was talking upon the subject, one day, with a parson, who had not read the Book, but who, as was the fashion with all those who were looking up to the government, condemned the Queen unheard.  ‘Now,’ said I, ’be not so shamefully unjust; but get the book, read it, and then give your judgment.’—­’Indeed,’ said his wife, who was sitting by, ’but HE SHA’N’T,’ pronouncing the words sha’n’t with an emphasis and a voice tremendously masculine.  ‘Oh!’ said I, ’if he SHA’N’T, that is another matter; but, if he sha’n’t read, if he sha’n’t hear the evidence, he sha’n’t be looked upon, by me, as a just judge; and I sha’n’t regard him, in future, as having any opinion of his own in any thing.’  All which the husband, the poor henpecked thing, heard without a word escaping his lips.

184.  A husband thus under command, is the most contemptible of God’s creatures.  Nobody can place reliance on him for any thing; whether in the capacity of employer or employed, you are never sure of him.  No bargain is firm, no engagement sacred, with such a man.  Feeble as a reed before the boisterous she-commander, he is bold in injustice towards those whom it pleases her caprice to mark out for vengeance.  In the eyes of neighbours, for friends such a man cannot have, in the eyes of servants, in the eyes of even the beggars at his door, such a man is a mean and despicable creature, though he may roll in wealth and possess great talents into the bargain.  Such a man has, in fact, no property; he has nothing that he can rightly call his own; he is a beggarly dependent under his own roof; and if he have any thing of the man left in him, and if there be rope or river near, the sooner he betakes him to the one or the other the better.  How many men, how many families, have I known brought to utter ruin only by the husband suffering himself to be subdued, to be cowed down, to be held in fear, of even a virtuous wife!  What, then, must be the lot of him who submits to a commander who, at the same time, sets all virtue at defiance!

185.  Women are a sisterhood.  They make common cause in behalf of the sex; and, indeed, this is natural enough, when we consider the vast power that the law gives us over them.  The law is for us, and they combine, wherever they can, to mitigate its effects.  This is perfectly natural, and, to a certain extent, laudable, evincing fellow-feeling and public spirit:  but when carried to the length of ‘he sha’n’t,’ it is despotism on the one side and slavery on the other.  Watch, therefore, the incipient steps of encroachment; and they come on so slowly, so softly, that you must be sharp-sighted if you perceive them; but the moment you do perceive them:  your love will blind for too long a time; but the moment you do perceive them, put at once an effectual stop to their progress.  Never mind the pain that it may give you:  a day of pain at this time will