his domestic relations. His wife possessed rare qualifications, as a helpmeet to her husband, and had a large share in the success of his career; for, although, as far as we can learn, she did not participate in his special studies, yet it appears that, but for her, he never could have carried through his numerous and formidable undertakings. His testimony to this is explicit. He says: "My wife was a woman of excellent understanding, much improved by reading, of great fortitude and strength of mind, of a temper in the highest degree affectionate and generous, feeling strongly for others and little for herself. Also, greatly excelling in every thing relating to household affairs, she entirely relieved me of all concern of that kind, which allowed me to give all my time to the prosecution of my studies, and the other duties of my station." His son states that his father used to say that he was merely a lodger, and had all his time to devote to his own pursuits.
All honor, then, to the wife to whose womanly devotion the world is indebted for whatever is great and good in the achievements of the husband! We have lately heard much of a great man who attributes all his profoundest thoughts to the genius of his wife, he being really only a scribe and editor; but we here see how a great man may owe his intellectual eminence to his wife, even though she be not so gifted as to be able to furnish all his best ideas. Of the two methods, this is certainly the most encouraging for woman, as it assigns the highest office to her acknowledged capacities, and precludes all question of rivalry. The united pair work in separate spheres and different ways to the same end; and the wife's affections become as indispensable to the result as the husband's intellect. Had Mrs. Priestley been animated by modern views, and essayed to carve out her own separate fortune in the field of science or theology, it is eminently probable that she would have failed to do any great thing herself, and quite certain that she would have effectually defeated her husband. This must have been the result, if what Dr. Priestley says is true, that her efficient domestic aid and her sympathetic support in his trials and sufferings were among the indispensable conditions of his own success. And thus, in the seclusion of her own family, absorbed in social cares, forgetting herself in instinctive solicitude for others, and probably with no ambition beyond, this true woman and model wife was really joint-partner with her illustrious husband in the good he accomplished, if not in the fame he won. And who shall say that hers was not, after all, the nobler and happier share of the work?
