WOMAN
!
MR.
LEDYARD
,
AS
QUOTED
BY
MUNGO
PARKE
IN
HIS
TRAVELS
INTO
AFRICA
—
"
To
a
Woman
I
never
addressed
myself
in
the
language
of
decency
and
friendship
,
without
receiving
a
decent
and
friendly
answer
.
If
I
was
hungry
or
thirsty
,
wet
or
sick
,
they
did
not
hesitate
,
like
Men
,
to
perform
a
generous
action
:
in
so
free
and
kind
a
manner
did
they
contribute
to
my
relief
,
that
if
I
was
dry
,
I
drank
the
sweetest
draught
;
and
if
hungry
,
I
ate
the
coarsest
morsel
with
a
double
relish
.
"
Place
the
white
man
on
Afric's
coast
,
Whose
swarthy
sons
in
blood
delight
,
Who
of
their
scorn
to
Europe
boast
,
And
paint
their
very
demons
white
:
There
,
while
the
sterner
sex
disdains
To
soothe
the
woes
they
cannot
feel
,
Woman
will
strive
to
heal
his
pains
,
And
weep
for
those
she
cannot
heal
:
Hers
is
warm
pity's
sacred
glow
;
From
all
her
stores
,
she
bears
a
part
,
And
bids
the
spring
of
hope
re-flow
,
That
languish'd
in
the
fainting
heart
.
"
What
though
so
pale
his
haggard
face
,
"
So
sunk
and
sad
his
looks
,
"
—
she
cries
;
"
And
far
unlike
our
nobler
race
,
"
With
crisped
locks
and
rolling
eyes
;
"
Yet
misery
marks
him
of
our
kind
.
"
We
see
him
lost
,
alone
,
afraid
;
"
And
pangs
of
body
,
griefs
in
mind
,
"
Pronounce
him
man
,
and
ask
our
aid
.
"
Perhaps
in
some
far-distant
shore
,
"
There
are
who
in
these
forms
delight
;
"
Whose
milky
features
please
them
more
,
"
Than
ours
of
jet
thus
burnish'd
bright
;
"
Of
such
may
be
his
weeping
wife
,
"
Such
children
for
their
sire
may
call
,
"
And
if
we
spare
his
ebbing
life
,
"
Our
kindness
may
preserve
them
all
.
"
Thus
her
compassion
Woman
shows
,
Beneath
the
line
her
acts
are
these
;
Nor
the
wide
waste
of
Lapland-snows
Can
her
warm
flow
of
pity
freeze
:
—
"
From
some
sad
land
the
stranger
comes
,
"
Where
joys
like
ours
are
never
found
;
"
Let's
soothe
him
in
our
happy
homes
,
"
Where
freedom
sits
,
with
plenty
crown'd
.
"
'T
is
good
the
fainting
soul
to
cheer
,
"
To
see
the
famish'd
stranger
fed
;
"
To
milk
for
him
the
mother-deer
,
"
To
smooth
for
him
the
furry
bed
.
"
The
powers
above
our
Lapland
bless
"
With
good
no
other
people
know
;
"
T'
enlarge
the
joys
that
we
possess
,
"
By
feeling
those
that
we
bestow
!
"
Thus
in
extremes
of
cold
and
heat
,
Where
wandering
man
may
trace
his
kind
;
Wherever
grief
and
want
retreat
,
In
Woman
they
compassion
find
;
She
makes
the
female
breast
her
seat
,
And
dictates
mercy
to
the
mind
.
Man
may
the
sterner
virtues
know
,
Determined
justice
,
truth
severe
;
But
female
hearts
with
pity
glow
,
And
Woman
holds
affliction
dear
;
For
guiltless
woes
her
sorrows
flow
,
And
suffering
vice
compels
her
tear
;
'T
is
hers
to
soothe
the
ills
below
,
And
bid
life's
fairer
views
appear
:
To
Woman's
gentle
kind
we
owe
What
comforts
and
delights
us
here
;
They
its
gay
hopes
on
youth
bestow
,
And
care
they
soothe
,
and
age
they
cheer
.