Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 by Various
page 109 of 313 (34%)
page 109 of 313 (34%)
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species is rare; and hence an old law says that no _law concerning good
women_ should be made, for that laws are to be made concerning things of usual occurrence, as it is written in _Auth. sinc prohib_., etc., _quia vero_ and L. _Nam ad ca_, Dig. _De Leffibus_.' These juridical epigrams, these cool pleasantries, in a serious book, shocked me more than even the hard hits of the Gascon philosopher. 'Good women,' I thought to myself, 'are found everywhere. In history? No; history is written by men who love and admire heroes only, that is to say, those who rob, subjugate, or slay them. In theology? No; it has not yet forgiven the daughters of Eve the fault which ruined us,--a sin of which they have retained at least a little share. In the records of the law, then? No, again; for men make the laws. Woman is, in their eyes, nothing but a minor, legally incapable of governing herself. God only knows what is, here, as in all things, the difference between the fact and the law. Are these good women to be found in plays, romances, or novels? No, still; for they are but the perpetual recital of feminine artfulness. Where, then, shall we look for good women?--In the realm of fable and fiction, in the kingdom of fancy--the dominion of the ideal. These are the only regions in which merit holds the place it is entitled to or justice is done to the claims of virtue. What is the tenderness of Baucis, or the long fidelity of Penelope? Fiction only. And the resignation of the gentle Griseldis--what is it? An old tale of other days. In order to find the good woman we are looking for, this is the ivory portal at which we must knock. Acting upon this conviction, I reperused all the old traditions, I called to my aid that peculiar lore of nations which is embodied in their legends, and which is so vividly, so amiably, and so ingenuously |
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