cumstances of danger-fewer women would possess that pitch of folly which now induces so many to marry a fool with a title, or a brute with ten thousand a-year. There would be fewer marriages of interest and ambition on the one hand, and of precipitate folly on the other. There would be more unions of reason and affection. More women would love their husbands, and, consesequently, fewer would betray them. If it be objected that men are, in point of fact, less moral than women,it may be answered, at once, that it arises from their being scarcely taught to consider morality a virtue-from that which is regarded as the last crime in the one sex, being almost looked on as an accomplishment in the other. We consider the real original difference of the intellectual powers of the two sexes to be very small indeedthe ultimate and acquired difference is manifestly extreme. Women are esteemed unfit for this subject, and unfit for the other-they are left totally uninstructed upon them—and then people turn round, and argue conversely that this very want of knowledge proves the unfitness. If you were to educate a man in the same manner, would not the results be the same? If he were to be told that it was absurd and impossible for him to reason and think, and you were to withhold from him all materials for reasoning and thought, would not his deductions be as ridiculous, and his reflections as insignificant as those of the veriest Miss that ever played on a piano ?—and yet would it be a fair conclusion to draw from this, that men have not, and cannot have, minds above the very moderate level of that of the young lady aforesaid? It may be asked cui bono?—to what use, for what purpose, give to women this higher mental cultivation? We answer in one word, to increase their own happiness, and that of the many whose happiness, in so large a share, depends on them. If a woman be so married that her husband be much from her, how much does she need resources to occupy her solitary time-powers to render grateful that home to which her husband returns from the toils of business and exertion? If, from domestic tastes or unambitious dispositions, he lives much at home, how still more needful are the qualities which give value and charm to daily intercourse-which make us find in the inmates of our homes and hearts a society the most delightful as well as the most constant? And yet, how many do we see who would never choose for their friend one of a mind similar to that of her whom they single out as the woman of their love? They seek in him one who can give them counsel in difficulty-consolation in sorrow-and the support of an energetic mind in seasons of irresolution and despondency. How much more delightful would it be to add to these offices of friendship that nameless and endearing charm which arises from the friend being of the opposite sex; to conjoin to them that softness-that sweetness--that devotedness-which the most powerful-minded woman always retains, and which no man ever possesses. Instead of this, while in their occasional companion, they require sense and information, they are contented that their constant companion should be a fool. Lastly, and perhaps above all, the first forming of our children's minds is intrusted to women.-Is not this of itself sufficient to render the highest mental powers desirable in them?-How many-how very many have felt in the whole course of their after-life the ill effects of the early training of a foolish mother! It is not every man who can ever entirely shake himself free from VOL. II. PART I. C the nonsenses which have been dosed into him in childhood-it is few who can do it at an early period of life.The fable of the thief who bit off his mother's ear is of much more general application than is usually thought. But if the mother mis-trained the boy, who mis-trained the mother?-That is the jet of our argument. There are two points, however, on which we wish not to be mistaken. The first is, we would not be thought to undervalue or decry the accomplishments which are usually taught to women. We are not blind to their grace and becomingness. Where a real taste for drawing, or, still more, for music, is evinced, it should be cultivated to the utmost. The delight which nearly all derive from listening to sweet sounds is very materially increased by their being breathed by a beautiful or beloved object. But that a girl with neither eye, ear, nor voice, should be tortured into drawing, playing, and singing, that hours upon hours, every day for years, should be sacrificed to a disliked or indifferent art,that, in a word, these things should be considered necessaries of education instead of additions to it,-is, we must think, equally pernicious and absurd. And, after all, in a person to whom these tastes are not natural, they speedily pass away. A couple of years' marriage makes many an instrument and voice mute-and many a portfolio thrown neglected by-where money, labour, talents, whole years, had been devoted to the acquisition of the accomplishment. The other matter concerning which we wish to be clearly understood, is, that we would not for the world have any thing we have said construed into admiration or approbation of "the blues."-We have an utter abhorrence of the whole race-the more so as they have served to draw into disgrace the system we have been But advocating—to retard the improvement we desire. The abuse of a thing will always bring its use into some doubt or discredit. The fopperies-the affectations-the shallowness-of the blues have caused the power and attainments of really intellectual women to be doubted, or, where that could not be, to be decried and ridiculed. the very existence of this sect goes to support the advantage of the tenets of our creed. If women were made more generally well-informed, there would be no place for empty and ignorant pretenders. If the sun and moon shone out, these thick-wicked tallow candles would be speedily eclipsed. It may be objected that all we have said merely goes to prove that talented and well-educated women are preferable to those who are silly and ill-instructed-and it may be thought that it was not necessary to waste several good pages of paper in supporting this position. But strange as it may appear, we do assert, and we challenge contradiction, that scarcely any hypothesis has less practical belief. Will any body deny that a woman who is distinguished for talent or acquirement is always sneered at as "a blue"-a pedant in petticoatsor as some other of the multifarious denominations with which the world has stigmatized the female possessor of sense and information? Is she not shrunk from by the men, and scoffed and carped at by the women? Is there not among many men-and not mere foplings-a dread of a clever woman, somewhat similar to that which is felt towards mad dogs-pent rats--and other dangerous animals?-And, finally, has not a dancing, flirting, frippery woman, if she happen to have a pretty face, more succès de société in a week, than "an intellectual woman" in her whole life-time? If these questions cannot be negatived, we trust we shall not be considered as having been discussing a truism. We shall conclude with quoting some lines we lately met with, which pretty well embody the different qualities we have been endeavouring to advocate;— "Her highly-gifted nature shone In every look, and word, and tone- An eye the most unskilled could trace SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S POEMS. WE have always thought Sir Walter Raleigh too little known. He is often spoken of, it is true, and quoted as a hero and a martyr, but it is seldom we meet with one really conversant with his character and fortunes. His name is in the mouths of many, but his deeds, dispositions, and powers, are fully known but to few. His life presents a series of actions and an union of qualities, for any one of which the favourites. of fame would be cited and eulogized as most deservedly illustrious. The very assemblage of talents that he possessed seems to have caused their individual excellency to be overlooked. There are few characters more thoroughly interesting than his; to the young and the old, to the statesman, the poet, the moralist, and the. man of the world, his story presents a most attractive subject; and while we kindle with admiration for his talents and pity for his misfortunes, our indignation and contempt are proportionately raised against him |