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Now, if man is made the responsible head of the family so far as providing for its pecuniary interests are concerned, it seems to me he should be the head of finance, in the family realm, and every woman should consider it beneath the dignity of her nature to dictate to her husband in this department, in any such sense as to trammel his own reason and judgment in this matter. The man's reason should dictate his business, not his wife, and the manhood of that man's God-like nature, is yet in an undeveloped state, where he will consent to be dictated to, by his wife, in defiance of his own reason and judgment.

I say dictated -- not influenced by his wife -- for, I say further, that a man is less than a man who will not be influenced by his wife through his affection and reason, if her reasons are sound and logical, and her affections pure and chaste.

A being, in the form of a man, who will despise a sound argument -- a truth -- merely because a woman was its medium to him, is a being fit only to be despised; and deserves to be ranked among the woman haters of society.

But, thank God! this perverted class of human kind, are the exceptions, not the rule -- for, in most cases, the manliness of his nature will prompt him to consult his wife's feelings and wishes as his better half -- his junior partner even, in his family interests; but, the ultimate decision in this department must, and should be left with the husband -- the senior partner of the firm, as the responsible head of the financial department.

And it should be the first and paramount duty of this responsible senior, to provide a suitable home for his dependent family, and so secure it to them, that any financial failure on his part, would not endanger the family homo. Then the wife conid safely trust her fortune, where she could herself, knowing that her department of the finance -- her home -- is safe, and beyond the reach of his financial misfortunes to alienate.

And here, in this family home, made secure to her by the Government, she should be the legally constituted mistress, in this, her heaven-appointed sphere. And here too, she should be the legally appointed head of her own special department -- viz -- rearing the children. Here the Government should protect the mother as the natural guardian of her own children.

And the paternal power should be enforced as the natural protective power which the mother seeks as her own right by nature. And should any degree of depravity tempt him to betray tills most manly of all trusts, the protection of the maternity to his own wife, let the Government enforce it, as an obligation.

Again, no man should be allowed to lord it over and dictate to his wife in this, her God-assigned sphere, any more than the wife should be allowed to dictate to her husband, in his God-appointed sphere. But the true woman, like the true man, will naturally consult the wishes and feelings of her husband, in this matter, as he does hers, in his department. But the ultimate decision in this department, must be left to the wife.

In other words the wife should be the legally constituted Queen at home, in the same sense in which the husband is the King abroad.

Again, the husband is the "head of the wife;" for God says, "he shall rule over." Now this husband's rule over the wife is, as I view it, the rule of protection and love -- not the rule of subjection and hate. For the practice of subjection in this conjugal sphere, is as inseparably connected with the feeling of hate, toward the one he has subjected, as the feeling of love is identified with the practice of protection towards the wife.

Our feelings grow out of our actions. If we act wrong, we shall feel wrong -- if we act right, we shall feel right. And there is no other way to develop the feeling but by action.

For example, the only possible way for one to have a liar's feelings is to tell a lie, and then he will be sure of feeling like a liar -- let him steal, and he can't help feeling like a thief. So also to know what it is to have a good, kind, generous, benevolent feeling, let him perform some good, kind, generous, benevolent deeds; these correspondent feelings are the inevitable result of his good actions.

So if this rule of the husband over the wife is confined to the rule of protection, his feelings will be confined to the love sphere. But if he can, and does subject his wife, his feelings pass directly on the opposite sphere of hate, and no power can prevent it; for God's laws are immutable.

So the only possible way to insure love and harmony in the marriage union, is to secure the natural order God has established, as its only inflexible, enduring basis.

The Government then, whose chief intent and purpose is, to protect the weak against the usurpation of the strong, should not allow the husband to rule over the wife in any other sense than that of protection.

This protection of her interests should belike that exercised by the sun, in his protecting his moon in her orbit. He should not be allowed to so exercise his compripetal power, as to draw the moon entirely out of her God-appointed orbit, and so completely absorb her into himself, as to leave her no orbit at all.