ABSTRACT
The list is long of those who have followed in her steps. It will be found, however, on examination, that by far the larger portion of the work done by women for their sex or for the 8tate, has been accomplished by those who, through choice or circumRtance, have remained unmarried. Nor need the reason be far to seek. Now, as of old, it is true that the married woman cares for the things of the house ; the unmarried for the things of the Lord; or, as we may put it, for the things which bring good to others rather than to herself. For it must be i·emembered that though some women, no doubt, remain unmarried because nature or fortune have dowered them less richly than others who become wives, yet a large proportion of single women are such from precisely opposite causes. Few men, comparatively, marry their first love. Fewer still refrain on that account from a second choice. It is otherwise with women. The finer and more noble a woman's nature is, the more likely she is to choose a single life rather than transfer her affections, E>hould the vicissitudes of circumstance forbid her marrying where she first gives her heart. And with equal truth it may be said that the higher a. woman's nature is, the more likely it is that she will prefer rather to forngo marriage altogether, than to surrender herself to a union that would sink her below her own ideal, ~hould her choice, the passive choice of womanhood, be limited to such. It m,ust be borne in mind too, that for a woman ·to do.
