemplate herself; for, at that time, I thought it extremely probable, from the daring and dangerous career I was determined to run, that she would one day find herself in the situation of Lady Russell, her husband without a head. 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 fort.i.tude 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 ent.i.tled 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d and man, _accomplished_ Eve.”
[Footnote: See Appendix H.]
In a moment of stronger feeling,
”Daughter of G.o.d and man, IMMORTAL Eve.”
What majesty in the cadence of the line; what dignity, what reverence in the att.i.tude both of giver and receiver!
The woman who permits, in her life, the alloy of vanity; the woman who lives upon flattery, coa.r.s.e or fine, shall never be thus addressed, She is _not_ immortal so far as her will is concerned, and every woman who does so creates miasma, whose spread is indefinite. The hand which casts into the waters of life a stone of offence knows not how far the circles thus caused may spread their agitations.
A little while since I was at one of the most fas.h.i.+onable places of public resort. I saw there many women, dressed without regard to the season or the demands of the place, in apery, or, as it looked, in mockery, of European fas.h.i.+ons. I saw their eyes restlessly courting attention. I saw the way in which it was paid; the style of devotion, almost an open sneer, which it pleased those ladies to receive from men whose expression marked their own low position in the moral and intellectual world. Those women went to their pillows with their heads full of folly, their hearts of jealousy, or gratified vanity; those men, with the low opinion they already entertained of Woman confirmed.
These were American _ladies;_ that is, they were of that cla.s.s who have wealth and leisure to make full use of the day, and confer benefits on others. They were of that cla.s.s whom the possession of external advantages makes of pernicious example to many, if these advantages be misused.
Soon after, I met a circle of women, stamped by society as among the most degraded of their s.e.x. ”How,” it was asked of them, ”did you come here?” for by the society that I saw in the former place they were shut up in a prison. The causes were not difficult to trace: love of dress, love of flattery, love of excitement. They had not dresses like the other ladies, so they stole them; they could not pay for flattery by distinctions, and the dower of a worldly marriage, so they paid by the profanation of their persons. In excitement, more and more madly sought from day to day, they drowned the voice of conscience.
Now I ask you, my sisters, if the women at the fas.h.i.+onable house be not answerable for those women being in the prison?