Epigraph on title page
“There are homesteads which have witness’d deeds
That battle-fields, with all their banner’d pomp,
Have little to compare with. Life’s general play
May, so it have an actor great enough,
Be well perform’d upon a humble stage.”
Westland Marston
Preface [v-x]
[…] The present age, whilst it deprecates moral or intellectual energy being urged forward into pretentiousness, has grown too accurate in its appreciation of the relative duties of the sexes, to permit either to ignore responsibility, by consuming life in selfish ease. No man or woman has a right to become a mere cipher in existence, and both are called upon to imitate Him who “deems it not beneath the dignity of His transcendent majesty, to work unceasingly for all.” To draw, therefore, from the great moralist’s expressions, any discouragement to the practice of those heroic [vi] virtues which seek not notoriety, yet cannot escape it, would be to pervert not less the truth than, possibly, the meaning of the speaker. An invidious desire to restrict woman’s legitimate influence, is no new thing; and although the universal increase of education confessedly demands her proportionate advancement, to keep pace with the day, we find narrow prejudice still striving to depress her in the social scale. In his defence of female education, Sidney Smith strongly animadverts upon this tendency. […] The real answer, however, to those casuists who impugn whatever may lead woman out of that inane repose, in which they seek to keep her, is derived from facts themselves. Any virtue elicited by a great event, becomes, ipso facto, matter of history, [vii] and therefore celebrated; yet this does not invalidate its claim to be essentially domestic. Feminine heroism comprehends those elements which make better wives, mothers, and daughters; and if circumstances reveal such characteristics as devotion, fidelity, piety, unselfishness, in their highest culmination, we can no more ignore them, than we can repudiate those plants, which, growing unobtrusive in the forest, restore a nation to health, disarm infection, or mitigate the agony of death. In a similar manner, domestic heroism desires not fame, which is alien to its very nature, yet becomes of public import, as its unassuming virtue spreads from the cottage to the throne, cheers the home or the hospital, and alleviates even the scaffold and the gaol. Still, it cannot be denied that association with aspects of severer duty, is apt to give a masculine hardness to the mind and the manners, inauspicious to feminine delicacy, the especially graceful attribute of the sex. The constant habit of thinking for herself, of ruling rather than obeying, nay, even conversance with subjects of hospital and camp life, wears off from woman, under such circumstances, her soft and gentle character. Our observation may be thought strange; but we think that such heroines never proved their claim to the appellation more, than when they voluntarily sacrificed the attractiveness of feminine sensibility, by the exercise of self-imposed obnoxious offices. Possibly upon this result, the jealousy of allowing [viii] women a more active sphere, is founded. The heart, like the hand, gets coarse by familiarity with roughness, and, to sensitive minds, certain pursuits would be simply intolerable; but here constitutional disposition comes in, and the natural tendency of the individual predisposes to such practice. In fact, each follows his or her bias; so that often, except where physical suffering is concerned, a heroine has voluntarily chosen a path she need never have entered upon. Yet, after all, what is life but one appeal to duty? Or what are its functions, but demands upon submission to the severest discipline? So long, therefore, as the obligation rests upon both sexes, to “bear one another’s burdens,” those elements must be encouraged in woman, which qualify her the better to discharge her responsibility. There is an evil in the present day, which particularly calls for the study of pure models of excellence. We allude to the all-pervading proneness to selfish luxury, which is a sad impediment to woman’s work. Whatever, then, can direct the mind to noble example, checks this tendency to perversion from our being’s high end and aim; “for all education of the sex upon dignified and important subjects, multiplies, beyond measure, the chances of human improvement, by preparing and medicating those early impressions, which, in a great majority of instances, are quite decisive of character and genius.” If, indeed, the sex would entitle itself to the quaint [ix] compliment of Malherbe, that “the Creator may have repented of having formed man, but never woman,” it is clear that graver thoughts of her true destiny, must be imparted into the old system of educating her to be merely a pretty puppet in the drawing-room. Hence, such subjects have been selected as stand highest in the roll of fame; this series being devoted especially to the illustration of the domestic virtues. To condense is more difficult than to elaborate; but it will be well if these records stimulate examination of fuller biographies; and although courage, conjugal and filial piety, philanthropy, and self-culture, may impart an unavoidable resemblance to such annals, – for, alas, the list of human virtues is soon run out, though never fulfilled! – yet the variety of circumstances, as well as of individual constitution, presents ample materials for thought. To enhance such motives, therefore, as, while they discourage assumption, teach woman to endure – her chief lesson in this life! – and unselfishly to support others – her main prerogative! – at a period when her greater activity is demanded, is the object of this work. But let it be remembered that true greatness is of Nature, not of Art, and that Heroism cannot be instilled. It must be instinctive; and though it may be imitated, yet its primary elements cannot be acquired. Education may teach us to shun the shoals, but it can as little construct the ruling mind, which guides the vessel over them, as create [x] those tides which prostrate all obstacles, by the resistless energy of an indomitable will. Virtue, genius, greatness, are of loftier source, and like happiness, belong to a higher sphere than this; the artist can imitate, but cannot inspire his model; and though Prometheus is said to have formed the fairest image of humanity, the vivifying spark which taught the soul and eye to speak, was caught from heaven!
E.O.
Contents
Ruth 1Antigone 9
Panthea 19
Eponina 29
Gertrude von der Wart 41
Margaret Roper 53
Anne Askew 89
Jeanne D’Albert 105
Pocahontas 137
Lucy Hutchinson 151
Lady Rachel Russell 171
Grizel Cochrane 187
Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale 219
Helen Walker 235
Flora Macdonald 249
Louise Shepler 285
Emilie de Lavalette 307
Elizabeth Fry 319
Prasca Loupouloff 337
Sarah Martin 253
Grace Darling 367
Florence Nightingale 381