The Rhode Island Republican

[By Washington Irving.]

I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune 'Those disasters which break down the spirit of man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity. Nothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female who had been all weakness and dependence, and alive to every trivial roughness, while treading the prosperous paths of life, suddenly rising in mental force to be the comforter and supporter of her husband under misfortune, and abiding with unshrinking firmness, the most bitter blasts of adversity.

As the vine which has long twined its graceful foliage and been lifted by it into sunshine will, when the hardy plant is riven by the thunderbolt cling around it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered bough so it is beautifully ordered by Providence, that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours should be his stay and solace, when smitten with sudden calamity: winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head. and binding up the broken heart.

I was once congratulating a friend who had around him a blooming family knit together in the strongest affection. "I can wish you no better lot," said he with enthusiasm, "than to have a wife and children. If you are prosperous they are to share in your prosperity; if otherwise they are to comfort you." And indeed I have observed, that a married man falling into misfortune, is more apt to retrieve his situation in the world than a single one; partly because he is more stimulated to exertion by the necessities of the helpless and beloved beings who depend upon him for subsistence; but chiefly because his spirits are soothed and relieved by domestic endearments, and his self respect kept alive by finding that though all abroad is darkness and humiliation, yet there is still a little world of love at home, of which he is the monarch.—Whereas, a single man is apt to run to waste and self-neglect; to fancy himself lonely and abandoned, and suffers his heart to fall to ruin, like some deserted mansion for want of an inhabitant.