life penetrate into it, and the inconsistently-minded, unknown,
unloved, or hostile society of the outer world is allowed by either
husband or wife to cross the threshold, it ceases to be home; it is
then only a part of that outer world which you have roofed over, and
lighted fire in. But so far as it is a sacred place, a vestal
temple, a temple of the hearth watched over by Household Gods,
before whose faces none may come but those whom they can receive
with love,--so far as it is this, and roof and fire are types only
of a nobler shade and light,--shade as of the rock in a weary land,
and light as of the Pharos in the stormy sea;--so far it vindicates
the name, and fulfils the praise, of Home.

And wherever a true wife comes, this home is always round her. The
stars only may be over her head; the glowworm in the night-cold
grass may be the only fire at her foot; but home is yet wherever she
is; and for a noble woman it stretches far round her, better than
ceiled with cedar, or painted with vermilion, shedding its quiet
light far, for those who else were homeless.

This, then, I believe to be,--will you not admit it to be,--the
woman's true place and power? But do not you see that, to fulfil
this, she must--as far as one can use such terms of a human
creature--be incapable of error? So far as she rules, all must be
right, or nothing is. She must be enduringly, incorruptibly good;
instinctively, infallibly wise--wise, not for self-development, but
for self-renunciation: wise, not that she may set herself above her
husband, but that she may never fail from his side: wise, not with
the narrowness of insolent and loveless pride, but with the
passionate gentleness of an infinitely variable, because infinitely
applicable, modesty of service--the true changefulness of woman. In