Summary
That branch of the subject upon which I am now entering, being one of so much importance in the sum of human happiness, as scarcely to admit of comparison with any other, it might be expected that I should especially direct the attention of the reader to the duties of consideration and kindness in the married state, by entering into the minutiæ of its especial requirements, and recommending them with all the earnestness of emphatic detail, to the serious consideration of the women of England. Happy indeed should I be to do this, did I not feel that, at the same time, I should be touching upon a theme too delicate for the handling of an ordinary pen, and venturing beyond that veil which the sacredness of such a connexion is calculated to draw over all that is extreme in the happiness or misery of human life.
I shall therefore glance only upon those points which are most obvious to the eye of a third party; and in doing this, it will be found, that many of the remarks I have made upon the behaviour of daughters to their fathers, are equally applicable to that of wives towards their husbands. There is, however, this great difference—the connexion existing between married people is almost invariably a matter of choice. A daughter may, sometimes, imagine herself excused, by supposing that her father is too uncongenial in mind and character, for her to owe him much in the way of companionship.
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- The Women of EnglandTheir Social Duties, and Domestic Habits, pp. 253 - 275Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1839