In naming these instances, I do not mean to imply that community of
employment is essential to the union of husband and wife, more than to
the union of friends. Harmony exists in difference, no less than in
likeness, if only the same key-note govern both parts. Woman the poem,
Man the poet! Woman the heart, Man the head! Such divisions are only
important when they are never to be transcended. If nature is never
bound down, nor the voice of inspiration stifled, that is enough. We
are pleased that women should write and speak, if they feel need of
it, from having something to tell; but silence for ages would be no
misfortune, if that silence be from divine command, and not from Man's
tradition.

While Goetz Von Berlichingen rides to battle, his wife is busy in the
kitchen; but difference of occupation does not prevent that community
of inward life, that perfect esteem, with which he says,

"Whom God loves, to him gives he such a wife."


Manzoni thus dedicates his "Adelchi."

"To his beloved and venerated wife, Enrichetta Luigia Blondel, who,
with conjugal affection and maternal wisdom, has preserved a virgin
mind, the author dedicates this 'Adelchi,' grieving that he could not,
by a more splendid and more durable monument, honor the dear name, and
the memory of so many virtues."

The relation could not be fairer, nor more equal, if she, too, had
written poems. Yet the position of the parties might have been the