The Southern woman’s soul is chivalry.  From the highest to the humblest, the same lofty purpose, pride, and energy animate them.  They have contrasted the free and noble with the mean and servile.  Its magic has entered their natures and quickened their souls.  In all there is a lofty scorn for the little and mean.  The same withering contempt for the cringing and cowardly is met in every one of them.  Their impulses are generous, and their aspirations noble, with hearts as soft and tender as love, pity, and compassion can form.  Yet in them there is, too, the fire of chivalry, the scorn of contempt, and the daring of her who followed her immortal brother, the great Palafox, at the defence of Saragossa, her native city, and, standing upon the dead bodies of her countrymen, snatched the burning match from the hand of death, and fired the cannon at the advancing foe, and planted Spain’s standard, in defiance of the veterans of Soult—­a rallying point for her countrymen—­and saved Saragossa.  They were born to command, and can never be slaves, or the mothers of slaves.

The same influences powerfully operate in producing that bearing of chivalrous distinction, which is seen everywhere in the deportment of the Southern gentlemen toward ladies.  They are ever polite, respectful, and deferential.  This, however, is only one of many elements in the peculiar character of Southern people.  Their piety is Christian in its character.  The precepts of the Bible are fashioned into example in the conduct of the older members of society, and especially in the female portion.  This is, perhaps, the predominant element.  The Bible is the guide, not the fashion, in religious duty.  Its doctrines are taught in purity, and in their simplicity enter into the soul, as the great constituent of character.

The chivalrous bearing of man toward woman inspires her with elevated and noble sentiments—­a pride and dignity conservative of purity in all her relations—­and, reflecting these back upon society, producing most salutary influences.  It is woman’s pride to lean on man—­to share his love and respect—­to be elevated by his virtues, and appreciated by the world because of his honors—­to be a part of his fame.  The mother, the wife, the sister, the relative should share with the husband, the son, the brother, the kinsman, in the world’s honors, in the sufferings, sorrows, and miseries incidental to all.  They are part and parcel of man, and partake of his nature and his position, as of his fortune.  When man shall cease to view woman, and so deport himself toward her as a purer, more refined, and more elevated being than himself, that moment she will sink to his level, and then her prestige for good is gone forever.  That delicacy, refinement, and chasteness, so restraining and so purifying to man in her association, is the soul of civilization—­the salt of the earth.  In its absence, no people are ever great; for, as it is the spirit of man’s honor, so is it a nation’s glory.  It must be cherished, for it inspires man’s honor by man’s chivalry.  Thus she becomes a people’s strength; for their crown of glory is her chastity and angelic purity.