lated common schools, together with the academic ones, are sufficient, and even better than the abodes of abstruse literature and science. Common learning, like cents and little pieces of silver, is daily and hourly needed in the general commerce of life; whereas deep erudition is like large bank bills or ingots of gold-very needful in their place, but needful to only a comparative few.

CHAP. XLIX.

Of adapting Female Education to the peculiar habitudes of the sex.

"Nor less shall thy fair ones to glory ascend,
And genius and beauty in harmony blend :
The graces of form shall awake pure desire,
And the charms of the soul ever cherish the fire:
Their sweetness unmingled, their manners refined,
And Virtue's bright image enstamped on their mind,
With peace, and soft rapture, shall teach life to glow,
And light up a smile in the aspect of woe."

DR. DWIGHT.

MONTESQUIEU, speaking of the influence of the female sex on public morals and manners, says, "The safety of a state depends on the virtues of the women."

The truth of this sentiment might be evinced and illustrated by adverting to the history of some of the most famous of the ancient nations, and particularly of those whose forms of government were of the republican kind. The most shining periods of their history were those in which the modesty, fidelity, economy, and various other domestic virtues of the female sex, inspired the men with noble sentiments, and prompted them to noble deeds; and, on the other hand, the fatal harbinger of their fall and destruction was the declension of female virtue.

Women are the guides of infancy and childhood. From them are received the first, and the most indeli

ble impressions; and their influence in society ever increases with the increase of civilization and social refinement. Through the benign influence of christianity, and by means of the general diffusion of knowledge, and the superior refinement of taste and sentiment, Woman is now risen to a very important rank in social life. It is seen that she has a mind, as well as a form; her capacity for intellectual improvements, and her right, in common with that of the other sex, to a participation of intellectual enjoyments, are freely acknowledged. In the mean time the importance of female education is become a trite theme, on which the tongues and the pens of the learned and the ingenious have frequently descanted. Any attempt, therefore, to add to the numerous arguments in support of a sentiment already too obvious to be disputed, would be alike difficult and useless. But the question respecting the best modes and most useful objects of female education, both in regard to individual happiness, and the interests of the public, is well worthy of discussion.

Admitting-whatever be the real fact-that the sexes are equal as to mental powers, it is evident that their destinations are different. The female form, while more graceful, is inferior in point of strength, and of course, less adapted to the rugged and perilous occupations and boisterous scenes of life. Female children are commonly less roving in their dispositions, and less turbulent and obstinate in their tempers:-they are more docile and more domestic, than those of the other sex. Hence it plainly appears to be the ordination of nature, (I mean the Eternal Wisdom,) that woman should be employed chiefly in the various business of the domestic kind. And, as the designs of nature are never thwarted with impunity, so, those women, who, disdaining the feminine sphere, usurp the business and ape the manners of men, are punished for this usurpation by the loss of their attractions. The spectacle of a Hercules plying at the distaff, or that of a venerable judge taking his seat in a female dishabille, would scarcely be more absurd and ridiculous, than that of a woman affecting the air, the manners, and the peculiar pursuits of the other sex.

Now, as the business of education is not to thwart, but to assist the designs of nature, it is clear that the general scheme of female instruction should be appropriate to the female character and sphere of action.

A zealous advocate for the rights of women, who is accustomed to follow theory rather than the track of nature, might allege, that, as their capacities are competent to the profoundest investigations and disquisitions, any limitation to their pursuits in literature or the sciences, is an abridgment of those intellectual privileges and enjoyments, which they ought to possess, in common with men. But without calling in question the strength of female intellect, or attempting to abridge its charter of rights, 1 would offer for consideration the following queries:-Are not they the happiest among women, who are contented within the circle of such enjoyments, pursuits, and amusements, as are principally of the domestic kind?-Does wonian ever appear so graceful and lovely, as in the domestic characters and relations of a dutiful daughter and affectionate sisterof a loving and faithful wife-of an excellent mother, rearing up her offspring and guiding them in wisdom's ways-of a discreet mistress of a family, combining prudent economy with hospitality?-Finally, would not any man of sense and correct taste, choose to be connected in marriage with a woman of a plainly cultivated understanding, an obliging temper, domestic in her habits, and capable and disposed to guide his household affairs with discretion, rather than with a Mary Wolstoncraft, who handed wine to a gentleman visitant, in a broken tea cup-excusing herself, that she was too much occupied in literary matters to pay any attention to the furnishing of her room?

One of the brightest ornaments of her sex and of human nature itself, remarks:-"The profession of women, to which the bent of their instruction should be turned, is that of daughters, wives, mothers and mistresses of families. They should therefore be trained with a view to these several conditions, and be furnished with a stock of ideas, and principles, and qualifications and habits, ready to be applied and appropriated, as occasion may demand, to each of their respective

situations."—And again, when speaking of embellishments, or the showy and ornamental parts of female education, she observes:-"Though the arts which merely embellish life must claim admiration; yet when a man of sense comes to marry, it is a companion whom he wants, and not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint, and play, and dress, and dance; it is a being who can comfort and counsel him; one who can reason, and reflect, and feel, and judge, and act, and discourse, and discriminate; one who can assist him in his affairs, lighten his cares, sooth his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his principles, and educate his chil

dren."

It is for the Daughters of our America to co-operate in supporting and perpetuating the independence, and the many inestimable privileges, which her Sons have achieved by their valor, and with their blood. On the purity of their morals, and the prudence and propriety of their conduct, the permanence and the weal of this great Republic, and the hopes of generations to come, essentially depend.

Nor was there ever, perhaps, a crisis so urgently demanding their aid, or so auspicious to their exertions, as the one that now presents itself. The unexampled events of a late series of years have occasioned, in this young republic, a direful revolution; a revolution from uncostly simplicity to boundless extravagance, and not only producing unmeasurable embarrassment and distress, but threatening the destruction of morals and the extinction of liberty. This deadly disorder, which has been corrupting the stamina of the American public, which no laws can reach, and the physical strength of no arm of flesh can remove, is removable by moral force. The great desideratum is to bring into fashion the industry and frugality of former ages. This would open again upon our horizon the prospects that have been so frightfully blasted. And who can accomplish it but the respectable females of our country? Their voice unitedly raised in this holy cause, like the sound of the harp of the son of Jesse, might dispossess the evil spirit that has hurried, and is now hurrying so many to ruin, and would be the harbinger of a political

millennium. In every thing relating to fashion, their influence is unbounded. Would they frown upon the idle and foppish, and bestow their smiles upon the industrious and frugal, they might effectually check the thoughtless extravagance of the other sex; with all the better part of which, this kind of restrictive system from the female court of fashion would be as a law written in the heart. Would they form themselves into societies-than which none could be more deserving the name of Benevolent and Beneficent—for the purpose of promoting industry and frugal economy, and make their practice correspond with their professions, it might change the face of things from sad to joyous. "Recorded honors would thicken around them," and generations now unborn would do homage to their memories.

CHAP. L.

Of cruelty to the brute animals-instanced in the barbarous usage of that noble animal, the Horse.

THE Horse, more frequently than any other of the inferior animals, has been the subject of descriptive poetry; and that, not so much by reason of his beautiful form and generous nature, as on account of the superb figure he makes in the battles of the warriors.

In the book of Job, which is the oldest poem in the world, and, as to some parts of it, one of the sublimest, the war-horse is described in a manner superior to any thing of the kind that can be found in other authors. In reading this description, even in our English prose translation, one seems actually to behold the horse himself, now "pawing in the valley" with eagerness for the battle, and then "going forth to meet the armed men"—"mocking at fear." It is not the mere picture of the Arabian war-horse: we seem to see him prance, paw the ground, and rush forward to the battle, rejoicing in his strength.

Homer has given several fine descriptions of the