Husbands

"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And by the way, in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why, then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity? Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex; regard us then as Beings placed by Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness."

"But O ye lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not henpecked you all?"

"And truant husband should return, and say, "My dear, I was the first who came away.""

"Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them."

"Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband."

"The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife."

"An obedient wife commands her husband."

"God give me a rich husband, though he be an ass."

"Conjugal government requires its treatises. A young woman setting out in life lacks a printed guide. Her cookery-book, however, may afford some useful hints till one be actually directed to the important subject just mentioned. Many well-known receipts are equally available for a batterie de cuisine or du cœur. Your roasted husband is subdued by the fire of fierce words and fiercer looks — your broiled husband, under the pepper and salt of taunt and innuendo — your stewed husband, under the constant application of petty vexations — your boiled husband dissolves under the watery influences — while your confectionized husband goes through a course of the blanc mange of flattery, or the preserves and sweets of caresses and smiles."

"The lover in the husband may be lost."

"God is thy law, thou mine."

"The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, Safest and seemliest by her husband stays, Who guards her, or with her the worst endures."

"And to thy husband's will Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule."

"With thee goes Thy husband, him to follow thou art bound; Where he abides, think there thy native soil."

"Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."

"The stoic husband was the glorious thing. The man had courage, was a sage, 'tis true, And lov'd his country."

"Well, if our author in the wife offends He has a husband that will make amends; He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving, And sure such kind good creatures may be living."

"No worse a husband than the best of men."

"I will attend my husband, be his nurse, Diet his sickness, for it is my office."

"That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry Half my love with him, half my care and duty."

"If I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands."

"Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee, And for thy maintenance."

"Such duty as the subject owes the prince, Even such a woman oweth to her husband."

"A man who only becomes a husband brings pain to his parents, and a man who only becomes a son brings pain to his wife."

"It takes a mighty good husband to be better than none at all."

"He who does not support a wife, he who does not support a child, has no cause for celebration."

"A plant as sweet as a husband does not grow in the steppe."