I will use the preacher's own words. 'Let it be observed, that in
your sex manly exercises are never graceful; that in them a tone and
figure, as well as an air and deportment, of the masculine kind, are
always forbidding; and that men of sensibility desire in every woman
soft features, and a flowing voice, a form, not robust, and
demeanour delicate and gentle.'
Is not the following portrait- the portrait of a house slave? 'I
am astonished at the folly of many women, who are still reproaching
their husbands for leaving them alone, for preferring this or that
company to theirs, for treating them with this and the other mark of
disregard or indifference; when, to speak the truth, they have
themselves in a great measure to blame. Not that I would justify the
men in any thing wrong on their part. But had you behaved to them with
more respectful observance, and a more equal tenderness; studying
their humours, overlooking their mistakes, submitting to their
opinions in matters indifferent, passing by little instances of
unevenness, caprice, or passion, giving soft answers to hasty words,
complaining as seldom as possible, and making it your daily care to
relieve their anxieties and prevent their wishes, to enliven the
hour of dulness, and call up the ideas of felicity: had you pursued
this conduct, I doubt not but you would have maintained and even
increased their esteem, so far as to have secured every degree of
influence that could conduce to their virtue, or your mutual
satisfaction; and your house might at this day have been the abode
of domestic bliss.
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