Thoughts of a Queen about Women

New Zealand Mail, Issue 907, 19 July 1889, Page 4

Thoughts of a Queen about Women

The following are culled from the writings of ‘ Carmen Sylvia ’ (the Queen of Rou* mania) : In savage countries woman is a beast of burden ; in Turkey, a plaything ; in Europe, something between the two. Perhaps the great sensibility of women proceeds from the magnetism in their system. They are living compass-needles, always tending 'towards their pole j but the deviations are frequent. | The abandoned woman see. in the honest woman simply a mirror which serves to reflect her own wrinkles. In her rage she would like to break it. Women is a chameleon of sensitiveness. A woman will often utter a daring opinion, but she recoils terrified if she is taken at her word. Coquetry is not always an allurement, it is sometimes a shield. A nightingale shrieking, like a peacock ; such is a woman in a passion. „ An unhappy woman is a flower exposed to the north wind ; she remains long in the bud, and, when she should bloom, fades. In correcting the faults of their children women keep above all in view those of their husband and his family. A woman not understood is a woman who does not understand. A woman is stoned for an action which a perfect man of honour may commit with impunity. Women are inclined to judge by a single example, which they generalise; that is what renders them so often passionate. We find women unjust because they are impressionable ; but impressions are often juater than judgment. It is the story of the judge and the jury. A woman’s virtue ought, indeed, to he great; since it has often to suffice for two. A woman of true breeding has the same manners in her dressing-room as in her drawing-room, and the same politeness for servants as for her guests.