A wife who is the mere echo of her husband’s opinions; who waits for his advice upon all matters; who is lazy, indolent, and silly in her household; fussy, troublesome, and always out of the way or in the way when she is traveling; who has no opinions of her own, no temper of her own; who boasts that “she bears every thing like a lamb;” and who bears the breakage of her best china and the desecration of her white curtains with tobbaco-smoke with equal serenity; such a woman may be very affectionate and very good, but she is somewhat of a “she-fool.”  Her husband will too often first begin to despise and then to neglect her.  She will follow so closely on the heels of her husband’s ideas and her husband’s opinions that she will annoy him like an echo.  Her genuine love will be construed into something like cunning flattery; her very devotion will be mistaken; her sweet nature become tiresome and irksome, from want of variety; and, from being the mistress of the house, she will sink into the mere slave of the husband.  A wife should therefore learn to think, to walk alone, to bear her full share of the troubles and dignities of married life, never to become a cipher in her own house, but to rise to the level of her husband, and to take her full share of the matrimonial throne.  The husband, if a wise man, will never act without consulting his wife; nor will she do any thing of importance without the aid and advice of her husband.

There is, however—­and in these days of rapid fortune-making we see it constantly—­a certain class of men who rise in the world without the slightest improvement in their manners, taste, or sense.  Such men are shrewd men of business, or perhaps have been borne to the haven of fortune by a lucky tide; and yet these very men possess wives who, although they are of a lower sphere, rise at once with their position, and in manner, grace, and address are perfect ladies, whilst their husbands are still the same rude, uncultivated boors.  These wives must be wise enough to console themselves for their trials; for indeed such things are a very serious trial both to human endurance and to human vanity.  They must remember that they married when equals with their husbands in their lowliness, and that their husbands have made the fortune which they pour at their feet.  They will recollect also that their husbands must have industry, and a great many other sterling good qualities, if they lack a little polish; and, lastly, that they are in reality no worse off than many other women in high life who are married to boors, to eccentric persons, or, alas! too often to those who, with many admirable virtues, may blot them all by the indulgence in a bosom sin or an hereditary vice.