Our uncle is not at present able to pay you or any other he owes money to. If he was able to pay he would; they must have patience till God enable him. As his wife died in mercy near twelve months since, it may be he may light of some rich widow that may make him capableto pay; except God in this way raise him he cannot pay you or any one else.
Our uncle is not at present able to pay you or any other he owes money to. If he was able to pay he would; they must have patience till God enable him. As his wife died in mercy near twelve months since, it may be he may light of some rich widow that may make him capableto pay; except God in this way raise him he cannot pay you or any one else.
It certainly must have been some satisfaction to every woman to feel within herself the possibility of becoming such a celestial agent of material salvation.
I wish to state, in passing, that it is sometimes difficult to judge as to the marital estate of some dames, to know whether they were widows at the time of the second marriage or not, for the prefixed Mrs. was used indifferently for married and single women, and even for young girls. Cotton Mather wrote of “Mrs. Sarah Gerrish, a very beautiful and ingenious damsel seven years of age.” Rev. Mr. Tompson wrote a funeral tribute to a little girl of six, which is entitled and begins thus:—
A Neighbors Tears dropt on ye grave of an Amiable Virgin, a pleasant Plant cut down in the blooming of her Spring viz; Mrs Rebecka Sewall Anno Aetatis 6, August ye 4ᵗʰ 1710.I saw this Pritty Lamb but t’other dayWith a small flock of Doves just in my wayAh pitty tis Such Prittiness should dieWith rare alliances on every side.Had Old Physitians liv’d she ne’er had died.
A Neighbors Tears dropt on ye grave of an Amiable Virgin, a pleasant Plant cut down in the blooming of her Spring viz; Mrs Rebecka Sewall Anno Aetatis 6, August ye 4ᵗʰ 1710.
I saw this Pritty Lamb but t’other dayWith a small flock of Doves just in my wayAh pitty tis Such Prittiness should dieWith rare alliances on every side.Had Old Physitians liv’d she ne’er had died.
I saw this Pritty Lamb but t’other dayWith a small flock of Doves just in my wayAh pitty tis Such Prittiness should dieWith rare alliances on every side.Had Old Physitians liv’d she ne’er had died.
I saw this Pritty Lamb but t’other dayWith a small flock of Doves just in my wayAh pitty tis Such Prittiness should dieWith rare alliances on every side.Had Old Physitians liv’d she ne’er had died.
I saw this Pritty Lamb but t’other day
With a small flock of Doves just in my way
Ah pitty tis Such Prittiness should die
With rare alliances on every side.
Had Old Physitians liv’d she ne’er had died.
The pious old minister did not really mean by this tribute to the old-school doctors, that Mrs. Rebecka would have achieved earthly immortality. He modestly ends his poetic tribute thus:—
Had you given warning ere you pleased to DieYou might have had a Neater Elegy.
Had you given warning ere you pleased to DieYou might have had a Neater Elegy.
Had you given warning ere you pleased to DieYou might have had a Neater Elegy.
Had you given warning ere you pleased to Die
You might have had a Neater Elegy.
These consorts and relicts are now but shadows of the past:—
their bones are dust,Their souls are with the saints, I trust.
their bones are dust,Their souls are with the saints, I trust.
their bones are dust,Their souls are with the saints, I trust.
their bones are dust,
Their souls are with the saints, I trust.
The honest and kindly gentlemen who were their husbands, sounded their virtues in diaries and letters; godly ministers preached their piety in labored and dry-as-dust sermons. Their charms were sung by colonial poets in elegies, anagrams, epicediums, acrostics, threnodies, and other decorous verse. It was reserved for a man of war, and not a very godly man of war either, to pæan their good sense. Cervantes says that “womans counsel is not worth much, yet he who despises it is no wiser than he should be.” With John Underhill’s more gallant tribute to the counsel of a consort, we may fitly end this chapter.
Myself received an arrow through my coat sleeve, a second against my helmet on the forehead; so as if God in his Providence had not moved the heart of my wife to persuade me to carry it along with me (which I was unwilling to do) I had been slain. Give me leave to observe two things from hence; first when the hour of death is not yet come, you see God useth weak means to keep his purpose unviolated; secondly let no man despise advice and counsel of his wife though she be a woman. It were strange to nature to think a man should be bound to fulfil the humour of a woman, what arms he should carry; but you see God will have it so, that a woman should overcome a man. What with Delilahs flattery, and with her mournful tears, they must and will have their desire, when the hand of God goes along in the matter, and this to accomplish his own will. Therefore let the clamor be quenched that I hear daily in my ears, that New England men usurp over their wives and keep them in servile subjection. The country is wronged in this matter as in many things else. Let this precedent satisfy the doubtful, for that comes from the example of a rude soldier. If they be so courteous to their wives as to take their advice in warlike matters, how much more kind is the tender affectionate husband to honor his wife as the weaker vessel.Yet mistake not. I say not they are bound to call their wives in council, though they are bound to take their private advice (so far as they see it make for their advantage and good). Instance Abraham.
Myself received an arrow through my coat sleeve, a second against my helmet on the forehead; so as if God in his Providence had not moved the heart of my wife to persuade me to carry it along with me (which I was unwilling to do) I had been slain. Give me leave to observe two things from hence; first when the hour of death is not yet come, you see God useth weak means to keep his purpose unviolated; secondly let no man despise advice and counsel of his wife though she be a woman. It were strange to nature to think a man should be bound to fulfil the humour of a woman, what arms he should carry; but you see God will have it so, that a woman should overcome a man. What with Delilahs flattery, and with her mournful tears, they must and will have their desire, when the hand of God goes along in the matter, and this to accomplish his own will. Therefore let the clamor be quenched that I hear daily in my ears, that New England men usurp over their wives and keep them in servile subjection. The country is wronged in this matter as in many things else. Let this precedent satisfy the doubtful, for that comes from the example of a rude soldier. If they be so courteous to their wives as to take their advice in warlike matters, how much more kind is the tender affectionate husband to honor his wife as the weaker vessel.Yet mistake not. I say not they are bound to call their wives in council, though they are bound to take their private advice (so far as they see it make for their advantage and good). Instance Abraham.