ciety improves and woman assumes the true position for which she is so admirably adapted by the laws of her physiological and mental constitution. Among savage nations the condition of woman is always degraded and servile. This is one of the most odious features of barbarism, and one of the most difficult to eradicate. No system of religion recognizes woman as the companion and equal of man, except Christianity, and under no other system can she enjoy her inalienable rights. Society may change in its external aspect, may exhibit the glitter of wealth, the refinements of taste, the embellishments of art, or the more valuable attainments of science and literature, and yet the mind of woman remain undeveloped, her taste uncultivated, and her person enslaved. But wherever Christianity enters, woman is free. The Gospel, like a kind angel, opens her prison doors, and bids her walk abroad and enjoy the sunlight of reason and breathe the invigorating air of intellectual freedom.

A survey of the different epochs that mark the history of the world would demonstrate most conclusively that the elevation of the female sex is intimately associated with the elevation of our race; that the condition of women, in any age, is a true index of the condition of society, and that the progress of human civilization has only kept pace with the progress of female education. We can, then, scarcely estimate too highly the advantages that would result to our own country, from a more thorough system of female education. Much has been done, within the last fifty years, to elevate the standard of female education. If the list of studies taught in our female academies now, be compared with the requisitions of that period, they will be found to be vastly superior. President Dwight, in remarking upon this subject, in his day, says: "It is owing to the innate good sense of the women of this country, that they are not absolute idiots. I would not give a farthing to have a daughter of mine go to many of the schools of our country. Observe the state of our schools for females, and compare them with the colleges for males. The end kept in view, in the education of males, is to make them useful; in that of females, to make them admired. Men will pay any sum to have their daughters taught to manage their feet in dancing, to daub over a few pictures, to play a few tunes upon the piano, to be admired by a few silly young men. I cannot speak of this subject," adds the venerable president, "without indignation." Though many institutions have been established within the last half century for the education of girls, and great efforts have been made to elevate the standard of scholarship, still not a tithe of what ought to be

done, and what the best good of society requires to be done, has yet been accomplished. The romantic ideas of the dark ages have not wholly disappeared. The chivalrous notion still prevails in refined society, that men need knowledge, but women accomplishments, for success in life. Consequently, boys, in a course of education, are confined to the severe discipline of the languages and mathematics, while girls, after obtaining a superficial knowledge of the elementary branches of an English education, are confined to music, drawing, and other similar accomplishments, accompanied, perhaps, with a slight smattering of French. I would by no means object to the cultivation of those elegant branches of female education, but I would not have them substituted for that intellectual training, without which even these are useless.

The question here occurs, What is the best course of discipline for female minds! I answer, precisely that which is best for the development of any mind. Females have the same mental powers as the males, and these require the same discipline in order to their complete, symmetrical development. To meet the difficulties of life, the female needs the same acumen of intellect, the same maturity of judgment and refinement of taste as the male; and whatever is valuable as a mental discipline for the one, is equally so for the other. There is no way to acquire intellectual strength, but by vigorous intellectual exercise. The mind can be matured only by hard study, patient and protracted study, discriminating study, incessant study. Mind expands only by patient thought. This cannot be secured by attention to mere accomplishments. A severer discipline is needed, if women would have strong minds, cultivated minds, mature minds; if they would acquire an intellectual strength and soundness of judgment, which will enable them to meet with fortitude the stern realities of life. If females are confined to the merely ornamental branches of education, they are, by that very process, doomed to everlasting mediocrity, if not to inferiority. Whatever is essential to the education of the male mind, is equally essential to the development of the female mind. But, says an objector, would you fit females for the pulpit, the bar, and the halls of legislation? By no means. I would only prepare them for the faithful and intelligent discharge of those duties which the God of Nature has assigned to them. In their own appropriate sphere they will find abundant use for all the acumen, all the sound judgment and cultivated taste, which the most thorough mental discipline can give. It does not follow, because profound learning in the dark ages, and to a con

siderable extent even in the present era of light, has been the exclusive possession of professional men, that none but professional men ought to be educated. It is time that "the benefit of the clergy" should be extended even to women, and that distinction in learning should no longer be the peculiar privilege of "learned clerks."

A well-cultivated, well-stored mind, is an inestimable treasure in any station of life. It is as useful and as necessary in the domestic circle as in the public walks of life. The only right which I would claim for woman in our country is the right to be thoroughly educated. That doctrine which teaches the identity of the duties and rights of the sexes, seems to me subversive of the first principles of human society-violating the express laws of nature and revelation.

Rights

and duties are relative terms. Our rights and duties in a great measure grow out of the relations in which God has placed us. The duties of the mother can never become the duties of the father; nor the duties of the sister those of the brother. Neither can the rights of the mother become those of the father. The father and mother sustain unchangeable and inalienable relations to their children. The duties and rights resulting from these relations are peculiar and immutable, not interchangeable and reciprocal. It is impossible, from the very constitution of the sexes, that it should be otherwise. It is evident that the same God who ordained that woman should be "the mother of all living," ordained that she should be the nurse, the teacher, and guide of her infant, offspring. Her most important duties, therefore, must be domestic, connected with the home of her children. She cannot engage in those public duties which require long absence from home; much less in those long, protracted investigations, which belong to the secluded scholar.

It is our duty "to glorify God in our bodies and spirits, which are his." It is a woman's duty to honor God according to the laws of her being. Her appropriate duties are plainly indicated by her organization. The remarks of Mr. Lieber on this point are pertinent. "She is framed and constituted more delicately, and in consequence of

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this marked difference of organization, has advantages and disadvantages compared with the male sex; differences which are of elementary and last importance for the obtaining of those ends for which man and mankind are planted on this globe, and from which, likewise, different positions, callings, duties and spheres of activity result. The woman is fitter for all those actions which must be impelled chiefly by affection; hence, she is more fit to foster and educate the young, and to mature in turn their hearts with affection; she is more disposed to cling to a protector, and far readier to bring sacrifices; she graces society, and-sentiment, being one of the spheres in which she is most active, and chastity, her first virtue and honor-she is the chief agent in infusing delicacy, gentleness, taste, decorum, and correctness of morals, so far as they depend upon continency, into society at large."

The sphere of duties and influence here presented is sufficiently enlarged and important for the exercise of the mightiest intellect. If, however, laides are qualified by native talent and education to control the public mind, let them employ the pen. I think facts will warrant the assertion that no individual in Great Britain, during the reign of George III., exerted so extensive, and so salutary a moral influence upon all classes of citizens, from the king to the meanest beggar in the realm, as Hannah More. She is a lady of whom her sex may justly be proud. The world has produced very few of the other sex, who might not bow with respectful deference before her splendid genius. I close my remarks wih a quotation from her pen. 'But they little understand the true interests of woman, who would lift her from the appointed duties of her allotted station, to fill, with fantastic dignity, a loftier, but less appropriate niche. Nor do they understand her true happiness, who seek to annihilate distinctions from which she derives advantage, and to attempt innovations, which would depreciate her real value. The most elaborate definition of idea rights, and the most hardy measures for attaining them, are of less value in the eyes of a truly amiable woman, than that meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price."

Of Heaven who pardon not an erring friend!
The one has attributes of majesty';

A sister of the universal Powers
That rule the world and thunder in the sky.
The other, crowned with humbler grace, is ours
To rule the motions of our lip and eye,

And quench the flame of wrath ere it devours!

CHRISTIANITY does much toward moulding the moral feeling of communities, by the exemplifications of individual and social morality which it furnishes in its professors. We are aware, that this may be denied by the scornful skeptic, who sneeringly points us to Smithfield, and the slaughtered Huguenots; but as it is not for the skeptic that we are writing, we shall only reply, in passing, that in these enormities Christianity had no agency. There is not among her doctrines nor duties one word, which, by any possible construction, can be forced into an apology for deeds so dishonorable to her name. She retired from these scenes of cruelty and wept, or remained, not to light the fagot, but, like an angel of mercy, to cheer the sufferer. Nor shall we stop, either to disprove the aspersions which are cast upon professing Christians of the present day, or to estimate the exact amount of influence which the improved morality of the regenerated world exerts. We are content to refer to the emphatic declaration of him who pronounced his disciples "the salt of the earth." In all the defections of the nominal church, there has been no period, when there were not a few, at least, who retained their savor, and to whom this original appellation belonged. In the midst of the densest darkness such individuals have been lights;-shining the more brightly for the gloom that was around them; and they could not but enlighten. So is it now. The highest standard of social morality

is in the church; and we venture to say, that everywhere the morality which is without the church is proportional to the elevation of the morality within. This, then, is one mode by which Christianity stamps her image on communities.

But in every period of her history she has also proved herself the benefactress of society, and has thus secured authority and obedience. She has awakened and developed the nobler ideas of our nature. She has encouraged industry; she has ennobled and sanctioned justice; she has fostered letters; the arts and science, freedom, peace, and civilization are her daughters. She claims their maternity, and they acknowledge it. In her right hand is wisdom, and in her left, riches and honor. She has thus conferred whatever blessings exalt and distinguish enlightened life;

and society, with all its ingratitude and irreverence, cannot cast off her influence.

Moreover, her precepts appeal, for their rectitude and obligation, directly to the conscience. This citadel in the soul, though besieged for six thousand years by the hosts of depravity, has never disowned its allegiance to God. Never Created under the law of right, conscience still seeks to enforce within us its stern requisitions. When, therefore, Christianity utters her voice in the precepts of her uncompromising yet simple and beautiful morality, she commands reverence. Even infidelity itself stands silent while she speaks, having nothing to answer; or is forced to bestow, its reluctant praise.

Thus, by furnishing examples of excellence,— by conferring those blessings which elevate the race, by stating and enforcing precepts, whose righteousness and obligation are acknowledged by the conscience,—she interfuses her principles through communities. She expels from the moral feeling much that has debased it, and imparts to it somewhat of her own spirit. And since, by a law of our nature, the moral feeling of commu. nities, just as of individuals, must manifest itself in an outward aspect, which shall perfectly exhibit its own character, there will be a proportional improvement of public morals. As men come under the dominion of better principles, they will spontaneously exhibit a better mode of living. In just so far as they are reformed inwardly, will they be reformed outwardly. The whole face of society, its laws and manners, its commerce, its domestic life, will reveal the kindly influences which preside within the heart. Vices, which have been practiced in day-light, and without rebuke, will retire into darkness, and receive reprobation; and virtues, which have been rare and unhonored, will become numerous and esteemed. The desert, which once in rank abundance yielded noxious and poisonous plants, becomes, under an influence, thus reversed, one wide oasis, beautifu and fragrant.

It may, however, be objected, that Christianity influences multitudes, through whose minds these thoughts have never passed. We admit it; but we insist, that most men act upon principles and reasonings which they never state definitely to

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their own minds. Christianity has gained its sway by degrees. It has influenced generation after generation, until its principles have become inwrought in the general moral feeling; and men obey Christianity, without thinking, perhaps, once in their whole lives, that they are obeying it. Many an infidel even, who, in the pride of his heart, spurns the Christian religion, and offers his own exemplary life as an argument against its necessity, is indebted for his morality to that Gospel, which he so contemptuously disowns. We recollect a case in point, of an unbeliever, who admitted the excellence of the Christian morals, but disdainfully added, "the Bible contains nothing but the veriest truisms!" Truisms, to be sure!-but not elsewhere found; and it was ingratitude in him to spurn them thus, when they had originated all the morality of his own life! As the fingers of a skillful performer touch without a conscious effort the intended key, so in the great portion of our conduct, we act upon general principles, so deeply fixed within, that we are not conscious of their presence.

man

The truth of the mode above stated, by which Christian principles attain their authority, we think, may be shown by simple illustrations. Place two individuals, the one a Christian, and the other not, in intimate connection, and separated from the influence of any but each other. The Christian we will suppose to be a whose spirit, and conversation, and example, indicate an inward life of faith. Make allowance, then, for the counter influence of the other upon him, and for his own frailties,-for the best man is frail. And, after this deduction, it will be found that Christianity, as exemplified in him, will, of necessity, influence for good the morality of the other, just as the vase of roses will impart somewhat of its own fragrance to everything within the room in which it is placed. When parents instill into the minds of their children the instructions of religion, and add to their instructions the force of a pious spirit and conduct, from the laws of the mind, we may prophesy a happy result. Let a few pious families be introduced into a neighborhood, which is not only without religion, but vicious, as such neighborhoods always will be,-let them furnish, in their own lives, examples of an elevated morality; let them seek to promote industry, and good order, and learning; and, as their growing influence will authorize, let them urge the uncompromising precepts of the Gospel,-and this development of Christianity, through them, will give a new tone to society, and effect a transformation in the outward character of the place. Now a nation is but a multitude of individuals, and families, and

neighborhoods, and the laws by which mind is operated upon are universal. Just, therefore, as Christianity develops itself, and effects its influence in private friendships, at the fireside, and in limited communities, so it diffuses its principles through nations;-and nations, in the spirit and forms of law, in the quiet and prosperity of welldefined freedom, in the praise of yirtue and rebuke of vice, in the reverence of the Sabbath, and the institutions of religion, exhibit the presiding power, which, through the good works of the regenerated few, has attained an important sway over the public mind.

Regarding man as placed in a world, in which his outward condition is to be supported and blessed by his toil, Christianity encourages and demands industry. Regarding him as a moral and social being, she inculcates and exemplifies a social morality, whose product is happiness. In the state, her exponent is justice. While she gives authority to law, she makes law kind; and while she demands submission to constituted authority, she makes that submission freedom. Regarding man as an intellectual being, she dictates and encourages learning. She excites and nourishes the love of the beautiful and the true. She leads the disciple to the feet of the Arabian patriarch, to listen to the stern majesty of his song, -to the palace of Israel's king, to enkindle piety, by his wrapt devotions,-to Judea's flowerdressed knolls, to learn the providence of God. The church, in its corruptest days, was the repository of learning. When the imperial city lay at the feet of the barbarian conqueror, "the relics of Greek and Roman literature were collected and preserved by the ministers of religion. The cell of the monk [became] the cradle of refinement and learning. His remote and quiet habitation was the sacred ark where the memorials of the past were treasured, and where knowledge was sheltered in security." Even then, too, as the church was the repository of learning, so was it also, to a great extent, "the willing instrument of its communication." The venerable universities of Europe, whose histories extend back to the middle ages, were, without an exception, founded by the church. And when Christianity laid aside the cowl, and came forth from the cloister, she opened the fountains of learning by the side of the waters of life. Christianity and letters made equal progress. Our own pilgrim fathers consecrated Harvard "to Christ and his church;" and reared that ancient seat of learning which honors Connecticut, almost as soon as they had erected their temples of worship, or even their own dwellings. Over all New-England, by the side of the village church, stands the school house; and over

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our wide empire, wherever you behold our colleges, inviting the rich and the poor alike to the walls of learning, you behold, with scarcely an exception, the consecrated work of the disciples of Christ. These are the blessings of Christianity. Standing at the portals of her own temples, she may point to the fields and lawns which industry has created from the desert, and to the distant ocean, where rides the ship which industry has loaded with the commodities of honest commerce,--to the halls of legislation, where freedom demands security for the rights of the governed, and to the tribunals, where justice holds her even scales, to the universities, whose opened doors invite approach, and where letters and science refine and expand the mind;-she may point to these, and declare, "these are my gifts." Nay,

more.

She may point to every improvement of advancing civilization, as the product of her beneficence. Poverty, and old age, uttering their grateful voices from the generous almshouse-disease, alleviated at the public hospital-the dumb, recording with grateful heart, and the blind blessing with cheerful voice, the benefits of the asylum, and the once naked and chained maniac, now sitting clothed and quiet at the retreat,-all utter her praise. And vice, as it hurries away from her presence, and oppression, as it withers at her glance and recedes at her approach, and war, as it gives up its ferocities, and retreats toward its doomed and everlasting exile,-in their very flight, proclaim the improvement in the character and condition of the race which she has effected. And every step of this advancing improvement has fixed more deeply in the heart a reverence for her authority, and augmented her influ

public mind, and her precepts most strictly obeyed, in the forms of law and in the outward morality. It seems plain, therefore, that her progressive influence is to be further secured, by promoting, yet further, the improvement of man. The church ought still to be the patron of industry, and justice, and learning. While bound to check worldliness, and to warn against regarding this life as the whole, or the best of existence, the church is nevertheless to encourage the improvement of our outward condition, to the extent that the means of improving it are placed, by our beneficent Father, within our reach. The church is bound to seek the diffusion of the blessings of good order and freedom, in itself setting an example of these things, and enjoining them whereever it has influence. It is still to promote the spread of knowledge, by opening, to all classes, the school and the college, and by encouraging discoveries in every yet untrodden field. It is to multiply the generous homes of poverty, and to alleviate and bless the children of affliction. history is to be a perpetual comment on the goodness and truth of the Christian faith; written as in the tints of the rainbow on the lowering sky. Under such influences, society will be less earthly, the race will be elevated. And, taking advantage of the increasing authority of Christianity, the church is to urge on this improvement still further and more rapidly. Rising itself toward heaven, in every succeeding age, it is to raise society with it. And as the race ascends, it will cast off its vices, improving outwardly as it does inwardly, until its morality is not merely the product of Christian influences acting upon communities of regenerated and unregenerated men, but a visible and universal exhibition of an inward and common faith in Christ. Happy spectacle! God speed the day when the world shall present it.

OH! the friends of my youthful days,

Where are they now, oh, where? Fled, as the summer's gladdening rays

When wintry storms appear.

In distant lands some may be found,
Whom fate has severed wide;
Some sleep beneath the grassy mound,
And there in peace abide.

Some lie low on the battle field,

Who fought for glory's crown, And loved in country's cause to wield The sword, and win renown.

Some, perchance, in the ocean deep
Have found a watery grave;
We sigh for them-we mourn and weep
For youthful hearts and brave.

Few are left of the happy throng

That filled our hearts with glee; Hushed is the soul-enlivening song, Once sung so merrily.

oh! where?

Oh! the friends of our youthful days,
Where are they now,
Fled, as the summer's gladdening rays
When wintry storms appear.

Its