The Woman's Mission

"Woman, whatever relation she may bear to society at large, whatever duties in consequence of this relation she may have to discharge, and whatever benefited by the right discharge of these duties she may have it in her power to confer upon the community, must consider herself chiefly called to advance the comfort of man in his private relations; to promote her own peace by promoting his; and to receive from him all that respect, protection, and ever assiduous affection to which her equal nature, her companionship, and her devotedness give her so just a claim. She is, in wedded life, to be his constant companion, in whose society he is to find one who meets him hand to hand, eye to eye, lip to lip, and heart to heart; to whom he can unburden the secrets of a heart pressed down with care or wrung with anguish; whose presence shall be to him better than all society; whose voice shall be his sweetest music, whose smiles his brightest sunshine; from whom he shall go forth with regret, and to whose converse he shall return with willing feet..."  John Angell James, 1860, Female Piety