mouthed scandal, so often stabs the feelings of others, or ruins the peace of families?—whence the violence of party abuse, as loud in the drawing-room as in public assemblies, if the gentle and refining influence of women be exerted with that power which rightfully belongs to it?

Again, if we carry our examination into more serious social relations, such as those between master and servant, rich and poor, in which that influence must necessarily be great, we find pride and bitterness, servility and mistrust, mostly arising from deplorable ignorance of the true nature of those relative positions. If we view the religious aspect of the country, earnest and warm though the zeal of women undoubtedly is in the cause of religion, we are equally distressed to see so little that denotes a beneficial influence. We find women foremost in the strife of party fanaticism. We see them lending their aid to every superstition that degrades the simplicity of Christ's religion and lowers its influence, allying the profession of piety with habitual frivolity, and thereby rendering religion itself less respectable in the eyes of the many, who judge of a principle by its professors.

Such are the various manifestations of female influence upon society independently of home relations; but these afford the most important field for its exercise, that in which it is naturally strongest and most free to act. But even in that private sanctuary of home, woman's boasted empire, and the scene of her most constant action, how much is there to damp our expectations! Setting aside positive domestic misery, and whatever evil in married life results from the vices or the tyranny of men, how much is there still of suffering arising from causes which are, or should be, under woman's control! How much do we see of discomfort and jarring owing to want of tact or forbearance! How often is that full communion of thought, and feelings, and interests, which is the firmest bond of conjugal affection, rendered impossible by frivolous tastes and narrow sympathies! How seldom do we find that true value for affection which makes forbearance with foibles or waywardness so easy, and lets the storms of the world howl as they list, while

they leave this first great treasure of life unimpaired! What devotion to trifles do we see, what unmethodical waste of time and money,—what deficiency in that lofty tone of sentiment and character which commands respect, and adds dignity to the most complying gentleness! So far as these are wanting, the influence of women as wives has fallen short of its lawful power; and lastly, if we consider how they exercise it as mothers, in that great task of education where it is most irresistibly felt, most direct and exclusive, most intimately associated with their strongest feelings, and most earnest sense of duty, what do we find to compensate for the regret and disappointment we experience in other quarters?

The education of daughters need not be considered here, since they may naturally be expected to follow in their mother's footsteps; but how does the education of sons evince the power of moral influence, and betoken a period of refinement and progress? Are they, in this age of religious profession, trained to a higher sense of duty, to more earnest views of life? Are they less selfish, less frivolous, less worldly? In this age of boasted enlightenment are they led to love knowledge for something more than its market value, to feel that expansion of soul that earnest natures feel when some new aspect of truth is revealed to them? Or, in this age of liberalism, are they taught what man really owes to his country, and what that spirit consists of, which distinguishes the patriot from the demagogue ? Yet these things belong to the moral training of the young, they should not be known merely, but felt; and if not early instilled into the mind, and nurtured by that strong, and ceaseless, and holy influence, beneath which the feelings and associations are formed, can we hope that the hard school of the world will teach them? The greater the development of intellect in any age, the greater the need of moral power in education to give it a right direction. Woe at such a time to the country that trusts to the cold teaching of professors, or the speculations of philosophy, to inspire that generous virtue, that moral purity of wisdom, which should be breathed into the young spirit from a mother's lips!

In

as ours.

every sphere, then, of woman's exertions, whether in private or social relations, we find that the result of her influence is below what we were naturally led to expect in a period such It has not perhaps fallen off, it is not lower in its character than in former times, but it has not taken a higher stand, it has not kept pace with the advance of the age, it has not acquired the power necessary to sway the lives of men in the midst of all that is stirring and earnest in the present development of knowledge and activity; and the causes of this deficiency deserve to be carefully sought. This inquiry might be carried on in two ways; the one by examining woman's social position, and ascertaining what is wrong in that, what injustice she suffers from, what evils she is made to bear which do not belong to, her natural condition, and how far these have contributed to cripple her powers, and retard her improvement. The other is by considering her as she is in herself; her prevailing qualities, good or evil, her education and aims in life, all the means, in short, in her own power to work out the great purposes of her existence, whether aided or trammelled by her social condition. Each of these methods of inquiry must equally lead to a partial result, since the social position and the moral and mental condition so act, and react upon each other, that it is difficult to separate their effects; but there are many reasons for preferring the latter mode in this place.

First. The social condition of women depends on numerous causes over which we can have no direct control. Men must be the legislators of the world; the post of authority is theirs, not by assumption, or in consequence of this or that combination of circumstances or system of government, but in virtue of the law which has assigned to them greater strength, greater courage, greater vigor of mental as well as bodily constitution. To this law the weaker must necessarily submit; and though the consideration of the points in which this natural authority has been abused, and of the proper bounds which reason and justice assign to it, is most important to all who would thoroughly appreciate woman's position as it is, and as it should be; yet these are not sufficiently practical points for our purpose in

these pages. We cannot ourselves individually apply the remedy to faults we might discover there; women must be content to influence the social position of their sex, through the tone of moral education they give to their sons, remembering, that, if the depressed condition of women in any age or country reflects dishonor upon the men of that country, the shame must be shared by the mothers whose sons have grown up under their influence, blind to the sufferings of the weak, insensible to the claims of justice, and unacquainted with the warm impulses of generous sentiment when they thwart their own selfish interests or prejudices. Allowing, then, for all that women in general suffer from the want of self-control, the habits of selfindulgence and caprice, and the arbitrary tempers of men, we cannot forget how much those faults are owing to the neglect and short-sightedness of mothers, and to the servility of women. in other relations of life, which tolerates and even encourages defects which they secretly blame or despise.

Secondly. It is both a more practical and a more healthy view which regards those abuses of a system, the remedy of which is in our own hands. This leaves no loophole for the indolence which loves to settle in discontented railing at others, instead of aiming at self-improvement, and although it offers no complete remedy, it leads securely to some improvement, the influence of which over things apparently beyond its reach can be appreciated only when fairly tried. Let women earnestly consider in what they themselves have failed, and do the utmost that lies in their own power to rise to the height of the position designed for them by Providence, and we cannot doubt, that whatever prejudice, or injustice, or ignorance, has done to depress them below that condition, will gradually fall away and disappear. But till the weak are true to themselves, it is vain, in this world of mixed and selfish motives, to expect succor from the powerful and the free.

Looking, then, to this side of the question alone, to seek out the causes that may have weakened woman's influence, we find two facts which, in our opinion, seem sufficiently to account for the evil, These are a defective education, and an inactive

existence, which, except when immersed in nursery cares, is vacant and aimless; the one frittering away the powers of the mind in early youth, the other riveting the habit of frivolity or insipid indolence in later years.

It seems needless to say that a general statement of this kind leaves numerous exceptions. Some minds have the benefit of superior early training; others are of too vigorous a stamp to be restrained by the fetters of a bad education; while others, again, are placed in circumstances which necessarily draw forth the latent powers, and develop character whether for good or evil. Many thus come out of the herd to benefit or disgrace their fellow-creatures; but it is of the herd that we must speak when considering so wide a question. The mean results of a system in its effects on the mass of average minds, are what mark its value and its tendency. In many cases, also, the practical and often severe moral discipline of woman's homelife opposes a wholesome influence to the evil arising from other causes; while the mental capacity is, perhaps, entirely neglected, and moral power never consciously trained, yet women cannot from early childhood come in contact with men without learning submission, forbearance, and the control of selfish wishes and plans; and their secluded life and consequent exemption from many temptations, and from the very knowledge of vice in most of its forms, is a further protection against some of the worst evils of a frivolous and worldly education.

In calling the education of women defective, we do not mean to refer to deficiencies in any particular branches of knowledge, but to its whole scope and purpose. These require to be corrected and enlarged before knowledge itself could produce its proper effects; and the greater the pretension of the system now in vogue, the more reprobation does it deserve for leaving its disciples so unprepared for the real duties of life. Formerly, prejudices existed against female education, which now are overthrown; there were trammels in the way of a woman's acquisition of learning, which made it almost impossible for any but those naturally endowed with thirst for knowledge, and