A SISTER’S LOVE
There is no purer feeling kindled upon the altar of human affection, than a sister’s pure, uncontaminated love for her brother. It is unlike all other affection; so disconnected with selfish sensuality; so feminine in its development, so dignified, and yet withal, so fond, so devoted. Nothing can alter it, nothing can suppress it. The world may revolve, and its revolution effect changes in the fortunes, in the character, and in the disposition of her brother; yet if he wants, whose hand will so readily stretch out to supply him as a sister’s? And if his character is maligned, whose voice will so readily swell in his advocacy? Next to a mother’s unquenchable love, a sister’s is pre-eminent. It rests so exclusively on the tie of consanguinity for its sustenance; it is so wholly divested of passion, and springs from such a deep recess in the human bosom, that when a sister once fondly and deeply regards her brother, that affection is blended with her existence, and the lamp that nourishes it expires only with that existence. In all the annals of crime, it is considered anomalous to find the hand of a sister raised in anger against her brother, or her heart nurturing the seeds of hatred, envy, or revenge in regard to that brother. ~ The Ladies’ Repository, Volume 26
Foundation Truths 