Woman's mission.

Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Woman's mission. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    107/180 (page 101)
    with family estates, and hereditary vices are hardly compensated by hereditary possessions. The cha- racters of the junior members of a family are often only reflections or modifications of those of the elder. Families retain for generations peculiarites of temper and character. The Catos were all stern, upright, inflexible; the Guises proud and haughty at heart, though irresistibly popular and fascinating in manner. We see the influence which men, exalted and powerful, exert on their age, and on society; it is difficult to believe, that a similar influence is exerted by every individual man and woman, however limited his or her sphere of life ; the force of the torrent is easily calculated,—that of the under-current is hidden, yet its existence and power are no less actual. This truth opens to the conscientious a field of duty not enough cultivated. The improvement of individual character has been too much regarded as a matter of personal concern, a duty to ourselves, —to our immediate relations, perhaps, but to no others,—a matter affecting our individual happiness here, and our individual safety hereafter ! This is taking a very narrow view of a very extended subject. The work of individual self-formation is a duty not only to ourselves and our families, but to our fellow-creatures at large; it is the best and most certainly beneficial exercise of philanthropy. It is