self ignorant, or of which he knows nothing except by a vague presentiment; a helper "like to himself;" without which life is to him but a solitude, and Eden a desert. Endowed with a nature too communicative to be self-sufficient, he demands a partnership, a support, a complement, and only half lives while he lives alone. Made to think, to talk, to love, his thought is in search of another thought, to stimulate it and to reveal it unto itself; his word dies away in sadness on the air, or awakens a mere echo which does violence to it, rather than responds to it; and his love knows not where to fasten itself, and, falling back upon himself, threatens to become a devouring self-love. His whole being, in fine, aspires to another self, but that other self does not exist: "for Adam there was not found a helpmeet." The visible creatures which surround him are too far below him ; the invisible Being who has given him life, too far above him, to unite their condition to his. Then, God formed woman, and the great problem was solved. Behold here, what Adam demanded; that other self which is himself, and at the same time not himself. Woman is a companion whom God has given to man to charm his existence, and to double it by sharing it with another. Her vocation by birth is a vocation of charity.

To this vocation corresponds the place which God has assigned to woman. It is not an inferior place: woman is not only a helper for man, but a helper "like to himself."* She ought, then, to march along as his equal, and it is only in this condition that she can bring to him the assistance which he requires. But it is, nevertheless, a secondary and dependent place for woman was formed after man, made for man, in short, taken from man. This last characteristic speaks volumes to man. Taken from him, "she is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh," and so closely united to him, that he cannot depreciate her without depreciating himself. But at the same time, taken from him,

*This is the rendering of the French for " helpmeet," "-Un aide semblable à lui.TRANSL.

she owes to him the life which she breathes, and the name which she bears. By what right,-I ought to say with what heart,can she dispute with him the first rank? Her position by birth is a position of humility. A vocation of charity in respect to man, in a position of humility next to man :-This is the mission of woman. As to the rest, that vocation and that position, revealed by the same acts, resulting from the same principle, are so inseparable in the formation of woman, that we may include them in the general idea of renunciation, bearing in turn upon self-will and self-glory.

This commentary upon Moses, I have taken from Saint Paul, recalling to the Corinthians the condition of woman, in order to justify his prohibition to her of praying or prophesying with the head uncovered. This subject does not require him to enlarge upon woman's vocation of charity: he merely indicates it in saying "the woman was created for the man."

But observe in what terms he explains her position of humility: "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. The man is the image and glory of God : but the woman is the glory of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." Is not this the doctrine, which I just found in Genesis? But this doctrine the Apostle enforces with a rigor which would be out of place in any other mouth; and for the general idea of dependence at which I pause, he substitutes the more precise one of subordination. He concludes from thence that woman ought, "because of the angels" who contemplate what is passing upon the earth, and particularly in the church, "to bear upon her head a mark of the authority" under which she is placed. Man, whose birth formed a part of that great work of creation which inspired the angelic songs of joy, being the image and glory of God, owes it to God to appear with the head lifted up to the view of the whole universe. But woman, whose formation is an event of the second scheme, and, so to speak, of a

family character, being the glory of the man, owes it to him to remain hidden in a comparatively narrow inclosure as a modest spouse in her own home.

The intention of the Apostle is the more marked as the instructions which he gives here are intended for woman in rare cases. For it is only as an exception that a woman can be called to pray or prophesy before men. The order which God has established for a certain end he is free to modify so as the better to gain that end. We sometimes see that in promoting the good of man, a woman is called to depart from the way prescribed to her; it may be to prophecy, as the women of Corinth, as the four daughters of Philip, the deacon, or as the mother of King Lemuel. It may be as Deborah, to judge a people, or even to preside over a mighty expedition. In such cases woman must obey, and she shall be blessed in her obedience: "Blessed above women shall Jael be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent." But then, as ever, aside from what is essential to the extraordinary ministry with which she is clothed, she should remain a woman, according to St. Paul, and, all inspired as she is to caution the man, should remember that she is "the glory of the man," and should withdraw herself from the eyes of the world.

Such being the order of creation, it remains to inquire if the primitive mission of woman was changed by the fall of our race, which disturbed so deeply the work of God. Satan commenced by beguiling the woman, after which he employed her to beguile man; a doubly skillful move, by which he was most sure to succeed with her, because she is weaker than man, and close to man, and because she has greater power over him than he has over her. But has this sweet empire been given to her, that she may domineer over the conscience of man, become a snare to him rather than a support, and return to him for the life which she received from him, sin and death? God punished her for her abandoned charity, by that supreme suffering without which she could not henceforth continue the race of man; and for her unacknowledged humility, by abasing still lower her condition.

"Thy desires shall be unto thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Woman is compelled to look to her husband for all that she desires-here is her increased dependence; and to live under his authority-here is her dependence converted into submission.

Think not, meanwhile, that she ceases to be an "help-meet " unto him. Alas! when was this tender aid more needed? Such is the mercy of God, that the moment in which He humbles woman, is also the moment in which He confers upon her a ministry greater and more humane than ever. In order to elevate and reëstablish between the two sexes the disturbed equilibrium, it is by a virgin that He will one day give to man the longed-for Restorer, who shall destroy the works of the devil; and the first name under which He announced his Son to the world is that of the "seed" of the woman: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his beel.” Thus, the relations are not essentially changed by the fall; the vocation of woman is still one of charity, and her position that of humility. Only.everything has taken a more serious character; the charity has become more spiritual, exercised in a more profound humility. Ashamed of herself, and anxious to reëstablish herself, woman lives henceforth but to repair the wrong which she had done to man in heaping upon him, with the consolation which can sweeten the present bitterness of sin, the warnings which may prevent its eternal bitterness.

Another commentary borrowed from St. Paul: "I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence; For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstand

ing she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity, and holiness with sobriety." Woman, says the Apostle here, was second in birth and first in sin-double reason why she should continue in an attitude of modesty, silence, and submission. Behold here, in no equivocal terms, the place of humility that we have already assigned to woman. But the Apostle would have her make it a place of honor by Christian beneficence. There is a chaste adorning which admirably befits her-that of good works ;-good works, these are the tresses, the gems, the jewels, the adornings which give her beauty in the eyes of God and man. Nor is this all. Woman shall procure salvation for man, at the same time that she obtains it for herself, by the childbearing of the promised seed. This salvation a woman shall give to the world, in the fullness of time, by giving birth to the Saviour; but the woman, whoever she ma be, will also give it to him in her way, who teaches him to know and love the Saviour. Here again is this mission of charity which we have assigned to woman, and which imposes upon her the obligation, we say rather which confers upon her the privilege, of consecrating herself with redoubled tenderness, not only to the consolation of suffering man, but also to the salvation of sinful man, whose attention she shall turn to Jesus Christ.

Woman is then, according to Scripture, which is to say according to God, since the creation, and more especially since the fall, a companion given to man to labor for his good, and above all for his spiritual good, in an attitude at once modest and submissive.

Thus Scripture instructs us; and nature teaches the same lessons. The task assigned by God to each half of the race discovers itself in their dispositions, reveals itself in their instincts. Consult, now, yourselves, and tell me why you were so created, if not for the mission which we have recognized as yours by the Word of God.

Your place, we have said, is a place of dependence and humility. Upon this point St. Paul hesitates not to appeal to the