“There in your homes, is your domain. There you rule w/ the scepter of affection , and not our conquerors. We beseech you, wield that gentle empire in behalf of the principles , the patriotism, the religion, which we inherited from our Mothers. Teach our ruder sex that only by deathless love to these can woman’s dear love be deserved or won. Him who is true to these, crown with thy favor. Let the wretch who betrays them be exiled forever from the paradise of your arms. Then shall we be saved, saved from a degradation fouler than the grave. Be it yours to nurse with more than vestal’s watchfulness, the sacred flame of our virtue, now so smothered. Your task is unobtrusive; it is performed in the privacy of the home, and by the gentle touches of daily love. But it is the noblest work which mortal can preform, for it furnishes the polished stones with which the temple of our liberties must be repaired…. The home and the fireside are the scenes of your industry. But the materials which you shape are the souls of man, which are to compose the fabric of our Church and state. The politician, the professional man, is but the cheap, rude day laborer, who moves and lifts the finished block to its place. You are the true artists, who endue it with fitness and beauty; and therefore yours is the nobler task.”
R. L. Dabney
19th Century Southern Theologian
Discussions, Vol IV — pg. 121-122
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