THE ® H RD © ® RDo $ JncnVs (gift. - NEW YORK 7 r r.**i v fj /a HU'S ft < y * #/> - fob n .*•/Jitl LADY’S MANUAL OF BY EEY. HUBBARD WINSL OW, AND MRS. JOHN SANFORD. NEW-YORK: LEAYITT AND ALLEN, 27 DEY STREET. 1854. BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY CHESTNUT HILL, MASS, H Q. 122.1 . It/ 7 ?H If54* Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1353, By LEAVITT & ALLEN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New-York. / 1 1 n f I ON COLLEGE FEB 2, ig?ffHESTNUT HILL MASSt' S ✓ Illustrations. Part I. ARTIST. PRESENTATION PLATE, - FRONTISPIECE, - - Frank Stone, ILLUMINATED TITLE, THE CHRISTIAN WIFE, - Prentis, THE VIRGIN, - - - Murillo, Part II. FRONTISPIECE, - - - Gainsborough, FEMALE STUDIES, - - Frank Stone, VISIT OF CHARITY, - - Warren, PAGB - 34 - 57 1 - 134 - 160 ✓ . . CONTENTS PART I. Preface . The Appropriate Sphere of Woman The Influence of Christianity on Woman The Christian Education of Woman Page PART II. Causes of Female Influence .... Subject continued . Importance of Letters to Woman Importance of Religion to Woman Christianity the Source of Female Excellence Scripture Illustrative of Female Character Female Influence on Religion . Female Defects ...... Subject continued ...... Female Romance ...... Subject continued ...... Female Education. 15 23 35 46 64 78 90 104 111 125 134 - * - . _ - . PREFACE. It is a lamentable fact, that in addressing the fair sex, the writers of the present day are apt to take it for granted that mere amusement is the only object to be proposed, and that in pur¬ suance of this object, literature of the highest and most frivolous character is the only means which is likely to prove acceptable. The volume which is now offered to the ac¬ ceptance of our fair countrywomen, proposes a different object, to be attained by totally dif¬ ferent means. It is not true that women prefer amusement to instruction. On the contrary, their preference is generally in favor of the literature which is calculated to promote their moral and intellectual improvement. Hence their fondness for the higher kind of poetry, and their strong attachment to devotional ex¬ ercises, and the higher productions of pulpit 11 PREFACE. 1 eloquence. Women are impulsive, generous, and devoted in their affections, and ready tc make any sacrifice for those whom they truly love. Let it once become apparent to them that by high mental and moral attainments, they will be able to benefit or to please the object of their affections, and they will promptly ad¬ dress themselves to the solid literary studies which are requisite for that purpose. It is the fault of authors, not of their female readers, that books intended for the perusal of ladies are so often utterly frivolous and useless. It is time that a new era should commence in the history of literature for ladies. They should he pre¬ sented with that which is truly useful, in an interesting and entertaining form, and they will not hesitate to give it their attention. The habits of ladies in the ordinary pur¬ suits of life, naturally lead them to prefer and pursue the useful, at the same time that they duly appreciate the beautiful. In their domestic % avocations, such as housekeeping, needlework, gardening, the useful is the first consideration , hut the ornaments of dress, and the flowers of die parterre, nevertheless receive their due 1 PREFACE. iii share of attention, and contribute to render ac¬ tive employment a source of real delight. That the female mind, duly cultivated, is capable of very high achievements, is witnessed by the admirable writings of such authors as Edgeworth, Barbauld, Hannah More, and Mrs. Somerville. But it is not for the purpose of attaining eminent rank as authors, that women in general should have cultivated and disci¬ plined minds. The supply of authors of both sexes will always be equal to the demand. On that head, therefore, we need not feel the least anxiety. But it is really important that women should have their minds highly cultivated and well disciplined, on account of the immense influence which they exert in forming the first tendencies of character, and in giving tone to society. The impulse which a man’s moral course receives from a mother’s instruction, is that which car¬ ries him forward through life in an upward or a downward course. The son of a weak, foolish, frivolous, uneducated mother, seldom turns out an upright and useful man ; but many brilliant examples may be cited of characters illustrious for talent and probity—men celebrated in the IV PREFACE. world’s history, who have gratefully attributed all theif success to early maternal influence. In giving tone to society female influence is not less potential. In those communities where the women are virtuous and educated, the gen¬ eral character of society is elevated, and the whole style of social intercourse is of a happy and improving nature. Any one may verify this by his own observation and reflection. On the contrary, where the women are ignorant, and devoted to dress and amusement only, the whole aspect of society is affected by this cir¬ cumstance, and the character of social inter¬ course is frivolous and contemptible. In com¬ munities where female virtue is wanting, the men are equally debased with the women, and honor, and patriotism, are hardly to he found. Countries so unfortunate as to sanction by cus¬ tom the want of female virtue, become a prey to tyrants, and remain in hopeless political slavery. The single example of Italy will serve to illustrate this truth; while our own country is a noble example of the happy effects of fe¬ male virtue, in preserving the honor and stimu¬ lating the courage of freemen. PREFACE. V In the works which are comprised in this volume, the writers have respectively proposed to themselves the noble object of forming the female character on the real and solid basis of religion ; and of building it up with the rich and durable material of high intellectual and moral culture. No young lady can read and study these works, without appreciating the advantages which they present towards the true education of the mind and heart. The principles laid down in them, the methods of study and rules of conduct suggested, the examples cited, and the general system inculcated, are such as com¬ mend themselves irresistibly to every candid and reflecting mind ; and if the readers of them will only apply themselves with sincere and earnest purpose to the practical use of the excellent advice and instruction which they con¬ tain, the benefits resulting will be great and lasting. Of the short treatise of Mr. Winslow, his honored name is a sufficient recommendation. The larger and more thorough work of Mrs. Sanford, whose name is less familiar to Ameri- VI PREFACE. can readers, is a standard book of its class. Having been written long after the popular treatises of Mrs. Chapone, Hr. Gregory, and others, who have given excellent counsel to young ladies, it is a decided improvement upon them all. It accommodates itself to the pro¬ gressive spirit of the age, and recognizes the more advanced and elevated position accorded to females in the present refined and educated age, than they could claim half a century since. While science and general intelligence are rapidly advancing, it becomes the female sex to respect a high standard of mental culture, and to endeavor with all their faculties to ren¬ der themselves suitable companions for educa¬ ted and intelligent men. And this is necessary not only in the highest, but in the middle, and even the humbler classes of society. Educated men are now to be found in all the various ranks of society, and they naturally desire the society of spirited and intelligent women. Mere prettiness and a few superficial accomplish¬ ments, may please the idler, or the mere plea- • sure seeker, but the earnest, whole-hearted PREFACE. VI1 man, requires a companion for-life, who can participate in his highest pursuits, and sympa¬ thize with his noblest purposes. Such women should form the society of our leading female circles in every community of the republic. Such women should give the tone to social intercourse throughout our be¬ loved and glorious country. i THE APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. The dignity and virtue of the female character can¬ not be too highly estimated nor too sacredly pro¬ tected. It is often and perhaps justly remarked, that as woman was first in transgression, so she is first in obedience; as she was first to introduce sin, so she is first to expel it. She is undoubtedly to sustain a most important part in reclaiming the world. Her influence upon society is great, pecu¬ liar, indispensable to its highest elevation. She is capable of exerting a benign and almost irresistible dominion over the affections and the conduct of the other sex; but she can do it only by observing her appropriate sphere and putting forth her character¬ istic graces. The sacred writers have intimated that her consti¬ tutional susceptibility and ardor, so valuable when wisely directed and so evil when misguided, her spi- 10 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. I I fit of impulse and action, her passion for novelty and adventure predominating over cool discretion and cautious judgment,—as seen in the case of the first transgression,—is one essential reason why God re¬ quires that she shall “ learn in silence with all sub¬ jection.” and does not “ suffer her to teach nor to usurp authority over the man.” But this law of female subjection, implanted in the human constitution and enjoined by God, is misap¬ prehended, perverted or abused in all but Christian nations. All pagan religions crush the female sex into the dust; Mohammedanism makes them little superior to abject slaves.; and even the Jewish eco¬ nomy is inferior to the Christian in respect to their elevation and influence. It is a distinguishing glory of Christianity that it elevates females to their proper rank and full measure of influence in the best and most finished state of society. All great practical errors, which obtain ascendency over nations and over successive generations of men, have their foundation in certain truths ;—they are the misapprehension and abuse of principles true to nature. Now Christianity does not come to make war upon nature and to extirminate those principles, but to restore them to our right apprehension and to their true application. This is eminently the case in regard to the appropriate sphere of action and influence for the female sex. Nature had assigned to them a sphere distinct from and subordinate to that of man, though by no means less honorable and APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF.WOMAN. 11 important. Paganism had abused this principle ot female subordination, so as to abase her, who was made to be “ an help-meet ” for man, to a condition of invidious inferiority and even of servile abjectness, hook at the condition of females in the Roman empire at the time Christianity was introduced. Christianity removed the hand which pressed them down, and bade them rise to their appropriate sphere. But the reaction from long restraint and depression, the impulse of sudden elevation in their enthusiastic temperaments, soon carried them beyond their proper sphere, and produced a spirit of insubordination. They became radical. They were for levelling all distinctions between the sexes. Overstepping their own boundaries, they began to assume the preroga- tives of the other sex. To correct this alarming evil called for some of the most vigorous and burning strokes of the inspired pen. A tendency to ultraism is not peculiar to our day. Apostles, reformers, holy men of other ages, no sooner inculcated something true and important, than zealots began to push it to those extremes which called for scarcely less effort to keep it in its right place than was required to introduce it. If it was an abuse of nature and a horrible evil that woman should be depressed, scarcely less so was the oppo¬ site extreme, the process of unsexing, by which the peculiar attractions of the female character are sa¬ crificed, and the way thus prepared for the annihi- lation of the domestic ties and relations. 12 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. Although moral goodness is essentially the same in all, consisting in love to God and man, manifested in action, yet nothing is clearer than that woman was to move in a different sphere from that of man, and her moral virtues are to be modified by and adapted to the sphere in which she was made to move. If modesty and delicacy are becoming in both sexes, they are eminently the ornament of the female sex; while all the moral virtues of either sex, though they bear the same name in each, are to assume the masculine or the feminine character according to the sex in which they exist. The same act which would be modest and delicate in a man would not always be so in a woman; while, on the other hand, what may be very bold and energetic in a woman, might be very tame in a man. It is on this principle that we are accustomed to say of the man who partakes of the character appropriate to females, that he is effeminate; and also of the woman who partakes of the character appropriate to males, that she is masculine. These terms, we all know, are intended to designate something out of place, .something undesirable and unlovely. We tolerate here and there an anomaly of this kind; but we wish to see such cases “ few and far be¬ tween.” We should wisely consider the end of all things not far distant should they become universal. It may be difficult to trace the precise line of demarkation where the masculine character ends and where the feminine begins; but the general i APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 13 distinctions between them, as well as the dangers to which females are exposed in this particular, are abundantly exhibited in the sacred Scriptures. As I wish to be guided by the counsels of divine wisdom in this somewhat delicate yet highly important sub¬ ject, I would proceed to call your attention “ to the law and to the testimony.” It is my simple aim to expound and apply the lessons of the Bible" upon the subject before us. “ Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.” 1 Cor. xiii. 34. Here it is declared to be according to the divine law that females should observe silence in the churches, and act in subordi¬ nation to the authority of man. “And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” 1 Cor. xiv. 35. It is here asserted to be inconsistent with female delicacy and modesty that they should speak in public. No exclusive reference is had to what is sometimes called a “ church meet¬ ing.” The apostle asserts a general principle for general reasons, as we shall see. There is no mys¬ tical reason why a woman should not speak in an assembly of the church rather than in any other assembly; nay, there are some reasons why it would r e safer and more proper for her to speak in a meeting of the church than in a promiscuous assem- j. y. This the apostle implies in a subsequent pas- 2 14 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. sage, as we shall show; and if she ought not so much as to ask a question in a public meeting, but should do even that privately at home, much less ought she to undertake to admnce her own opinions, and to dictate instructions and rules to others. It appears that there were some among the primi¬ tive matrons who, moved by a false zeal, encouraged the younger sisters in defaming and falsely accusing those who did not adopt their views and conform to their wishes; the tendency of whose conduct was to displace sober-mindedness, to alienate wives from their husbands, children, and domestic duties, to promote indelicacy and a fondness of being from home; insomuch that the pure lustre of Christianity was tarnished and the gospel reproached. Hence the apostle said to a minister of the gospel, “ Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine; that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in patience; the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as hecometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedi¬ ent to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” Titus ii. 1— 5. The same apostle animadverts in terms of unqualified rebuke upon those who, meddling with things without theii proper sphere, spend their time, as he expresses it in “ wandering about from house to house; and no APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 15 only idle, but tattlers also, and busy bodies, speaking things which they ought not.” 1 Tim. v. 13. The duty of wives to be subject to their husbands and to reverence them is inculcated in the following strong language. While instructing husbands to love their wives as their own bodies, instead of treating them as the heathen do theirs, the apostie says, “ Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord; for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and he is the Savior of the body. There¬ fore as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” Eph. v. 22—24, 33. “ But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man.” “ For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, bu the woman for the man. For this cause the v. ./man ought to have power on her head, because of the angels.” 1 Cor. xi. 3, 8—10. That is, she ought to have a covering or veil on her head, in sign that she is under the power of her husband, on account of the irreligious who came to their assemblies as spies or lookers on. Here then is a promiscuous assembly, not an exclusive meeting of the church, and the apostle teaches us that here she must not only be in silence, but must even have on 1 16 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. s' the then customary badge of modesty and subjec¬ tion. Such then are inspired views respecting female delicacy and propriety, respecting her becoming defe¬ rence to the other sex, and her appropriate reverence and homage to her husband. She is even represented as the glory of her husband, as he is the glory of God. “ For as much,” says the apostle, “ as he is the image and the glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.” How any person of sober mind can read such scriptures and not perceive that they recognise an important distinction between the ap¬ propriate virtues and duties of the sexes, i am una¬ ble to perceive. The doctrine is however by some confidently sustained and acted on, that all this dis¬ tinction is artificial, unchristian, an invidious preju¬ dice, and ought to be broken down. In his epistle to Timothy the apostle gives the following instruction: “In like manner also that women adorn themselves with modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or with gold, or pearls, or costly array, but, which becometh women professing godliness, with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” 1 Tim. ii. ) —14. Here the inspired writer instructs us that APPROPRIATE sphere of. woman. 17 women should clothe themselves with modest appa¬ rel, not with those glaring and gaudy trappings which attract vulgar and wanton eyes, as the heatjien omen do; and, further, that in public' they should always be learners and never teachers, and that they should never assume the position of dictation or of authority over man. As a reason for this, he re¬ minds us that Adam was first formed; that Eve was then formed, to be his help meet , and not his teacher or governess; and as a further reason why woman should be slow to dictate and ready to leam in all matters of doubtful expediency or questionable right, he reminds us that her characteristic ardor and ' imprudence, her love of novelty and change, had once betrayed her into transgression—that “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgressionthus intir 'ng that had she kept her proper place and been guided by the man, instead of attempting to guide him, the great disaster would not have befallen our race. The general idea is clearly maintained, that as man is possessed of a strong desire to gratify the woman, insomuch that he is liable to dethrone his better judgment and to follow her wishes, even if she leads him astray, as in the case of Adam and Eve, it is imminently dangerous that she, whose predomi¬ nant characteristic is not so much sound and compre¬ hensive judgment as curiosity and romantic impulse, should assume the reins. Thus, if language has any definite meaning, the Bible seems clearly to 2* B 1 18 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. t teach' that man should always sit at the helm, tc lead public, sentiment and control public movements; while woman was to move in another but not less important or honorable sphere, where she was to put forth the peculiar and powerful influences of her personal virtues and acquirements. The apostle says, “ I suffer not a woman to teach,” &c. The term teach is the same as that employed by Christ when he said, “Go ye and teach,” or disciple, “ all nations,” &c. This commission was ..given exclusively to men. Christ had many excel¬ lent female disciples, but to none of them did he extend this commission; and the apostle reminds some of the primitive sisters of this fact, at a time when they seem to have been inclined to forget it. This remembrancer still speaks, and his message is as important and as binding as ever. The physical constitution of the sexes plainly indicates that, as a general rule, the more severe manual labors, the toils of the field, the mechanic arts, the cares and burdensof mercantile business, the exposures and perils of absence from home, the duties of the learned professions, devolve upon man; while the more delicate and retired cares and labors of the household devolve upon woman. The intellectual and moral constitution of the sexes, as well as the Bible, instructs us that all the affairs of state, both civil and political, all the affairs of the church as respects both government and pub¬ lic teaching, all the enterprises for evangelizing and APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 19 reforming the world, all the more public, literary and religious institutions, especially those embracing both sexes, should be headed and controlled by man; while the more modest and retiring, though not less valuable and powerful, influences of her personal character and conversation .upon her domesti c circle, her neighbors and associates, and through them upon the world, together with the fruits of her intel¬ lect, imparted not in public lectures, but by private instruction, or communicated to the world through , the medium of the press, belong to woman. The appropriate sphere and distinguishing duties of woman are then as follows:—Having given herself up to God, her first duty is to take care of her own house. Having severely rebuked the con¬ duct of those who, leaving the domestic duties, wander about from house to house, idle, tattlers, busy bodies, speaking things which tl.ey ought not, the apostle adds, “ I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house ; give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” 1 Tim. v. 14. Nor let any woman pronounce this an invidious and menial sphere of duty. Let. her but consider how much the happiness of society and the progress of the world in all that is good depend upon domestic causes. Let her also know in what I admiration she is held by those whose respect is most to be valued, who, on entering her house, behold an abode of neatness, order, cheerfulness, and hospitality • her children well clad and smiling, her II I 20 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. table neatly spread with wholesome provisions, and every thing about her seeming to say, “ Here is my happiness; my husband is my best companion, my children are my jewels; my house is my home, and no earthly pleasure excels that of rendering it a domestic paradise—a centre of attraction to my family, so that they are nowhere else so happy f a place too of welcome and grateful reception to the stranger ’’-—and she will see that this is second to no other secular sphere for honor or importance; that she has no occasion to covet the chairs of state or the noisy scenes of public action. She will be satis¬ fied with the inspired description of woman in her true glory,—although the progress of art has some¬ what changed her occupation, yet the general duty is still essentially the same,—“ She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself co¬ verings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.” Observe the hus¬ band, not the wife, is seen in the gates, the places of concourse, and is known by his respectable appearance imparted by the domestic virtues of his wife ; so that all who see him say, “ There is the man who has a good wife to take care of him.” “ She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and deli- •v APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF. WOMAN. 21 vereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honor are her clothing ; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuous¬ ly, but thou excellest them all” Prov. xxxi. While thus administering neatness, order, comfort and happiness to her household, her hands may also go forth to embrace the poor and the* afflicted; she may, as did the holy women who attended on the ministry of Christ and his apostles, make coats and garments for the destitute, and visit the houses of sorrow and of want with her tender sympathies and benevolent aid. Thus the same passage of scripture which describes the domestic virtues says also, as we have seen, “ She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she stretcheth forth her hands to the needy.” But let it not be supposed that her agency is to be restricted to mere temporal affairs. She ought not, like a sister of old, to be “ cumbered with much serving,” to the neglect of other and higher duties. To “ look well to the ways of her household and eat not the bread of idleness,” to see that whatever her husband provides tells to advantage in the neat and tasteful apparel, the well-spread table, the com¬ fort and happiness of her family, is of course a duty 22 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. never to be neglected; but more, much more than this, remains for her to do. It is hers also to nourish and adorn the young and growing minds; to cause her instructions to distil upon them as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as showers that water the earth; to bend and direct the infant twig in the way it should grow, that it may shoot erect towards heaven; to put forth a mother’s restraining and elevating influence upon her sons, that they “ may be as plants grown up in theii youth,” and to bestow a mother’s peculiar guardian¬ ship and delicate care upon her daughters, that “ they may be as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace to exert a holy influence upon her husband, and by her sweet and tender sympathies to calm his anxious mind, smooth his ruffled brow, and cheer him on in the path of self- denying duty and of high endeavor; to diffuse all around her, as she mingles in society, the pure and mighty influences of female piety, always savoring of delicacy, modesty, good sense, intelligence, and transparent benevolence ; and all this, if you please, adorned with a finished culture, sparkling with chastened and refined wit, and attended with what¬ ever may be most attractive and commanding in the peculiar graces and beauties of the female character. These are the noblest virtues of woman ; these are what render her what she was made to be, if we may credit the Bible, the help that is “ meet ” or suitable for man—such a help as he needs. And APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 23 who will say that they are not as important, as honorable, as elevated, and that they do not invite and .give ample scope to as high intellectual and moral cultivation, as the distinguishing duties of men ? IIovv sadly then do they mistake who suppose that the sacred writers depress the female sex when they so much restrict their influence to personal, essential, intrinsic elevation and goodness. This is in fact the only true excellence, the most glorious of all power. Even the man who must needs stretch for an office, or covet some public notoriety, to make himself felt in the world, or to secure honor, is but a sorry man; how much more is she but a sorry woman who must needs resort to these adventitious means of influence or distinction. No : so far from depressing the female sex, it was the wise intent of Providence in this arrangement to elevate her to the highest point of the most excellent worth and influ¬ ence ; to protect her, who was to be the model of all that is lovely in character and the source of the most transforming and benign influence upon the world, from all temptation to seek the more outward and vulgar forms of honor—to shine in the adventitious distinctions of office, to challenge for her fair name a place in the rude ballot-box, or among the candi¬ dates for public office, or in the noisy halls of state; to covet for herself a share with those who would shine in public exploits. Hers was to be pre-emi¬ nently the intrinsic worth, the essential honor, the 24 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. pure moral influence of 'personal excellence; always unaspiring, always modest and delicate, always gen¬ tle and kind, always full of mercy and good fruits ; whose subject is always most loved and admired where most known, and of course always most loved and admired at home , and then by all who know her. Who can tell how great the influence, how wide and lasting the blessing, which the woman of such a character will bequeath to the world, or how radiant the glory with which Christ will adorn her head in the last day ? But oh how fallen from this high elevation is she when, impatient of her proper sphere, she steps forth to assume the duties of the man, and, impelled by false zeal, with conscience misguided, does as even man ought not to do—when, forsaking the domestic hearth, her delicate voice is heard from house to house, or in social assemblies, rising in harsh un¬ natural tones of denunciation against civil laws and rulers, against measures involving political and state affairs of which she is nearly as ignorant as the child she left at home in the cradle, against churches and ministers, perhaps her own pastor, and certainly all who dissent from her views; expecting to refoim politics and churches, and to put down every real and supposed evi] in them, by the right arm of fe¬ male power, and clamorous for the organization of female societies for this specific object; not slow to anathematize all who do not submit to her dictation, in the stereotype phraseology of certain modern APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 25 charity, as “ time-serving men ” and “ canting hypo¬ crites and withal very sure that the world will never go right till women take the lead ! What a sad wreck of female loveliness is she then ! She can hardly conceive how ridiculous she appears in the eyes of all sober, discreet, judicious Christian men, or how great the reproach she brings upon her sex. Despite of gallantry, her power over the minds of men is then at an end; she must henceforth “fight as one that beateth the air.” Men will smile or pity, and let her pass on; for to expostulate or argue they will soon find to be in vain, inasmuch as she is certainly right, has nothing to learn, and is bent only on teaching. But I would treat this subject with great tender¬ ness. Many of those who have fallen into this mis¬ taken and unhappy course were originally moved by good feelings and benevolent motives. But they fell under the influence of bad teachers. Some flaming periodical or plausible and exciting lecturer kindled up a false fire in their too credulous and susceptible but well meaning bosoms. They are misguided. They verily think they are “ doing God service.” They perhaps even covet to be “ persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” and consider every effort to cor¬ rect their way as this kind of persecution. They very sincerely suppose that they are far in advance of their unenlightened, less philanthropic, or more timid sisters. They are willing to brave public sen¬ timent at all hazards. They have entire confidence 3 26 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. in the righteousness and the success of their cause. As to their logic and their arguments, they cannot be resisted; they have already seen some strong men l ' quail under them.” They have only to go forward with increasing effort—to throw themselves boldly into this Thermopyloe. The sacrifice is de¬ manded, and they are ready to make it. They un¬ fortunately suppose that the public odium which they encounter for stepping out of their appropriate sphere is nothing more nor less than the hostility of sin to the cause of truth and righteousness. Far be it from me to impugn motives so long as any favorable construction remains for them ; and those persons who are actuated by such views and motives as these are surely rather to be pitied than reproached. Some will only be spurred on to more desperate steps by whatever may be said to restrain them; others will see their error, retreat to their appro¬ priate sphere, and recover the character which they had wellnigh lost. To some a faithful exposition of the gospel upon this subject, as well as upon all others, will prove a “ savor of life unto life ; ” to others, of “death unto death.” But here, as in all other cases, our hope is mainly to save those who are not far gone and fully committed, and who of course are yet susceptible to instructions from the Bible respecting their duty. So long as they retain the characteristic graces of their sex in lively exer¬ cise, so long as delicacy and modesty and the finer feelings of retiring and unostentatious benevolence APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 27 nave the ascendency over them, if they are well in¬ formed of what is passing* they will be quick to dis¬ cern the meaning and the importance of the inspired lessons upon this subject. Such, in a high degree, God be thanked, is still the character of most of the female sex in our country. But those females who suppose that no bad in¬ fluences are at work among them, who suppose that no alarming danger threatens them, who suppose that there are as yet none on whom the inspired rebukes upon this subject justly fall, and who of course suppose that such cautions and admonitions as this discourse humbly attempts are uncalled for, have not diligently observed the “ signs of the times.” It may be very well. They have been, perhaps, attending exclusively to their own affairs; and the very fact that they do not at once see the importance or the application of these instructions, may be evidence that they themselves do not need them except as preventives. The principle of pre¬ vention, rather than of cure, is the apology for pre¬ senting this subject at the present time. It may not be the duty of every person to watch the signs of the times, but it is certainly the duty of some to do it; and those whom God has set expressly as watch¬ men to his people, and to whom he has said, “ Hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me,” must not withhold the warning when they see the evil approaching. They must anticipate its arrival. Let the admonitions of the gospel upon this subject i + 28 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. go before and prevent the threatening evil. Let ita salutary voice of warning be heard in all the land before the plague has spread over it and killed, wherever it can, the “ presiding genius ” and the “ potent charm ” of the “ fair sex,” and thus laid all domestic piety and happiness, nay the domestic con¬ stitution itself, in a deep and dark grave. For surely as this unsexing process goes on till it becomes uni¬ versal, not an individual will remain for man to love with the true conjugal affection, unless himself first becomes a woman. Have we yet to learn that similar magnets repel ? And even if man could succeed to engage his affections to so unnatured and repulsive an object as a woman that has lost the characteristic graces of her sex, who in his right mind would hazard his hand and happiness with one that has already entered upon a course so ominous of domestic trouble ? Is it not well known by the cautious observer, that the woman who is what the apostle calls “ a busy-body in other men’s matters” has left an u —first rendered such by her own neglect or indis¬ cretion or peevishness, and from which she now flees in search of happiness. Depend upon it, it is generally the case that the woman who is much abroad has left an unhappy home. It may be supposed by some that these instructions have no application to any but married females. It is true that those who have no families to care for may have more time than wives and mothers have nhappy home ? APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 29 to devote to matters abroad. But how many have not parents, or brothers or sisters, or home, to bless with most of their presence and attentions ? Those who can command a larger part of their time to de¬ vote to Christian conversation and to deeds of kind¬ ness and charity abroad, in ways comprehended in the appropriate sphere of female action, may con¬ sider it their privilege and duty to do it. It is our happiness to know some such women, who, although v not mothers of families, are “ mothers in Israel,” whose characters savor of nothing but the strictest female propriety and the highest excellence, whose time is nevertheless mostly devoted to benevolent deeds among the ignorant, the destitute, the vicious, or the afflicted. Such are deserving of all praise. Those who would see one of the happiest illustra¬ tions of this will do well to read the life of Hannah More. It is unnecessary to attempt to define the exact line over which the graces of female character forbid woman to step, but from the scriptures which we have introduced we may easily trace its general di¬ rection. It respects, both the things which she does and her manner of doing them. To perform deeds of personal charity and kind¬ ness to the destitute and afflicted; to converse modestly or to employ the pen upon subjects which engage her mind and interest her heart; to assist in the circulation of approved religious tracts ; to act the part of a personal or a private teacher, wheffl^ 3 * 30 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAlN. secular or religious; to engage in small social cir* cles of her own sex in the duties of devotion and of Christian conversation; to solicit charity for approved benevolent objects, by private application—deeds like these, if performed with the spirit and manner which become her, appear to be comprehended with¬ in the sphere which the Scriptures assign to the female sex; and I know of no female virtue on which they necessarily encroach. But when females undertake to assume the place of public teachers, whether to both sexes or only to their own; when they form societies for the purpose of sitting in judgment and acting upon the affairs of the church and state ; when they travel about from place to place as lecturers, teachers, and guides to public sentiment; when they assemble in con¬ ventions to discuss questions, pass resolutions, make speeches, and vote upon civil, political, moral, and religious matters ; when they begin to send up their names to gentlemen holding official stations, gravely declaring their own judgment in regard to what they ought to do, and informing them, with solemn men¬ ace, what they have themselves determined to do if they do not yield to their wishes—even to repeat the expression of their sentiments until they do yield; when they attempt the reformation of morals by en¬ gaging in free conversation and discussion upon those things of which the apostle says “ it is a shame even to speak; ” when they encourage meetings and measures like the above, either by their presence. APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 31 countenance, or service;—in short, when the dis¬ tinguishing graces of modesty, deference, delicacy and sweet charity are in any way displaced by the opposite qualities of boldness, arrogance, rudeness, indelicacy, and the spirit of denunciation of men and measures, so that they give any just occasion for being denominated, by way of distinction, “ the female brethren ”—it is then no longer a question whether they have stretched themselves beyond their measure and violated the inspired injunction which saith, “ Let the woman learn in silence with all sub¬ jection ; but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” And why should any woman thus sacrifice her¬ self ? Does duty demand it ? Must she do it for conscience’ sake ? However good the object, it can¬ not be duty to seek its promotion by such means as these. The end can never justify the means, in the estimation of any whose conscience is not per¬ verted. Does she do it for the sake of the suffering or the oppressed, or to correct moral evils and ex¬ terminate vice ? There is “ a more excellent way” to do this, and also at the same time to promote and elevate her own character; a way clearly indicated, as we have seen, in the word of God. It can never be the duty of any one to attempt to benefit others at the sacrifice of her own character. Is her object persona] distinction ? Let her contemplate such characters as Hannah More and Isabella Graham, than which lovelier and brighter never shone upon 32 APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. earth, in contrast with those who have acquired an unenviable distinction in these unchristian ways— the Royals and the Darusmonts of our day—and she may see that the surest way to true glory is the one ordained for her by God. The world has had enough of Fanny Wrights ; whether they appear in the name of avowed infidelity, or of civil and human rights, or of political economy, or of morals and religion, their tendency is ultimately the same—the alienation of the sexes, the subversion of the distinguishing ex¬ cellence and benign influence of woman in society, the destruction of the domestic constitution, the pros¬ tration of all decency and order, the reign of wild anarchy and shameless vice. Thomas Paine could not desire better disciples ; nor would it much con¬ cern him in what name or cause they might profess to appear, since the ultimate effect is one and the same. May those who emulate the noble example of the Mores and the Grahams of both continents be greatly multiplied. May the “ daughters of America,” ob¬ servant of the true dignity and glory of their sex, consecrating their earliest and best affections to the Savior, increase the excellence and power of their influence a thousand fold. The universal reign of domestic happiness, the end of g.11 oppression, the extermination of vice, the conversion of souls, to¬ gether with the growing spirituality and vigor of the Christian church—the approach of the Redeemer’s kingdom, bringing whatsoever is pure and lovely APPROPRIATE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 33 and of good report—will then be rapidly hastened. Zion will begin to “ look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” She will put on her “ beau¬ tiful garments; ” her “ righteousness will go forth a brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burn eth; ” paradise, lost by the fall, will hasten its return It will then appear that the sacred influence of pious females, acting in their appropriate sphere, is second to no other human influence for excellence or im¬ portance in accomplishing the renovation of the world; for “ the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” \ n 1 \ THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON WOMAN. “ And of the chief women not a few * The abject condition of the female ocx in all out Christian countries is universally known and admit¬ ted. In all savage and pagan tribes the severest burdens of physical toil are laid upon their shoul¬ ders : they are chiefly valued for the same reason that men value their more useful animals, or as ob¬ jects of theii sensual and selfish desires. Even in the learned an 1 dignified forms of eastern paganism, “ the wife,’' su^-s one who has spent seventeen years among them, “ is he slave rather than the compan¬ ion of her husband. She is not allowed to walk with him, she must walk behind him—not to eat with him, she must eat after him, and eat of what he leaves . She must not sleep until he is asleep, nor remain asleep after he is awake. If -she is sit¬ ting and he comes in, she should rise up. She should, say their sacred books, have no other god on earth than her husband. Him she should wor¬ ship while he lives, and, when he dies, she should INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, &C. 35 be burnt with him.”—“ As the widow,” in case she is not burnt, “is not allowed to marry again, is often considered little better than an outcast, and not un- frequently sinks into gross vice, her life can scarcely be considered a blessing.” The same author re¬ marks that “ there is little social intercourse between the sexes, little or no acquaintance of the parties be* fore marriage, and consequently little mutual attach¬ ment; and as there is an absolute vacuity and dark¬ ness in the minds of the females, who are not al¬ lowed even to learn to read, there is no solid foun¬ dation laid for domestic happiness.” If we pass into the dominions of the crescent, we find the condition of females, in some respects, rather worse, it would seem, than better. For in pa¬ gan India, debased and abused as woman is, she is still allowed some interest in religion, and some com¬ mon expectations with the other sex concerning the future state. But in Mohammedan countries, even this is nearly or quite denied her. “ It is a popular tradition among the Mohammedans, which obtains to this day, that women shall not enter paradise and it requires some effort for the imagination to conceive how debased and wretched must be the condition of the female sex, to originate and sustain such a hor¬ rible and blasphemous tradition. Even in the refined and shining ages of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, where the cultivation of letters, the graces of finished style, the charms of poetry and eloquence, the elegancies of architecture, sculpture 1 36 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY painting, and embroidery, the glory of conquest and the pride of national distinction, were unsurpassed by any people before or since, even then and there what was woman but the abject slave of man ?—the object of his ambition, or his avarice, or his lust, or his power ?—the alternate victim of his pleasure, his disgust, or his cruelty ?—the creature of his caprice ? —and, what is still worse, the menial slave of her own mental darkness, moral debasement, and vicious indulgences ? If history does not lie, the answer is decisive. This, and almost only this, was she. So far down as the close of the sixteenth century, a Latin author wrote a book to prove that women are not rational beings, have no souls, and that there awaits them no future, life or happiness beyond the grave. This may have been intended as a severe humor, a sarcastic argument for a particular end, rather than a serious confirmation of so shocking a dogma; ye f «uch was its influence that Simon Gedicus, a Lumeran divine, deemed it important to write a serious confutation of this work, in 1595, “ wherein,” says a certain author, “ women are re¬ stored to the expectation of heaven, on their good behavior.” Such then is the debased and forlorn condition of woman as the ruins of the fall have left her, and wherever the benign influences from a better world have not reached her. But how gloriously does Christianity reverse all this. As if to set her on high forever, the natural pa ON WOMAN. 37 rent of the world’s Savior was a woman;—the tears of joy that bedewed his infant cheeks were a wo¬ man’s tears ,—the arms that fondly clasped the sweet babe, and laid him softly down to slumber in the manger, were a woman’s arms;—yes, and it was a woman who first felt the redeeming and ^elevating power of Christianity, and with exultation sang, “ My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior; for he hath re¬ garded the low estate of his handmaiden; for be¬ hold, from henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” Not only was the Savior’s childhood protected and blessed by female care, but through his whole life women were in constant attendance upon his minis¬ try. It was woman’s hospitality which furnished his table; woman’s penitence which washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head; woman’s sorrow which bewailed and lamented him, as he ascended with mournful steps to Calvary; woman’s love, stronger than death, which followed his body to the sepulchre to see how it was laid ; woman’s fidelity which prepared spices and ointments to embalm it; woman’s faithful piety which was earliest at the sepulchre, had the first view of the risen Savior, and proclaimed the glad tidings to the world. When, in obedience to the command of their risen Lord, the disciples went forth and proclaimed the gospel, women were among the first and most 4 38 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY zealous believers ; and our text records, to the honor of their sex, that when Paul had spent three Sab¬ baths in one of the chief cities of Macedonia, rea¬ soning with the people out of the Scriptures, open¬ ing and alleging that it* was needful that Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead, “ some of the people believed and joined themselves to Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.” They were the chief women, and not a few of them, that received the Son of God and joined themselves to his people. While, as the context informs, the Jews, who believed not, moved with envy, and certain vile fellows of the baser sort, could find no better thing to do than to lift up their impotent and blood-stained hands against Jesus Christ, these chief women , of noble spirit, together with the devout Greeks, gave their hearts and their hands to speed the cause of human redemption. It has ever been a favorite taunt of infidels and scorners, that Christianity is so much embraced by women. “ It is a religion,” say they, “ for women and children thus associating women with children, making puerility of intellect and feebleness of un¬ derstanding characteristic of their sex. We need not here pause to rebuke the scandal which, in their zeal to injure Christianity, they thus cast upon the female sex; but would only say, that if there were any meaning or force in it, so far from being a re¬ proach to Christianity, it were rather an honor to i ON WOMAN. 39 the female sex, that so many of them have the dis¬ cernment and the moral sense to see the beauty and yield to the claims of divine truth. There are natural reasons, however, as I conceive, why there are more converts to Christianity from among’ women than men, of such a nature as at once to break the teeth of the infidel’s scandal, and take from woman all dangerous occasion for glory¬ ing. I suppose the fact that more women than men do become pious, will not be doubted. St. Augustine denominated them in his day, it is said, “ the devout sex;” and whether that designation was originally intended only for those specially consecrated or not, it certainly applies with much truth and propriety to the sex, as such, in every age. It is believed that in most of the Christian churches of both conti¬ nents there are more females than males; and that if the aggregate of all the true believers and faithful followers of Christ upon the face of the earth could be taken, the number from the female sex would much exceed that from the other. But there are causes for this, which go to show that it implies no superiority in the one sex over the other, or any inap¬ titude in the Christian religion to intellects of both / sexes and of all grades. The principle is this.—Religion does not come and take possession of the human soul by any accident or caprice, nor by any physical violence. It is the result of consideration, thought, reflec¬ tion, bestowed upon the subject in sufficient relative I % 40 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY measure to secure, through divine influence, the moral change in question. Hence absorbing devo¬ tion to any other object, or subjection to any vice, will operate to resist the Spirit and repel religion. The causes by which we are induced to embrace Christianity are of two kinds, natural and super¬ natural. By the former I designate all that is com¬ prehended in means, by the latter the influence of the Holy Spirit. I believe the latter influence to be always essentially concerned in regeneration, and in every stage of sanctification, but that it ordi¬ narily operates in connection with means. Now if we should suppose the same intellectual adaptation of Christianity to the male as to the female intellect, and the same influence of the divine Spirit upon each, but yet if at the same time the natural causes should in the one case be superior to what they are in the other, there would still be seen to be a sufficient reason why there are more numerous ex¬ amples of Christian piety among women than among men. Let us then proceed to notice some of the natural causes which operate in favor of female piety. 1. Women are less exposed than men to those vices which are incompatible with Christian piety; such as intemperance, licentiousness, gambling, and all kinds of debauchery. The constitution and */ habits of civilized countries throw up a very high and strong fortification around female virtue. If man is willing to be vicious himself, he is not wil- ON WOMAN. 41 ling that woman should be ; at least, he will despise her and cast her out from society if she is. Men may indulge in vices to some extent, and yet hold high their heads, and move and shine in society. They may practise them in secret; in places remote from home, where they are not known ; under co¬ vert of darkness and pretence of business; in com¬ pany with those whose voices are never heard in the society in which they move;—and even if their vices are known, unless they are excessive, the fair sex, so kind and forgiving are they, still admit them into their society, and give them the smile of indul¬ gence. But these are things which woman cannot do. She cannot, in the first place, 'practise vices without being known, as men can ; and, in the second place, if she is known to be in any degree vicious—if a single vice is found upon her—the star of her beauty is set, her fair name is blighted forever, she is an outcast from society. Hence the footsteps of female virtue are peculiarly guarded, circumspect, cautious; the barrier against vice is too high to scale, the gulf beneath too deep and awful to plunge. Some, in¬ deed, do surmount the barrier and fall; but their fall is like that of Lucifer. They are henceforth known only as objects of commiseration, disgust, and almost hopeless wretchedness. Even the man who seduced her from the paths of virtue is one of the first to despise her and to cast her down to remedi¬ less ruin ; while he turns away from her, and goes 4# 42 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY j back into society again, to play the gentleman there ! Now the number of men who indulge in those vices which do not depose them from a standing in society, but which would depose females, is probably considerable; but while they do not exclude them from the society of their fellow-men, they do fatally exclude them from the kingdom of God. It is not necessary that a man, in order to ruin his soul, should indulge in the most open, abominable, de¬ testable excesses of vice ; it is only necessary that he should indulge in occasional, concealed, and more refined vices, those which society agrees to wink at. “ For this ye know, that no lewd nor unclean person, nor drunkard, nor whatsoever defileth or worketh abomination, hath any part in the kingdom of Christ or of God.’’ Any vice, no matter what its form and complexion, cherished, and not renounced, will exclude a man from the kingdom of God as effectually as jf ten thousand iron gates were bolted and barred against him. Hence the Savior said, “ If thy right eye shall cause thee to sin, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand shall cause thee to sin, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Suppose, now, that two individuals of similar i ON WOMAN. 43 mental constitution are sitting under the preaching of the gospel; but the one, in order to become a Chris¬ tian, must cut off his right hand and pluck out his right eye ; the other has no such sacrifice to make. Is it not, then, reasonable to suppose that the same truth, the same argument, the same conviction, and the same measure of divine influence, will he much more likely to secure the conversion of the latter than of the former? Undoubtedly. Such is found to be the fact. And it remains for eternity to reveal thousands of conversions to God from among females as the consequence of that virtue by which, as a sex, they are protected ; and thousands of ruined souls from among men, as the fruit of those vices to which, as a sex, they are exposed, and to which they wick¬ edly yield. 2. Women are less exposed than men to the ab¬ sorbing passion of gam. So predominant and ruin¬ ous is this passion, that the Scriptures have styled it “ the god of this world,” and they have represented it as having a mighty influence in blinding the minds of men to the glory of the gospel. “ If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.” “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” Mammon, you well know, was the Syriac god of wealth. It devolves mainly upon men to provide for their i 44 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY families the necessary supports of life. It is theirs to cultivate and dispose of the fruits of the earth; to control the operations and secure the proceeds of the mechanic arts; to prosecute and realize the avails of the learned professions ; to move around the wheels of mercantile enterprise and catch the falling bounty ; to sieze, with eagle-eye, the distant gain, and speculate in houses and lands and stocks. For woman to do this, would ordinarily he quite out of place and character. Now how easy and natural it is, in a \vorld like this, fallen as we are, for a reasonable and proper desire of gain, in them so much devoted to it as men are, to degenerate into an absorbing passion ; so that pos¬ session, instead of being made a subordinate means to the true end of existence, becomes itself the ulti¬ mate object, the god and portion of the soul; to which all that is truly good, both in this life and in that which is to come, must be sacrificed. What are those vices , to which I have just alluded, but constitutional and innocent desires, when rightly restrained and governed, let loose and run mad ? And what is the passion of avarice but the same thing? Now are not men immeasurably more ex¬ posed and addicted than women to both of these iniquities ; and do not both of them equally and fa¬ tally exclude the soul from heaven ? Hath not the voice of inspiration declared that this idolatrous love of money is a “ root of all evil,” causing those who indulge it to resist the truth and pierce themselves ON WOMAN. 45 through with many sorrows ? And does not the very same Scripture say, “ This we know, that no lewd nor unclean person, nor covetous, hath any in¬ heritance in the kingdom of Christ ? ” 3. Women are less exposed than men to the lust of civil power , office, dominion. In all but hereditary governments, they are entirely excluded from posts of civil distinction; and there, of course, is little or no room for the desire or pursuit of them, since all is hereditary and fixed. I do not say that the desire for a public post of honor and influence is always and of necessity sinful, any more than is the desire for pleasure or for property ; but this I say, that in the existing state of the world, when so much chicanery and iniquity are practised to secure office; when, for this object, so much envy, and slander, and shuffling, and strife, and wrath, are indulged ; when of the men in power so few regard the precepts of Christianity, and office is so commonly held, not for the public good or the glory of God, but to gratify the lust of power and ambition ; it is, as our Savior said of the man devoted to riches, among the almost impossible things for a man in pursuit of a public office to enter the kingdom of heaven. And yet, what multitudes of men in our country whose hearts are at this moment burning with the lust of office ! How many have entirely sold themselves to this god ! To this they live and breathe and have their being. To this they offer their morning and eve¬ ning devotions, and pay their costliest sacrifice. Tt i 46 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY engager their first and their latest thoughts; it even induces them to profane the Sabbath with the read¬ ing of political news, and with forming their unhal¬ lowed schemes of ambition ; it tempts them to do many things which their own consciences condemn, and ^’hich they know full well they must not do, if they would be the followers of Christ. “ How can a man repent,one has justly said, “ wdiose soul is engrossed with the wily policy of ambition ; who seeks office, fame, applause ?—on whose favor flatter¬ ers hang, and around whose steps thousands are offering the incense of adulation ?—whose very business is a species of evading the right way of honesty, and travelling in just such a devious path as the sinner loves to tread ?” “ Where is the man that would not rather climb the steeps of praise, with incense burning around him, and the multitude ren¬ dering homage at his feet, than be found pleading for mercy with bitter tears, like David, the best of kings, or weeping in the prayer meeting, or in his office, or counting-room ? ” Upon this great field of public strife, this land of war and blood and death, where such multitudes of men peril their moral in¬ terests and even lay down their lives in sacrifice, where the glories of heaven and the terrors of hell are equally unheeded, the gentle and unaspiring steps of woman do not enter. She treads a more quiet and virtuous path, where, instead of the noise of po¬ litical strife, the shouts of conquest, and the groans of defeat, she is saluted with tidings from a better i ON WOMAN. 47 world—where the silent and powerful language of truth, the voice of God, the entreaties of the Savior; the deep and solemn echoes from eternity, fall on her listening ear and enter her heart. 4. Women are more at home than men. More se¬ cluded from the agitations of society, the strifes of ambition, the clamor of business, the excitements and perils of war and of military prowess, she is ordinarily more favorably crcumstanced for calm and serious reflection. Less exposed to the feverish air of the world, she is thus enabled to breathe more of the cool and healthful atmosphere of a better clime. Of all places upon earth, the calm domestic retreat, in connection with the sanctuary, is most favorable to virtuous contemplation, to moral elevation, and true Christian piety. It is not in the midst of the rush of business, or the agitations of civil and political life, or the shouts of armies and battles, or any of those out of door scenes in which so large a portion of man’s life is spent, that serious and salutary thoughts of God, of death, judgment, and eternity, are wont to visit the soul. No—it is in that more favored place— home —nearest the sanc¬ tuary and nearest heaven ; the rightful dominion of woman ; where she passes, unmolested, most of her time ; where she finds most of her employment, and where she shines in her purest and brightest lustre. When I preach the gospel to women, I encourage myself with the thought that they will go home to think upon it; but when I preach the gospel to men, 48 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY I am often disheartened with the fear that they will go out into the bustling world and forget it. 5. Women are more exposed than men to those sufferings and trials which render religion pecu¬ liarly acceptable. That sufferings of various kinds are among the means ordained and adapted to bring us to Christ, is a doctrine taught both in the Bible and by our own experience and observation ; and that by far the greater portion of human sufferings falls to the female sex, is a fact equally known and admitted. If we speak of ■‘physical sufferings, the delicacy and frailty of her frame, the susceptibility of her nervous system, together with the more peculiar and exclu¬ sive sufferings of her sex, enhanced and embittered as they are in consequence of the apostasy, accord¬ ing to the declaration, “ I will greatly multiply thy sorrows,” &c., prolonged through all ages and ex¬ tending to all ranks and conditions, there is in them much that is calculated to wean her spirit from the flesh, and induce her trembling and anxious soul to seek for sympathy and safety in Christ. While the more sturdy frame and iron nerves of man, and his exemption from the most and the severest of the ills that flesh is heir to, are by him too often perverted to an occasion of forgetting that his breath is in his nostrils and his foundation in the dust. If we speak of mental sufferings, the liveliness and keenness of her susceptibilities; her imminent exposure to those defeats, griefs, and disappointments. ON WOMAN. 49 which most severely sting- the heart, and for which there is no earthly antidote; the silent anguish of mortified vanity, of cruel neglect, of disappointed love; the bitter sorrows of her soul, while realizing in her own painful experience the utter emptiness and deceitfulness of the world, and not being able like men, to go out and plunge into the scenes of care and ambition to divert her mind and forget her afflictions; her peculiar helplessness and depen¬ dence in her afflictions;—are all calculated to dis¬ engage her affections and hopes from earthly things, to lead her chastened and subdued spirit to Jesus, to open her mind to the sweet invitation of his grace, as it falls gently upon her ear, “ Come unto me, ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” True she often has her gay morning, but how soon is it frequently overcast; bow soon does the beauty fade, the enchantment end, the dream of vanity and of gaiety vanish away ! The caprice of human flattery and the treachery of human friend¬ ships, are calculated to make her realize the worth of that honor which cannot perish, and the value of that Friend who never forsakes. She turns away from earth, gives her mortal interest up, reclines her head upon the bosom of Jesus, and is happy. 6, Women are more accustomed to subjection; men to rule. If a confiding and submissive dis¬ position is characteristic of woman, a dictatorial and unyielding disposition is characteristic of man. The spirit of the Christian religion is a spirit of sub- 5 D 1 50 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY jection to a superior and righteous authority. So characteristic is this of true piety, that the first decla¬ rations of our Savior pronounced blessings upon the poor in spirit, the meek, the lowly, the submissive, the unaspiring; and so important was the inculcation of this -sentiment by example as well as precept, that he declared that he did not himself come to be ministered unto, but to minister—not to be served, but to be himself servant to all. Immediately subsequent to the fall it was declared v to the woman, “ Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” In every succeeding age and nation, this declaration has been verified. And the new dispensation, not repealing this ordi¬ nance, requires it as a Christian duty of women to be obedient unto their husbands. In the ordinary and more appropriate state of things, it is man’s to assume authority and hold dominion, in every condi¬ tion, from the family up to the throne of nations. It is his, more appropriately, to sway the sceptre over empires ; to head and control armies; to pre¬ side in courts ; to enact laws; to direct the civil and social affairs of his town or neighborhood; to gov¬ ern his own household. Now the pride of domin¬ ion, the liberty and the disposition to govern rather than to be governed in the secular affairs of the world, is too often made an occasion among men of inducing them to resist the yoke of the divine government, to say of Jehovah and his Anointed, “ Let us break their bands asunder and cast away ON WOMAN. 51 their cords from us.” It is represented in the Scriptures as one of the greatest obstacles to the conversion of men to God, that such is their pride of dominion, that they are unwilling to be subject even to the government of Jehovah. Hence the prophet, speaking of the time when this obstacle shall give way before the power of the truth and Spirit of God, declares, “ The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” When the gospel is preached to women, and they are called upon to submit themselves to the divine government, they are only summoned to do that which is analogous to what they have been doing all their lives long. In infancy and childhood, they are subject to their parents ; in maturer years, they are subject to their husbands; in almost all nations and all conditions, the possibility or the acknowledged propriety of dominion is not hers ; insomuch that to usurp authority and exercise dominion over men and over society is almost universally acknowledged to be, in a woman, entirely out of place. How much more natural and easy then, humanly speaking, for those thus trained and accustomed to subjection from infancy through all their lives, to become subject to Christ, than for those who could scarcely brook even parental authority in childhood, and whose subse¬ quent life is a constant aspiration after an exercise of supremacy and dominion. 52 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY These, I apprehend, are the most important natu* ral causes operating to secure more examples of Christian piety among women than among men. They are of such a nature as to imply no mental imbecility on the part of women, and no intellectual flaws or accommodating weakness in Christianity, as infidelity has sneeringly averred;—they are such as any sound mind, understanding the nature of cause and effect, would expect to result in larger ac¬ cessions to religion from the female than from the male sex, allowing them to possess the same mental constitution and supposing Christianity to be a sys¬ tem of truth. Thus the calamities of the apostasy, which seem in some respects to have fallen more severely on women than on men, seem to result in securing a larger number of them to that grace which bringeth salvation. I shall conclude this chapter with two or three inferential remarks. If Providence has thus rendered it more easy for women to embrace religion than for men, then they are more guilty if they do not. The vigorous intellectual nerve acquired by men in the sharp en¬ counter of life being favorable to the active rather than the passive virtues, gives some peculiar ad¬ vantages for religion to men, but the advantages decidedly predominate upon the other side ; and al¬ though Providence has done enough for every indi¬ vidual, whether man or woman, to render impiety inexcusable, yet it is manifest that eminent advan ON WOMAN. 53 tages must bring eminent guilt, if they are not im* proved. Has Providence thrown a barrier very high and strong around female virtue, thus protecting her in an eminent degree from those vices which repel re¬ ligion ? Has he in a great measure delivered her from exposure to the absorbing passion of gain, the god of this world, which blinds the minds of many that believe not ? Has he saved her from the perils attending the race of public ambition, office, power, and dominion ? Has he given to her a tender frame, endowed her with keen and lively sensibility, and laid those sufferings and trials upon her which are eminently adapted to make her feel the need of Christ ? Has he placed her in those circumstances of subjection, from her youth up, which render sub¬ jection to his authority comparatively natural and easy ? To persist in impiety against all these, to overleap all these barriers against perdition and still go the downward way to ruin, must involve peculiar guilt and aggravated condemnation. It is further to be remarked, that as Christianity has done so much for woman * she ought in return to do much for Christianity. Every thing that can render her life desirable she owes to Christ. Think for one moment, reader, of the hole of the pit from which Christ has taken you. Think of what would be your present condition, had it not been for the Christian religion. You might have been with the debased and wretched victims of pagan oppression, 5 * 54 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY cruelty, and lust; burning alive upon the funeral pile, or sacrificed by hands of violence and pollution, or cast out and neglected to pine in solitary'and hope¬ less grief. Or, with the female followers of the false prophet, or in more refined but unchristian nations, you might have been little else than the slave or the convenience of man, and left to doubt whether any inheritance awaits you beyond the grave. From these depths of debasement and wretchedness Chris¬ tianity has taken you and placed you on high, to move, and shine, and rejoice, in the sphere for which the Creator designed you. Not only has it made your condition as good as that of man, but in a moral view in some respects superior to it. How much then do you owe to Christ! To turn away from him with indifference or neglect, what ingratitude is this ! How preposterous, how base, how unlovely, is female impiety. There was much sense in a re¬ mark made by an intelligent gentleman, who, al¬ though not pious himself, said, “ I cannot look with any complacency upon a woman who does not manifest gratitude and love to Jesus Christ. Above all things, I hate to see so unnatural an object as an irreligious woman.” Such being the constitution and circumstances of woman, it is the manifest intention of God that she should be pre-eminent in moral excellence, and, through the influence of this, take a glorious lea in the renovation of the world. This she has some extent ever done. Let all females of Christian l ON WOMAN. 55 lands consider well their high calling, their solemn responsibility, and their glorious privilege. While many of their sex have proved recreant to their trust, and wasted life in vanity and in vice, others, an illustrious constellation, the holy and the good of ancient time, the mothers and the sisters in Israel, “ the ffiief women not a few” of apostolic times, the bright throng that have since continued to come out from the world and tread in the steps of Jesus, and lead on their fellow-beings to the kingdom of purity and joy, have proved to us that as woman was first to fall so she is first to rise. Yes, though it is not hers to amass wealth; to aspire to secular office and power; to shine in camps and armies; to hurl the thunders of our na¬ vies, and gather laurels from the ocean; or to re¬ ceive the vain incense offered to public and popular eloquence ;—yet hers it is, to be robed with the beauty of Christ; to shine in the honors of good¬ ness ; to shed over the world the sweet and holy influences of peace, virtue and religion; to be adorned with those essential and imperishable beauties, those unearthly stars and diadems, whose lustre will sur¬ vive, with ever increasing brightness, when all earthly glory will fade and be forgottenf Come then, reader; come to your high duty, your glori¬ ous privilege ; come and be blessed forever ! THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. ‘ That our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” The elevated and shining character of the female sex as here contemplated is recognised among the blessings of a prosperous state of religion. It is at once a means and a result of the most perfect and happy condition of society. Utility and ornament in the female character are here united. Our daugh¬ ters are to be, not as in pagan and savage nations, the abject subjects of menial toil, drudgery, and sen¬ suality ; nor yet, as in luxurious and corrupt civilized communities, creatures of idleness, vanity, and plea¬ sure ; they are to sustain at once the relation of substantial utility and of the most beautiful orna¬ ment. They are to be corner-stones , and corner¬ stones polished , and polished after the similitude of a palace. The figure is highly expressive. Con¬ sidering the kingdom of God, as manifested in a truly religious and elevated state of society, under the similitude of a palace, and Christ as the chief corner-stone, the daughters are to hold their place J. Sartain Murillo CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 57 among the lively corner-stones built upon him. They have a place with those on whom the support and strength of the building depend. But they are also to be polished, or, as it may be rendered, hewed, wrought, and finished with great care and beauty, as becomes the corner-stones of a palace. That our daughters may sustain as important a part as our sons in perfecting human society and promoting or blessing the kingdom of God, the ex¬ amples in the Scriptures fully prove. That they may embalm themselves in the happy recollections of thousands after them, send the sweet odor of their name and the excellence of their influence down through all succeeding ages, you have only to con¬ template in proof the example of Sarah, who through her faith and piety became a source of unspeakable blessings to unborn nations ; of Rebecca, the wife of Isaac ; of Rachel, the daughter of Laban, wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph; of Hannah, the mo¬ ther and spiritual guardian of Samuel; of Esther, the royal princess and the savior of her nation; of Ruth, whose steadfast piety secured, through her descendant David, the richest blessings to the world; of Elizabeth, “righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless,” the honored mother and guardian angel of the great forerunner; of Mary, the “ highly fa¬ vored among women,” whose soul did “ magnify the Lord,” and whose spirit did rejoice in God her Savior; of Lois and of Eunice, whose “ unfeigned 58 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. faith” and holy instructions stand upon the sacred record as manifested in the character of one of the brightest apostles of Christianity; and of others, a long and brilliant roll, on sacred and profane record, whose wisdom, piety, fidelity, and eminent ser¬ vice, have placed their names high among the stars that never fade. The ascent of a nation from the savage to the civilized state is in a great measure effected through the Christian influence of woman; it is through her influence perverted,, in a great measure, that a descent is thence made into the srilf that yawns upon the opposite side. From the high state of civilization and refinement, a descent to ruin is usually commenced with the false education, the in¬ dolence, the luxurious habits, of the female sex Now the object is, to arrest the female character, as it exists in the present state of society; to preserve what is right in it, and save it from depreciating; to do this by pointing out a way in which woman may continue to ascend higher and higher in excel¬ lence and usefulness, and by affording her sufficient motives to do it. Let us here leave those examples of female character which peculiar circumstances have rendered conspicuous, and proceed to notice the qualifications by which all our daughters may be¬ come what the sacred writer discribes. Nature and circumstances will of course modify the general rules and instructions. All are not to be trained in the same particular manner, nor tr occupy the same CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 59 position in society. Yet all may be truly good, useful, honorable, blessed of God, in their respective spheres and callings ; all may be, in some important sense, as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace. To this end, 1. Early and continual attention must be paid to their health. Their energy of character, their effi¬ ciency their intellectual activity, their disposition, the type of their piety, the health and peace and happi¬ ness of their families, all depend very much upon this. It is not among the least evils of luxurious and refined society, that such habits are indulged as tend to deteriorate the healtlYof females. Instead of being the active, vigorous, efficient daughters and matrons of simpler times, of high-toned health, bounding spirits, long and useful life, and almost fadeless beauty, they degenerate to a feeble, inactive, sickly, short-lived race. The consequences to the domestic state, to their children, and to the morals, piety and happiness of society, are disastrous in a high degree. I cannot here enlarge upon them. It is enough to say, that all those habits which are prejudicial to health must be from infancy resolutely shunned by those, who would aspire to the honor which our subject contemplates. Whatever of irregularity in the disposition of time, late retiring and late rising; whatever of evil to the body in the modes and refinements of dress; whatever of enervating and wasting indolence; whatever of frequent and exciting entertainments, 60 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Or WOMAN. which exhaust the nervous system and are followed by ennui and mental vacuity ; whatever indulgences of the table, which feed a morbid and destructive appetite ; in a word, whatever tends not to the high¬ est and most prolonged health and vigor of both body and soul, must be resolutely and forever shun¬ ned by her who would become the highest ornament and the true glory of her sex. Much is said of the evils to health resulting from modern modes of dress—perhaps too much ; although the testimony of such scientific and valua¬ ble authority as the medical profession, is certainly deserving of very serious attention. Some have probably carried their opinions on this subject be¬ yond due bounds ; such is the known and pardona¬ ble tendency of minds strongly enlisted on a particu¬ lar subject. But let no one despise or neglect the testimony of sober facts; and there are enough of them to prove, that there is more of truth than fancy in the doctrines upon this subject now currently maintained by physicians. The proprieties of taste and refinement need not be, and certainly should not be, sacrificed in the matter of dress, any more than in any thing else ; and, without descending to further, particulars, which would better become a secular lecture than this place and occasion, it may suffice to say, that such a style of dress as preserves the symmetry and integrity of the human system, and protects it thoroughly from our rugged climate and ever changing weather, is essential to the sound- CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OK WOMAN. 61 est health; and that whoever barters this to please vanity or custom, makes a dear and most unchristian bargain. There are more evils to health however, in my opinion, resulting from the exposures and intem¬ perate excitements of frequent and late assemblies of gaiety and pleasure; from indulgence in eating and drinking; particularly from the use of confec¬ tionary, of highly seasoned dishes and of stimulating drinks, and the habitual use of coffee and strong tea. All of these things tend strongly to irritate the nervous system and to impair the constitution. But most of all, a want of vigorous, habitual, appropriate exercise , is impairing the energy and undermining the health of multitudes; it is sending to an early grave its annual hecatombs of female victims. The law of exercise has never been re¬ pealed; it is still equally binding on both sexes. The human system must have exercise, or it must languish. But modern abbreviations of female labor, in the inventions and so called improvements of the mechanic arts, together with the notions of delicacy and refinement which obtain in cultivated society, have exonerated a large portion of females from the necessity of manual labor. But if they are not under necessity to exercise to secure the objects of labor, let them still consider that they are under the same necessity as ever to exercise to secure the object of health. In all suitable ways, and by all available means, 6 1 62 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. let them, as one of their first and most important objects, secure and preserve sound and vigorous health. 2. The next qualification is a habit of industry. This is essential to every productive virtue ; it should be early formed and vigorously maintained. The temptations with young women in the present state of society to neglect it are numerous, and too often fatal. How many of our daughters, because their parents are able to support them, or because the mothers or servants assume the burden of domestic care, or because they are looking for some connec¬ tion which will exempt them from the necessity of personal effort, form habits of fixed and hopeless indolence ! This evil is by no means confined to any one class. It is the pride of the rich, it is the ambition of the poor, to appear above the necessity of effort. But it is a false and pernicious sentiment. We were made for action; we are never in tiue honor but when actively engaged to the extent of our ability in accomplishing some good; and this is as true of woman as of man. Because it devolves on the man mainly to provide support for his family, does it therefore follow that wives and daughters have nothing or little to do? By no means. There still remains a most important service for them, and they are still as sacredly bound to make the most they possibly can of all their time and strength, in some useful employment, as if they were compelled . ■ i CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 63 to do it for their daily bread. To be diligently and usefully employed to the extent of her ability is one of the first lessons to be inculcated upon the little miss, and to be continually impressed upon her through all the subsequent periods of her childhood, youth, and womanhood. Considering the great proneness to indolence in all human beings, and the fact that fashion and respectability so much sanction it in certain classes of females, it may be regarded as one of the most besetting and dangerous vices of our young women at the present time. There is with multitudes of them an enormous waste of energy, physical, intellectual, and moral; the sin of burying the talent is with them a crying sin. But the blame is not wholly theirs. The vices entertained by many of the other sex, and false no¬ tions of refinement encouraged by society at large, have contributed to make our daughters suppose that it is essential to the character and standing of a lady to be as indolent and useless as possible. The least that she can know experimentally of the manner in which even her own daily food is pre¬ pared, or her own clothes made; or of the more severe and useful labors of the mind , whether in acquiring or imparting knowledge ; or of the wants and reliefs of the poor and needy ;—and the more she spends her mornings in bed, her evenings at novels or amusements, her mid-day hours in saunter¬ ing and lounging about, or exposing her person in the streets,— the more of an accomplished lady is I 64 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. she ! What notion can be more false and pernicious ? Yet I need not tell you it is popular, common, ex¬ tending to all classes and conditions of society. Many of all classes are aiming to bring up their daughters in this way. So countenanced is it, that the daughters of the poorest as well as of the richest often blush to have it said or supposed, that they have been engaged in some useful employment. I repeat it, the fault is not so much in the young women as in those who have the charge of bringing them up, and in public sentiment. For a young man to be use¬ fully engaged, is necessary to his good standing in society; but for a young woman to be thus engaged, is not only not necessary , but rather prejudicial to her character as a refined and accomplished lady! This public sentiment falling in with the natural disposition to idleness, is it strange that the result is a wide-spread and most melancholy paralysis of female energy ? I speak within due and considerate limits when I assert, that in a large class of females not one-tenth part of useful results are accomplished by their existence, which 'might be accomplished. Their lives, compared with what they might be, are almost a barren waste, a dead blank on tne scale of being. Instead of being any thing that resembles corner-stones polished after the similitude of a pa¬ lace, their history is rather that of hothouse plants. They spring into being, vegetate, and are gazed at, perhaps admired, for a little season ; they then fade and vanish away forever! CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 65 The evils of this indolence in females extend to every thing with which they have to do. A grass¬ hopper becomes to them a burden. To accomplish even a little thing costs them a prodigious and most exhausting effort. They cannot endure to study ;— hence they must have teachers that will save them fiom the necessity of it, and yet by superficial means flatter them and their parents with a fine show of learning. They cannot endure to think ;—hence they must have books of the most light and popular character, addressed principally to their imagina¬ tions and feelings. They cannot endure any do¬ mestic labor;—hence they must remain in ignorance of the things to be done in their own households, and thus subject themselves and their families to those numerous troubles from servants, which result from the ignorance and inefficiency of the mis¬ tress ; to say nothing of the sacrifice of property in domestic wastes, for the want of some one to look well to the ways of her household. They cannot endure to walk ;—hence they must be provided with a coach, not only when it is really necessary, but when they might as well walk, and when walking would comport much better with their means. They have not sufficient energy to sympathize with the cares, the duties, and trials of their,husbands;—hence their husbands must bear their burdens alone, un cared for and unaided ; and sometimes even experi¬ ence the influence of their wives as a dead weight 6* E ) 66 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. upon them, to bring down their tottering resolution to the dust. They cannot endure to look after the education of their children ;—hence their little ones must be committed entirely to others to toil for them alone, (thankless task !) or their young minds must be permitted to shoot up at random. They have not sufficient knowledge to select the best teachers;— hence their children must take their chance. They have not sufficient resolution to govern their chil¬ dren ;—hence they must, so far as the mother is concerned, go ungoverned, and perhaps, as a conse¬ quence, be ruined. And, finally, they sometimes be¬ come so irresolute that they cannot, without a ghostly effort, even return their neighbor’s friendly call; and the consequence perhaps is green-eyed jealousy and - a breach of friendship. All is full of evil, trouble, disaster, resulting' from their indolence and ineffi¬ ciency. Their suns rise and set; weeks, months, and years run on; they bring almost nothing to pass, and yet they complain of having so much to do ! They are laboriously employed in doing no¬ thing. Their health becomes feeble; their spirits droop ; they become nervous, peevish, unhappy ;— instead of shedding light and joy over the domestic circle, they render it unhappy. Yes, the beautiful and * admired daughter, or the engaging wife and mother, as she appears in the excitements of the drawing¬ room or the assembly, too often retires to the do¬ mestic circle, where most of all she should make her excellence to be seen and felt, there to exhibit the { ✓ CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 67 bitter fruits of selfish indolence in the everlasting sighs and complaints of peevish discontent! As then you would secure the well-being of your daughters, and of all with whom they may have to do, be sure to train them to industry. Never al¬ low them to think that their hands are too good to perform any useful work, or that any task is too la¬ borious for their perseverance to accomplish, or any study or art too hard for their minds and their in¬ dustry to master. Let them early learn and ever remember the motto, “ Labor pertinax omnia vincit and let the great motives and encouragements to in¬ dustry be kept constantly before them. With care¬ fulness never to overtax their powers, let the hours of every day be sacredly appropriated; let not a single hour be lost. Let them rise early and enter directly upon the assigned duties of the day, and pass with the most exact economy of time through the successive hours for domestic duties, study, giv¬ ing or receiving necessary calls, exercise, miscella¬ neous reading, devotions, if there is less of enthusiasm enter¬ tained for her, the sentiment is more rational, and, perhaps, equally sincere; for it is in relation to hap¬ piness that she is chiefly appreciated. And in this respect it is, we must confess, that she is most useful and most important. Domestic life is the chief source of her influence; and the greatest debt society can owe to her is domestic comfort. for 6 CAUSES OF happiness is almost an element of virtue; and no¬ thing conduces more to improve the character of men than domestic peace. A woman may make a man’s home delightful, and may thus increase his motives for virtuous exertion. She may refine and tran¬ quillize his mind,—may turn away his anger or allay his grief. Her smile may be the happy influence to gladden his heart, and to disperse the cloud that gathers on his brow. And in proportion to her en¬ deavors to make those around her happy, she will be esteemed and loved. She will secure by her excellence that interest and regard which she might formerly claim as the privilege of her sex, and will really merit the deference which was then conceded to her as a matter of course. Her influence is, therefore, now, in a great meas¬ ure, dependent on herself; and it is both her duty and her interest to cultivate those qualities which will render her most agreeable. For she can never hope to effect any thing towards the improvement of others unless she first obtains their regard; nei¬ ther will her opinion be of weight, or her wishes much respected, unless, by her own amiable and judicious conduct, she merits such attention. Perhaps one of the first secrets of her influence is adaptation to the tastes, and sympathy in the feel¬ ings, of those around her. This holds true in lesser as well as in graver points. It is in the former, in¬ deed, that the absence of interest in a companion is frequently most disappointing. Where want of con FEMALE INFLUENCE. 7 geniality impairs domestic comfort, the fault is gene¬ rally chargeable on the female side. It is for woman, not for man, to make the sacrifice, especially in in¬ different matters. She must, in a certain degree, be plastic herself if she would mould others. And this is one reason why very good women are sometimes very uninfluential. They do a great deal, but they yield nothing ; they are impassible themselves, and therefore they cannot affect others. They proceed so mechanically in their vocation, and are so frigid to every thing beyond it, that their very virtue seems automatical, and is uninteresting because it appears compulsory. Negative goodness, therefore, is no* enough. With an imperturbable temper, a faultless economy, an irreproachable demeanor, a woman may be still far from engaging ; and her discharge of family relations compatible with much domestic dulness. And the danger is lest this dryness alien¬ ate affection which sympathy might have secured, and nullify an influence which might otherwise have been really beneficial. To be useful, a woman must have feeling. , It is this which suggests the thou¬ sand nameless amenities which fix her empire in the heart, and render her so agreeable, and almost so necessary, that she imperceptibly rises in the do¬ mestic circle, and becomes at once its cement and its charm. If it be then really her wish to increase her hold on the affections, and to mature the sentiment which passion may have excited, let her not forget that 8 CAUSES OF nothing conduces more to these results than con¬ geniality. Perhaps conjugal virtue was never more aptly panegyrized than in the following eulogy on a matron of the last century:—“ She was a lady of such symmetrical proportion to her husband, that they s*eemed to come together by a sort of natural magnetism. 5 ’ Domestic life is a woman’s sphere, and it is there that she is most usefully as well as most appro¬ priately employed. But society, too, feels her in¬ fluence, and receives from her, in great measure, its balance and its tone. She may be here a corrective of what is wrong, a moderator of what is unruly, a restraint on what is indecorous. Her presence may be a pledge against impropriety and excess, a check on vice, and a protection to virtue. And it is her delicacy which will secure to her such an influence, and enable her to maintain it. The policy of licentiousness is to undermine where it cannot openly attack, and to weaken by stratagem what it may not rudely assail. But a delicate woman will he as much upon her guard against the insidi¬ ous as against the direct assault, and will no more tolerate the innuendo than the avowal. She will shrink from the licentiousness which is couched in ambiguous phrase or veiled in covert allusion, and from the immorality which, though it may not offend the ear, is meant to corrupt the heart. And though a depraved taste may relish the condiments of vice, or an unscrupulous palate receive them without de- FEMALE INFLUENCE. 9 tection, her virtue will be too sensitive not to reject the poison, and to recoil from it spontaneously. Delicacy is, indeed, the point of honor in woman. Her purity of manner will ensure to her deference, and repress, more effectually than any other influ¬ ence, impropriety of every kind. A delicate woman, too, will be more loved, as well as more respected, than any other ; for affection can scarcely be excited, and certainly cannot long subsist, unless it is founded on esteem. Yet such delicacy is neither prudish nor insipid. Conversation, for instance, is one great source of a woman’s influence ; and it is her province, and her peculiar talent, to give zest to it. She is, and ought to be, the enlivener of society. If she restrains im¬ propriety, she may promote cheerfulness; and it is not because her conversation is innocent that it need therefore be dull. The sentiment of woman contri¬ butes much to social interest; her feeling imparts life, and her gentleness a polish. It is not, however, by effort that she will succeed, or by mere volubility that she will render herself agreeable. Some women seem to think time lost when they are not tailring; and whether it be mere worldly tittle-tattle or insipid sentimentalism in which they indulge, they are equally impatient of listening and equally anxious to engross. But soliloquizing is not conversation. In woman, too, an attempt at display is always disagreeable, and even brilliancy will not atone for it. 10 CAUSES OF The charm of conversation is feeling; forgetting one’s self, and sympathizing with others. It is not to shine, but to please, that a woman should desire; and she will do so only when she is graceful and unaffected, when her wish is not so much to be ad¬ mired as to contribute to the gratification of others. And, for this purpose, she must bring into society heart and mind. The one will teach her how to feel for those around her, the other how to adapt her¬ self to them; and both will greatly contribute to her agreeableness. The insipidity of some women is attributable more to want of interest than of capacity. It is not because they have nothing to say that they say nothing, nor because they are deficient that they are trifling. They sometimes do not trouble them¬ selves to be agreeable. They think that if they look pretty, and are inoffensive, they fulfil their part; and they glide through life like tame animals, and are almost as indolent and as selfish. It is well if, when they cease to be ornamental, they do not be¬ come as troublesome. A woman should always do her utmost to please; and an expression of interest is often sufficient. To be a good listener, and to reply w 7 ith ease, good sense, and good breeding, are the most requisite qualities for an agreeable companion ; but the scaled lips, the vacant stare, and the abrupt transition, are equally rude and disappointing. Such indifference is inexcusable in those whose talent for conversation might be so easily improved. FEMALE INFLUENCE. • 1 ] English women are proverbially silent; yet there is no reason why they should be so, nor why, because they are exemplary at home, they should be insipid in society. It is their boast that their education is superior; it is, then, the more to their discredit, when it fails in what is surely an important result. And if men are too apt to retire to themselves, if they talk of politics and the chase, whilst dress and tittle-tattle are discussed upon the sofa, may not their exclusive¬ ness be, in great measure, attributable to the bad grace with which they are too frequently received ? Might not the stillness of the one, and the insipidity of the other circle, be often much relieved by a little more sympathy between them ? Again, to be agreeable, a woman must avoid egotism. No matter how superior she may be, she will never be liked if she talfs chiefly of herself. The impression of her own importance can convey no pleasure to others; on the contrary, as a desire for distinction is generally mutual, a sense of in¬ feriority must be depressing. If we would converse pleasingly, we must en¬ deavor to set others at ease ; and it is not by flattery that we can succeed in doing so, but by a courteous and kind address, which delicately avoids all need¬ less irritation, and endeavors to infuse that good hu¬ mor of which it is itself the result. In women this is a Christian duty. How often should they suppress their own claims rather than interfere with those of others. How studiously 12 CAUSES OF should they employ their talent in developing that of their associates, and not for its own display. How invariably should they discard pretension, and shun even' the appearance of conceit ; seeking to imbibe