Accordingly, he commanded that the subject last discussed in his
presence should be transferred to the Inner Chambers, and it was
his Order that the ladies should also discuss it, and their
opinions be engraved on ivory, bound together with red silk and
tassels and thus presented at the Dragon feet. The subject chosen
was the following:-
Describe the Qualities of the Ideal Man
Now when this command was laid before the August Aunt, the
guardian of the Inner Chambers, she was much perturbed in mind,
for such a thing was unheard of in all the annals of the Empire.
Recovering herself, she ventured to say that the discussion of
such a question might raise very disquieting thoughts in the
minds of the ladies, who could not be supposed to have any
opinions at all on such a subject. Nor was it desirable that they
should have. To every woman her husband and no other is and must
be the Ideal Man. So it was always in the past; so it must ever
be. There are certain things which it is dangerous to question or
discuss, and how can ladies who have never spoken with any other
man than a parent or a brother judge such matters?
"How, indeed," asked this lady of exalted merit, "can the bat
form an idea of the sunlight, or the carp of the motion of wings?
If his Celestial Majesty had commanded a discussion on the
Superior Woman and the virtues which should adorn her, some
sentiments not wholly unworthy might have been offered.
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