AS SHE SHOULD BE. I THE APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. II THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON WOMAN BY REV. HUBBARD WINSLOW ALSO, WOMAN IN HER SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CHARACTER. EY MRS. JOHN SANDFORD. FROM THE FIFTH LONDON EDITION. BOSTON: OTIS, BROADERS, & CO. SOLD ALSO BY H. & E. PHINNEY, COOPERSTOWN, N. Y. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 18641 April 21 for a duplicate given Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 183 BY T. H. CARTER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED AT GEO. A. & J. CURTIS'S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. THE three first chapters of this volume were originally prepared and preached by the author to his people, in a course of evening lectures, without any expectation of publishing them. The circumstances of the times led to the publication of the first one, in the Religious Magazine and separately. It has been some time out of print, and several individuals have signified a request that the other two might be published in connection with another edition of it. They have been accordingly submitted to the publishers, to be issued in the present form and connection. The first chapter is designed to indicate the sphere in which Christianity instructs woman to move and act; the second, to show what Christianity has done for her, and to exhibit the reasons why more women than men become pious; the third, to illustrate what is implied in the true Christian education of woman. I have employed the Saxon term, woman, considering it to be in truer taste, though less in use, than the somewhat vulgarized term lady. It is well known, that as the savage and pagan state is to women one of peculiar depression, so to them the civilized and refined state is attended with some peculiar liabilities to enervation and degeneracy; and that through their degeneracy, in no small degree, comes the downfall of states and nations. There is an insatiate yawning gulf, into which indolence, luxury, extravagance, and dissipation have plunged many a nation of high hopes and attainments; and these have had their origin and countenance, in a great measure, in the false education and habits of the better sex. I have endeavored to set forth the dangers to our rising country from this source, and to show how they may be avoided; to present to the minds of "our daughters" an object worthy of their loftiest and most benevolent ambition, and to show them how they may obtain it; to convince them that the right cultivation and truest excellence of the female character lie at a much higher point than has been usually supposed; and to set before them the means and motives to become (in that elevated and holy state of society called the kingdom or reign of Christ, to which we aspire, and which we confidently expect) " as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace." If the design is effectual to its object in any degree, the author's humble efforts will be well rewarded. H. W. |