Page:Oration Delivered on the Centennial Day of Washington's Initiation into Masonry (1852).djvu/17

Rh silly and sentimental trash, which romantic fools—with empty heads and trifling hearts, call sentiment, poetry, and truth, but which the sensible of your sex treats with the contempt it deserves. But, as beings like ourselves, exposed to the same combination of evils, suffering the same wants, and requiring the same aid and deliverance; as our companions—the best and dearest; as sisters and helpers in all great and good and noble enterprises, we address you; and as heaven’s last and fairest work, and last and best gift to man, we regard you; a gift, however, that requires, and is susceptible of great and varied improvement. And by truth, as defined and explained to you, to-day, can this improvement be made: and then by co-operating with man in the cause of truth, can you cancel the debt and discharge the obligations. But to aid in this work, mistake not your position and the theatre of your duties and responsibilities: this ruins every thing and defeats the best of purposes.

The very first departure from truth, and the first error that we commit, is a departure from the position in which God has placed us, and a neglect of those duties and responsibilities he has assigned us. Your station is the private walks of life—but not the less important is that station, not the less great, solemn and important, the duties and responsibilities connected with that station—nor less the consequences resulting from their discharge or neglect. In the wise arrangements of heaven, the family institution is the parent of all institutions—the first in order and the first in point of importance—and from the homes of men, as from the fountain head, flow all the moral influences of good or of evil, to bless or curse the world; and as the character of the home is, will be the character of all the influences that emanate from it. And over this institution—the family and the home—the first in importance, whose character gives character to all the rest—God has given to you the honor to preside. That is the seat of your power and influence and there your power and influence are felt and seen. And that is the source of all power and influence for good and for evil. You first create and first set in motion all the influence that is at work in the world. Your influence there extends into society. Your influence there extends into every department of the State; and your influence from hence reaches down to the remotest period of time. But abandon your station, desert your appropriate institution—the family and the home—their duties and responsibilities, under the delusion, that you can do more for yourselves, for society and the world, in another; then all your power and influence are lost, and you would soon become a thing of pity, contempt and scorn.

In no other position can woman exercise so much power and influence for good, as in the one her Creator has placed her; and in no other station can she so well fulfill her mission in the world,