The most of you
are very emotional; and that quality of emotion, when it is pure, is
your blessing, and a part of the womanhood in you: it is the necessary
expression of your soul. I know the word emotional has not a pleasant
sound, and, in common use, implies lack of reason and want of control;
but it is a good word, and what it truly means is good. Feeling, or
the product of feeling, which is emotion, does for us what reason cannot
do,--it frequently causes faith where reason would destroy it. Do not
boast you are not emotional, and have no care nor sympathy for fine
sentiment; for this boasting is not laudable in a woman. The girl who
reasons more than she feels will make a calm philosopher, but a very
poor friend.
Though we are not to speak so much about God's highest gift to us,--
the power of loving,--I would like to show you just what feeling is
capable of doing. You know most girls have an affection for somebody
or something, and if that love is not bestowed on a friend, it will
be on a cause, an ambition, an absorbing desire. Hypatia, Joan of Arc,
Charlotte Corday, Florence Nightingale, Harriet Hosmer, Rosa Bonheur,
Mrs. Siddons, represent as much love for the causes they lived or live
for as did Vittoria Colonna for her husband, Hester and Vanessa for
Swift, Heloise for Abelard, Marguerite for Faust, Ophelia for Hamlet,
Desdemona for Othello, or Juliet for Romeo.
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