[July 1862]
Woman is dependent. A man may be self sufficing. He may independent of the other sex, devote himself to fate, or the pursuits of the pure intellect, & be conscious of no necessity for womankind. A man may find a wife in ambition or in Science. It is true in both cases – the ultimate person on whom all depend is God – but it is also true that while women learn the necessity of dependence on Him by the necessary resting of their nature on men- men learn it chiefly from the loneliness which comes upon them when their boasted self dependence is broken up by the terrible stroke of that love which will teach that we are not our own – things, words, looks, which seem triffles to men touch her to the core – Trials, bereavements, & sadness, which are deadened in men by their life of action & intellect descend into, & dwell in her heart
“Sorrow’s memory to her is sorrow still”
Source: Elizabeth Collier Diary, Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill.
