existence, and acknowledged in all the relations of life. We speak not now of the efforts of female genius and cultivation in the public paths of literary enterprise, nor do we consider this the mode in which we are to look for the most beneficial exertion of her influence. We need not add that even in this respect she has little to fear from comparison with our own sex. But we speak of her influence in other, and we think, higher and more sacred relations.

Whatever power she may exert over society in the walks of literature and science, she has a more peculiar sphere, a sphere sacred to herself alone. Her realm is the domestic circle, around the family fire-side, and the family altar. She is, under God, the honored source, the gentle and lovely minister of whatever of purity and brightness sheds its lustre there. From her are to proceed, through grace, those celestial influences, which combined with what is best of earth, shall prepare the interesting group around her not only for the duties of life, but shall educate them for eternity. Of the young minds, just starting forward upon life's difficult and dangerous career, she is to be the first instructor. Their faculties expand beneath her eye, depend upon her for their earliest culture and direction, and are to be trained and formed by her for good or for evil. Upon those minds she is to leave the impress of her own. To use the fine illustration of another, "she is to take the young spirit, as it were, from the hands of its creator and continue the process of creation just where the Deity left off."

Here then, is the first point of view under which the influence of woman presents itself as of unspeakable magnitude and importance. And here is presented the main ground on which we advocate her thorough moral and intellectual education. Nothing short of this can prepare her for the high and solemn duties which her future life will bring. Those duties, whether she be prepared to discharge them or not, will devolve upon In any case she must do the work for which she is destined, and incur the tremendous responsibilities which her destiny involves, whether she goes to them strong in virtue and knowledge, or in ignorance and spiritual inefficiency. Let, then, the education she receives be

her.

adapted to her position and duties, as the priestess of the domestic altar, as the first teacher and the beloved and honored companion of her children. Let its grand object be to prepare her for her future duties in these relations. For surely it is not a matter of light importance how so holy, so awful a task as hers shall be performed. On the manner in which she discharges it depend the very highest moral results, the best interests of society, the prevalence or downfall of morality, civilization, religion and the fear of God. The wisdom of books, the instructions of the pulpit, the examples of public virtue, purity and nobleness, generally speaking, act not upon the minds of the young, until they have passed away in a measure from under the formative influence and moral control of the mother. If they act at all during the period of her tutelage, they act indirectly, as lights reflected unto the minds of her children through the medium of her own, as auxiliary influences which she applies and directs. Her directions are obeyed, her teachings respected, her example seen and studied, and imitated, when other instructions are ineffectual, other examples without power, to call forth attention and emulation. And thus God has committed to her hands the guardianship of immortal spirits, the moulding of minds which are to live, grow, and expand forever, of minds which are to be influential each in its sphere, minds which are to act on other minds and influence them in time and eternity. Truly, then, hers is a noble destiny. What though she is not called to move in those public spheres of political effort which man occupies, or to exercise any visible influence over those grand movements and revolutions of society upon which the existence of nations and of empires depends? What though there be assigned to her no place in the cabinet, in the Senate chamber, in the camp or upon the battle-field? Still to her, in God's wise providence, is committed an agency which may direct and control these very movements. For every mind which acts in producing them has once been under her culture. She had the first adjustment of those secret springs which display their tendency and power in such mighty results. In her unobtrusive and silent sphere of action she may be sustained by the remembrance that her influence upon society is all the

surer because her agency is the first and the most powerful. Much more may she be sustained by the peculiar and lofty consciousness, that "in communicating the eternal principles of truth to minds destined for immortality, she is doing what can never cease to be felt; and when the kingdoms and empires of earth have melted away and are forgotten, when the eloquence and wisdom of senators with the courage of warriors shall have passed away, her labors will be known and acknowledged, and eternally be seen to be unfolding in new and glorious results."

The destiny of woman, viewed even with an exclusive reference to the present life, is unquestionably an exalted destiny. Her duties in this world are most important and holy-her responsibilities most sacred. But has her education hitherto advanced the one, or prepared her for the discharge of the other? Has she been disciplined for the work of forming immortal minds, or even to reat the bodily system, so fearfully and wonderfully made, and upon the order and due regulation of which the health and well-being of the mind so greatly depend? Has she been made acquainted with the wonderful structure of the mind, its laws and its workings, with a view of preparing her to exercise over the mind the culture and control that are requisite? Has she been taught to look into the mysteries of her own spiritual being, that she may know how to develope and direct the faculties of other minds, expanding beneath her guardianship? Has she been taught the most efficient mode of communicating knowledge, so that when given it shall not fall like dry leaves upon the desert, augmenting its barrenness, but like good seed upon a fruitful soil springing up in fresh and beautiful luxuriance? Has she been taught where lie the deep and pure fountains of feeling in the young soul, and how to cause the living waters to flow out from them untroubled? Has she been taught how to correct bad passions in their first growth, to eradicate morbid sensibilities, and to purify and nerve the moral structure to healthy action? Has she been educated to mould the simple and plastic elements of the young nature, to give it vigorous impulse and lofty aim, and help it forward in that only truly glorious track whose goal and termination is heaven? Or to view her

future duties in a different yet no less important and interesting point of view-Has her education fitted her to be the companion and friend of her husband? Is she qualified to encourage, counsel, console him, in the thousand trials and depressions to which his more active life subjects him? When wearied in the heartless strife of the world, or well nigh borne down by its vicissitudes, or tempted by the hollowness, the craft, the deceit he every where meets around him, to swerve from the straight and honorable path, is she qualified to recall and fix his attention upon high principle, and to make the fireside the spiritual armory from which he shall go forth unto the world, clad in the strong mail of virtue, and wielding the good sword of truth? Is she qualified to make home attractive and delightful by the lustre of a cultivated mind, the fascinations of a pure imagination, the charms of a refined taste? Alas! it is but a cold and bitter negative that we must too generally return to these questions. The affirmative will too often be found to lie on the side of interrogations of a far different tenor. Has she not been made rather a thing of prettiness and accomplishment, "a butterfly born in a bower," if the undignified quotation may be allowed, a creature of dress and etiquette, a most fair but false phantasm, surrounded by nought but wax lights, waltz figures and drapery-by music which is anything but "sphere-born," by the various outward accomplishments, whose name is legion, some of which seem to be the most valued because least connected with the intellect? Has she not been taught that to excel in speaking French and Italian, is better than to excel in the correct and graceful use of her native language; that a proficiency on the piano and harp is better than a proficiency in English grammar; that "to sing like a syren and dance like a sylph" is better than to reason correctly and converse agreeably and feel rightly; that to enter a room gracefully is better than a practical knowledge of the sciences? Who, of the young ladies that have yearly left our boarding schools, have been most applauded, honored, envied? "Those who can play well, and sing well, and step well, those who are masters of the Italian accent, and are most at home in every note of the gamut." We would not

depreciate the value of any or all the elegant qualifications we have named. They are perfectly proper in their due measure and degree, and undoubtedly tend to the perfecting of polite education. It is not to decry these accomplishments that we speak thus. Where they are used as the attendants and giaceful accompaniments of a sound intellectual and moral education, they shed upon woman a lustre which softens, beautifies and adorns her character. But shall they, because they are useful and graceful accompaniments, be made the end of woman's education? Shall we have no nobler and holier end in view than to make her the mere creature of fashion? These accomplishments truly serve to enhance beauty, and lend a fresh lustre to native grace and innocence. But when we ask for sisters, wives, mothers and mistresses of families, shall we receive only pianists, painters, singers, dancers, embroiderers, creatures of dress, rouge, puff-balls and fantasy? If the subject were not too serious for laughter, one might be tempted to smile at the absurdity. Oh! if these things be all for which woman is destined, let us sigh with all our hearts for the return of the age of chivalry. Give us back again the tilt and tourney-the mailed strife and the gai science-let us have noble, knightly emprise encouraged by her presence and rewarded by her smile. For, then at least she will be looked to as something to be honored, something pure and elevated, whose good opinion is worth gaining, whose companionship is felt to be an improving one.

It seems ridiculous enough, though true, to say that such education as that of which I have spoken is the best that has been generally attempted. Is it not a melancholy truth, that even as it is, its aim has been merely to gain for her such eclat and admiration in society, as shall make her eligible for marriage? Shining brilliantly during her later 'teens, her vanity nourished by the ambrosia and nectar of fashionable compliment, inane as the winds; if at their expiration she can step into a fair establishment, her work is done, and she may then repose upon her cold barren brilliant Ida, called home by courtesy, until wrinkles and ennui send her to the card table, and novels shall fill up the vacuum between her