The role of woman

Being shaped more gracefully than man, woman naturally denotes a more delicate soul; thus it is that in similar mediums, in all worlds, the mother will be more beautiful than the father, since it is upon her that the child looks first; it is toward the angelic countenance of a young woman that the child incessantly turns its gaze; it is to the mother that the child wipes away its tears and fixes its still weak and uncertain gaze. The child has, then, a natural intuition of the beautiful. Woman, above all, knows how to make herself noticed by the delicacy of her thoughts, by the grace of her gestures, by the purity of her words; everything that comes from her ought to harmonize with her person, which God made beautiful.

Her long hair, flowing in waves over her bosom, is the image of the gentleness and the ease with which her head, before trials, bends without breaking. It reflects the light of the suns, as the feminine soul ought to reflect the purest light of God. Young women, let your hair flow freely, for God created it for that. You will appear, at once, more natural and graceful. Woman ought to be simple in dress: she has already come forth too beautiful from the hands of the Creator to have need of adornments. Let white and blue blend together upon your shoulders. Let your dresses also flow freely; let your raiment be seen extending behind you as though it were a long carpet of gauze, like a discreet cloud announcing your presence. Yet, of what use are the adornments, the dresses, the beauty, the hair flowing or floating, tied or fastened, if the so gentle smile of mothers and lovers does not shine upon your lips? If your eyes do not sow goodness, charity, hope in the tears of joy they let flow, in the flashes pouring forth from that brazier of unknown love? Women, do not fear to dazzle men by beauty, by grace, and by superiority; but let them know, in order to become worthy of you, that they must be as rich in character as you are beautiful, as wise as you are good, as instructed as you are ingenuous and simple. They must know that they ought to deserve you, that you are the prize of virtue and of honor, not of that honor which covers itself with cloak and shield, which shines in struggles and tournaments, which tramples upon the brow of the enemy who has fallen. No; but of honor according to God. Men, be useful; and when the poor bless your name, women will be in all things like you; then you will form a whole: you will be the head and they the heart; you will be the beneficent thought and they the liberal hands.

Unite, then, not only by love, but for the good that you can do as a pair. Let these good thoughts and actions, accomplished by two hearts that love each other, be the links of that chain of gold and diamonds which we call marriage. Then, when such links are numerous enough, God will call you to him and you will continue to gather still new links, which will join the preceding ones. But it is not a question, as on Earth, of links of heavy metal: in Heaven they will be of fire and light. [see Allan Kardec's Observation in the preceding article: The flowers.]

Bernard Palissy.

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[See: Allan Kardec's Observation at the beginning of the preceding article, the flowers.]