Price TWENTY-FIVE Cents. 
 
 
 A PLEA 
 
 FOR 
 
 FEMALE EDUCATION; 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 DOCUMENTS AND FACTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 BY REV. D. F. BITTLE. 
 
 
 nAGERSIOWN, MD.: 
 
 M'KEE & ROBERTSON, PUBLISHERS. 
 
 • 1853. ' 
 
 L. K. FLX'HTIG & J. C. WISE, PRINTERS. 
 
 y- 
 
i I 
 
A PLEA 
 
 FOR 
 
 FEMALE EDUCATION; 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 DOCUMENTS AND FACTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 >*-** 
 
 BY D. F. BITTLE. 
 
 HAGERSTOWN, MD.i 
 
 M'KEE & ROBERTSON, PUBLISHERS. 
 1852. 
 
^ 
 
 <& 
 
 ^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The writer offers the following pages to the public, with a 
 /v view of contributing something to the encouragement of edu- 
 v cation, and particularly female education. Could he be suc- 
 cessful, in connection with others, in awakening the Church 
 to her true position and responsibility, in the great educa- 
 tional movements of the age, he would be satisfied of contribu- 
 \ ting to the Church's interest, the welfare of his country, and 
 
 the happiness of society. 
 Y He comes before the public less as an "author, than as a com- 
 
 (V> piler and a witness, bringing to the notice of the Church, in 
 a condensed form, what great minds, experienced instructors 
 of youth, and friends of education — men and women — have 
 said and written, both Avith a direct and indirect reference to 
 the importance of female education. 
 
 After retiring from a short agency in behalf of the Ilagers- 
 town Female Seminary, now building, the writer thinks of 
 aiding this and other similar enterprises, by the result of a few 
 Week's labor in the production of this pamphlet. 
 
 Hagerstown, Md. } October, 1852. D. F. B. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 To Maintain the Interests of our Country, and tiie 
 Perpetuity of our Free Institutions, we are placed 
 under Obligation to Attend to the Education of our 
 Children: — 
 
 " That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth : 
 That our daughters may be as corner-stones, jwlished after the 
 similitude of a palace." — Ps. 144, 12. 
 
 The political position of our country, and the progressive 
 development of its resources, cause ours to be an age of enter- 
 prise and agitation; as if thrown upon the dawn of that period 
 predicted by Daniel, when "many shall run to and fro, and 
 knoivledge shall be increased." But with this progressive im- 
 provement of the age, in a civil and literary point of view, and 
 perfectly in accordance with the infirmities and fallen condi- 
 tion of human nature, there are opposite and adverse elements 
 at work. There is an abuse of the privileges of thought and 
 the freedom of action peculiar to the age, which we must be 
 careful to counteract in our educational arrangements. The 
 enjoyment of liberty is appreciated by the virtuous people of 
 a nation, and with gratitude transmitted to their posterity: yet 
 we must anticipate the abuses of our best institutions by an- 
 other portion of the population, who lack integrity and con- 
 science, whose native passions are not restrained either by 
 education or grace. ""What the present age has gained on 
 the one side, by a more enlarged and liberal way of thinking, 
 
6 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION". 
 
 seems to be lost on the other, by excessive freedom and un- 
 bounded indulgence."* Those abuses, it must be the aim of 
 our institutions of learning and systems of education to subdue. 
 
 This .state of things is rather peculiar to our country — at 
 present the most free and prosperous nation on earth. We 
 are the common receptacle of the oppressed and starving popu- 
 lation of Europe, debased for ages under overpowering tyranny, 
 treachery, and priest-craft. They come here by thousands, 
 annually, to be embodied in the population of our States, with 
 all their distinctive nationalities, prejudices, and diversities of 
 creed. The children of those diverse masses of population, 
 we are under obligation to mould into our national character 
 by schools and educational facilities, that they may become 
 homogenious with us, and move in unison with the interests of 
 our increasing American people. 
 
 AVe have the freedom of the Press, with the facility of late 
 improvements, subject to all the abuse of throwing off every 
 variety of publications, to be transmitted by the rapidity of 
 steam, to the towns and villages of every State and Territory 
 in the Union. Those publications are, in a few instances, ori- 
 ginal works, but mostly new editions and translations of all 
 the vile filth upon which the vicious vermin of European cities 
 feed — adapted to the taste and sentiment of masses of the un- 
 cultivated, dissipated population, both American and foreign, 
 who live upon the offals of industry and enterprise. 
 
 Every community in our country is at present inundated by 
 hordes of pseudo-reformers. One would insure unending na- 
 tional prosperity did the people only adopt the model of gov- 
 ernment which he took the liberty to concoct. Another has 
 discovered a system of education so philosophical, and adapted 
 to the human mind, that the wisest men never dreamed of, and 
 were it universally adopted, all the ignorance and all the evils 
 that flesh and mind are heir to, would at once be dissipated be- 
 
 "Hannah More. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION 7 
 
 fore the light of this great discovery, the Scriptural doctrine 
 •of total depravity notwithstanding. A third, by long study 
 and great reading, has just been brought to the light that the 
 whole religious wcfrld is wrong ; he sees plainly, and can de- 
 monstrate, that all creeds s, and modes of worship, are of man, 
 and with great self-denial and unheard ef aspirations of phi- 
 lanthropy, he has set himself about t© free the world of priest- 
 craft and religious imposition. One would almost think the 
 Grand Academy of Lagado, 4hat Bean Swift says Gulliver 
 saw, in his voyage sfco Laputa, had been dissolved, and all its 
 learned, professors had come to ttheCTnited States, and are now 
 holding forth in the <Ga,pacity<of political, medical, religious 
 -and scientific reformers, lecturerson Phrenology, Animal Mag- 
 netism, Spiritual Knockings, &c. All this is an unavoidable 
 abuse of a free country's privileges, ef liberty of thought and 
 of the press— it is a development of the natural 'tendency of 
 the human mind to infidelity and licentiousness, subversive of 
 law, order, and religion. Rev. EL V. D. Johns, D. D., re- 
 marks upon this subject: " The effort to stay the march of 
 -freedom, of intellectual and moraL elevation of "'the masses,' 
 ■was made m the Old World, in the sha,pe of endless restric- 
 tions of liberty; but with us the -enemies of God and man are 
 ■operating in a diametrically opposite direction. Here the plan 
 is not to restrict the principles of freedom ; but to push them 
 •onward to an extreme, destructive of every thing dear and sa- 
 bered to Christian'eivilisation and public virtue- 
 First. The seeds of a mischievous agrarianism are scattered 
 abroad over the land. The .attempt is made to array the poor 
 against the rich — the laborer against the employer, and to 
 prove a diversity of interests between them. 
 
 Secondly. Attempts arc made to raise the popular will into 
 an authority above the constitution and laws of the Republic. 
 Hence public officers are tempted to interpret fundamental 
 laws — not through the decisions of duly constituted tribunals, 
 hoi, in compliance with the expressed wishes of a successful 
 
A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION 
 
 political party. Should this practice prevail, the effect musif 
 be variableness and inconstancy in the aspect and action of our 
 legislation — an evil closely related to anarchy, and necessarily 
 subversive of the everlasting foundations of truth and justice. 
 
 Thirdly. Official station, designed, in the theory of republi- 
 cs 1 government, for the welfare of the community, and the 
 pure and peaceful administration of law, is now in danger, 
 finder all parties, of being made the reward of partisan ser- 
 vices, and not of real merit and capacity."" 
 
 Again, the license in parental government, the neglect of 
 the exercise of a healthful discipline, and the imparting of 
 timely moral and religious instruction to the children and 
 youth, is another threatening evil of our country — it is an 
 abuse of republican institutions, upon which our ablest men 
 have most seriously animadverted. 
 
 Dr. Johns says: u Moreover, I am afraid it is a national 
 trait with us, for parents to neglect the religious education of 
 their children. The good old custom of Sabbath evening cate- 
 chising and brief exposition of the Bible at family worship., 
 seems to be going into disuse, crowded out by the peculiarly 
 exciting character of modern practices. Youthful insubordi- 
 nation is evidently on the increase. The Massachusetts Board' 
 of Education observes, and every section of the land will re- 
 echo their language:' c It is impossible to investigate the facts 
 which attest the prevalence and increase of juvenile delin- 
 quency, without coming to the conclusion, that what has been 
 done in the cause of popular education, is but a partial and 
 incomplete wort of beneficence-, falling far below the require* 
 ments of the constitution.' And 0, how much farther below 
 those of the Gospel! They proceed to assign several eauses y 
 all of which no doubt are true, as far as they go-, but do not 
 reach the core of the vice. The danger increases. Our cities 
 arc nightly illuminated by acts of jiiTcnil'e outlawry : riots and 
 violence attend even our agencies of protection: human law* 
 proclaim their weakness: where is the mighty instrumentality 
 
A I»LEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION". 9 
 
 Capable of approaching the mass of unchained intellect in our 
 land, and impressing it with the pure and peaceful principles 
 of the Gospel ?" 
 
 Kev. Joseph Eldridge, of Norfolk, Ct.,* says: "Amid 
 many hopeful signs of the times, there is one alarming char- 
 acteristic. The homes of our land appear to be degenerating. 
 Is there not a decrease of household piety, and a weakening 
 of domestic bonds and affections ? The period of youth, that 
 period once characterized by modesty and diffidence, by re- 
 gard for parental counsel and authority, and by respect for age 
 and experience, is -well-nigh abolished. Children spring up at 
 once into man and woman; they are precocious in their desires 
 and passions, prematurely ambitious and avaricious, eager to 
 cast off the restraints of home and set up for independence. 
 A class of philosophers noticing this tendency of the times, 
 hail it as an auspicious omen, and anticipate the day when the 
 conjugal relation shall be avowedly, as it now often proves in 
 fact, a temporary arrangement : when the love of parents and 
 children, of brothers and sisters, amiable prejudices and ex- 
 cusable, perhaps useful in a dark age, will give place to a do- 
 mestic philanthropy in the strong light of a higher civiliza- 
 tion." 
 
 Such are the alarming symptoms of national decay which 
 hare imperceptibly made their way into the homes of our fami- 
 lies, in opposition to the example of our forefathers. The ele- 
 ments of insubordination are implanted in the minds of our 
 children before they become conscious of their responsibility 
 as citizens, and subjects of the government of our great Re- 
 public. These things are greatly deplored by all intelligent 
 and good men, and lovers of their country's welfare, and we 
 are bound by all that is sacred and patriotic, to aim at coun- 
 teracting them in the establishing of our literary institutions, 
 and the regulation of our plans of instruction. We must meet 
 
 *Presby!erian Education Repository, 
 
10 A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 those evils in the instruction of the present generation of chil- 
 dren as far as practicable, and we must educate those "who are 
 to be the parents of the next generation, so as to be competent 
 to assume the duties of parents, and the responsibility of su- 
 perintending the rising destiny of their children. 
 
 "We have survived every danger thus far, and have sub- 
 sisted as a free and happy people for seventy-six years— the 
 experiment of the practicability of a nation's governing itself 
 lias been exhibited before the world, defying the scepticism of 
 European tyrants upon the subject. The consequence is, an 
 almost universal desire for liberty has extended itself through 
 the nations of the old world. In the language of Dr. Johns, 
 ■" The independence of the American colonics, and their union, 
 amidst the blessings ef freedom, has been the first grand po- 
 litical birth of those gr-oanings and travailings in pain, of hu- 
 man souls thus vitalized. And then began the reaction of our 
 •own government upon the older nations of Europe. The spirit 
 of freedom is not, cannot be, confined to the United States. — 
 It has crossed the broad Atlantic. Letters, newspapers, books, 
 Governor's messages, Congressional speeches, pour in upon the 
 restricted liberties and hoary institutions of the old world, and 
 tell every where the story of freedom. You know the conse- 
 quences ! Diamonds glitter in crowns, and stars and trinkets 
 shine upon titled orders, as much, perhaps more, than ever ; but 
 there is anxiety in royal breasts, and forebodings beneath scar- 
 let scarfs and robes. A voice sounds from Judea, ' Bo not ye 
 called Rabbi, Rabbi; for one is your master, even Christ, and 
 .-ill ye are brethren.' Three mystic words, 'Liberty, Equality, 
 Fraternity,' make State diamonds dim, and sadly displace the 
 tinsel of despotic rank and station. Crowns tumble in the 
 dust, and royality takes refuge in exile, while America, and 
 -lie United States, and still more, our Protestant faith, are 
 cursed as the authors of this confusion." 
 
 The nations of Europe yet pronounce us incompetent to 
 exist as a nation, and the abuses of our liberty to overcome the 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 11 
 
 itse of it. The evils among us, of which we complain, they 
 predict will yet gain the ascendency over the power of our re- 
 ligion, our virtue, and our government fall under the unre- 
 strained elements of anarchy, that are now gathering strength 
 among us. " We have been sneeringly called, by European 
 reviewers and politicians, a 'government without principle,' 
 our Union 'a rope of sand,' and have been told that our days 
 were numbered, and that we should soon be wrecked upon the 
 rocks of anarchy and coufusion. 
 
 "But what a change has come over the face of Europe! The 
 example of our government has been the illuminator, and is 
 hourly upturning the oppression of the world. Say what men 
 will, it is mainly owing to the colossal elevations of liberty and 
 prosperity, in this free and Protestant land, that Europe now 
 feels the necessity and the ability of political reformation. 
 
 How overivhclming in view of these influences of American 
 laws, constitutions, and prosperity, are the responsibilities of 
 our country ! How immensely important is it that the cause 
 of self-government should suffer no damage by our example: 
 that the great principles of civil and religious liberty, which 
 are now spreading from our shores over the face of the whole 
 earth, be kept healthy and sound at home: that we hold the 
 doctrine, a free and open Bible, the watch-tower and light- 
 house of American liberty — the government of written law ! 
 And how, oh! how can we expect that such will be the case, un- 
 less we as Protestant Christians, work the whole machinery of 
 gospel influences, as we never yet have done, day and night, 
 with prayers and tears, trusting in God ! And that we strive 
 by all possible means to imbue the educated popular mind with 
 the conservative and saving power of true religion, even faith 
 in Christ, working by love — love to God and love to man ! — 
 My brethren, we are under bonds to the human race; we must 
 take care ivhat we are, and what we c?o."* 
 
 *Rev.H.V. D. Johns, D. D. 
 
IS A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION". 
 
 Here in our country the experiment is to be continued, 
 ■whether the maxim, "Truth is mighty and will prevail," is it- 
 self true. Let persons of all religious creeds and political sen- 
 timents be gathered into one great people — let the high and 
 the low, the bond and the free, the educated and the ignorant, 
 the virtuous and degraded and vicious, come together in one 
 country — give liberty to each for the expression of opinion, 
 and the exercise of mind ; will truth in their midst — truth in 
 politics — truth in philosophy — truth in religion finally triumph? 
 Amidst the conflicting sentiments of error, "will it be mighty 
 in the regulation of parental duties — the education of the young 
 — the extension of the gospel, and the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit in his sanctifying power over the corrupt heart of man? 
 
 Will a sovereign God, in the saving grace and healing mercy 
 of His Son, cause the religion of His Bible to prevail over all 
 the antagonistic errors of Catholicism, infidelity, and "philoso- 
 phy and vain deceit," and vindicate the truth of Protestantism, 
 and our liberty go down untarnished to our posterity, in the pre- 
 sence of the witnessing nations of -the earth, and their predic- 
 tions to the contrary? This is our responsible position, how shall 
 avc help ourselves ? We look to that Grod in whose hand is the 
 destiny of nations, for help, and then we resort to the proper 
 education of the rising generation in whom is our hope, in their 
 impressions and instruction in the nursery, the primary school, 
 and the superior seminary. What kind of institutions shall 
 wc build ? What kind of system of instruction shall we adopt? 
 Shall wc simply aim at a high state of intellectual training of 
 the masses? This we are often admonished to do in the ha- 
 rangue of every tyro on popular education. But it fails to at- 
 tain the end in contemplation. You cannot convince the mind 
 of those classes of persons who constitute the bone and sinew 
 of a country, the middle classes of society, farmers, mechanics, 
 and operatives, that this is all that is necessary to secure the 
 virtue and intelligence of our people, sufficient to insure the 
 permanency of our government, and the salvation of our coun- 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION, IS 
 
 try. Those sensible men are not persuaded by such repre- 
 sentations to contribute largely of their income and fortunes 
 to build seminaries and colleges, and sustain high schools, as a 
 remedy to counteract all the ten thousand evils which threaten 
 to overwhelm us. Their reply is, when you solicit them for 
 money for such objects : "Look at many of your learned men 
 — your professional men — your public men, what kind of ex- 
 amples do many of them set us ? Instead of examples of purity 
 of morals to our youth — a counscientious course of life — integ- 
 rity in their conduct — -the character of many of them is such, 
 that their lives are contaminating as far as their superior abili- 
 ties give them influence — their learning is only an injury to the 
 country in which they live." The sentiment is given by an 
 English writer as follows : "Of what immense importance is it 
 to society whether a man of first-rate fortune and distinction, 
 is well or ill brought up ? What a taste and fashion he may 
 inspire for private and political vice I — and what misery and 
 mischief he may produce to the thousand human beings who 
 are dependent on him! A country contains no such curse 
 within its bosom. Youth, wealth, high rank, and vice form a 
 combination which baffles all remonstrance and beats down all 
 opposition. A man of high rank who combines these qualifica- 
 tions for corruption, is almost the master of the manners of the 
 age, and has the public happiness within his grasp. But the 
 most beautiful possession which a country can have is a noble 
 and a rich man, who loves virtue and knowledge ; who, with- 
 out being feeble or fanatical, is pious ; and who, without being 
 factious, is firm and independent; who, in his political life, is 
 an equitable mediator between the government and people ; 
 and, in his civil life, a firm promoter of all which can shed a 
 lustre upon his country, or promote the peace and order of the 
 world."* 
 Every man of common-sense will at once see that mere intel- 
 
 *itev, Sidney Smith, on Female Education, 
 
34 A FLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION", 
 
 loctual instruction is not sufficient, provided it be disconnected 
 from moral and religious cultivation ; for, give men learnings 
 and cultivate their intellectual abilities, and you give them 
 power; and provided this power be not balanced by conserva- 
 tive moral principle, and the consciousness of accountability 
 to God, they are only prepared to become dangerous citi- 
 zens. Of this class are our corrupt politicians, professional 
 men of impure lives r and all that class in "high life," zvhose 
 end is destruction, whose (rod i» their belli/, and whose glory 
 is in their shame, who- mind earthly things. It is not the de- 
 gradation of the ignorant classes from which the danger of our 
 country may be so much apprehended, as we are often told, as 
 the degradation of the intelligent ©lasses. To secure a health- 
 ful course of instruction, and a state of sound moral princi- 
 ple and virtue, that will make men the "salt of the earth," 
 ten of whom would have saved Sodom, we must combine the 
 soundly religious, with the intellectual — the cultivation of the 
 heart with the head. This kind of education will only make 
 man conscious of his high position as an immortal being, in- 
 fluencing and being influenced by his fellow men, feeling him- 
 self amenable to his God, and looking forward to a judgment 
 to come, for the consummation of his earthly career. So that 
 those high and noble motives- dhrawn from his accountability to 
 God — motives commensurate with the destiny of man, will be 
 his prevailing motives, controlling all his conduct. "The edu- 
 cation of the intellect at the expense of the heart is an im- 
 morality ; it is a perversion of the laws of nature as well as of 
 the commands of Revelation. It would be considered mon- 
 'strous to undertake to cultivate the sense of hearing, by shut- 
 ting up a child in a dark room, and thereby injuring his sense 
 of sight. The child has a right to the development of all his- 
 senscs. lie has a higher right to the development of the fa- 
 culties of his soul, moral and intellectual. The Chinese cus- 
 tom of bandaging the feet is not a more effectual encroachment 
 on the perfection of the physical system than our political cus- 
 
A PLEA FOE, FEMALE EDUCATION- 15> 
 
 torn of dwarfing the heart is a dishonor to the moral system- 
 Even if our children were young angels, they ought to be dail y~ 
 taught tike truth of heaven. Since they are simaers they need 
 it more."* 
 
 "It is not so well considered as- it should be,. that education 
 is both a science and an art. Though not one of the exact 
 sciences, it rests on deep and complicated elementary princi- 
 ples, and calls for a more careful study of the early suscepti- 
 bilities and operations of the human mind, than any other 
 science. Every child has, if I may so speak, three natures — 
 a physical, a mental, and a moral, between which there are- 
 mysterious sympathies and connections, that reciprocally gov- 
 ern and are governed. He has organs of sense which are the 
 inlets of knowledge, and without which he could not learn any- 
 thing, however skilful! the teacher.. He would still have a mind,, 
 but it would be a prisoner,, groping hopelessly in a dungeon, — - 
 He has perception,, reason, memory,, and imagination. He can 
 learn and apply rules, understand propositions, and in simple 
 examples see the connection between premises and conclusions- 
 He can be stimulated and swayed by motives, and is peculiar- 
 ly alive to their influence. He is susceptible of a great va- 
 riety of enrotions, — of hope and fear ; of joy and sorrow ; of 
 love and hatred. But I need not enumerate. Every child in 
 the 'primary school has a moral a& ivell as a rational nature, — 
 has a conscience. He can discern between good and evil. He 
 knows the difference between right and wrong, between truth 
 and falsehood. In short,, he has within him all the elements- 
 of high responsibility ; all the noble faculties of an accountable 
 and an immortal being. But these faculties are yet to be un- 
 folded, to be cultivated, to be educated. The understanding 
 needs it. The memory needs it. The imagination needs it- 
 The conscience and the heart need it."f 
 
 *Tentb Annual Report of Education in. Massachusetts* 
 tReport of the Presbyterian Board of Education* 
 
16 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 Here has been the great failure in our system of education 
 in many sections of the country, from the primary school up 
 to the highest schools of the land ; and the consequence is, 
 that we have many intelligent men -who are not virtuous. — 
 Others -who have not had the advantages of a superior educa- 
 tion, refuse to contribute largely to the building and endowing 
 of schools of a high order ; attributing the whole moral de- 
 linquency among the educated classes to education itself, as 
 its legitimate results any where and under all circumstances — 
 not discriminating between education and the abuse of educa- 
 tion. This has been the ruin of poor France. She has educated 
 her higher orders intellectually but not religiously, and the 
 consequence is, there is not integrity enough in the nation to 
 maintain a permanent government. " France, too, has spoken; 
 and her voice comes to us in tones, at once, of encouragement 
 and of warning. She has cultivated the intellect, but she has 
 corrupted the heart. She has awakened the susceptibilities of 
 the soul, but she has incited them to crime ; and while she has 
 shown us, by the example of intellectual training, of what the 
 system is capable, she has admonished us to neglect not the 
 improvement of those other powers, the harmonious develop- 
 ment of which is alone the education of the man."* 
 
 Again, no system of moral training in the abstract, can 
 qualify the pupil for this position in life, alluded to in the fore- 
 going observations, without the power of the religion of our 
 Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The natural depravity of the 
 human heart is so complete, and so invincible to all human 
 teachings and human agencies, that it can be only overcome 
 by the divine teaching of God's word, and the influence of the 
 Holy Spirit. Hence, when we speak of the cultivation of the 
 heart, we mean that the heart can only be effectually cultivated 
 and radically changed by the truths of the Bible, and the hal- 
 lowing power of the Spirit, in consequence of its deep depravity. 
 
 'Massachusetts BoarJ of education. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 17 
 
 Those who believe there is a principle of evil in the human 
 soul, lying back of consciousness, incorporated as an original 
 element into its constitution, beginning to be when the spirit 
 began to be, and growing with it through all the primordial 
 stages of its growth — which, indeed, belongs to the anti-natal 
 period of every desccndent of Adam, as much as spottedness 
 belongs to an unborn leopard before it has a skin, or venom 
 to an unhatchcd cockatrice before it has a sting; — those who 
 believe this, hold, in a literal sense, and with regard to all 
 mankind, that the innate affections or dispositions of the soul 
 are " not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, 
 until another influence, emanating from the Godhead, and 
 equal in itself to an act of creation shall have renewed them."* 
 Thi3 is the view of the human heart, as a subject of instruc- 
 tion, entertained by the orthodox people of Massachusetts. 
 
 " Christianity, in all its peculiar provisions and teachings, 
 assumes that moral depravity, even in children, is a poisonous 
 infection of such terrible power, that it bids utter defiance to 
 all lenitives, all management, in every form, from man and 
 creatures ; and will yield to no other than the renewing agency 
 of the Spirit of God. The influence of education, apart from 
 this agency, may accomplish many things. It may develope, 
 in beautiful symmetry, the constitutional excellencies. It may 
 suppress constitutional excesses. It may correct constitu- 
 tional vices. It may cultivate the natural sentiments, refine 
 the tastes, exalt and ennoble the temper and tone of the 
 mind, give dignity and grace to the manners, light and autho- 
 rity to conscience, force and principle to character. It may 
 inspire respect and reverence to the rites and solemnities of 
 religion. All this and more it may do. But there are some 
 things it cannot do: it cannot shed abroad the love of God in 
 the heart, nor displace our natural enmity to God, nor bring 
 the soul under the power of the cross, nor diffuse through it 
 
 •Massachusetts Board of education. 
 
18 A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 the spirit of Jesus, nor teach it to live by faith, nor introduce 
 into it any one of those fruits of the Holy Spirit, without 
 which all virtue is reprobate, all religion a name or a delu- 
 sion, and all check upon native depravity ineffectual and tem- 
 porary." * 
 
 " But the heart, that natural seat of evil propensities, that 
 little, troublesome empire of the passions, is led to what ig 
 right by slow motions and imperceptible degrees. It must be 
 admonished by reproof, and allured by kindness. Its liveliest 
 advances are frequently impeded by the obstinancy of preju- 
 dice, and its brightest provisions often obscured by the tem- 
 pests of passion. It is slow in its acquisition of virtue, and 
 reluctant in its approaches to piety." f 
 
 " I have no confidence in the reformatory power of educa- 
 tion into which moral and religious influences do not enter. — 
 I assume, — as any one having the slightest acquaintance with 
 your writings and teachings on this subject knows that you 
 do, — that the three great classes of power, — the physical, in- 
 tellectual, and moral, — shall each receive its proper training ; 
 and then I feel authorised to look confidently for that provi- 
 dential blessing, which will secure the high results already 
 ttlluded to. . Without such a training, I have no right to ex- 
 pect the blessing of heaven, or a good result, when I do not 
 fulfil the conditions on which such results are promised. 
 
 " The world has already seen enough of highly cultivated in- 
 tellect, while the physical and moral man has been dwarfed. — 
 Of this, we have too much melancholy proof in the demoraliz- 
 ing character of -a large part of our current literature, includ- 
 ing poetry, fiction, and the periodical "press. The history of 
 ambition, marked at every step of its career with carnage and 
 .blood, is sad proof that towering intellect, uncontrolled by a 
 higher principle, is only augmented power for mischief. How 
 much greater and better, when weighed in just balances, had 
 
 " Mistakes in Education, by Rev. Thomas II. Skinner. D. D. 
 
 t Hannah Moru'e Thoughts on the Cultivation of the Heart and Temper. 
 
A PLEA EOE, FEMALE EDUCATION. 19 
 
 Byron and Napoleon been, had their godlike powers been 
 swayed by high moral considerations, in place of low passions 
 and vaulting ambition !"* 
 
 "The Religion of the Scriptures is the only system of 
 truth which will make children virtuous. This I say with 
 confidence ; because no other system of doctrines has ever 
 made men virtuous. The christian system alone teaches what 
 virtue is ; and leads alone to the attainment of this glorious 
 attribute, and the practical obedience to its dictates. If child- 
 ren, then, are not religiously educated, they will be perfectly 
 destitute of all human aid towards becoming virtuous." f 
 
 Robert Hall, in disquisitions upon the effect of religion upon 
 the character of a nation, remarks : " Religion establishes a 
 tribunal in our own breast, when that which is concealed from 
 every other eye is arraigned, and the very embryo of crime 
 detected and destroyed." "Hence," says he, "we find in 
 the first age of the church, heathens made frequent complaints 
 of the inactivity of christians, but never accused them of tur- 
 bulence ; and that while many fled into deserts, from austeri- 
 ty and devotion, not one, during the prevalence of paganism, 
 endured the chastisement of the laws for sedition or treason. 
 The pious of every age have been alio ays the quiet of the land." 
 
 Here there is a combination of testimony from some of the 
 greatest minds in the church, the most experienced instructors ; 
 that a diligent, practical, religious training must invariably be 
 concomitant with the instructions of the intellectual powers of 
 the mind in our schools, to complete the education of our chil- 
 dren and youth for any responsible position in life with safety. 
 And any other mode of instruction introduced into our schools 
 and seminaries, apart from a union with pure religion, can never 
 reach the deep fountains of the depravity of the heart — out of 
 which are the issues of life. -Any other mode or system is an 
 
 * Letter from Solomon Adams. Esq , to the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary 
 of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 
 f Dr. Timothy Dwighl. 
 
tO A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 abuse of education, and an imposition upon a christian people, 
 from the primary school to the highest seminary of the land. 
 The argument resorted to in the attempt to get rid of this 
 obligation by those concerned, are, that religious and moral ob- 
 ligations founded upon religion ought to be taught at home — 
 in the Sabbath-schools — under the instruction of ministers, 
 and not in common schools, colleges and superior seminaries — 
 that difficulties arise from the diversity of the creeds and re- 
 ligious notions of the parents of the pupils. These objections 
 we -will answer in the language of the Annual Report of the 
 Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church for 1850. 
 "The importance of our educational operations is seen in their 
 connection with Christian Training in Schools, Acade- 
 mies and Colleges. Public institutions of education are ne- 
 cessary auxiliaries in the great work of elevating the young. 
 These fountains of influence can be kept pure and refreshing 
 only by means of gospel truth. If religion be divested from 
 education, bitter and full of evil will be its springs. The 
 church consults its true interest in watching over the provis- 
 ions for the teaching of children, and in honoring God's holy 
 word as the basis of all sound instruction. The idea that re- 
 lic-ion is to be taught at home, but not at the school, assumes 
 that a partial inculcation of divine truth absolves from the ob- 
 ligation of its full and thorough promulgation. Such an idea 
 is kindred to the monstrous plea of the worldling, that religion 
 may be good enough for the Sabbath but not for the other days 
 of the week. The Board conceives that there is no scriptural 
 ground for conducting the work of education on different prin- 
 friples at home and at school — religiously in private, and in a 
 secular manner in public. The same great principles which God 
 has given for the training up of children under parental au- 
 thority apply to their training in public institutions — where 
 the teacher sustains, in many respects, the relation of a father 
 fa the family. The Church has too long submitted to the in- 
 evitable consequences cf the expurgation from our common 
 
A PLEA FOB, FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 *1 
 
 trchools of the doctrine and precepts of our common Christian- 
 ity. The importance of educating the whole people has been 
 so magnified that the quality of their education has become an 
 incidental and subordinate consideration. This is a great evil. 
 A mere secular system that renounces instruction in divine 
 truth, has no -well grounded assurance of being permanently 
 useful to the community. " Knowledge is malignant," said an 
 illustrious philosopher ; unless sanctified, it brings no good 
 will to man, and breathes no spirit of philanthropy. The great 
 hope of educating men, is in educating them in "the way they 
 should go." To educate them as heathens, as Mahommedans, 
 as Papists, would be a criminal misdirection ; and to educate 
 them in no religion is a perversion attended by inevitable and 
 irreparable loss, and is blameworthy according to the light and 
 opportunities of a christian community. The General Assem- 
 bly has resolved, in the fear of God, to re-introduce divine 
 truth into its institutions of Education, as far as may be prac- 
 ticable. To this end the Board of Education has assisted in 
 establishing schools, academies and colleges on the basis of 
 uniting religious with secular knowledge. If there be any 
 value, therefore, in the christian training of the rising genera- 
 tion, the importance of the Assembly's system of measures in 
 co-operating towards that result, cannot be overrated." 
 
 This, and this alone, is a healthy mode of education — such 
 as will introduce a healthy state of morals, elevate our char- 
 acter as a nation, insure perpetuity to our government, and 
 augment our influence as a great, free people on earth. Not 
 to educate, all will agree, would ruin us ; ignorance and viee 
 would combine, against which no republic, no government m 
 which the people govern, could stand. For, in a mode of gov- 
 ernment where the people have the dominant power, the 
 character of the people must be healthful, virtuous, and hon- 
 est, or they will destroy themselves. 
 
 Suppose we educate only a part of our population, and the 
 consequence must be, the formation of classes, and the distioe- 
 
22 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION, 
 
 tions of aristocracy and mean submission. The intelligent 
 will take the advantage of, and impose upon, the ignorant; 
 the latter become tools to serve the selfish purposes of the for- 
 mer, and the moral character of both classes become corrupted. 
 
 But, again, suppose we aim to educate all classes, which is 
 more and more the disposition of the people, — but we educate 
 only in part — we educate the intellectual and not the moral 
 man — the head and not the heart, an error into which we have 
 so dreadfully fallen, and the consequences all good men lament, 
 — would it be philosophical, when the heart, conscience and 
 moral faculties of the mind are an equally important part of 
 man, and equally susceptible of cultivation with any of the 
 other powers of his being ? Has not our Great and Alhvise 
 Maker intended our moral being to be educated with our in- 
 tellectual ? has he not made provision for it ? He has sent 
 prophets and inspired men and messages from Heaven, consti- 
 tuting instructions for the moral and immortal man. 
 
 Now, suppose a nation, under all this, set aside religion in 
 their educational plans, or look upon it as not equally signifi- 
 cant with their secular instruction, can they do this violence to 
 their nature w T ith impunity ? can they counteract the designs 
 of God and still retain his blessings upon their government 
 and people ? 
 
 Those who have kicked the Bible out of the primary school- 
 room in order to accommodate the Roman Catholics and Infi- 
 dels, sec the disapprobation of God in the juvenile outlawry of 
 the land. And those who are anxious that colleges and semi- 
 naries should be under the control of teachers of no church 
 connection, lest sectarianism might be taught, may learn the. 
 displeasure of God in the character of their pupils, compared 
 with the high and refined moral feelings, christian benevolence, 
 activity, and usefulness of those educated under the religious 
 instruction, and praycrfulness of another class of teachers. 
 
 After these facts, it will be our business to enquire, is the 
 education of our daughters equally important in this only safe 
 
 & 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 23 
 
 and practicable plan of education ? Would any educational 
 arrangement be complete had it not its institutions, and did it 
 not extend its facilities to females, as well as to the other sex ? 
 We reply in the negative. We believe that females can co- 
 operate in carrying out the designs of all education — the 
 ameliorating the condition of the world in the great works of 
 charity and benevolence, to the glory of God ; and in a na- 
 tional and political sense, establishing the everlasting happi- 
 ness, and glory, and greatness of a nation. .... ■ 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Interests of a Country, the Progress of the Church, 
 TnE Peace, Virtue, and Intelligence of a Community, 
 the Happiness of the Family, depend upon the Educa- 
 tion of Mothers : — 
 
 " Mothers and Schoolmasters plant the seed of nearly all 
 the good and evil that exists in the world." — Dr. Rush. 
 
 "France needs mothers." — Madam Campan to Napoleon. 
 
 "If Christianity were driven from the earth, her last re- 
 treat would be at the fireside, and her last audience ivould be 
 children gathering around the knees of a mother." 
 
 In the great work of education we are not left in the dark 
 by the Great Being who created us, in reference to the man- 
 ner in which we are to proceed in the work, neither in refer- 
 ence to the time when we are to begin it. His language is: — 
 " Train up a child in the way he should go ; and when he it 
 old he will not depart from it." — Pro v. 22, 6. 
 
 And these words ivhich I command thee this day, shall be in 
 thy heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy 
 children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, 
 and when thou ivalkest by the way, and when thou liest down, 
 and when thou riscst up." — Deut. 6, 6-7. 
 
 " Whom shall he teach knowledge ? and whom shall he 
 make to understand doctrine ? Them that are weaned from 
 the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be 
 upon precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, line upon 
 line ; here a Utile and there a little" — Isa. 28, 9-10. 
 
 " Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord." — Eph. 6, 4. 
 
 Under this economy of instruction, the mother's instrumen- 
 tality, and responsible position, is brought into view. Her 
 sphere is, to make the first impression, and give the first 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 25 
 
 moulding to the infant mind, as its susceptibilities arise, and 
 its consciousness awakes. Her's is the privilege of teaching 
 the first command of God, that the child may comprehend. 
 
 We will now turn our attention to the facts in the history 
 the Bible, in reference to the early maternal influence upon 
 the minds of the great men of God of the Ancient Church. — 
 In the early trainings of most of those men, the mother's name 
 is prominently mentioned, not that their fathers were absolved 
 from the parental obligation of instruction and duty, but it ia 
 done to show us the power of the mother's agency. We have 
 the mother of Samuel in the act of devotion ; her words un- 
 heard ; her lips seem to move, and the earnestness upon her 
 countenance, indicating her first prayer for her illustrious son. 
 In the New Testament we have Eunice educating her son, from, 
 a child, to know the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make 
 him wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. But 
 how many of the mother's acts, in the slow process of impress- 
 ing truth, — line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a 
 little and there a little — upon the object of her solicitude, are 
 not made the subject of public record ! We know not how 
 much is attributable to Sarah's piety and maternal instruction, 
 that Isaac became the child of promise, and the type of Christ ; 
 to Rebecca, for the peaceful termination of Jacob's long life,, 
 with his prophetic blessings upon his sons ; to Rachsel, for 
 that distinction which Joseph received for piety and filial af- 
 fection over his ten brethren ; to Jochebed, for her resignation 
 to the providence of God, in anticipating the death of her little 
 son, when exposed to the Nile, and the intelligence and piety 
 of her children, Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam. 
 
 Whilst the mothers of ancient Israel looked for the Desire 
 of all nations, with the probability that the little son of every 
 cradle might be, " to us a child is given," their children be- 
 came the Patriarchs and Prophets in the Church, the Ex- 
 pounders of the Sacred Oracles, and the Rulers of God's 
 people. Their mothers' unwritten history is ody known in 
 
66 A TLEA FOR FE.MA'.r, EDUCATION; 
 
 the intelligence, the holy lives, and the distinction of their 
 great sons. 
 
 The plan of God is plainly laid down in the Bible, and the 
 names of many pious mothers recorded, their prayers alluded 
 to, and their teachings described, the history of their children 
 written, giving an experience of three thousand years, of the 
 invariable result of a connection between the mother's faith- 
 fulness, and the children's piety and distinction. God has 
 promised it, and he has verified his promises to all "who have 
 been faithful. 
 
 Again, at first view, we would hardly think it necessary to 
 complete the Sacred Canon, that the names of the mothers of 
 wicked men, and Kings of Israel, who "did evil in the sight 
 of the Lord," should be so minutely recorded. But all scrip- 
 ture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- 
 eousness: even the names of those females and their genealo- 
 gy is important. They give us a reason of the wickedness of 
 some of the men of the Bible. They point out the connection 
 between the character of the mothers, and that of their off- 
 spring. The mother of Absalom was Maachah, the daughter 
 of Talmai, king of Geshur (2 Saml. 3, 3). Rehoboam's mo- 
 ther was Naamah, an Ammonitess (1 Kings 14, 21). In 2 
 Chron. 22, 2-3, we have the following account of the mother 
 of Ahaziah : " Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he 
 began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His 
 mother's name also was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri. He 
 also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab : For his mother 
 was his counsellor to do wickedly." 
 
 The mothers of the present generation now have in their 
 arms the population of the next generation — Legislators, Law- 
 yers, Physicians, Ministers of the Gospel, Merchants, Me- 
 chanics, Farmers ; also, the righteous, the pure, the wise, the 
 profane, the sabbath-breakers, drunkards, gamblers, and mur- 
 derers, of the next generation. From the foregoing Bible 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 27 
 
 facts, it will depend mainly upon the prayers, the intelligence 
 and faithfulness of mothers ; or their negligence, ignorance, 
 and bad example, in deciding into which one of the above 
 classes their offspring will enter their destiny. 
 
 " To you is made over the awfully important trust of infus- 
 ing the first principles of piety into the tender minds of those 
 who may one day be called to instruct, not families merely, 
 but districts ; to influence not individuals, but senates. Your 
 private exertions may at this moment be contributing to the 
 future happiness, your domestic neglect, to the future ruin, of 
 your country. And may you never forget, in this your early 
 instruction of your offspring, nor they, in the future applica- 
 tion of it, that religion is the only sure ground of morals ; that 
 private principle is the only solid basis of public virtue. 0, 
 think that they both may be fixed or forfeited forever, accord- 
 ing to the use you are making of that power which God has 
 delegated to you, and of which he will demand a strict account. 
 By his blessing on your pious labors, may both [sons and 
 daughters hereafter 'arise and call you blessed.' And in the 
 great day of general account, may every christian mother be 
 enabled through divine grace, to say, with humble confidence 
 to her Maker and •Redeemer, ' Behold the children whom thou 
 hast given me !' * 
 
 " Mother, such is the trust confided to you. The child con- 
 secrated to Grod, taught as it may be, cared for, prayed for, 
 restrained from -evil, prompted to good, presented with a pious 
 and holy example in yourself, who can say that it will not at- 
 tain to the adoption of a son or daughter of the Lord Al- 
 mighty ? In what delightful fields of knowledge may it not 
 roam ? Amid what products of infinite love may it not ex- 
 patiate ? What a progression in all that is beautiful, holy and 
 glorious may lie before it ! If, through your labors, such an 
 inheritance for your child be possible, will you be wanting in 
 faithfulness to your dying day !" f 
 
 * Hannah More's Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, 
 f American Messenger, July, 1851, 
 
28 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 The Lord's plan of maternal duty, is, in order to be success* 
 ful not only to impart timely instruction, but accompany 
 instruction with sincere prayer. "I commit this cuild to 
 God and His CHURCH," said a dying mother, about thirty-five 
 years ago, of the youngest of her four little ones. Ere long 
 the father also died ; then the uncle to whom the child was 
 committed ; but God's eye ivas upon Mm. He was placed 
 with a farmer ; the mother was forgotten ; but in the revival 
 of 1831, he was converted to Christ. By and by, certain 
 persons thought that he had talents, and proposed that he 
 should study for the ministry. He entered college, graduated, 
 became a tutor, and is now a faithful and efficient pastor in 
 Massachusetts. The other three still live, and are hopefully 
 pious and useful," The above is headed, The Mother's 
 Prayer, in the American Messenger, May, 1851. 
 
 The following facts are given in the Life of Monica, the 
 mother of St, Augustine : His father, Patricius, was an infi* 
 del, and a man of morose disposition. His mother had been 
 instructed in the Christian religion, by a pious old nurse. — 
 She spared no pains to instruct her little boy, Augustine, in 
 Christianity. From his earliest years he was accustomed to 
 daily prayer ; and at times he appeared to engage in it with 
 intelligence and delight. Affection to his mother appeared to 
 be a ruling principle of his heart. But he became enslaved 
 by the wildest passions of human nature as he grew up to 
 manhood, under the influences of the heathenism of the fourth 
 century, by which he was surrounded. It is said of his mo- 
 ther : " On one occasion, finding her son had embraced 
 dangerous errors, she earnestly entreated a certain Bishop to 
 reason him out of them. But though he was by no means 
 disposed to evade such a task when there was any hope of 
 success, yet now he entirely declined, saying, ' your son is too 
 much elated at present, too much captivated with the novelty 
 of his speculations, to listen to arguments. Be patient in 
 duty ; continue to pray for him, and he will be brought to se« 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 29 
 
 Ma errors.' But the heart of a mother can not rest when she 
 realizes the salvation of her child is at stake. She persisted 
 m her request with many tears. At last the worthy Bishop, 
 somewhat out of patience with her importunity, replied : 
 * Leave me, good woman ; it is impossible that a child of suck 
 prayers should perish V This answer impressed her as if it 
 had been a voice from heaven ; and with quenchless ardor she 
 sought the conversion of her son, even in the darkest hours of 
 his apostasy." Augustine says, "while I was rolling in pol- 
 lution of sin, sometimes indeed attempting to rise, yet still 
 sinking deeper and deeper, she persisted in prayer, and never 
 ceased to hope." " Thus, through persevering prayer, and 
 the clear exhibitions of sacred truth, accompanied by tho 
 power of the Holy Spirit, this man of pride, of sensuality, of 
 unhallowed ambition and supreme selfishness, was brought low 
 in the dust of humiliation before God." 
 
 "When parental influence does not convert," says Richard 
 Cecil, " it hampers, it hangs on the wheels of evil. I had a 
 pious mother who dropped things in my way — I could never 
 rid myself of them. I was a professed infidel; but then I 
 liked to be an infidel in company, rather than when alone — I 
 was wretched when by myself. These principles and maxims 
 (of his mother) spoiled my pleasure. With my , companions I 
 would sometimes stifle them ; like embers, we kept one an- 
 other warm. Besides, I was a sort of hero ; I had beguiled 
 several of my associates into my opinions, and I had to main- 
 tain a character before them ; but I could not divest myself of 
 my better principles. I went with one of my companions to 
 gee ; he could laugh heartily, but I could not ; the ridi- 
 cule on regeneration was high sport to him — to me it was 
 none ; it could not move my features. He knew no difference 
 between regeneration and transubstantiation — I did. I knew 
 there was such a thing. I was afraid and ashamed to laugh 
 at it. Parental influence thus cleaves to a man — it 
 
 HARASSES HIM — IT THROWS ITSELF CONSTANTLY IN HIS WAY." 
 
30 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 His biographer Bays of him : " Ho was a child of many tears, 
 instructions, admonitions, and prayers; and though now a 
 prodigal, he was to be recovered of his wickedness!" Cecil 
 remarks, " I shall never forget standing by the bed of my 
 sick mother. 'Are you not afraid to die?' I asked her; 'No ! 
 No!' ' Why does the uncertainty of another state give you 
 no concern?' 'Because God has said to me, 'Fear not, 
 when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee ; and 
 through the rivers they shall not overflow thee.' ' The re- 
 membrance of this scene has oftentimes since drawn an ardent 
 prayer from me, that I might die the death of the righteous. "* 
 A Mother of Missionaries. — Mrs. Joanna Lathrop, who 
 recently died in New York at the residence of her son, Kev. 
 William A. Hallock, Secretary, in her 80th year, was the 
 mother of Mrs. Harriet L. Winslow, whose memoir is pub- 
 lished by the Society, and of Mrs. Charlotte H. Cherry, Mrs, 
 Elizabeth C. Hutchings, and Mrs. Harriet Joanna Perry, all 
 of whom were missionaries in Ceylon, and three of whom, with 
 the Rev. Mr. Perry, now lie burried in the church-yard at 
 Oodooville. She was also the grandmother of Mrs. Harriet 
 W. Dulles, daughter of Mrs. Winslow, now Missionary at 
 Madras. When Mrs. Lathrop had reached the age of thirty- 
 seven, no member of the family had professed Christ. The 
 eldest daughter, since Mrs. Winslow, at twelve became de- 
 votedly pious, and at thirteen, in 1809, her parents went 
 with her to the Lord's table. Thirty-two years ago, in 
 1819, this daughter, at the age of twenty-three, sailed for 
 India, with the llcv. Mr. Winslow, and Rev. Messrs. Scuddcr, 
 Spaulding, and Woodward. The first intelligence from them 
 was "a revival at sea." The family became interested in 
 Missions. The three young sisters of Mrs. Winslow, and 
 lately her daughter who- received an accomplished education 
 in a christian family in New York, imbibed her spirit and 
 followed her to India. Mrs. Lathrop's eight children all be- 
 came pious, and at her death all her grand-children who had 
 
 Remains of llie Kev. Richard Cecil. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 31 
 
 come to years of discretion had hope in Christ."* "These 
 are my jewels?" said Cornelia, the illustrious mother of the 
 Gracchi, pointing to her noble sons. But how much more can 
 a faithful christian mother, like Mrs. Lathrop, point to her 
 children and grand-children as she stands upon the borders of 
 four score, and say " these who dedicated themselves to the 
 great work -of evangelizing the world, are my jewels — they 
 will be jewels in my crown at the great day of judgment. " 
 
 "The mother of Saml. J. Mills was the daughter of Samuel 
 Bobbins, of a respectable family, originally from Weathers- 
 field, in Hartford county, Connecticut. She was a woman of 
 very exemplary character and pre-eminent piety, and one 
 whose memory is embalmed in the hearts of all who knew 
 her." She says of her son, "I have had peculiar solicitudes 
 respecting this child. Even before its birth, I dedicated it to 
 the Lord ; and then engaged that it should be unreservedly 
 devoted to his glory. And when the little immortal was com- 
 mitted to my arms, Avith many prayers and tears did I renew 
 my engagements, till it was strongly impressed on my mind, 
 that God had heard my cry and accepted my offering." — 
 " Could we, without sacrilege, enter the sanctuary of a moth- 
 er's bosom, iye might whisper a tale that would account for the 
 distinguished usefulness with which God has condescended to 
 favor some of the best of men." 
 
 One day whilst his good mother was instructing him, Avhen 
 a boy, and asked him how his state of mind was, he raised his 
 head and with eyes streaming with tears, exclaimed, " that 
 I had never been born ! that I had never been born ! For 
 two years I have been sorry God ever made me." What re- 
 ply could such a mother make to such a disclosure ? " My son," 
 said she, " you are born, and you can never throw off your 
 
 existence, nor your everlasting accountability for all your 
 conduct." 
 
 He was absent from home at the Theological Seminary when 
 his mother died, and upon his arrival at her grave, he says, 
 
 * American Messenger, July, 1851. 
 
82 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 "her grave was newly covered — it was my mother's! Here I 
 gave vent to the most impassioned burst of wo. I wept not 
 that my mother had gone to glory, but that I should sec her 
 face no more ; no more should hear her warning voice ; no 
 more should share her prayers." Mr. Mills, the child of 
 such maternal prayers, became the originator of the American 
 Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 " The Rev. Leigh Richmond was born at Liverpool, on Janu- 
 ary 29th, 1772. It was his privilege to have a most estimable 
 mother ; endowed with a superior understanding, which had 
 been cultivated and improved by an excellent education, and 
 subsequent reading. In addition to her natural talents and 
 acquirements, she was piously disposed. 
 
 This affectionate and conscientious parent anxiously in- 
 structed him, from his infancy, in the Holy Scriptures, and in 
 the principles of true religion, according to the best of her 
 ability ; a debt which was subsequently repaid by her son, who 
 became the happy and honored instrument of imparting to his 
 beloved mother clearer and more enlarged views of divine 
 truth than were generally prevalent during the last generation. 
 It seems highly probable that the seeds of piety were then 
 sown, which in a future period, and under circumstances of a 
 providential nature, were destined to produce a rich and an 
 abundant harvest." * 
 
 "Every one who has thought on the subject, must know how 
 great is the influence of the female character, especially in the 
 sacred relations of wife and mother. I had a vivid recollec- 
 tion, says the Rev. Richard Knill, in his Memoir of Mrs. 
 Loveless, of the effects of maternal influence. My honored 
 mother was a religious woman, and she watched over and in- 
 structed me as pious mothers are accustomed to do. Alas ! I 
 often forgot her admonitions; but, in my most thoughtless 
 days, I never lost the impressions which her holy example had 
 made on my mind. After spending a large portion of my life 
 
 Memoirs of the Rev. Legb Richmond, bj Rcr. T. S. Giirnshawe. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 33 
 
 in foreign lands, I returned again to visit my native village. 
 Both my parents died while I was in Russia, and their house is 
 now occupied by my brother. The furniture still remains the 
 same as when I was a boy, and at night I was accommodated 
 with the same bed in which I had often slept before ; but my 
 busy thoughts would not let me sleep. I was thinking how 
 God had led me through the journey of life. At last the light 
 of the morning darted through the little window, and then my 
 eye caught a sight of the spot where my sainted mother, forty 
 years before, took my hand and said, ' Come, my dear, kneel 
 down with me, and I will go to prayers.' This completely over- 
 came me. I seemed to hear the very tones of her voice. I 
 recollected some of her expressions, and I burst into tears, and 
 arose from my bed, and fell upon my knees just on the spot 
 where my mother kneeled, and thanked God that I had once a 
 praying mother. And oh ! if every parent could feel what I 
 felt then, I am sure they would pray with their children as 
 well as pray for them." * 
 
 "A Happy Father and Mother. — The Rev. Dr. Scudder, 
 having returned to his labors in India with re-invigorated 
 health, and accompanied by his second son, on being called to 
 proceed from Madras to Madura, writes under date of April 6, 
 1847: 'Last night, Mrs. Scudder and myself took leave of 
 our beloved children and missionary associates, and left Ma- 
 dras for Madura. One of my sons remains in Madras, the 
 other is about to proceed to Ceylon. A highly favored father 
 and mother are we, to have children to take leave of under 
 the circumstances which now exist ; children who have conse- 
 crated themselves to the great work of laboring for the good 
 of the perishing heathen ; of laboring to bring back this dark 
 land to the service of Jehovah Jesus. I have but one prayer 
 to offer in behalf of the six sons whom I left in America, and 
 
 -Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes. 
 
;J4 A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 that is, that they may all follow their brothers to this, with 
 hearts alive to the interests of its teeming population." * 
 
 "What a blessed and happy mother that will be at the great 
 day of the coming judgment, when they will " rise up and call 
 her blessed," because she prayed for, and instructed a little 
 son who became instrumental, when grown up, in " turning 
 many unto righteousness." 
 
 " Where simple hearted piety is the most prevalent in 
 community, there the family religion is the most frequent, the 
 most pure, the most happy, and the most prosperous. Reli- 
 gion never dwells in a community Avithout dwelling pre- 
 eminently in the family circles, and hallowing these nurseries 
 of piety. There arc not wanting illustrations of this fact. — 
 The history of Scotland, and the older States of New England, 
 occur as among the more prominent modern demonstrations of 
 this truth." f 
 
 Of all European countries maintaining a national church, 
 Scotland has perhaps preserved the piety and vitality of reli- 
 gion to the greatest extent since the Reformation. As an 
 instance of it, the Free Church of Scotland, after its separa- 
 tion from the National Church, composed of seven hundred 
 and twenty-two congregations, contributed, in four years, six 
 and a fourth millions of dollars to benevolent purposes. This 
 superior activity and liberality is OAving to the intelligence of 
 the mothers of the church, and their faithfulness in fireside 
 training, and Sabbath teachings. It is attributed to Robert 
 Hall to have said, that if every copy of the Bible were annihi- 
 lated, he would go to Scotland and get the ladies of the church 
 to write one from memory — in allusion to the extended Bible 
 knowledge of those females. Although there is Avickcdness 
 and drunkenness enough in Scotland, yet there are charac- 
 teristics of the people, of a recuperative nature, which Ave will 
 illustrate by a few facts, showing the effect of faithful family 
 
 ' American Mt>««en<rpr, March, 184S- 
 
 t Heavon, ihe Model of a Christian Family, by II • v Erastus Hopkins. 
 
A 'PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 6ii> 
 
 instruction. Hannah More says, " Sir John Fielding (a man 
 not likely to be suspected of over-strictness) assured a partic- 
 ular friend of the author, that, during his long administration 
 <>f justice in Bow street, only six Scotchmen were brought be- 
 fore him. The remark did not proceed from any national 
 partiality in the magistrate, but was produced by him in proof 
 of the effect of a sober and religious education among the low- 
 er ranks on their morals and conduct." 
 
 " The Rev. Dr. Waugh, was enlarging one evening at a pub- 
 lic Sabbath School meeting, on the blessings of education ; and, 
 turning to his native country (Scotland) for proof, told his aud- 
 itors the following anecdote : ' At board-day, at the Peniten- 
 tiary at Mill-bank, the food of the prisoners was discussed, and 
 it was proposed to give Scotch broth tAyice a week. Some of 
 the governors were not aware what sort of broth the barley 
 made, and desired to taste some before they sanctioned the 
 measure. One of the officers was accordingly directed to go 
 to the wards and bring a Scotch woman, competent to the cu- 
 linary task, to perform it in the kitchen. After long delay, 
 the board supposing the broth was preparing all the while, the 
 officer returned, and told their honors that there tvas no Scotch 
 woman in the house.' "* We may go to any community in the 
 Christian world where faithful maternal instruction is attend- 
 ed to, and its effects are seen in the morals and intelligence of 
 the people. " Our Country needs Mothers." 
 
 "You (females) can exert an influence which shall wake the 
 energies of a sleeping generation. You can rouse to benevo- 
 lent exertion, and concentrate the streams of charity, that 
 flow to fertilize the wastes of a ruined world. 
 
 " But the duty of mothers, is, if possible, still greater. Im- 
 mortal beings are committed to your care, perhaps to be saved 
 or lost by your influence. They already feel the effects of 
 your example, and will probably feel them more and more for 
 
 Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Anecdoies. 
 
3G A FLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 ever. From you, rather than the father, or any other befog 
 on earth, they will take their character. You can render them 
 idle, ungovernable, selfish, or malevolent. You can teach them 
 to be covetous,, proud, envious, sensorious, unkind and inhos- 
 pitable. You can form them into a character hated of men, 
 and detested by angels and God. Oh ! none like you can 
 qualify them for everlasting burnings. Or you can teach thein 
 industry, subordination and benevolence ; can make them gen- 
 erous, modest, prudent, kind and hospitable ; can, -with the 
 promised blessings, form them to a character approved of men 
 and lovely to angels and to God. Oh ! none like you can qual- 
 ify them to live in heaven. God has given you that influence, 
 that authority, that affection and access, which places your off- 
 spring at your disposal. To whom will they listen when they 
 will not hear the voice of a mother ? "When her government 
 is despised, who shall control them ? Who shall love them 
 sufficiently to teach them, when maternal affection cools ? — 
 AVho shall find access to their consciences and their hearts, 
 when barred against the approach of a mother ? Mother ! the 
 name is very sweet. In all the majesty of maternal love, she 
 can sit down by the heart and conscience of her child, and 
 shape, and mould, and temper it almost to her pleasure. The 
 world can be excluded, and every passion hushed to calmness, 
 by her maternal sweetness and authority; while in the midst 
 of the calm, she can teach them divine wisdom, fire them with 
 benevolent affections, and give their minds a high and hea- 
 venly aspect." * 
 
 k - The influence of your sex exerts itself over the earliest 
 periods of rational life. The first being that the child knows 
 is its mother. To the young heart, the mother is the first 
 object of affection and reverence. Her eyes and her voice, 
 her tears and smiles, her caresses and reproofs, are the subjects 
 of infant observation ; and these present the earliest lesson 
 that the young immortal ever learns. From the very nature 
 
 ■ Waiks of Rev. Daniel A. Clark. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION- 37 
 
 of the case, mother's must impress their own image on their 
 children. The feelings, passions, and expressions of the mo- 
 ther, will become imperceptibly, and almost necessarily, the 
 •feelings, passions, and expressions of the child. To mothers, 
 more than to any other human beings, is committed the im- 
 portant business of moulding the intellect and heart of every 
 •successive generation. This talent God himself has lodged 
 with you that arc mothers ; and it is a talent which can not be 
 wrapped "in a napkin," or buried "in the earth," with im- 
 punity. How full of interest is the thought, that the infant 
 who lies in the cradle, or in its mother's arms, is now receiv- 
 ing the outlines which may form the character of the future 
 man or woman ! Life or death may be conveyed in the ear- 
 liest accents which are remembered from maternal lips. The 
 pious mother may put forth an influence, which blessed of God 
 may save her child. The mother who is living without God, 
 and without a Scriptural hope, though her example may not 
 be that of direct and positive irreligion, may put forth an in- 
 fluence which will destroy the soul of that little one who is 
 thrown helpless and ignorant, upon her care and instruction. 
 If females were all Christians, and such Christians as they 
 ought to be, a hope might be cherished that the world would 
 soon be converted. The next generation might live in a new 
 earth, and, as a part of their employment, celebrate the final 
 victories of the cross." * 
 
 "I have had the pleasure of seeing many," says Mary 
 Lyon, speaking of educated females, " who have enjoyed these 
 privileges (of education) occupying the place of mothers. I 
 have noticed with peculiar interest the cultivated and good 
 common sense, the correct reasoning, the industry and perse- 
 verance, the patience, meekness, and gentleness of many of 
 them. I have felt that if all our common farmers, men of 
 plain, good common sense, could go through the country and 
 witness these mothers in their own families, and compare them 
 
 "* Female Influence and Obligations by Rev. Nathan S. S. Bemsn.D. D* 
 
38 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 ■with others in similar circumstances, they 'would no longer 
 consider the money expended on motliers as thrown away." * 
 Now, when colleges arc every where established, and theo- 
 logical seminaries endowed at great expense for the education 
 of ministers of the gospel, that they may be competent to 
 teach and attend intelligently to their responsible duties — 
 
 " Which might fill an angel's heart, 
 And filled the Savior's hands : " 
 
 when physicians are required to be educated because human 
 life depends upon their skill — when men are sent to colleges 
 and superior schools, and money spent upon their education 
 that they may be qualified to occupy responsible positions in 
 political and civil life — why not educate mothers, whose duties 
 arid responsibilities are equally great ? 
 
 The most intelligent and sincere men and women of all 
 countries write their testimony based upon observation and 
 experience, in reference to the immense influence of educated, 
 pious and prayerful mothers, in establishing the character of 
 their families. They control the destiny of successive genera- 
 tions in infancy for weal or wo ; the virtues and happiness, 
 the vice and shame of nations depend, in great part, upon 
 them ; they make the church rejoice over its prosperity, and 
 mourn over its adversities. 
 
 In view of this we are highly culpable provided no liberal 
 arrangements are made for their education. We must have 
 Female Seminaries, and superior schools, in every town and 
 populous neighborhood in the country, and the ablest and most 
 faithful instructors employed to fill their professors' chairs, 
 where mothers are to he educated. 
 
 Sheridan wrote, "Women govern us ; let us try to render 
 them perfect. The more they are enlightened, so much the 
 more we shall bo. On the cultivation of the minds of women, 
 depends the wisdom of men." Intelligent mothers will be 
 
 L.io of Mary Lyon, by Edward Hitchcock, D. D. L. L. D. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 39 
 
 likely to have intelligent families. Religious mothers, religious 
 families, and the contrary. 
 
 How many mothers, now surrounded by families, who would 
 by no means be considered ignorant women, have not even a 
 correct understanding of the import of the Ten Command- 
 ments ; hence their children are indulged in the violation of 
 them. They are permitted to be disobedient and disrespectful 
 to their parents ; regular violators of the Sabbath ; guilty of 
 lying and profanity ; their temper and passions unrestrained, 
 and their attention to religious duties left to themselves. — 
 How many thousands of mothers are there who have no con- 
 sciousness whatever of maternal duties beyond the common 
 secular household affairs — who are not capable of expressing 
 an intelligent view of the plainest passages of the Bible, much 
 less able, as every mother ought to be, of simplifying its truths, 
 and adapting them to the mind of the child, "line upon line, 
 precept upon precept, here a little and there a little." 
 
 It might be thought that too much prominence is given to 
 mothers in descriptions of parental duty ; for the father of a 
 family is equally responsible, and may, to a great extent, 
 counteract the mother's influence. But it is the mother of 
 the two parents who is more constantly with her family, from 
 the sphere of her duties ; she has almost the entire control of 
 her children during their earliest years ; their first impressions 
 are the mother's. ! for such mothers as Sarah, Rebecca, 
 Rachael, Jochebed, Hannah, Eunice, Monica, the mother of 
 Richard Cecil, Mrs. Lathrop, the missionary mother ; the mo- 
 ther of Samuel J. Mills, of Leigh Richmond, of Richard 
 Knill, — what an impression the light of their education and 
 the power of their prayers would make upon our rising fami- 
 lies. The combined influence of a number of such mothers 
 would call salvation from the Lord upon a perishing country. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Woman's Usefulness will be Enhanced in Proportion to 
 her Education — In the Cause or Missions — Tract So- 
 ciety's Operations — The Temperance Reformation — 
 Works of Beneficence — Sabbath Schools-In the work 
 of General Instruction : — 
 
 " I will say again, that when the Savior came, woman re- 
 joiced in him, before either man or angel. I read that not 
 even man did give unto Christ so much as one groat ; hut the 
 women followed him and ministered unto him of their sub- 
 stance. It was a woman that washed his feet with tears, and 
 a woman that anointed his body to the burial. They were 
 women that wept when he was going to the cross ; and women 
 that followed him from the cross, and that sat by his sepulchre 
 when he was buried. They were women that were first with 
 him at his resurrection-morn, and women that brought tidings 
 first to the disciples that he was risen from the dead. Women, 
 therefore, are highly favored, and show by these things that 
 they are sharers in the grace of life." — John Bunyan. 
 
 " Thus her compassion woman shows. 
 
 Beneath the line tier ads are these ; 
 Nor the wide waste of Lapland's stio'vs 
 
 Can herwann flow of pily freeze." — Ckabbs. 
 
 "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him 
 for the saying of the Avoman, which testified, lie told me all that 
 ever I did." — JoiIN 4, 39. 
 
 " Help those women which labored with me in the gospel." — 
 Phil. 4, 3. 
 
 In comparing this passage with Paul's instruction to Timo- 
 thy : Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. — 
 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 41 
 
 over the man, but to be in silence, for Adam was first formed 
 then Eve — the Apostle did not mean that those women preach- 
 ed the gospel publicly. 
 
 Doddridge's paraphrase on this passage is : " that thou 
 wouldst assist those pious -women who labored with me in the 
 gospel — in such service as suit their sex and station." 
 
 The question is, how can well-educated, pious females assist 
 at the present time in the extension of the gospel ; or, in what 
 way can they make themselves useful in the great work of 
 teaching the world Christianity, and in carrying out all its 
 practical duties, of charity, beneficence, and love ? 
 
 First : They can assist in the extension of the gospel among 
 the heathen in Foreign Missions. 
 
 "It will be your duty, and I hope your pleasure, to aid all 
 the operations of benevolence, especially the propagation of 
 the gospel light. This is a work in which your sex have a spe- 
 cial interest. You owe your freedom, your influence and all 
 your comforts to the gospel. Advance a single furlong beyond 
 its light, and you find the female sex in a state of perpetual 
 servitude, treated like beasts of burden, and excluded from 
 all the joys of civil and social life. Could they but know the 
 blessings that fall to your lot, and the reason why they are so 
 oppressed and miserable, they would raise a cry for the gospel 
 loud and eloquent as the shrieks of death. They would not 
 rest till they could place in the hands of their oppressors the 
 volume which is the charter of your liberties. They too would 
 be free, respected and happy." * 
 
 Females have not been insensible to the favors they have re- 
 alized from the power of the gospel — they have not shown in- 
 gratitude to the Saviour. From the time the little Hebrew 
 maid was instrumental in the introduction of the knowledge of 
 the God of her people into Syria, in the days of Naaman the 
 leper, to the present time, their names are associated with the 
 
 * Daniel A. Clark. 
 
42 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION". 
 
 work of Missions, and their efficacy runs parallel in import- 
 ance with that of the other sex in the propagation of the 
 gospel. 
 
 "Pious women have always done much in the kingdom of 
 Christ. They followed the Son of God and ministered to His 
 necessities, while here below. In the days of the apostles, hon- 
 orable mention is made of their activity and usefulness in the 
 Church of God. Indeed, in every age the progress of the gos- 
 pel has been essentially aided by their pious and devoted la- 
 bors. Who can compute, this side of heaven, the influence of 
 Hannah More in favor of the gospel." * She was said by anr 
 other to have been " the most brilliant female ornament of 
 Christian literature of the age, " and all her influence and la- 
 bors were exerted in behalf of Christianity after her conver- 
 sion, though she was not directly engaged in the work of Mis- 
 sions. 
 
 " When will the name of Harriet Newell be forgotten in the 
 East, or cease to be associated, through the world, with'tha. 
 labor, and toil, and triumphs of the Missionary cause." f Thii 
 devoted and distinguished young lady w T as converted at the age 
 of thirteen, whilst attending Bradford Academy, and then re- 
 marked, in reference to it, " there was an hour when the light 
 of divine truth irradiated my benighted heart— when I could 
 rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God' of my salvation. I 
 could willingly then renounce the world, for it lost all its pow- 
 er to charm. How sweet was the idea of suffering for Jesus!" 
 Under this affection of mind she renounced the society of her 
 friends and her home for the heathen world, and accompanied 
 her husband with the first American Missionaries to India. 
 She died at the age of nineteen, and her remains lie buried at 
 Port Louis, on the Isle of France. 
 
 Will the Church ever forget the name of the first missiona- 
 ry to Burmah — the talented and accomplished Ann Hasseltine 
 
 *Dr. N. S. S. Beman. 
 f Ibid. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 4& 
 
 Judson ? Will the Church ever forget the privations and per- 
 ils of the first missions to India ? In view of this, the letter 
 which Dr. Judson wrote to her father, asking his consent to 
 their marriage, contained the following language : — " I have 
 now to ask, whether you can consent to her departure to a hea- 
 then land ; whether you can consent to her exposure to the 
 dangers of the ocean ; to every kind of want and distress ; to 
 degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death ? 
 Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him, who left His- 
 heavenly home and died for her and you ?" Her biographer 
 says :— "For beauty, talents, piety, and dignity of demeanor, 
 and perseverance of mind, Mrs. Judson has had hut few equals. 
 She acquired languages with great facility, and used her ac- 
 quirements to the best purpose of her calling. She wrote with 
 ease and elegance. She was a pattern of conjugal affection 
 and missionary ardor. She was chivalrous and romantic with- 
 out being giddy and vain. She was engaged in a great work,, 
 and she went fearlessly on to death. She shrunk from no dan- 
 ger, nor turned back from any peril. She saw martyrdom be- 
 fore her, but it was surrounded by beautiful visions. She saw 
 the seeds of the gospel planted in a heathen land, and she be- 
 lieved, that if it was long in springing up, it would in time 
 flourish, and break assunder the chains of superstition and sin. 
 Every day confirms the wisdom of her anticipations. 
 
 "No female missionary ever passed through such scenes of 
 suffering, or made such efforts of benevolence in sickness and 
 amidst perils and difficulties of every kind. When at a future 
 time the gospel shall fully triumph over the superstitions of the 
 East, her name will be honored throughout Burmah, as it is 
 already honored throughout the christian and civilized world. 
 Her grave is under a large tree called Hopia, or hop-tree, and 
 will be visited by christian missionaries, as a place made sacred 
 by the ashes of a woman of no ordinary character." 
 
 The great field open to female enterprise in Foreign Mis- 
 
44 A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION". 
 
 sions is the school-room, where children are taken from child- 
 hood and instructed in religion whilst they are taught to read. 
 This mode of instruction is continued from the first school to 
 the highest seminary, and here female benevolence displays 
 itself in its greatness, as hundreds of children of their own sex, 
 degraded by heathenism, are, by their labors, elevated, through 
 education and religion, to virtue, usefulness and the hope of 
 eternal life. Thus it is said of Mrs. Winslow's labors in her 
 female school at Oodooville, in Ceylon : "all the girls who had 
 passed through a regular course in the school, or were far ad- 
 vanced in it previous to Mrs. Winslow's death, had then become 
 hopefully pious, and were members of the church ; and, what 
 was very pleasing, no one of them, tivcnty-four in number, had 
 dishonored the profession." * 
 
 Another fact in reference to this lady's labors in the gospel 
 was published in the New York Observer. "A sailor, with a 
 a large athletic form, dark eyes, and death-like paleness, came 
 into a village in Indiana. He had been the wayward son of 
 a praying New England mother, and under the influence of 
 incurable disease, had left the sea, and reached the home of 
 his only sister. Here, away from the influence of ungodly 
 companions, he reviewed his life, the privileges he had abused, 
 and the mercy he had slighted, till, in the agony of despair, 
 lie sought and found the only Redeemer. A smile of heaven- 
 ly joy now lit up his pallid features; his tongue was unloosed, 
 and he conversed freely on the preciousness of the Savior he 
 had found. He spoke, too, with deep emotion of the efforts 
 that had been made for his salvation on board a ship. He 
 took deep delight in speaking of the lamented Harriet Wins- 
 low, and her voyage to India on board the Indus, in which 
 vessel he was then an officer. 'I will remember,' said he, his 
 dying eye brightening with animation — 'I will remember that 
 devoted missionary band, who then sailed to their field of la- 
 
 Memoir of Harriet L. YVinslow. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION, 45 
 
 bor in a vessel. Mrs. Winslow, in particular, I can never for- 
 get. She was so kind and faithful, so persevering and con- 
 stant in her endeavors to arrest our attention, and lead us to 
 reflect on our awful condition, that I have always wondered 
 why I did not then become a christian, with some others of 
 the crew. But I stifled all my convictions, and put oif all the 
 important concerns of my soul. Some of the tracts she gave 
 me I read, others I threw away, but I could never throw away 
 or get rid of her faithful admonitions. They have always fol- 
 lowed me. In the ocean storms — amid the fierce howlings of 
 the tempest, when a yawning eternity was at my feet — her 
 sweet, kind, voice of admonition was sounding in my ear, 
 wherever I went among my profane associates, on ship-board, 
 or in the haunts of vice on shore. When I considered how she 
 had left, forever, the home of her childhood, and her dear 
 mother and friends, forsaking all the pleasant associations of 
 her early life, to go and spend her days among an ignorant,, 
 barbarous people, I could not withstand such arguments against 
 my scepticism. There must certainly be a reality in the reli- 
 gion of Christ. ' During his last illness, he spoke frequently 
 with tears of gratitude of Mrs. Winslow and of hoping to 
 meet her in heaven." 
 
 In addition to collecting funds at home for the support of 
 missions, they have accompanied the missionary to every cli- 
 mate, and participated in all his dangers and privations, among 
 the heathens. Their delicate limbs lie buried under the palm 
 trees of India, in Africa, the Isles of every ocean and are cov- 
 ered by the snows of Greenland and Labrador, where they 
 have "labored in the gospel." 
 
 Second: Their agency in the Tract Society's operations, is 
 expressed in the article headed Female Charity, in the 
 American Messenger, 1848. " What would become of the 
 world but for the piety of woman ? ' Last at the cross, and 
 firstat the sepulchre;' she has been first in the beginning, and 
 last in deserting any good enterprise for spreading the Re- 
 
46 A FLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 deemer's kingdom. The Marys and Dorcases of the Church, 
 though in modern retirement, may bear as rich a reward as 
 the Peters and Thomases. Few institutions of gospel benevo- 
 lence could carry forward their operations on anything like 
 their present scale without the prayers and sacrifices of their 
 female friends. 
 
 " The Tract Society, among others, owes much to its gentle 
 friends. Some of its best publications are from female pens. 
 A large proportion of the thousands who carry its Tracts 
 monthly to the houses of the people, are of this class. And 
 its treasury has often been replenished in time of need by the 
 self-denial of Christian ladies. Thousands in the humbler 
 walks have given evidence of their strong attachment to the 
 cause. May blessings from on high rest upon them, and on 
 the destitute and perishing they seek to save." 
 
 Third : In the Temperance Cause, woman is a help-meet. 
 She has been among the greatest sufferers from the vice of 
 drunkenness, and in every movement for its suppression her 
 agency has been foremost. Her private maternal instruction 
 in the family circle has, perhaps, been the most efficient means 
 for the maintenance of society and total abstinence that can 
 be exerted. The Rev. Dr. Mott says : — " Under God I owe 
 my early education — nay, all that I have been or am, to the 
 tutorage of a pious mother. It was — peace to her sainted 
 spirit — it was her monitory voice that first taught my young 
 heart to feel that there was danger in the intoxicating cup, 
 and that safety lay in abstinence. And as no one is more in- 
 debted to the kind influence in question, so no one more fully 
 realizes how decidedly it bears upon tne destiny of others." 
 
 Full well I know, that by woman came the apostasy of 
 Adain, and by woman the recovery through Jesus. It was 
 woman that imbued the mind and formed the character of 
 Moses, Israel's deliverer. It was woman that led the choir, 
 and gave back the response of that triumphal procession which 
 went forth to celebrate with timbrels, on the banks of the Red 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 47 
 
 Sea, the overthrow of Pharoah. It was woman that put Sise- 
 ra to flight, and composed the song of Deborah and Barak the 
 son of Abinoam, and judged in righteousness for years the 
 tribes of Israel. It was a woman that defeated the wicked 
 counsels of Hainan, delivered righteous Mordecai, and saved a 
 whole people from their utter desolation. And now to speak 
 of Semiramis at Babylon, of Catharine of Russia, or of those 
 queens of England whose joyous reigns constitute the bright- 
 est period of British history. The sceptre of empire is not the 
 sceptre that best befits the hand of woman, nor is the field of 
 carnage her field of glory. Home, sweet home is her theatre 
 of action, pedestal of beauty, and the throne of her power. Or 
 if seen abroad, she is seen to the best advantage when on er- 
 rands of love, and wearing her robe of mercy. It was not wo- 
 man who slept during the agonies of Gethsemane. It was not 
 woman who denied her Lord at the palace of Caiaphas. It 
 was not woman that deserted his cross on the hill of Calvary. 
 But it was woman that dared to testify her respect for his 
 corpse, that procured spices for embalming it, and that was 
 found last at night and first in the morning at the sepulchre. 
 Time has neither impaired her kindness, shaken her constan- 
 cy, nor changed her character. 
 
 Now, as formerly, she is most ready to enter and most re- 
 luctant to leave the abode of misery. Now, as formerly, ' is 
 her office, and well it has been sustained, to stay the fainting 
 head, wipe from the dim eye the tear of anguish, and from 
 the cold forehead the dew of death. Her nature befits her to 
 be a most powerful agent among the ranks of those who con- 
 tend against the evils of intemperance. In view of this the 
 American Temperance Society in 1833, whilst in session at 
 Philadelphia, passed the following resolution : — 
 
 "As the elevation and work of woman, and the extent and 
 power of her influence, are sure indications of the state of so- 
 ciety ; and as according to this standard our countrymen are 
 under special obligations to the Author of all good, and are 
 
48 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 bound to be peculiarly grateful for the brig-lit manifestations 
 of his favor ; and as the cause of Temperance in common with 
 all other causes, has greatly multiplied and extended its bles- 
 sings, through the instrumentality of woman's example and 
 effort ; and should that example and effort be general, united 
 and persevering in the promotion of the cause, so intimately 
 connected with her own comfort and prospects, and that those 
 whom she most tenderly loves, and for whom she most cheer- 
 fully sacrifices and labors, it would surely prevail, become uni- 
 versal, and its blessings be extended to all future time : There- 
 fore, 
 
 Resolved, That the females of the United States, in view of 
 the powerful and salutary influence which they may exert over 
 all classes in the community, and especially over the young ; 
 and the inestimable blessings which they may be instrumental 
 in conferring upon all future generations and for both worlds, 
 be, and they hereby are, most respectfully and earnestly re- 
 quested, universally in all suitable ways, to give to this cause 
 their united and persevering efforts." * 
 
 Fourth : In works of beneficence and acts of charity one 
 of the great practical duties of the gospel, woman, when right- 
 ly educated, is characterized by the widow in the gospel who 
 contributed her two mites, and the scene at Joppa when the 
 widoAvs wept around the corpse of Dorcas. 
 
 " The wife of Lamartine is an English woman of generous 
 and enthusiastic character, much esteemed and beloved. She 
 has founded a retreat for repentant females, which is a model 
 of good order and management. She has a country establish- 
 ment for poor girls attacked by consumption. She is at the 
 head of an institution which relieves the poor day-worker of 
 the charge of her infant during the day, and yet separates not 
 mother and child ; which provides a nurse, food and clothing 
 for the babe just born, and yet tears it not from its mother's 
 bosom." This is more magnanimous in those who have wealth, 
 
 * Permanent Temperance Documents. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 49 
 
 in the estimation of thinking minds, than the extravagance and 
 waste displayed in dress and costly equipage by those whose 
 hearts are unsanctified by the truths of religion, and who have 
 never learned the first lessons of humanity. A lady educated 
 as Miss Mary Lyon was, will hold the following sentiments : 
 "Fine architecture, fine paintings and music, beautiful gar- 
 dens with fountains and statuary, are quite desirable. But 
 then, while the world is so full of ignorance, irreligion and 
 misery as it now is, while the funds of our benevolent and 
 educational institutions are so widely inadequate to the noble 
 objects they have in view, is it right for the Christian, espe- 
 cially for one of limited means, to indulge in objects of taste, 
 or any superfluities, which, however lawful and desirable in 
 themselves, are certainly far inferior in importance to the 
 renovation of the world ?" 
 
 Such was the character and life of the noble Lady Hun- 
 tingdon : her income was only £1200 a year. With this she 
 maintained a college she had erected at her own expense ; she 
 erected chapels in most parts of the kingdom, and supported 
 ministers to preach in various parts of the world ; and yet 
 lived in so humble a way that a countryman who had paid a 
 visit to her house remarked, " What a lesson ! Can a person 
 of her noble birth, nursed in the lap of grandeur, live in such 
 a house so meanly furnished ?" 
 
 "The benevolent John Howard, who, having settled his ac- 
 counts at the close of a particular year, and found a balance 
 in his favor, proposed to his wife to spend it in a journey to 
 London, or in any other excursion she chose. ' What a pretty 
 cottage for a poor family it would build !' was her answer. — 
 This hint met with his approbation, and the money was laid 
 out accordingly." Such is' the disposition of well-educated 
 and religious ladies. How much like angels of mercy are they 
 as they pass by the abodes of human misery and stop to ad- 
 minister relief. 
 
 In the language of Dr. Beman, "Sin has rendered our 
 
50 A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 world the abode of dreadful suffering. The mark of God r s 
 displeasure may be everywhere seen. Disease, and poverty, 
 and death, are moving on in their melancholy course, and mak- 
 ing the earth desolate. It is the business of the philanthro- 
 pist and the christian to diminish the amount of human 
 misery. If we would act for God and eternity, much of the 
 employment of life must consist in relieving the wants of the 
 needy, in administering to the sick, in imparting consolation 
 to the afflicted, and in drying up the mourners' tears. And 
 to these works of beneficence females are peculiarly adapted. 
 Their native sympathies are cast in the proper mould for this 
 sacred business. They easily enter into the sorrows of others. 
 Their social temperament disposes them to " weep with them 
 that weep." 
 
 This native female disposition of enlarged feelings of bene- 
 volence, is illustrated in what Toplady tells us of "a poor 
 woman, but very good woman, who lived in Yorkshire, Eng- 
 land, not far from the seat of the excellent Lady Betty Has- 
 tings. She said, a little before she died, ' I will not die 
 without leaving Lady Hastings a legacy. I bequeath to her 
 the 17th chapter of St. John ; with my prayers that that 
 sweet chapter may be made as great a blessing to her heart as 
 it has been to mine.' " 
 
 Fifth : But in the Sabbath- School, females more directly 
 assist in the gospel than by any other plan. Here they preach 
 the gospel every Sabbath to their classes. 
 
 " Sabbath- Schools open a broad and delightful field for the 
 exercise of female talent and virtues. These schools are 
 making a new experiment of moral power and gospel truth 
 upon the world. In these efforts to diffuse light and save the 
 soul, we have a new and most interesting interpretation of the 
 divine command to 'preach the gospel to every creature.' — 
 Here the scheme of redeeming grace is brought down to the 
 capacities of children, and the great truths of the Bible are 
 made to operate upon the juvenile and infant minds. And for 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 51 
 
 this labor of love females are peculiarly fitted. You may here, 
 under God, train up children for heaven. The little ones, 
 whom you take by the hand and instruct, and for whom you 
 pray, are, some of them, without a mother to teach them, and 
 to pray for them ; and not a few have mothers whose entire 
 example and influence' are enlisted for their [temporal and 
 eternal ruin. What an office of mercy, like that of guardian 
 angels, is it to throw yourselves between these little immortals 
 and destruction ! With the spirit of your Master — a spirit 
 which is never more lovely and efficient than when it warms the 
 hearts and inspires the exertions of females — you may here 
 diffuse an influence which will tell upon the records of other 
 generations ; you may accomplish purposes of mercy which 
 will receive their proper distinction on the annals of eternity. 
 A vast amount of good which Sabbath-schools are destined to 
 bring about, must depend on female effort; and a portion of 
 this good can be done by none but your sex. You are the 
 very persons to collect the little female wanderers into Sab- 
 bath-schools, and there, under your instructions, may be com- 
 menced and deepened impressions which will make both earth 
 and heaven glad." * 
 
 Sixth : Females can assist in the gospel as pious teachers — 
 aiming at the conversion of their pupils. In illustration of 
 this, we will give an account of the experience and labors of 
 Miss Mary Lyon upon the subject. She writes at one time to 
 Miss Grant, " Though my school is such as to involve great 
 and increasing responsibilities, yet some things are encourag- 
 ing. I have quite as many of mature age in school as I have 
 ever had, and I think quite as much improvement. Our pre- 
 sent number is ninety-nine, and about forty indulge more or 
 less hope that they love the Savior. Pray for us that these 
 may not be dead while they have a name to live." 
 
 Again, to her own mother, whilst she had charge of another 
 school. "We need the influence of the Holy Spirit more than 
 
 *Dr. BemaQjOn Female Influence and Obligations. 
 
52 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 any other blessing. Most of our scholars are probably "with- 
 out hope, and without God in the world. We have here the 
 children of many pious parents, whose prayers are daily offer- 
 ed up for them and us ; we also have the prayers of many 
 others. Several mothers who have daughters here r devote a 
 little time every Wednesday morning, between eight and nine 
 o'clock, to supplicate the influence of the Spirit upon this in- 
 stitution. Will not you, my mother, sometimes think of us at 
 that hour?" Again: "There are a few cases in school of 
 more than usual religious interest. Our whole number is one 
 hundred. About one half are either professors of religion, or 
 indulge a hope that they are christians. I hope you will pray 
 for us daily, that all who love the Savior may become decided, 
 active and devoted followers ; and that all who do not now love 
 God may give their hearts to Him and be prepared for His ser- 
 vice. How much is to be done in this dark and wicked world, 
 before all will know and love the Lord !" 
 
 At another time she writes: "The religious character of 
 the Buckland School, more than any thing else, drew the 
 hearts of the good people towards it. Daughters who went 
 thither, thoughtless and bent on pleasure, returned home seri- 
 ous, and bent on doing good. The gentle influences of heaven 
 falling on the school, its members were turned from the path 
 of sin and death to that of holiness and life, till, to the churches 
 in the vicinity, it became a consecrated spot. In many a 
 working man's house, at many a family altar, that school was 
 remembered with earnest prayer and with pious gratitude." 
 
 "As a Religious Teacher." — "I shall probably express 
 the opinion of all who have been members of her schools when 
 I say that Miss Lyon's superiority as a teacher was nowhere 
 so conspicuous as in her religious instruction. No where else 
 has her death occasioned such a blank. At least five times 
 each week did she feel it her duty to explain and comment 
 upon some portion of Scripture before her school; and the 
 extra occasions for such expositions were numerous. For most 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 53 
 
 '©? these occasions she made preparation by a careful study of 
 the Bible, and usually by noting down the leading thoughts 
 she wished to present." * How much good an intelligent, pious 
 teacher can effect when we consider the above example ! 
 for teachers that are concerned for the spiritual interests of 
 their pupils, who pray, and instruct, and aim with the solici- 
 tude of a mother for their salvation. 
 
 How many noble females have, in the ways we have just de- 
 scribed, labored in the gospel ! What zeal, and perseverance, 
 and fortitude they have manifested ! " What Spartan mother 
 of old, when buckling on the armour of her son, and bidding 
 him, as she gave bim his shield, ' either to bring it back or be 
 brought back upon it,' can compare with the widowed mother 
 of Lyman, when she replied to the intelligence that her son 
 had been murdered by the cannibal Battas : *I bless God, who 
 gave me such a son to go to the heathen, and I never felt so 
 strongly as I do at this moment the desire that some others of 
 my sons may become Missionaries also, and may go and preach 
 salvation to those savage men who have drunk the blood of my 
 son.' What ancient Hebrew woman, receiving 'their dead 
 raised to life again,' surpassed the self-denying faith of the 
 widowed mother who could say of a son to whom herself and 
 her seven children were beginning to look for support, ' Let 
 him go ; God will provide for me and my babes. And who am I, 
 that I should be thus honored to have a son a missionary to 
 the heathen?' and who, when the son had labored successfully 
 in India, and had died, could say of a second who aspired to 
 walk in the footsteps of his brother, 'Let William follow Jo- 
 seph, though it be to India and an early grave ?' Here the 
 accomplished and highly intellectual female may be seen 
 meekly, yet firmly, devoting herself to a distant and arduous 
 career ; vieing with the hero in his defiance of dangers, and 
 with the martyr in the endurance of them." f 
 
 * Dr. Hitchcock. 
 
 f G/eat Commission, by Rev. J. Harris, D. D. 
 
5 1 A FLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 Did the pious and intelligent Mrs. Toukin do any thing to- 
 wards advancing the gospel, when she persuaded a careless 
 young man whom she met standing on the street in London 
 to accompany her to church ? " At length, though with con- 
 siderable reluctance, he yielded to her importunity, when, with 
 affectionate earnestness, this pious friend endeavored to per- 
 suade him from his purpose, and to induce him to accompany 
 her to the Tabernacle. His state of mind was any thing but 
 favorable to the serious consideration of sacred subjects ; and 
 few ever entered the house of God less prepared to profit by 
 its service. The Rev. Timothy East, of Birmingham, occu- 
 pied the pulpit that evening ; and preached from the weighty 
 question : ' What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
 world, and lose his ow r n soul ? or what shall a man give in ex- 
 change for his soul?' This solemn inquiry was pressed home 
 by the preacher with all that point and energy which charac- 
 terize his addresses; and the 'word came with power and with 
 the -demonstration of the Spirit ' upon the mind of his youth- 
 ful auditor. This was a night to be remembered by the Rev. 
 John Williams," the great missionary to the Islands of the 
 Southern Pacific. " It was remembered with vividness and 
 interest, which his subsequent reference to it clearly evince. — 
 Speaking of it from the same pulpit, at his valedictory service 
 held just before his second departure from this country, he 
 said : ' It is now twenty-four years ago, since, as a stripling 
 youth, a kind female friend invited me to come into this place 
 of worship. I have the door in my view at this moment at 
 which I entered, and I have all the circumstances of that im- 
 portant era of my history vividly impressed upon my mind : 
 and I have in my eye at this instant, the particular spot upon 
 v. hich I took my seat. I have also a distinct impression of 
 the powerful sermon that w 7 as that evening preached by the 
 excellent Mr. East, and God was pleased in his gracious provi- 
 dence to influence my mind at that time so powerfully, that I 
 forsook all my worldly companions. Nor was this the only 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 55 
 
 effect. From that moment my blind eyes were opened, and I 
 beheld wondrous things out of God's law. I diligently attend- 
 ed the means of grace. I saw the beauty and reality in reli- 
 gion which I had never seen before." * Mr. Williams was 
 one of the greatest men of the nineteenth century, and one 
 of the most successful missionaries that ever preached the 
 gospel on a heathen shore. The simple act of the pious lady 
 persuading him to church, resulted in the successful introduc- 
 tion of the gospel upon the South Sea Islands, and what the 
 result of that gospel may yet be, as it is taught on those Is- 
 lands by one generation to another, will be determined at the 
 judgment day; and what Mrs. Toukin did for the gospel in 
 that one act, will be ascertained in time to come. 
 
 What did the good mother of the Rev. John Newton do for 
 the gospel ? 
 
 He says of her, " My mother was a Dissenter, a pious wo- 
 man, and a member of the late Dr. Jenning's church. She 
 was of a weak, consumptive habit, and loved retirement ; and 
 as I was her only child, she made it the chief business and 
 pleasure of her life to instruct me, and bring me up in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord. I have been told, that 
 from my birth she had, in her mind, devoted me to the minis- 
 try ; and that had she lived till I was of a proper age, I was 
 to have been sent to St. Andrews, in Scotland, to be educated. 
 But the Lord had appointed otherwise. My mother died be- 
 fore I was seven years of age." f 
 
 "An Obscure Woman's Usefulness."—" There was once 
 an obscure and pious woman living in a city in the South of 
 England. History is silent respecting her ancestry, her place 
 of birth, or her education. She had an only son, whom, in 
 his infancy, she made it her great business to instruct and 
 train up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. At seven 
 years of age his mother died, and a few years after he went 
 
 * Life of the Rev. John William?, by E. Prout. 
 
 * Newton's Works. 
 
56 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 to sea, and became at length a common sailor in the African 
 slave trade. He soon became a great adept in vice ; a swearer 
 most horribly profane ; and, though younger than many of his 
 companions in years, lie was one of the oldest in guilt. But 
 he could not shake off the remembrance of his pious mother's 
 instruction. Though dead and in her grave she seemed speak- 
 ing to him still. After many alarms of conscience, and many 
 pungent convictions, he became a christian, and subsequently 
 one of the most successful ministers of the gospel Great Bri- 
 tain ever produced. Of course, through the labors of the 
 converted son, we may now trace the influence of the pious 
 mother. In addition to his great ministerial labors, he wrote 
 many evangelical works, and few authors have done more to 
 extend the power of religion. He was highly eloquent, and 
 greatly useful in religious conversation ; and his hymns, the 
 use of which in worship is almost commensurate with the exten- 
 sion of the English language, are of the most elevated and 
 evangelical character. Follow that mother's influence farther. 
 Her son was the means of the conversion of Claudius Bu- 
 chanan, who became a minister of the gospel, and went to the 
 East Indies as a missionary. He occupied a responsible sta- 
 tion ; and his labors in behalf of the English population, and 
 for the improvement of the moral and spiritual condition of the 
 natives, are deservedly ranked among the noblest achieve- 
 ments of Christian philanthropy. His little work entitled 
 " The Star in the East," was the first thing that attracted the 
 attention of Adoniram Judson to a mission in the East Indies. 
 Hence, had it not been for that mother's faithfulness her son 
 might never have been converted ; nor that train of causes 
 put in operation which is now shedding such a flood of light 
 on Burmah and the surrounding regions. 
 
 The converted sailor was also the means of the conversion 
 of Thomas Scott, from the dark mazes of Socinianism to the 
 belief, practice, and preaching of evangelical truth. He was 
 the author of a valuable commentary on the Bible, almost un- 
 
A PLBA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 57 
 
 equalled in its practical tendency, and the extent of its circu- 
 lation. To that pious mother's influence, operating through 
 the efforts of her son, all this is easily traced. Besides, to the 
 connection of her son with the poet Cowper, the evangelical 
 character and great religious influence of Cowper's poetry are, 
 doubtless, to be mainly attributed. Again: to this same min- 
 ister's influence, in connection with that of Doddridge, the 
 conversion of Wilberforce is traced. Wilberforce was a youno- 
 English gentleman, one of the gayest of the gay; not an 
 openly vicious man, but peculiar for his wit and his distinction 
 in the fashionable circles. He was said to be the "joy and 
 crown of the Doncaster races." During the fourteen years 
 after Newton first saw Wilberforce, until his conversion, he 
 made him the constant subject of prayer. And with what 
 glorious results was the conversion of Wilberforce fraught to 
 the interests of man ! What vast contributions did he make 
 with his princely fortune to objects of benevolence ? To his in- 
 fluence, to a great degree, may we impute the African Slave 
 Trade ; and, in subsequent years, the emancipation of slaves 
 in the British West Indies. In addition to this, Wilberforce 
 was the author of a "Practical View of Christianity," which 
 did much to commend spiritual' religion to the higher classes. 
 This book was the means of the conversion of Leigh Eichmond, 
 the author of the "Dairyman's Daughter," which has been 
 the means of the conversion of thousands ! — Such are some 
 of the glorious results of one holy woman's efforts to educate 
 her son for God — a wide and mighty posthumous influence 
 which an angel might feel honored to exert. Who was she ? 
 The Mother of the Rev. John Newton." * What did she 
 do for the gospel ? 
 
 Woman was created a " help-meet for man, " not only in 
 the common avocations of life, but in all the high and respon- 
 sible duties of moral enterprise. In the ministry of the gos- 
 pel, when they are called upon to direct the awakened man to 
 
 * Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes. 
 
58 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 the blood of the cross, as well as when they become the trou- 
 blers of Israel, and, like the prophets of old, point the finger 
 against the drunkards of Ephraim, and the " mean, mincing, 
 and wanton-eyed daughter of Zion ; " when they leave their 
 homes, their country, and the graves of their fathers, commis- 
 sioned by the Son of God to cross the wide ocean, and carry 
 the messages of love to men sunk to the lowest degradation of 
 heathenism, the delicate, yet firm companion of his toils must 
 be by his side, competent to assist him in his daily instructions, 
 mingle her prayers with his prayers, and, if it be the Lord's 
 will, close his eyes in the sleep of death. 
 
 And who would say that, in those works of love and philan- 
 thropy — at home and abroad — female agency has not been 
 equally significant and successful with that of man ? 
 
 Yet, in all those labors, woman has her department, distinct 
 from that of man. Her duties are adapted to her constitution 
 and disposition. They do not conflict with his, but are more 
 private, subordinate, yet mutual, cooperative, and equally ef- 
 ficient. 
 
 Now, when pious men's usefulness and efficiency is mostly 
 measured by their intellectual and literary qualifications; 
 when learning gives power and enterprise to men of the world, 
 is it not reasonable that woman's agency, as man's co-laborer 
 in the gospel, and in every great work of love and humanity, 
 will be enhanced in power and success in proportion to her in- 
 tellectual and literary qualifications? Here is again the im- 
 perative obligation challenging us upon our sympathy for the 
 heathen world abroad ; the distressed, the ignorant, and des- 
 titute at home, to build seminaries, open schools, and furnish 
 the means for the education of our daughters, that they may 
 be qualified to take their post in the great duties that we owe 
 to God and man. 
 
 We complain frequently that not more of the young men of 
 the church are willing to become ministers ; that whilst other 
 professions arc filled to overflowing, thirty thousand ministers 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 59 
 
 arc wanting to bring the whole world under religious instruc- 
 tion. Men turn their attention to other avocations whoso 
 emoluments are greater than those of the minister of the gos- 
 pel. But, as one said, " had we more Susannah Wesleys, we 
 would have more John Wesleys." The most of the students 
 in our Theological Seminaries attribute their conversion, and 
 their first impressions in reference to the ministry, to maternal 
 influence. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Woman's Position in Society is Equality with Man, as 
 a Social, Moral, and Intellectual Being. Her In- 
 fluence upon Society, when she attains her Rightful 
 Position. 
 
 "I cannot but think, that a period will arrive when philo- 
 sophical legislators will bestow a serious attention upon the 
 education of women, upon the civil laws by which they are 
 protected, the duties incumbent upon them, and the happiness 
 which may be secured to them ; but, in the present state of 
 things, they are placed neither in the order of nature, nor in 
 the order of society ; what some succeed in, proves the de- 
 struction of others ; their good qualities are sometimes preju- 
 dicial to them, while their faults befriend them : one moment 
 they are every thing, the next perhaps nothing. Their desti- 
 ny is, in some respects, similar to that of freed-men in a mon- 
 archy ; if they attempt to acquire any ascendency, — a power 
 which the laws have not given them — it is imputed to them as 
 a crime; if they remain slaves, they are persecuted and op- 
 pressed." — Madame de Stael. 
 
 All are beginning to admit that in many parts of the chris- 
 tianized world, woman has never been introduced to her proper 
 sphere of usefulness. Many of her sex have not had the ad- 
 vantages extended to them, to qualify them for occupying the 
 position for which nature and God design them. " The extent 
 of female influence, and the importance of exerting it in favor 
 of Christianity, are subjects which, perhaps, have never, as 
 yet, powerfully arrested the attention, or deeply impressed 
 the hearts, of christians. Much has been said, and much 
 written, on the moral power exerted upon the world by female 
 character and conduct ; but these themes have been more fire- 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION'. 61 
 
 quently associated with poetry and fiction, than with religion 
 and eternity." * Colleges, Universities, Law and Medical 
 Schools have long existed, affording the highest advantages in 
 literary and professional qualifications to the male sex, whilst 
 woman's mind has been overlooked. 
 
 Woman has been looked upon as incompetent to be man's 
 equal, in the duties and responsible positions of life ; inferior, 
 naturally, in mental and moral abilities ; and, consequently, in 
 usefulness and importance. Blackstone observes, in his Com- 
 mentaries on the Laws of England, "that even the disabili- 
 ties, — in reference to her rights in marriage — which the wife 
 lies under, are for the most part intended for her protection 
 and benefit : so great a favorite is the female sex of the laivs 
 of England." An annotator upon this, remarks, that "he 
 is not so much in love with his subject, as to be inclined to 
 have it in possession of a glory which it may not justly de- 
 serve ;" and points out the disadvantages of the woman in her 
 rights under the laws pertaining to marriage. 
 
 " Husband and wife, in the language of the law, are styled 
 baron and feme; the word baron, or lord, attributes to the 
 husband not a very courteous superiority. But we might be 
 inclined to think this an unmeaning technical phrase, if we 
 did not recollect, that if the baron kills his feme, it is the same 
 as if he had killed a stranger, or any other person ; but if the 
 feme kills her baron it is regarded by the laws as a much 
 more atrocious crime ; as she not only breaks through the re- 
 straints of humanity and conjugal affection, but throws off all 
 subjugation to the authority of her husband. And therefore 
 the law denominates her crime a species of treason, and con- 
 demns her to the same punishment as if she had killed the 
 king." Other disabilities are pointed out, under which wo- 
 man labored under the common laws of England, both in cri- 
 minal and civil matters, all indicative of the prevailing idea 
 of their inferiority in rank and importance when compared 
 
 *Dr. N. S. S. Beman. 
 
BS A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 with the other sex. And this is the expression of one of Eng- 
 land's great men, in reference to the rights and character of 
 woman in the middle of the 18th century. 
 
 " The state of society is indicated by the condition of ivo- 
 m<w." 
 
 First; In heathen countries females are despised. "The 
 heathen female is viewed with contempt, from the morning of 
 her existance. The birth of a daughter is an occasion of 
 sorrow." 
 
 Their education is neglected. This is true of every rank, 
 wherever the Bible has not rescued women from degradation. 
 Among rich and poor, in families of princes and peasants, she 
 is alike ignorant. 
 
 In Ceylon, when the American Missionaries arrived, not one 
 in a district of two hundred thousand could read. The culti- 
 vation of the female mind is thought to be not only in vain, 
 but dangerous to the welfare of society. 
 
 They are not at their own disjjosal in marriage. In some 
 countries they are betrothed by their parents in infancy, or 
 childhood ; in others, they are sold at a more advanced age, 
 at prices varying according to their beauty or rank. 
 
 Polygamy is universally practiced, and prevents them from 
 enjoying the affections of their husbands, and the happiness 
 of domestic life. 
 
 They can be divorced by their husbands at any moment, and 
 left without means of support. 
 
 In barbarous and pagan countries, women are compelled to 
 perform the most servile labors. They carry heavy burdens 
 in the streets, and do the laboring in the fields, whilst men do 
 the washing and the preparing of dresses. They often kill 
 their female infants to prevent them from enduring what they 
 have to go through. 
 
 Their lives are not valued; they are often killed by their 
 husbands for the slightest offense. 
 
 Females in heathen countries are universally corrupt in 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. G3 
 
 morals and degraded to the lowest extent. They are without 
 natural affection. Infanticide is a common thing. At the 
 Society islands two-thirds of the children were murdered in 
 infancy. Some mothers had killed five and even eight of their 
 offspring. Such is the state of woman in unenlightened and 
 barbarous countries. Degraded in her condition, exposed to 
 continual persecution and insult, deprived of all that is desir- 
 able in domestic or social life, denied the blessings of educa- 
 tion, excluded from the knowledge of God and the hopes of 
 Heaven. She is, in short, treated as a soulless being, whose 
 highest aim should be to gratify the caprice and obey the com- 
 mands of haughty and unfeeling man." * 
 
 "From Christianity woman has derived her moral and social 
 influence. To it she owes her very existence as a social being. 
 The mind of woman, which the legislators and sages of anti- 
 quity had doomed to eternal inferiority and imbecility, Chris- 
 tianity has developed. No system of religion recognizes 
 woman as the companion and equal of man, except Christianity, 
 and under no other system can she enjoy her inalienable 
 rights." f 
 
 In Mohammedan countries " women are shut out from all 
 the opportunities of instruction, and excluded from the en- 
 dearing pleasures of a delightful and equal society." "You 
 could not offer a greater insult to a Mohammedan in Persia 
 than to enquire after the female part of his family, even were 
 they dangerously ill. Such contempt for the female character, 
 and such opinions respecting the design of woman's creation, 
 are sanctioned by the Koran, whose doctrines command the 
 belief, and determine the practice of one hundred and twenty 
 millions of the human race. Colonel Phipps, in an address 
 before the Church Missionary Society, said, ' At Alexandria, 
 in Egypt, I saw a Turk, at mid-day, in open street, cut off a 
 
 * Tract on Condition of Females in Pagan Countries. 
 f American Biblical Repository, July, 1842. 
 
64 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 woman's head, for no other reason than because he saw her 
 without a veil.' " * 
 
 " In the heroic ages, the occupations of females were similar 
 to those of the patriarchal times, having their origin in a 
 primitive age. They drew water, kept sheep, fed cows and 
 horses, loosed and watered the horses from their husbands' 
 chariots, and besides performed all the laborious offices of the 
 house." f 
 
 In some of the christianized, yet less refined, countries of 
 Europe, women yet do the drudgery of the field, and are treated 
 more as servants than equals by their husbands. And only in 
 those sections of the christian world where man has been 
 elevated to the highest state of education and christian refine- 
 ment, woman is treated as an equal ; an equal in educational 
 and literary advantages, an equal in the social enjoyments 
 of life. 
 
 In many sections of our country, no special provision is 
 made for the superior education of females ; and,- as in all other 
 parts of the world, u the state of society is indicated by the 
 condition of zoo man." 
 
 Objections are urged from the more rude and uneducated 
 against woman's equality as a social, moral, and intellectual 
 being: " It is well enough to have colleges and educate our 
 boys — learning may be of use to them ; but as for girls, so 
 much education is of no use — it ivill maize them proud and 
 insubordinate." 
 
 Sidney Smith remarks, " If there be any good at all in 
 female ignorance, this (to use a very colloquial phrase) is surely 
 too much of a good thing." " The condition of females," says 
 the Rev. D. A. Clark, "has always been a state of subordina- 
 tion, and in some countries, incredibly servile. The gospel 
 emancipates them. But even in gospel lands they have never 
 risen so high as they may." 
 
 * Tract on Condition of Females in Pagan Countries, 
 f American Biblical Repository, July, 1842. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 65 
 
 " I cannot speak upon this subject without indignation. 
 Though many institutions have been established, within the 
 last half century, for the education of girls, and great efforts 
 have been made to elevate the standard of scholarship, still 
 not a tythe of what ought to be done, and what the best good 
 of society requires to be done, has yet been accomplished. 
 The romantic ideas of the dark ages have not wholly disap- 
 peared. The chivalrous notion still prevails, in society, that 
 men need knowledge, but women, accomplishments, for success 
 in life. It is time that the ' benefit of the clergy ' should be 
 extended even to women, and that distinction in learning 
 should no longer be the peculiar privilege of 'learned clerks.' "* 
 
 Even Aristotle, in his day, knew better than many in this 
 boasted age of education and wisdom ; he says : " Are wo- 
 men by barbarians reduced to the level of slaves? it is because 
 they are barbarians, and have never risen to the rank of men : 
 that is, of men fit to govern. Nothing proves more ruinous 
 to a state than the defective education of women ; since, 
 wherever the institutions respecting one-half of the community 
 are faulty, the corruption of that half will gradually taint the 
 whole." 
 
 We wish not to advocate the propriety of female laiv-schools, 
 or female medical schools ; nor have we any sympathy with 
 the infidel movements in some parts of the country under the 
 designation of "Woman's Rights." Such fanatical ultraisms 
 are always connected with every good cause ; even in Hannah 
 More's day, fanaticism upon this subject was no uncommon 
 thing. She says: " They little understand the true interests 
 of woman who would lift her from the important duties of her 
 allotted station, to fill with fantastic dignity a loftier but less 
 appropriate niche. Nor do they understand her true happi- 
 ness, who seek to annihilate distinctions from which she derives 
 advantages, and to attempt innovations which depreciate her 
 
 Dr. Timoihj Dwight. 
 
66 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 real value. Each sex has its appropriate excellencies, which 
 would be lost were they melted down into a common character 
 by the fusion of a new philosophy." 
 
 We contend for the natural abilities of females, their native 
 talents for the acquisition of knowledge, and their capability 
 of arriving at distinction in many of the most important and 
 useful branches of literature. We hold out the idea that their 
 agency is not inferior to that of men, but equal in importance 
 and efficiency in every moral enterprise ; in their influence in 
 moulding the character of society ; in extending morality and 
 religion among the people of a nation, and thus securing the 
 permanency of its government. Again, this efficiency is equal, 
 if not superior, to that of men in the education of the rising 
 generation, from the cradle to mature manhood ; in diffusing 
 knowledge in general ; in the propagation of the gospel, and 
 in the successful movement of every part in the economy of 
 benevolence. 
 
 The ideas that " the sick-chamber alone is the true theatre 
 of woman; women need not be as highly learned as men for 
 their purposes in life ; women s mental capacities are inferior 
 to those of men; it is ivell enough to have colleges and semi- 
 naries for boys, but we need none for girls — common schools 
 will do for them." These and many other declarations are, 
 as Sidney Smith says, u the common delight o/Noodledom." 
 
 May you not — who hold these semi-barbarous sentiments, in 
 reference to your daughters, and are determined to carry them 
 out in their education, while you see others around educating 
 their families — may you not cause them to regret your stub- 
 bornness, when hereafter they feel their inferiority, and see 
 their deficiency, in the society into which they may be thrown 
 during subsequent life ? How often do we hear children, when 
 brought into more intelligent communities, lament their pa- 
 rents' neglect in not attending to their education, while they 
 compare themselves with those around them in the possession 
 of superior advantages. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 67 
 
 The condition of the world is this, that not only the state 
 vf society is indicated by the condition of woman, but the re- 
 verse — woman s condition is made by the state of society. 
 Among the most barbarous nations her condition is the lowest 
 state of degradation ; and just as a nation rises in civilization 
 and intelligence, in that proportion does she ascend the scale 
 of her amelioration. This rule holds good even in Christian 
 countries ; as a people rises in intelligence, religion, and re- 
 finement, so rises woman in her advantages and standing. 
 And only where the Bible is most highly appreciated, and 
 Christianity has brought the people to the "highest style of 
 man," where that righteousness that exalteth a nation is pre- 
 dominant, there, and there only, is woman treated as a com- 
 panion, and regarded upon an equality with man, as a moral, 
 social, and intellectual being ; there the same literary and 
 educational advantages are extended to her ; there she is not 
 put off with frivolous accomplishments like a lady in a Turkish 
 harem, but her standing and usefulness are appreciated, and 
 regarded equal, and in many offices superior to those of man ; 
 there she takes her proper position in the social circle, at the 
 domestic fireside, in the church ; there she is educated and re- 
 garded as a christian, a help-meet for man on earth, and his 
 equal in heaven. 
 
 Now give woman those advantages and qualifications in any 
 state of society, and the result will inevitably be, that her in- 
 fluence and agency will so tell upon that society, as to elevate 
 it to an equality with her own position. We will devote the 
 remaining part of this chapter to the illustration of this pro- 
 position. We will first give the testimony of Hannah More ; 
 she herself, being an example, as well as a most strict and 
 competent observer of its truth. 
 
 "I think facts will warrant the assertion, that no individu- 
 al in Great Britain, during the reign of George III., exerted 
 so extensive, and so salutary a moral influence upon all classes 
 of citizens, from the king to the meanest beggar in the realm, 
 
68 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 as Hannah More. She is a lady of whom her sex may justly 
 be proud. The world has produced very few of the other sex 
 who might not bow with respectful deference before her splen- 
 did genius." * 
 
 Her testimony is : — " The general state of civilized society 
 depends, more than those are aware who are not accustomed 
 to scrutinize into the springs of human action, on the prevail- 
 ing sentiments and habits of women, and on the nature and 
 degree of the estimation in which they are held. Even those 
 who admit the power of female elegance on the manners of 
 men, do not always attend to the influence of female princi- 
 ples upon their character. The prevailing manners of an age 
 depend, more than we are aware, or willing to allow, on the 
 conduct of the women: this is one of the principal hinges on 
 which the great machine of society turns. Those who allow 
 the influence which female graces have, in contributing to 
 polish the manners of men, would do well to reflect how great 
 an influence female morals must also have on their conduct. 
 
 "I would call on them with a 'warning voice,' which should 
 stir up every latent principle in their minds, and kindle every 
 slumbering energy in their hearts; I would call on them to 
 come forward, and contribute their full and fair proportion 
 towards the saving of their country. But I would call on 
 them to come forward, without departing from the refinement 
 of their character — without derogating from the dignity of 
 their rank — without blemishing the delicacy of their sex : I 
 would call them to the best and most appropriate exertion of 
 their power, to raise the depressed tone of public morals, and 
 to awaken the drowsy spirit of religious principle." f 
 
 " In morals and religion, and in every thing with which 
 morals and religion stand directly connected, the female sex 
 may do as much good or hurt, as men ordinarily effect in the 
 politics and government of the world. What man would be iv 
 
 *E. D Sanborn, Prof. Dartmouth College. 
 f Hannah More's Works- 
 
A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 60 
 
 irunkard if he were sure to receive universal female reproba- 
 tion ? What man would fight a duel, if the united female 
 voice were to cry out murder upon the shameful deed ? How 
 long would the amusements of the theatre continue to corrupt 
 our large cities, if no female would appear upon the stage., nor 
 on any occasion take her seat in this great temple of vice t 
 How long would the ball-room be crowded ; and gay, and ex- 
 travagant, and dissipating parties maintain an existence-, if 
 ■every female were to set her face against them;, and resolve to 
 go to no place where the voice of Christ and duty did not call 
 her ? If the whole female world were to revere the Sabbath, 
 and were found in the house of God, on this sacred day, what 
 •a happy revolution would soon be effected ! The kingdom of 
 ■God would come. The blessed reign of Jesus would be estab- 
 lished on earth." * 
 
 This female influence upon society, and in behalf of the 
 country, is exerted in many ways — some of which are specified 
 in the preceeding chapters — but there is one public capacity 
 in which a woman can accomplish an immense amount of good 
 — that of a Teacher. 
 
 " Among the means essential to the safety of the nation, 
 many are convinced of the necessity of urging into the field a 
 multitude of benevolent, self-denying teachers. Many of the 
 most candid and discriminating, who have the advantage of 
 observation on this subject, are convinced that all other mean? 
 without this are insufficient. Fill the country with ministers, 
 and they could no more conquer the whole land and secure 
 their victories, without the aid of many times their number of 
 female teachers, than the latter could complete the work with- 
 out the former. But what can be done ? most of the calls 
 which come to New England, and they are multiplying every 
 year, must be returned unanswered. The work of supplying 
 
 teachers is a great work, and it must be done for the good .of 
 the country." f 
 
 *Dr.N.S. S.Beman. 
 
 f Circular of Mary Lyon. 
 
70 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION 1 . 
 
 The little attention that lias heretofore been given to female- 
 education, has been more or less confined to the more wealthy 
 classes of society ; "whilst the middle classes, of farmers and 
 mechanics — the more substantial classes of a country — have 
 been standing aloof, either from the expensiveness of most of 
 Female Boarding Schools, or from sheer want of inclination. 
 It should be our aim, in the establishment of public institutions, 
 to have especial reference to those classes of our country ; to 
 draw out their influence and favor in behalf of female educa- 
 tion, that they may educate their daughters and qualify them 
 for teachers, and all other useful stations in society and the 
 church. " The leading characters in our religious andbenev- 
 olent enterprises, the controlling minds which preside in all 
 the distinguished posts of usefulness, are neither from the 
 wealthy classes, nor from tbe wretchedly poor, but from the 
 substantial yeomanry of the land. Influence- exerted on that 
 class tells every where. Educate the women and the men 
 will be educated." * When this portion of the community is 
 reached, and they are induced to educate their families, we 
 can only expect to be supplied with a. sufficient number of well 
 qualified teachers. What a deplorable deficiency there is here, 
 not in numbers so much as in the character of the teachers of 
 most of our primary schools. 
 
 W Now to meet this great exigency ; to save a considerable 
 portion of the rising generation from falling back into the con- 
 dition of half-civilized or savage life ; what other instrumen- 
 tality does society afford, than to send into every obscure and 
 hidden district in the State, a young man or a young woman, 
 whose education is sound, whose language is well selected, 
 whose pronunciation and tones are gentle and refined, all 
 whose topics of conversation are elevating and instructive, 
 whose benignity of heart is constantly manifested in acts of 
 civility, courtesy, and kindness, and who spreads a nameless 
 charm over whatever circle may be entered. Such a person 
 
 * Mis? Lyon. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 71 
 
 should the teacher of every common school be. Such a teacher, 
 by associating with the children of the school for a considera- 
 ble portion of the time each day ; by remaining with them for 
 weeks.and months successively; by having an opportunity to 
 observe their conduct towards each other, and thus to become 
 acquainted with their various dispositions ; by gaining access 
 to their minds through the delightful medium of instruction ; 
 and finally, prolonging this relationship through all the sus- 
 ceptive and impressible years of childhood and youth ; such 
 a. teacher, as far as it may be in the power of any mortal agen- 
 cy to do it, may mould the habits and manners of the rising 
 generation into the pleasing forms of propriety and decorum, 
 and by laying their foundations in the principles of justice, 
 magnanimity and affection, may give them an ever-during per- 
 manence." * 
 
 In the first place, woman is denied her rights in Pagan and 
 Mohammedan countries — countries where "might is right " — 
 where tlae universal rule is for the stronger to oppress the 
 weaker ; where the Bible has not taught righteousness, mercy, 
 and justice. 
 
 Again : in Christian countries, where the means of a liberal 
 education have not extended, woman is not allowed to occupy 
 her equal and rightful position. In such communities, selfish- 
 ness is a predominant passion, " every body goes in for making 
 money," and that is looked upon as the grand motive, and 
 prevailing object of man's existence. Honest industry and the 
 accumulation of wealth are not looked upon as means by 
 which to promote the highest and noblest objects of humani- 
 ty : Education, Religion, and Charity ; but the matter is re- 
 versed, and making money is the highest aim, and ultimate 
 object of man's labors and enterprises ; and education and re- 
 ligion are only secondary, and auxiliary. Religion is attend- 
 ed to between times, at man's "convenient seasons," and edu- 
 cation, only so far as it may help along in the great work of 
 
 * Horace Mann, in Tenth Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education!.. 
 
12 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 money making. A boy ought to be able to calculate interest, 
 to write an agreement or promissory note, or to have learning 
 enough to prevent being cheated in these dishonest times — no 
 more like the good old times when every body was honest. 
 
 If the profession of a physician, or a lawyer, or the occupa- 
 tion of a merchant, (not surely of a preacher,) would be likely 
 to afford an opening to make more, now and then a smart 
 boy, who manifests an inclination that way, goes to college, 
 and prepares himself for one or the other, of this kind of busi- 
 ness. But as for the girls, common schools are good enough 
 for them, their education would cost money, and they could 
 not do any more ivorh after receiving an education than they 
 can without it ; and would, perhaps, be disposed not to work 
 as well, and here would be an outlay for their education with- 
 out any profit; or, in more common phraseology, "female edu- 
 cation ivill not pay." To go to the expense of establishing 
 good institutions, and having their sons and daughters educa- 
 ted under good instructors, that they may be useful to the 
 church, and to their country ; or, to lay out money for the 
 education of their children, that those children may do good 
 to others, and, perhaps, not get paid for all this in the pre- 
 sent life, is a species of doctrine that they have not light, and 
 benevolence, and religion enough to appreciate ; it is so noble 
 a humanity, too high and heavenly for their comprehension. 
 Among people of this class of society, woman is debased to a 
 sordid inferiority; the beauties and enjoyments of literature 
 are forever denied her ; her mind is not sufficiently cultivated 
 to study the scriptures successfully, and make herself acquaint- 
 ed with the practical and doctrinal Avorks of her church. She 
 is out of her clement in the refinements of intelligent society, 
 should she ever have her lot cast in another community. Her 
 reading must always be in elementary works, and the simplest 
 passages of the Bible; and she is ever cut off from exerting that 
 high and poAvcrful influence upon society in general, in behalf 
 of religion and refinement, that the church and country de- 
 mand. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 73 
 
 But there is another class of society, -who very much deplore 
 the state of the one we have just described, and "who are per- 
 fectly disgusted with such unpardonable ignorance ; who give 
 their daughters a finished education. But from the disposi- 
 tion that apparently prompts parents, and the kind of educa- 
 tion their daughters in many instances receive, we conceive 
 females in this circle of society to be no more elevated to their 
 true position in life than they are in the former. The aim 
 and ambition of those parents in the education of their daugh- 
 ters, are not so much that they may be useful to society in the 
 various stations which they might occupy, but more that 
 they might please and be admired of their fellow-man. Faci- 
 litation is the great primary idea, and education is made auxil- 
 iary to it, and adapted to its attainment. This is the aim of 
 the mother, and of the daughter, as soon as her mind is suffi- 
 ciently developed to have one predominant object in view. In 
 this procedure in the education of females, it is not necessa- 
 ry to be profound. 
 
 An extended course of Mathematics is of no use, dead lan- 
 guages are of no use, and the living ones, only so far as con- 
 versational ability and billetdoux correspondence may be con- 
 cerned. Extended systems of the different branches of the 
 moral, intellectual and natural sciences are of no use. So 
 their daughters can read French, know music, can paint and 
 draw, and have gone through a course of calisthenics, they 
 have well nigh finished their education. 
 
 At all events they have all the main moral and intellectual 
 material in store for a good " set out," and this is the chief 
 end of woman — mother and daughter. 
 
 In the former state of society woman in made a drudge ; 
 the object of her life, a source of income only. In the latter 
 she is made a doll ; an object of embellishment to attract at- 
 tention and to be admired. In the former, she is educated as 
 a servant, in the latter, as a Circassian. Thus, in the higher 
 walks of life, woman is frequently just as much the subject of 
 injustice and caprice, as among the middle classes. 
 
74 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 But there is yet another state of society ; the highest state 
 to which man has yet attained, and to which he can only attain 
 by the power of the united influences of superior intelligence 
 and vital religion, a state in which the governing, leading 
 minds of a community of all the various occupations have the 
 high aim of living to the glory of God, and the good of man ; 
 who look upon the world with feelings of humanity, and with 
 whom the absorbing question is : how can I do the most good 
 with my talents, my possessions, and my family ? They wish 
 their children not only to be successful in the secular affairs 
 of life, but to attain the highest possible degree of usefulness. 
 In such communities, schools and educational arrangements 
 will necessarily soon be the very best. The people of such a 
 state of society will appreciate the value of woman's influence 
 and abilities, when properly educated, and among them alone 
 will she be allowed her rightful standing ; there she is a com- 
 panion and an equal. 
 
 From the schools in such communities most of the three 
 thousand female missionaries now in heathen lands have gone ; 
 most of the the three hundred teachers who have been sent 
 into the Western States by the " Society for Promoting Na- 
 tional Education." In such communities men of the highest 
 standing are likely to prepare their daughters for teachers, * 
 and other highly useful and responsible posts. From the midst 
 of such advantages a Charlotte Elizabeth will arise to write 
 the "Wrongs of Women;" a Hannah More and a Maria 
 Edgeworth ; the one to advocate the importance of female 
 education, and the other the manner of conducting it; Mary 
 Lyon and Catharine Beecher, the one to show the practicability 
 of a union of religious and secular instruction, and the other 
 the introduction of female normal instruction for the enlarge- 
 ment of the plans of National Education. 
 
 * Millard Fillmore had his daughter educated for a teacher. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 To Secure the Thorough Education of our Daughters. 
 we need Schools and Seminaries under the Control 
 of the Church, and in Charge of well-Educated,. Pious 
 
 Instructors : — 
 
 "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." — 1 Cor. 8, 1. 
 
 " Mere knowledge, or science, when the heart is not right, 
 fills with pride ; swells a man with vain self-confidence, and 
 reliance on his own powers, and very often leads him entirely 
 astray. Knowledge, combined with right feelings, with pure 
 principles, with a heart filled with love to God and man, may 
 be trusted ; but not mere intellectual attainments ; mere ab- 
 stract science ; the mere cultivation of the intellect. Unless 
 the heart is cultivated with that, the effect of knowledge is 
 to make a man a pedant; to fill him with vain ideas of his 
 own importance ; and thus to lead him into error and sin." — 
 A. Barnes. 
 
 We must have good schools in order to qualify our females 
 to incur the responsibility that rests upon them, m their duty 
 to their country as citizens ; their duty to Jheir families as 
 mothers ; their duty to the church as co-laborers in the gos- 
 pel ; their duty to society as teachers, and the general im- 
 pression of their character and conduct upon the community 
 among whom they live. In order to attain this, we need 
 schools of the best character, from the infant school to the 
 highest seminary. Our primary school system needs revision. 
 Many of the teachers are not intellectually qualified to give 
 instruction in the elements of an English education. Many 
 of them are not sufficiently acquainted with the English lan- 
 guage to correct the grammatical errors of their pupils, in 
 
7l". A TLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 their conversation, or the syntax and orthography in their 
 first efforts at composition. 
 
 A late writer in a Journal of Education observes : — "Every 
 stripling avIio has passed four years within the walls of a col* 
 lege ; every dissatisfied clerk, who has not ability enough to 
 manage the trifling concerns of a common retail shop ; every 
 young farmer who obtains in the winter a short vacation from 
 the toils of summer ; in short, every young person who is 
 conscious of his imbecility in other business, esteems himself 
 fully competent to train the ignorance and weakness of in- 
 fancy into all the virtue, and power, and wisdom of maturer 
 years ; to form a creature, the frailest and feeblest that hea- 
 ven has made, into the most intelligent and fearless sovereign 
 of the whole animated creation ; the interpreter, and adorer, 
 and almost the representative of Divinity. The most tender 
 interests of the children for both worlds are entrusted to his 
 guidance, even when he makes no higher pretension to motive 
 than that of filling up a few months of time not otherwise 
 appropriated." 
 
 Many a child of natural talents is doomed to obscurity for 
 life, because it was his misfortune to be born and reared in a 
 district where the teacher was incompetent to see his abilities, 
 and give the mind the first taste for learning, and impart the 
 first impulse to its future developments. The worthless pa- 
 rent who beggars his family is reprobated as worse than an 
 infidel ; but witn what pity should that man be regarded who, 
 in the office of a teacher, through incompetency, is starving the 
 immortal minds of his pupils. 
 
 Besides, many of our primary school teachers are morally 
 unqualified for their positions ; some are intemperate, grossly 
 immoral in their habits, public contemners of religion in their 
 practice. The school-law of Massachusetts is a most excel- 
 lent one, and when enforced would prevent communities from 
 sustaining injury from the example of moral delinquency on 
 the part of public teachers. " The committee must be satis- 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 77 
 
 fied of the good moral character of the applicant." No talents 
 however profound, no genius however splendid, no attainments 
 however ample, can atone for any deficiency in moral charac- 
 ter. In the beautiful language of the law, " it is the duty 
 of the president, professors, and tutors of the University at 
 Cambridge, of the several colleges, and of all preceptors and 
 teachers of academies, and all other instructors of youth, to 
 exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of children 
 and youth, committed to their care and instruction, the prin- 
 ciples of piety, justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love to 
 their country, humanity and universal benevolence, sobriety, 
 industry and frugality, charity, moderation, and temperance, 
 and those other virtues which are the ornament of human so- 
 ciety, and the basis upon which a republican constitution is 
 founded ; and it shall be the duty of such instructors to en- 
 deavor to lead their pupils, as their ages and capacities will 
 admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the 
 above mentioned virtues to preserve and perfect a republican 
 constitution, and secure the blessings of liberty, as well as to 
 promote their future happiness, and also to point out to them 
 the evil tendency of the opposite vices." 
 
 This is the demand of a State ; it is the demand of a civil 
 constitution, guarding the moral interests of those who have 
 adopted it. But there is a higher demand ; the demand of 
 heaven and the government of God, that defend the sacred 
 interests of conscience, and the heart of every child, with a 
 view of a judgment and eternity to come. The State demands 
 the honesty, benevolence, chastity, temperance, and virtue of 
 every child, by way of securing its happiness in time ; but 
 God demands the cultivation of those virtues, inasmuch as 
 they are identified with a child's happiness in the world to 
 come. Every primary-school teacher's obligation to God is 
 just a imperative as his obligation to the State, and the eternal 
 happiness of his pupil should be as dear to him as its temporal 
 happiness. 
 
78 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 Again, all virtue is founded upon religion, and those who 
 attempt to inculcate the virtues without religion, will find their 
 teaching as "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." " De~ 
 fective indeed must be the qualification of that man or woman, 
 as a teacher or guide of youth, who does not believe, that, in 
 addition to the knowledge of letters and science, which it is 
 his or her business to lead them into, it is equally a duty on 
 every suitable occasion, as far as practicable, to inculcate those 
 principles of ' good behavior,' of honesty, kindness, justice, 
 purity, and benevolence, which are essential elements in the 
 character of every honorable and worthy member of general 
 society. Too many teachers have an extremely imperfect 
 view of the moral claims of children. 
 
 "A teacher, or guardian of youth, acting as the head of a 
 school, of a family, of a factory, or prison, or a hospital, will, 
 in proportion to the predominance of this Love (love to God) 
 in his heart, be successful, according to his capacity, in turn- 
 ing the currents of thought from vice to virtue, from error to 
 truth, from earth-born desires to heavenward affections. 
 
 "There are many sceptics with respect to the utility of knowl- 
 edge, as a means of ameliorating the morals of mankind. 
 And the question, taken in the abstract, do learning and sci- 
 ence, superadded to human nature, necessarily lead to moral 
 purity ? The answer, I fear, must be given in the negative. 
 Human nature does, very commonly, prove too hard a match 
 for reason and judgment. The most profound science, and 
 most exalted talent cannot always prevent a man from being 
 at once 'the greatest and meanest of mankind.' The Marats 
 and the Condorcets, of the French Revolution; the Tom 
 Paines and the Aaron Burrs, of our country ; and thousands 
 of others of like character in almost every nation where learn- 
 ing prevails, appear to demonstrate, that there is no security 
 against a life of profligacy, in mere literature and science. 
 What then can afford a security against the assaults of tempta- 
 tion to evil, casual or habitual ? What can effectually restrain 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 79 
 
 individuals, and of course families, neighborhoods and nations, 
 from yielding to evil propensities which every man finds in his 
 own heart, and thus exhibiting all that is vile in human incli- 
 nations ? I confess I know of no other answer that can be 
 given to the question, but the Grace of God. If the author 
 of Pilgrim's Progress could say, on seeing a condemned male- 
 factor passing on his way to Tyburn, ' Ah, me ! but for the 
 grace of God, there goes John Bunyan;' and, if the most 
 learned and greatest of the Apostles could say, ' By the 
 grace of God, I am what I am;' must we not conclude that 
 this grace is the only effective panacea for human wickedness 
 and immorality ? But how to obtain or secure this Grace, is 
 the turning point. I know of no other reliable prescription, 
 than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But this Faith in 
 Christ, when fairly admitted as an inmate of the soul, is never 
 satisfied with a merely formal, outward profession of Christ. 
 Its genuine possession is inseparable from the ' Fruits of 
 the Spirit.' Then the force and power, the divine obliga- 
 tion of the gospel precepts and apostolic injunctions, are 
 felt and acted upon; and the grace of God is besought with 
 earnestness, to carry on the work of purification in the soul, 
 until this militant sphere of action shall be absorbed in the 
 triumphant. 
 
 "If this be the correct rationale of a sound Christian morality, 
 we may easily infer the duties of parents, teachers, and guides 
 of youth, in endeavoring to instill, in the most effective man- 
 ner, the truths of the gospel into the minds of their charge." * 
 
 Again: from the character of the mind itself, the necessity 
 of high qualifications in the teacher is apparent. " In the 
 first place, what is the material upon which the teacher is to 
 exercise his skill ; which he is to mould, fashion, and polish ? 
 If it were a coarse and vulgar substance, it might go into 
 rough hands and take its chance. But it is something infi- 
 nitely more precious and ductile than the finest gold. It is 
 
 * Letter of John Griscom, Esq., to Hon. Horace Mann. 
 
80 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 the intelligent, the immortal mind, or rather, it is half a hun- 
 dred such minds, sparkling around the teacher and all opening 
 to his plastic touch. It is, what shall I say ? A substance of 
 the finest mould that can be fashioned and chiseled like the 
 Grecian Apollo ? No ! it is a spiritual essence fresh from the 
 skies. It is a mysterious emanation from the infinite source 
 of being and intelligence, an immortal mind — ever present, 
 though always invisible, in the school-room — seeing, hearing, 
 thinking, expanding ; always ready to take the slightest im- 
 pression for good or for evil, and certain to be influenced every 
 hour, one way or the other, by the teacher. What a respon- 
 sibility ! What a task ! 
 
 Consider the kind of substance upon which the school- 
 master is either skilfully or unskilfully tracing the first lines 
 that it receives, after the visible cipher of the nursery, and 
 what the sketching upon such a tablet ought to be. He might 
 go down to the sea-shore, when the tide is out, and write as 
 rudely as he pleased, and the first refluent wave would wash 
 the surface just as smooth as the last ebb left it. He might 
 draw his awkward diagrams upon the drifted snow-bank, and 
 the first breath of air would wisk them away. He might 
 write out his lessons like a wise man or a fool, and it would 
 make no difference ; the next hour would obliterate them all. 
 But it is not so in the school-house. Every tablet there is 
 more durable than brass. Every line the teacher traces upon 
 the mind of the scholar, is, as it were, "graven w T ith the 
 point of a diamond." Rust will eat up the hardest metals; 
 time and the elements will wear out the deepest chiseling in 
 marble ; and if the painter could dip his pencil in the rain- 
 bow, the colors would at length fade from the canvass. But 
 the spirits, the impressible minds of that group of children, in 
 however humble circumstances, are immortal. When they 
 have outlived the stars, they will only have entered upon the 
 infancy of their being. And there is reason to believe, that 
 no impression made upon them will ever be obliterated. For- 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 81 
 
 gotten, during shorter or longer periods of time, many things 
 may be ; but the cipher, without the erasure of a single line, 
 in all probability remains, to be brought out by the tests of a 
 dying hour, or the trial of the last day. The schoolmaster 
 literally speaks, writes, teaches, paints, for eternity. They 
 are immortal beings, whose minds are as clay to the seal under 
 his hand." * 
 
 This is the power and jurisdiction of teachers over the 
 minds of their pupils ; and, as religion is the basis of all moral 
 greatness and virtue, teachers, to meet their responsibility to 
 their country and their God, must not only be intellectually 
 prepared to teach, but be religious men; men and women of 
 the purest lives, and most irreproachable example. Then suc- 
 cess vail attend their labors, and generations of a happy coun- 
 try, and a prosperous church will rise up and " call them 
 blessed." Hundreds of respectable citizens will follow them 
 to their graves, and weep over the departure of their Glori- 
 fied Teachers. We will give the observations of experienced 
 teachers upon this subject, addressed to Hon. Horace Mann. 
 
 "With my views of human nature, I should not expect to 
 succeed, in every case, in securing for each young heart what 
 I understand to be a truly religious character. This is not, 
 as I think, wholly a work of education ; for ' neither is he 
 that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God 
 that giveth the increase.' Still, I am firmly of the opinion 
 that the right of expectation of a religious character would be 
 increased very much in proportion to the excellence of the 
 training given, since God never ordains means which he does 
 not intend to bless; and he said : " Train up a child in the 
 way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from 
 it." But I should not forgive myself, nor think myself longer 
 fit to be a teacher, if, with all the aid and influences you have 
 supposed, I should fail, in one case in a hundred, to rear up 
 children, who, when they should become men, would be hon- 
 
 * Hon. Horace Mann. 
 
 / 
 
82 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 est dealers, conscientious jurors, true witnesses, incorruptible 
 voters or magistrates, good parents, good neighbors, and good 
 members of society, who would be temperate, industrious, fru- 
 gal, and conscientious in all their dealings, prompt to pity and 
 instruct ignorance, instead of ridiculing and taking advantage 
 of it, public spirited, philanthropic, and observers of all things 
 sacred, who would not be drunkards, profane swearers, detrac- 
 tors, vagabonds, rioters, cheats, thieves, aggressors upon the 
 rights of property, of person, of reputation, or of life, or bo 
 guilty of such omission of right and commission of wrong that 
 it would be better for the community, had they never been 
 Lorn." * 
 
 " If, now, a teacher has, in addition to these qualifications, 
 the other essential ones; if he is well educated himself, in the 
 branches which he has to teach ; if he is systematic in all his 
 arrangements in school ; if he is firm and steady in his gov- 
 ernment, and has the power to excite among his pupils a love 
 for the acquisition of knowledge, and a desire to improve ; 
 and if he is governed honestly and really by religious princi- 
 ple in all his conduct and character, he is prepared for his 
 work. And if all the children of this land were under the 
 charge of such teachers, for six hours in the day, and ten 
 months in the year, and were to continue under these influ- 
 ences for tho usual period of instruction in schools, I do not 
 sec why the result would not be that, in two generations, sub- 
 stantially the Avhole population would be trained up to virtue, 
 to habits of integrity, fidelity in duty, justice, temperance, 
 and mutual good will. It seems to me that this effect would 
 take place in all cases, except where extremely unfavorable 
 influence out of school would counteract it, which I think 
 would hardly be the case except in some districts in the most 
 populous cities." f 
 
 " If the attendance of the scholars could be universal ; if 
 
 *D. P. Page, Esq., State Normal School, Albany, N. Y. 
 f llev. Jacob Abbott. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 83 
 
 the teachers were men of those high intellectual and moral 
 qualities, apt to teach, devoted to their work, and favored 
 with that blessing which the word and providence of God 
 teach us always to expect on our honest, earnest and well-di- 
 rected efforts in a good cause ; on these conditions, and under 
 these circumstances, I do not hesitate to express the opinion 
 that the failures need not be — would not be — one per cent, 
 else, what is the meaning of that explicit declaration of the 
 Bible : "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when 
 he is old he will not depart from it.",* 
 
 Are State schools likely to receive teachers of this high, 
 intellectual, moral and religious character, particularly in Ma- 
 ryland, and those States where educational arrangements are 
 not as far in advance as in others ? Dr. James W. Alexan- 
 der, in a Report on Parochial Schools to the General As- 
 sembly of the Presbyterian Church, 1846, says : " If we ask 
 whether the Presbyterian population of these United States 
 can safely rely, for such scriptural training, on the common 
 school system of the several States ; we most reluctantly, but 
 without a remaining doubt, answer in the negative. The ques- 
 tion finds a prompt solution, when we consider, that our State 
 schools, in their best estate, can teach no higher morals or re- 
 ligion than what may be called the average of public morals 
 and religion. So long as the majority do not receive the 
 truths of grace, State schools, their creature, can never teach 
 the gospel. In some States it is already a matter of debate, 
 whether the Avord of God shall be admitted ; and even if this 
 were settled to our wishes, it needs scarcely be said, our ne- 
 cessities demand something far higher than the bare reading 
 of the Bible. In our State schools— Bible or no Bible — we 
 have every assurance that Christ, and grace, and gospel liber- 
 ty, cannot, by authority, be so much as named ; and without 
 these there can be no christian education. 
 
 : ' We can not, by yielding to the latitudinary encroachments 
 
 * Roger S. Howard, Thetford, Yt. 
 
8-1 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 of the age, consent to have our children reared under a system 
 of such compromise, as prevails in some States ; and accord- 
 ing to -which the child's creed shall be so diluted as to be equally 
 paletablc to the Socinian, the Jew, or the Musselman. For 
 we hold it as a judgment common to us with our fathers, that 
 we owe it to God and to our baptized offspring, to teach the 
 rising race nothing less than the whole counsel of God, in 
 regard to their salvation. Others will not do this work for 
 us : nay, others, whether christian or unchristian, are doing 
 the very opposite with all their might. 
 
 " If there is any period of life in which man receives deep 
 impressions, it is the period of childhood. If there are any 
 hours of childhood, in which permanent opinions are commu- 
 nicated, the hours spent in school are such. If there is any 
 place, where it is important to inculcate the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth, it is the place of daily, com- 
 mon instruction. And with all our reverence and affection for 
 Sabbath-schools, for which we bless the name of God, we are 
 unwilling to let six days pass by, without a word of Christ, 
 however faithfully He may be held forth to our offspring on 
 the seventh." 
 
 In 1850, during the session of the Lutheran Synod of Ma- 
 ryland, the following resolutions were passed : " Inasmuch 
 as it was the custom of our church at the time of its establish- 
 ment in thi3 country to have schools connected with every 
 congregation, in which the children of the church were intend- 
 ed to be brought under the tuition of competent christian 
 teachers, and instructed in the elementary branches of an ed- 
 ucation, including the common academical course, preparatory 
 to higher Seminaries, sacred music, the catechisms and doc- 
 trines of the church : therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we regret that this arrangement of the 
 church has been discontinued amongst us, and that we re- 
 commend the establishment of congregational schools in all the 
 congregations of each charge, with a view of bringing the 
 children under christian instructions, whilst their primary 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 85 
 
 •education is attended to, and preparing pupils for our higher 
 institutions of learning. 
 
 Resolved, That each minister in connection with this Syn- 
 od, be requested to preach upon the subject of religious edu- 
 cation, and use his endeavors to establish such schools in every 
 congregation within his charge." 
 
 Now, when the churches are conscious of the wretched con- 
 dition of our primary school system, and see that it does not 
 meet the expectation of christian communities, and have ex- 
 pressed themselves accordingly, how pitiable are those per- 
 sons who constitute so large a class of our population, in their 
 views of female worth and female character, when they are 
 satisfied that the primary schools afford sufficient facilities for 
 the education of their daughters. 
 
 Missionary schools in heathen countries furnish us with 
 models of educational systems. Their schools are founded 
 •upon religious principles, and are most successful in their op- 
 erations. Children are under religious instructors from the 
 primary school to their highest Seminaries. They are taught 
 the truth of the Bible while they are taught to spell and read; 
 and religious instructions are imparted clay by day to the com- 
 pletion of their education. The conversion and future useful- 
 ness of the pupils is a constant object of solicitude and prayer. 
 
 Mr. Spaulding, Missionary to Ceylon, writes to the Board, 
 as published in the Missionary Herald, July, 1852 : " The in- 
 fluence of our Seminary at Batticotta, and of the female board- 
 ing school at Oodooville, is deepening and widening; and 
 •every year adds to the evidence that our plans and course have 
 been laid by Him who had far more foresight and forethought 
 than we had. Some of the results, as they now come before 
 lis, are as strangely encouraging as they were formerly sad 
 and disheartening. The educational statistics of the mission 
 are as follows : Fourteen English day schools, five hundred 
 and one scholars, seventy-three native free schools, and three 
 'thousand, two hundred and fifty pupils. Ninety-nine pupils in 
 
Sti A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 the Battacotta Seminary and ninety-five in the Oodooville Fe- 
 male Boarding School." 
 
 The Rev. H. Chcevcr in his late work on the Sandwich Isl- 
 ands,, says : " There are now Twenty-two Thousand Men 
 and Women in the Christian Church, on these Islands, 
 and Seventeen Thousand Pupils in Christian Schools." 
 Of the Female Seminary at Lahaina, he says, "its influence 
 has undoubtedly been great and salutary. The short time in 
 which the institution has been in operation hardly authorizes 
 a judgment, as to how far its ends have been answered. But 
 no one who examines it, and sees its practical working, can 
 fail of the conviction that female family boarding-schools, 
 must form a very important instrumentality in the work of 
 elevating this nation." 
 
 " One of the most remarkable facts in missionary experi- 
 ence, is recently reported from the Nestorian Mission in Per- 
 sia. ' A Persian Prince, the uncle of the king of Persia, and 
 a man of great influence, has become a permanent annual sub- 
 scriber of one hundred dollars to the American Board, incon- 
 sequence, says he, of the beauty of conduct and labors of high 
 rank of the American clergymen residing at Oroomiah, who 
 are occupied in the instruction of youth.' This is Mohammedan 
 homage to the schools of Christianity." 
 
 Frequently, in superior schools, and particularly female 
 seminaries, not in connection with any denomination of chris- 
 tians, men are employed as Principals and Professors, without 
 any defined religious views, who are as likely to be infidels as 
 any thing else; and they, in connection with the friends of such 
 establishments, maintain the plea that all institutions ought to 
 be without connection with the church, and belong to the pub- 
 lic, like primary schools, lest sectarianism be taught. Conse- 
 quently irreligious men can preside over them, whether Infidel, 
 Mohammedan, or Christian, so they have policy enough to 
 conceal their real sentiments. 
 
 We want institutions in connection with the church, and 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 87 
 
 under the control of godly and devoted instructors, -who in- 
 terest themselves in the conversion and religious welfare of 
 their pupils. Miss Mary Lyon, the founder of Mt. Holyoke 
 Seminary, passed through about thirty revivals of religion in 
 the institutions over which she presided, "in most of which 
 she was a prominent actor, and had agonized in prayer before 
 they came." 
 
 The following extract is from a published notice of Miss 
 Lyon's death, by Miss H. Lyman, of Montreal: — "Is she 
 missed ? Scarcely a State in the American Union but con- 
 tains those she trained. Long, ere this, amid the hunting- 
 grounds of the Sioux, and the villages of the Cherokees, the 
 tear of the missionary has wet the page which has told of 
 Miss Lyon's departure. The Sandwich Islander will ask why 
 is his white teacher's eye dim, as she reads her American let- 
 ters. The swarthy African will lament with his sorrowing 
 guide, who cries, 'Help, Lord, for the godly ceaseth.' The 
 cinnamon groves of Ceylon, and the palm-trees of India, 
 overshadow her early deceased missionary pupils ; while those 
 left to bear the burden and heat of the day will wail the saint 
 whose prayers and letters they so much prized. Among the 
 Nestorians of Persia, and at the base of Mount Olympus will 
 her name be breathed softly, as the household name of one 
 whom God hath taken." 
 
 We need schools and seminaries in connection with the 
 church, and under the control of the church. We need reli- 
 gious principals, and professors, and teachers, to preside over 
 them, if we wish the daughters of our land to be competent 
 to occupy every opening field of usefulness in the church ; 
 and also to take their part in the preservation of our country's 
 welfare. We must have normal schools of the proper char- 
 acter, if we are to be supplied with a sufficient number of 
 self-denying religious teachers, for the children and female 
 youth of every village in our land, and the Sabbath-school 
 classes of every parish church, whose influence will not only 
 
88 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 be felt with the pupils whom they teach, but who will command 
 a respect, that society around will feel the force of their ex- 
 ample, and the power of their piety. We need female mis- 
 sionaries to gather the millions of uncared for heathen children 
 into schools ; well educated pious ladies, willing, for the sake 
 of Christ, to incur the dangers of every climate, and the pri- 
 vations of every Pagan land. "We need mothers capable of 
 teaching, conscious of their position, and honest enough to 
 implant the awful precepts of the Bible upon the heart of 
 their offspring. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Objections to. Female Seminaries Answered : — > 
 
 " It is owing to the innate good sense of the women of this 
 country, that they are not absolute idiots. I would not give 
 a farthing to have a daughter of mine go to many of the 
 schools for females of our country. Observe the state of 
 those schools, and compare them with the colleges for males. 
 The end kept in view, in the education of males, is to make 
 them useful; in that of females, to make them admired." — 
 Dr. Dwight. 
 
 " By this time I take for granted she is a perfect adept in 
 several smaller, but not unnecessary embellishments, which the 
 late Lord Chesterfield would have called female graces. Such 
 as "to lisp, to mince some words, and to be utterly unable to 
 pronounce some letters, to be extremely near-sighted, to top 
 the fan with elegance, to manage the snuff-box according to 
 art, to kiss a lap-dog with delicacy, to languish with propriety, 
 and be just ready on some occasions to faint away judicious- 
 ly." — Rev. A. Toplady. 
 
 We will devote this chapter to the objections mostly urged 
 against female seminaries. 
 
 First : Those institutions which pass under the name of 
 Female Seminaries, frequently abuse the confidence reposed in 
 them, from the superficial course of instruction which com- 
 pletes a girl's education. 
 
 It is not our aim to attempt to answer the question, whether 
 females have the same strength of mind and abilities for the 
 acquisition of every branch of literature that males have. 
 Neither is it our intention to prescribe a course of studies. 
 
90 A FLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 and specify the text books that are necessary to complete a 
 girl's education ; the abler abilities of Hannah More, and Miss 
 Edgeworth, and others, have been enlisted in the discussion of 
 this subject. But it appears sometimes to be taken for grant- 
 ed that females have very feeble natural capacities, from the 
 limited course of studies, and the character of the text-books 
 that are used in some seminaries and boarding-schools. Sim- 
 plified and abridged editions of books on the most important 
 sciences, brought down to the capacity of children, are selected. 
 Three years is mostly the length of a course of studies which 
 a girl can enter who has no other qualifications than ability to 
 read, and graduate at its termination. 
 
 At public examinations, it is for the interest of the teachers 
 to set forth their pupils' abilities, and acquisitions, in the most 
 conspicuous light. Upon the one hand it excites the applause 
 of the spectators, and upon the other the vanity of the pupils. 
 "Kind teachers are also under a disadvantage resembling ten- 
 ants at rack-rent : it is their interest to bring in an immediate 
 revenue of praise and profit ; and, for the sake of a present 
 rich crop, those who are not strictly conscientious, do not care 
 how much the ground is impoverished for future produce." * 
 At many of our female schools, after the three years have 
 terminated, the regular routine of examination gone through 
 with, and the distributions of rewards for merit attended to, 
 the pupils return to their homes graduated. Hannah More's 
 Two Wealthy Farmers may serve to describe their education : 
 " The Misses Bragwell came home at the usual age of leaving 
 school, with a large portion of vanity grafted on their native 
 ignorance. The vanity was added, but the ignorance was not 
 taken away. 
 
 "Of religion they could not possibly learn anything, since 
 none was taught ; for, at that place, Christianity was consid- 
 ered a part of education which belonged only to charity 
 schools. 
 
 • Hannah More. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 91 
 
 <c Of knowledge, they had got just enough to laugh at their 
 fond parents rustic manners and vulgar language, and just 
 enough taste to despise and ridicule every girl who was not 
 as vainly dressed as themselves. As to their time, they spent 
 the morning in bed, the noon in dressing, the evening at mu- 
 sic and night in reading novels." In this age of imposition, 
 there are female schools enough — frequently individual enter- 
 prises, in which the proprietors have no other interest than 
 making money — that furnish the country with any number of 
 such graduates, and there are many parents ignorant enough 
 to brag of the finished education of their daughters, and tell 
 you to your heart's content how much money their children 
 cost them, and what they have read, and written, and said, 
 since they left school. 
 
 These proceedings are abuses of Female education, which 
 neither argue the incapacity of females, nor obtain against well 
 established institutions under the care of experienced and in- 
 telligent teachers. Solidity, not show, is aimed at in good 
 schools ; usefulness more than embellishment; modesty and pi- 
 ety instead of fashion and flippancy. Every parent and guar- 
 dian ought to have discrimination enough to tell a burlesque 
 upon female schools, from female schools. 
 
 Second: Learning will just make females proud. 
 
 They are not the educated who are pedantic and affected, 
 and attempt to make an ostentatious display of literary attain- 
 ments : but such as are ambitious to gain notice, and have not 
 mental acquirements enough to attain their object, resort to 
 dress and external embellishments. "It is because the super- 
 ficial nature of their education furnishes them with a false and 
 low standard of intellectual excellence, that women have too 
 often become rediculous by the unfounded pretensions of liter- 
 ary vanity ; for it is not the really learned, but the smatterers, 
 who have generally brought their sex into discredit by an ab- 
 surd affectation which has set them on despising the duties of 
 ordinary life." * 
 
 * Hannah More'e Works. 
 
92 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 " Diffuse knowledge generally among women, and you will 
 at once cure the conceit which knowledge occasions while it is 
 rare. Vanity and conceit we shall of course witness among 
 men and women so long as the world endures ; but by multi- 
 plying the attainments upon which these feelings are founded, 
 you increase the difficulty of indulging them. When learning 
 ceases to be uncommon among women, learned women will 
 cease to be affected." * 
 
 The same objection may also be made with equal propriety 
 against the education of men ; for there are enough who are 
 pronounced proud, who have returned from school with raowa- 
 tachios upon the upper lip, and fantastic ornaments of dress 
 around their person ; "but who would," as one said, "not 
 take up an out-of-place lamentation, did they lay one hand 
 upon the head, and designate their ailment in the cry of the 
 young Shunamite of the Bible, ' My head, my head.' " 
 
 This class of men not unfrequently join in the cry against 
 female education. Sidney Smith says, " we cannot deny 
 the jealousy which exists among pompous and foolish men re- 
 specting the education of women. There is a class of pedants 
 who would be cut short in the estimation of the world a whole 
 cubit if it were generally known that a young lady of eighteen 
 could be taught to decline the tenses of the middle voice, or 
 acquaint herself with the iEolic vanities of that celebrated 
 language. Then women have, of course, all ignorant men for 
 enemies to their instruction, who being bound, as they think, 
 in point of sex, to know more, are not well pleased, in point 
 of fact, to know less." The ignorant, not the learned, are 
 proud ; the educated have more to think about than their per- 
 son and their dress. 
 
 Third: If females are educated they neglect their families, 
 and are too lazy to work. 
 
 "There is a general notion, that the moment you put the 
 education of woman upon a better footing than it is at pre- 
 
 * Sidney Smith. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 93 
 
 sent, at that moment there will be an end of all domestic? 
 economy ; and if you once suffer a woman to eat of the treo 
 of knowledge, the rest of the family will very soon be reduced 
 to the same kind of serial and unsatisfactory diet. Can any 
 thing, for example, be more perfectly absurd than to suppose 
 that the care and perpetual solicitude which a mother feels for 
 her children, depends upon her ignorance of Greek and ma- 
 thematics ; and that she would desert an infant for a quadratic 
 equation ! — that Cimmerian ignorance can aid parental affec- 
 tion, or the circle of arts and sciences produce its destruc- 
 tion." * 
 
 Suppose education has a tendency to make females lazy r 
 would it not, in accordance with the same law, have a similar 
 effect upon the male sex ? Hence, in accordance with this 
 course of beautiful philosophy, the most educated and intelli- 
 gent countries must contain the laziest people. The Northern 
 States, where education is most generally attended to, both 
 male and female, must be inhabited by most lazy, indolent 
 people, destitute of all enterprise ! Facts teach the contrary. 
 
 Parents frequently are in the fault of their children's 
 worthlessness. After they have spent four or five hundred dol- 
 lars in sending a daughter a few years to a bording-school, or 
 a son to college, he must now, in consequence of his prodi- 
 gious learning, look out for a profession, and the daughter 
 aim higher in her prospects than their neighbor's children, 
 who have never been at boarding-school. Daughters, under 
 the care of such parents, destitute of learning, refinement, 
 and good sense, are indulged in idleness and gossiping, and 
 will naturally be thrown into idle, reckless classes of society, 
 and not unfrcquently contract unfortunate alliances. 
 
 Fourth : Those institutions are only for the rich, from their 
 expensiveness. 
 
 An education worthy of the name must embody the great 
 principles of Christianity, benevolence, love, kindness, &c. 
 
 * Sidney Smith. 
 
9-1 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 It implies a drawing out of the powers of the mind and heart, 
 and when this is once done, you can confine those powers no 
 more. The educated female looks around with an eye of com- 
 passion, and as she sees humanity in its distresses, under want 
 and ignorance, her "spirit will be stirred up," and her dispo- 
 sition will be that of the prophet of God : " ' here, Lord, am I, 
 send me ;' I wish to be useful — I wish to take my part in 
 the great Avorks of love and beneficence." 
 
 " By the law of consanguinity we are one brotherhood, and 
 one body ; no one member of this body can suffer, but all tho 
 members must suffer with it ; and no one member can be truly 
 honored, but all the members must rejoice with it. Where men 
 are religious, therefore, this principle appeals to their religion) 
 and enforces all its dictates ; where men are not religious, but 
 have only an enlightened selfishness, it invokes that selfishness 
 to do good to others, for the reflected benefits to itself 5 and 
 thus it leaves only those to pursue a different course, who are 
 morally selfish and intellectually blind. Hence, any system 
 of education that does violence to this great principle of uni- 
 versal benevolence, — which circumscribes itself within the 
 limits of a family, a caste, a party, or a sect — is but human 
 weakness wrestling- against Divine Power." * Well educated, 
 kind hearted, benevolent females, would soon make arrange- 
 ments for the education of the poor in every neighborhood ; 
 they would open schools everywhere, accessible to the poor 
 and rich. 
 
 Give those who can afford it an education of the right kind ; 
 give them such an education as is worthy of the name — not 
 such a one as the Misses Bragwell received ; but such a one 
 as Mary Lyon, or Hannah More and others possessed — and 
 their benevolent hearts and enlightened minds will prompt 
 them to make immediate arrangements to extend the same 
 advantages to the poorer classes. The daughters of poor pa- 
 rents would be fortunate to live in a place where such a lady 
 
 * Horace Mann. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 95 
 
 as Miss Lyon, or Mrs. Harriet L. Winslow resided. It is said 
 of the former, by Dr. Hitchcock, when at Auckland : that, 
 "surrounded by the young women who have been described in 
 the foregoing pages, she first conceived the vague notion of a 
 Seminary which should be so moderate in its expenses as to bo 
 open to the daughters of farmers and artisans, and to teachera 
 who might be mainly dependent for their support on their own 
 exertions." Every exertion would be made by educated fe- 
 males to extend all the facilities of learning to the poor ; they 
 would make every sacrifice for its attainment. 
 
 Let not the poor oppose the establishment of Female Semi- 
 naries every where ; for well educated females, are the best 
 friends the poor ever had ; they have done more, and will do 
 more, to alleviate their condition than any other class of per- 
 sons. Female Seminaries are not merely to benefit the rich, 
 but the poor. " Woman, elevated by the Christian religion, 
 was designed by Providence as the principal educator of our 
 race. From her entrance on womanhood to the end of her 
 life, this is to be her great business." 
 
 Fifth : Such Seminaries and Institutions are too much tax 
 upon a community in erecting the buildings and securing 
 their endowments. 
 
 Wherever such enterprises are commenced, there are per- 
 sons, whom Miss Lyon described, when about to commence 
 the building of a Seminary : " They are talking about erect- 
 ing a building for a female school in this city, but they have 
 had no idea of doing it, except by shares, with the expectation 
 of an income. They look at schools, generally, just as they 
 would at mercantile business;" they calculate, will it bring six 
 per cent, upon our stock ? Seminaries can never be built un- 
 der such views. Their value and income to a community 
 must be looked upon in a different way. 
 
 When the Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, at South Hadley, 
 Mass., which cost sixty thousand dollars, was commenced, the 
 first subscriptions were one of one thousand dollars, two of 
 
96 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 five hundred each, and four of two hundred and fifty each. 
 " Miss Lyon visited two maiden ladies who were living com- 
 fortably on some property left them by an honored brother. 
 Out of their moderate means, they subscribed one hundred 
 dollars each to the object. Owing to circumstances which 
 they could neither forsee nor control, they soon after lost their 
 property ; but, rather than be denied the luxury of helping 
 the good work, they labored with their own hands, and earned 
 the money to meet their subscription as it became due. With 
 such money ivas the institution built. With the prayers of 
 these and kindred spirits was every stone and every brick con- 
 secrated to the Lord." 
 
 The work of building female seminaries must be a work of 
 pure benevolence, which will always be so richly rewarded to 
 a community, that they must testify to the divine truth, " it 
 is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 
 But seminaries, like churches, have their value not only in 
 an intellectual and moral point of view directly, but in dollars 
 and cents indirectly. Will education and the gospel sustain 
 the righteousness and character of a people? Is property 
 more valuable in a virtuous and intelligent community than in 
 an ignorant and depraved one ? What is an estate worth in 
 the hands of ignorant and dissipated heirs ? What intelligent 
 man, of christian and refined parental feelings, would risk 
 raising a family in an ignorant and dissipated community, 
 when he could have access to others, where his children would 
 be influenced by the intelligent and elevated christian charac- 
 ter of his neighbors, and the refinement of their society? 
 Would a man, with high views of virtue and proper solicitude 
 for the welfare of his family, reside in a community where 
 his children would run a great risk of contracting alliances 
 for life with the dissipated and the unchaste ? There is a 
 more intimate connection between the real value of property, 
 and the intelligence, and virtue, and Christian character of a 
 people than many would be willing to admit. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 97 
 
 We are told, Gen. 13: 10, 11, " And Lot lifted up his eyes, 
 and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered 
 every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as 
 thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain 
 of Jordan." This man made the mistake of overlooking 
 the moral interests of his family for their mere secular inter- 
 ests, and the consequence was, his family were ruined. There 
 are some who would not risk a family among a people, how- 
 ever well located of whom it was said, "the men of the 
 place were wicked, and sinners before the Lord, exceedingly," 
 as was said of Sodom ; and those persons who would refuse 
 to settle their families in such communities are, mostly, the salt 
 of the earth. 
 
 A people never lose any thing by large contributions to 
 seminaries of learning, and churches, and by sustaining tal- 
 ented and godly men as their ministers and the teachers of 
 their children. They are indirectly gainers in a pecuniary 
 point of view, as well as in real happiness, and the enjoyments 
 which emanate from the refinements of society, in domestic, 
 social, and civil life. 
 
 Sixth : The character of females in reference to their influ- 
 ence and abilities is overwrought. 
 
 Woman's character is peculiarly affected by the fall of 
 mankind. The curse of God fell heavily upon her, for the 
 agency she had in bringing about that disaster. Yet the his- 
 tory of the world shows that a compassionate God is over- 
 ruling all her misfortune to her good. The curse which has 
 entailed sorrows and trials upon her : those very trials are 
 made instrumental in turning her attention to heaven, as she 
 seeks refuge in the bosom of her Saviour. "Of ' devout and 
 honorable women,' the Sacred Scriptures record ' not afezv.' 
 Some of the most affecting scenes, the most interesting trans- 
 actions, and the most touching conversations, which are re- 
 corded of the Savior of the world, occurred with women. Their 
 
 7 
 
98 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 examples have supplied some of the most eminent instances 
 of faith and love. The heroic confessors, devoted saints, and 
 unshrinking martyrs to the Church of Christ, has not been 
 the exclusive honor of the bolder sex." 
 
 We mostly, in all the churches, see one-third more females 
 at the confirmations and communions, than males ; which made 
 a distinguished divine remark, that he believed there would be 
 many more souls of females in heaven than of the other sex. 
 Like the Savior of inankind — who took upon himself hu- 
 man nature, and became a "man of sorrows and acquainted 
 Avith grief," suffered the temptations and pains of human life, 
 that He might be " touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
 ties" — so woman, in sorrow and frequent tears, knows how to 
 sympathize with the afflicted and the children of want. The 
 widow of Sarepta, who divided the last handful of meal with 
 the prophet of God, only portrays the nature of her sex. 
 
 Mr. Ledyard says : "To a woman, I never addressed myself 
 in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving 
 a decent and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, 
 wet or sick, they did not hesitate, like men, to perform a gen- 
 erous action : in so free and kind a manner did they contri- 
 bute to my relief, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest 
 draught ; and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a 
 double relish." — Mr. Parle's Travels in Africa. 
 
 "A Christian Widow's Revenge." — "When the Rev. 
 Henry R. Wilson, of the mission to Northern India, was in 
 London, on his way to this country, he was sent for by a lady, 
 who wished to consult him about a mission to the Punjaub. 
 Her husband had been slain on the battle-field, and she was 
 now dependant on the pension of a soldier's widow ; but she 
 wished to sustain, at her own expense, a missionary to that 
 people by whose hands her husband had fallen. This was a 
 Christian woman's revenge. She did not wish to wait for one 
 to be trained for the work, but, although a member of the 
 church of England, she desired to have one of the Prcsbyte- 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 99 
 
 i'lan missionaries, now there and ready to preach, transferred 
 to that particular district, that he might immediately proclaim 
 the gospel to those who had made her a widow, and her chil- 
 dren orphans." :|c 
 
 "The mind in each sex has some kind of Lias which is nat- 
 ural to it, which constitutes a distinction of character, and 
 the happiness of both, depends, in a great measure, on the pre- 
 servation and observance of this distinction. Women's hearts 
 are naturally soft and flexible, open to impressions of love and 
 gratitude; their feelings tender and lively : all these are fa- 
 vorable to the cultivation of a devotional spirit." f 
 
 It is not our intention to intimate that all the effects of 
 depravity have not debased woman's soul, and the same pro- 
 cess of regeneration is not requisite to qualify her to take 
 her proper position in the church, and to secure her a home 
 with God in heaven. Whilst the calendar of saints has been 
 filled up in part from her sex, and she showed a willingness to 
 be baptized in blood, from the young maiden to the aged ma- 
 tron, during the ages of the church's martyrdom, she also 
 contributed her part to make up the list of criminals. She 
 had her Jezebal in the Old Testament, and her Herodias in 
 the New. In the Apocalypse a woman in the wilderness is 
 the symbol of the church in persecution ; but the church's 
 great enemy is symbolized by "a woman arrayed in purple 
 and scarlet color, and decked with gold, and precious stones, 
 and pearls." 
 
 But woman's character is again portrayed by Isaiah, when 
 in contradistinction to man he asks : " can a ivoman forget 
 her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the 
 son of her womb ?" It is maternal affection which is natural 
 to her, that will enable her, when properly educated, to meet 
 her responsibility to her children. Thus her natural affection 
 may be illustrated by what Humboldt gives in his travels. He 
 
 * American Messenger, July, 1847. 
 f Hannah More. 
 
100 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 tells us, that, " after lie had left the abodes of civilization far 
 behind, in the wilds of South America, he found near the con- 
 fluence of the Atabapo and Rio Ternie rivers, a high rock, 
 called the " Mother's Roce." The circumstances which gave 
 this remarkable name to the rock, were these : In 1799, a 
 Roman Catholic Missionary led his half civilized Indians out 
 on one of those hostile excursions, which they often made, to 
 kidnap slaves for the christians. They found a Quahiba wo- 
 man in a solitary hut, with three children, two of whom were 
 infants. The father, with the older children, had gone out to 
 fish; and the mother, in vain, tried to fly with her babes. She 
 was seized by those men-hunters, hurried into a boat, and car- 
 ried away to a Missionary station at San Fernando. 
 
 She was now far from home, but she had left children there 
 who had gone with their father. She repeatedly took her 
 three babes and tried to escape, but was as often seized, brought 
 back, and most unmercifully beaten with whips. At length 
 the Missionary determined to separate this mother from her 
 three children ; and for this purpose, sent her in a boat to the 
 Atabapo River, to the missions of the Rio Negro, at a station 
 called Javita. Seated in the bow of the boat, the mother 
 knew not where she was going, or what fate awaited her. She 
 was bound solitary and alone in the boat ; but she judged, 
 from the direction of the sun, she was going away from her 
 children. By a sudden effort she broke her bands, plunged 
 into the river, swam to the left bank of the Atabapo, and 
 landed upon a JlocJc. 
 
 She was pursued, and at evening retaken and brought back 
 to the rock, where she was scourged till her blood reddened 
 the rock,— calling for her children !— and the rock has ever 
 since been called " The Mother's Rock !" Her hands were 
 then tied upon her back, still bleeding from the manatee thongs 
 of leather. She was then dragged to the mission at Javita, and 
 thrown into a kind of stable. The night was profoundly dark, 
 it was in the midst of the rainy season. She was now 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION, 101 
 
 full seventy-five miles, in a straight line, from her three chil- 
 dren. Between her and them lay forests never penetrated by 
 human footsteps ; swamps, and morasses, and rivers never 
 crossed by man. But her children are at S an Fernando ; 
 and what can quench a mother's love ! Though her arms were 
 wounded, she succeeded in biting the bands with her teeth, 
 and in the morning she was not to be found ! At the fourth 
 rising sun she had passed through the forests, swam the rivers, 
 and, all bleeding and worn out, was seen hovering around the 
 little cottage in which her babes were sleeping ! 
 
 She was seized once more ; and, before her wounds were 
 healed, she was torn again from her children, and sent away 
 to the missions on the upper Oronoco river, where she droop- 
 ed, and shortly died, refusing all kinds of nourishment ; died 
 of a broken heart, at being torn from her children ! Such is 
 the history of the "Mother's Rock." 
 
 Seventh : The time was when opposition prevailed in some 
 sections of the country, to a great extent, against all colleges 
 and theological seminaries. Some ignorant preachers in their 
 sermons would fairly burn in holy indignation against all 
 " high schools," 
 
 Notwithstanding this, education has advanced unchecked, 
 and colleges have gone up every where ; and some of those 
 very classes of people, preachers included, have seen their folly 
 and are now the best friends of learning. So it will be every 
 where, both with male and female education: it will rise 
 higher and higher in the estimation of all thinking minds. 
 
 Every American should have penetration enough to see, 
 from the genius of our own government, that here mind can 
 not be kept down ; education must advance. " The startling- 
 fact is, the human mind in this country cannot remain unedu- 
 cated. In some way or other the spirit of our free institutions 
 will arouse and develope mental energies, and render them 
 fearfully available for good or evil. The decree has gone 
 forth, and it is like the law of the Medes and Persians, which 
 
102 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCA1 I 
 
 cannot be altered. The grave of popular ignorance lias been 
 dug deeper than the roots of the Allcghanics ; its epitaph 
 written in the declaration of '70, and its funeral dirge chanted 
 when the crew of the Mayflower first sang their sailor's hymn 
 before the rock of Plymouth." * 
 
 The alternative is not with objectors to those educational 
 efforts, shall we have them or not ? but it is with us all, shall 
 we have them under the care of the church, and under the in- 
 fluence of religion? We must have Female Seminaries as well 
 as Colleges; we must have them! If the church does not 
 awake to her duty the world will, and they Will build semina- 
 ries, and put them under the control of men of the world, and 
 manage them to suit their taste and fashions, destitute of re- 
 ligion, and the result will be deleterious. 
 
 " But all objectors may depend upon it, however the sys- 
 tem of female education may be exalted, that there will never 
 be wanting a due proportion of failures ; and that after pa- 
 rents, guardians, and preceptors have done all in their power 
 to make every body wise, there will still be a plentiful supply 
 of women, who have taken special care to remain otherwise ; 
 and they may rest assured, if the utter extinction of ignorance 
 and folly is the evil they dread, their interests will always b( 
 effectually protected, in spite of every exertion to the con- 
 trary." f 
 
 ' Dr. Johns. 
 
 f Sidney Smilhon Female Education. 
 
 ,- 
 
LUTHERAN INSTITUTIONS IN MARYLAND. 
 
 The Lutheran Church has been delinquent upon the subject 
 of female education within this State ; but is now making ar- 
 rangements for the erection of two institutions within the 
 bounds of the Maryland Synod. These institutions are re- 
 commended to the church by the following resolution of Synod : 
 
 " Resolved, That we learn with pleasure, that efforts are 
 making to erect Lutheran Female Seminaries at Hagerstown 
 and Baltimore, that we highly approve of these efforts, and 
 earnestly pray that God may abundantly bless them, and that 
 we recommend both contemplated institutions to the confidence 
 and encouragement of all our churches." 
 
 The institution at Hagerstown has been commenced. The 
 corner-stone of the building was laid on the 29th of Sep- 
 tember, 1852. Its dimensions are one hundred and twenty- 
 seven feet long, fifty wide, and four stories high ; sufficient, 
 when completed, to accommodate one hundred boarders, and 
 one hundred day scholars. The plan and design of this in- 
 stitution may be- seen from its charter, as follows : 
 
 AN ACT 
 
 To Incorporate a Literary Institution at Hagerstown, 
 in Washington County, to be styled the Hagerstown 
 Female Seminary. 
 
 Whereas, Many citizens of Hagerstown and its vicinity 
 and others, have subscribed money to an amount exceeding 
 
104 A FLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 twenty-five thousand dollars, for the purpose of building and 
 endowing a Seminary for the education of Females, upon the 
 plan of Scholarships, to be located at Hagcrstown, in Washing- 
 ton County, under the auspicies of the Lutheran Church, and 
 have applied for an Act of Incorporation: 
 
 Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Ma- 
 ryland, That Andrew Hogmire, Jonathan Hager, David Artz, 
 Charles Spangler, Frederick J. Posey, Thomas G. llobertson, 
 James B. McKee, Wm. Hawken, Henry K. Tice of Washing- 
 ton County, and all others who have subscribed, or shall here- 
 after subscribe for scholarships in said Seminary, at Hagcrs- 
 town, Washington County, and their successors, shall be, and 
 they are hereby declared and constituted a body politic or 
 corporate, under the name and style of the " Hagerstown Fe- 
 male Seminary," and by that name shall sue and be sued, 
 implead and be impleaded, answer and be answered, defend 
 and be defended in any of the Courts of law or equity in this 
 State ; shall have and use a common seal, and the same change, 
 break or renew at pleasure ; receive, hold or possess property, 
 real, personal or mixed, to the amount and for the purpose 
 hereinafter expressed ; pass such by-laws, rules and regula- 
 tions as may be deemed necessary, not inconsistent with this 
 Act, or the constitution and laws of this State ; and to per- 
 form all such other acts as may rightfully appertain to them 
 consistently with the objects and powers herein expressed and 
 conferred. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it enacted, That the object of said Institu- 
 tion or Seminary shall be the promotion of a liberal female 
 education. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it enacted, That said Seminary, shall be 
 established and conducted upon the plan of Scholarships, to an 
 amount not exceeding sixty thousand dollars ; each scholar- 
 ship to be fixed at such sum as the Trustees, hereinafter pro- 
 vided for, shall designate, not less than one hundred dollars, 
 which scholarships, except so much thereof as the Trustees 
 
A PLEA FOE, FEMALE EDUCATION. 105 
 
 may deem it expedient to spend in the purchase of grounds 
 and the erections and furnishing of buildings for the Seminary 
 and the professors, shall be invested in some safe mode by the 
 Trustees to serve as an endowment fund, the interest of which 
 shall be applied to the support of the Professors and Teachers 
 of the Institution, and in such repairs, improvements, library 
 and apparatus as the Trustees may, from time to time, deem 
 necessary and proper. 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it enacted, That in addition to said amount 
 of scholarships, the said corporation shall be capable of hold- 
 ing by gift, grant, bequest or devise, other property and funds, 
 real, personal, and mixed, to an amount not exceeding the 
 annual value of ten thousand dollars, to be used for the gen- 
 eral purposes of said Institution, and with power to sell, trans- 
 fer, lease and convey any part thereof. 
 
 Sec. 5. And be it enacted, That every subscriber for schol- 
 arships in said Seminary, shall have the right and privilege of 
 having educated in it, one female pupil for each scholarship 
 he or she may hold, at all times and free of charge, in such 
 studies as shall not be declared extra branches. But that all 
 holders of scholarships shall pay for the instruction of their 
 pupils in such branches of education as the Trustees shall de- 
 clare extra branches, such tuition fees as may be prescribed 
 for the same : provided, however, that it shall be competent 
 for the Trustees in case the value of' a scholarship shall be 
 fixed at a greater sum than one hundred dollars, to determine 
 the proportion of benefits to which those who have subscribed 
 or shall subscribe that sum shall be entitled. 
 
 Sec. 6. And be it enacted, That the present Trustees, who 
 have been chosen at a general meeting of the patrons, shall 
 hold their office until the first Monday of October next, when, 
 and every third year thereafter, on said day (or such other 
 day as may be fixed by the by-laws,) shall be chosen by the 
 patrons or subscribers for scholarships, in such mode as shall 
 be prescribed by the by-laws, a Board of Trustees to consist 
 
10G A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 of fifteen patrons, ten of whom shall be members of the Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Church and five of these regular ministers in 
 Baid Church, the residue of the Board to consist of persons 
 not belonging to that denomination ; and that in voting for 
 said Trustees, each patron shall be entitled to one vote for 
 every scholarship he may hold, and in all general meetings, of 
 the patrons, for the transaction of business, each patron shall 
 have a vote according to the foregoing rates : provided that 
 any one who docs not hold a full scholarship shall be allowed 
 a vote, during the period he may be enjoying, or entitled to 
 benefits in said Seminary. 
 
 Sec. 7. And be it enacted, That the Trustees shall chose 
 from among their own body, a President, Secretary and Trea- 
 surer, whose respective duties and terms of service shall be 
 prescribed by the by-laws ; the Treasurer to give bond for the 
 faithful discharge of his duties, in such penalties as may be 
 prescribed by the by-laws, and with such sureties as the Trus- 
 tees shall approve, and be allowed such salary as they may 
 determine. The Trustees shall also have power to fill all va- 
 cancies that may occur in their body, from death, resignation, 
 removal or any other cause, — regard being had to the mode 
 of constituting the Board, prescribed in the preceeding Sec- 
 tion. 
 
 Sec. 8. And be it enacted, That a majority of said Trus- 
 tees, including the President, shall constitute a quorum for the 
 transaction of any business; and said Trustees shall have 
 power to select a site for said Seminary, and to contract for 
 the purchase of the same, and the erection of the necessary 
 buildings ; to adopt a plan of the same ; to appoint the Prin- 
 cipal of said Seminary, and such Professors and Teachers as 
 may from time to time be deemed expedient, and to fix their 
 several salaries or compensation ; to determine the age and 
 qualification of pupils for admission into the Seminary, and 
 the regular or ordinary course of studies to be pursued in the 
 Institution and also the extra branches, with the fees for in- 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 107 
 
 struction in the latter ; to adopt all rules for the government 
 of said Institution and the supervision and management of the 
 property and funds of the same ; to appoint an agent or 
 agents for completing subscriptions for scholarships, and dona- 
 tions, and for collecting the same, and to fix the compensation 
 for his or their services ; to make all purchases of furniture, 
 books, scientific implements, &c, for the use of said Seminary; 
 to fix the number and value of the scholarships, and to do and 
 perform all other acts necessary and expedient for the conduct 
 and management of said Institution and the promotion of its 
 object. 
 
 Sec. 9. And be it enacted, That all scholarships shall be 
 deemed the property of the Subscribers thereto, in the nature 
 of stock, for which certificates may be issued, when fully paid, 
 by the Trustees, in such forms as they may prescribe, and the 
 same shall be transferable on the books of the Institution, in 
 person or by Attorney, or shall pass to the personal represen- 
 tatives of a deceased Subscriber, or to his legatee. 
 
 Sec. 10. And be it enacted, That the scholarships may be 
 paid in such instalments as shall be prescribed by the Trus- 
 tees : provided that interest be charged and made payable on 
 the deferred instalments semi-annually, from such time as the 
 Board may determine; and it shall be competent for the Trus- 
 tees to allow subscribers for scholarships to retain the value 
 thereof in their own hands, upon such terms and conditions, 
 and for such time as the Trustees shall prescribe ; the said 
 subscriber regularly paying the interest thereon to the Trea- 
 surer, and securing the principal. 
 
 Sec. 11. And be it enacted, That persons not holding- 
 scholarships, shall have the privilege of sending pupils to said 
 Institution, by complying to the terms and paying the fees to 
 be prescribed by the Trustees in such cases. 
 
 Sec. 12. And be it enacted, That the General Assembly 
 may at any time hereafter alter, or repeal this act. 
 
 Sec. 13. And be it enacted, That this Act of Incorpora- 
 
108 A PLEA TOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 tion shall be in force and go into operation from and after the 
 day of passage. 
 
 MARYLAND, SCT.: 
 
 We hereby certify that the aforegoing is a true copy from 
 the Bill entitled " An act to Incorporate a Literary Institu- 
 tion at Hagerstown, in Washington County, to be styled the 
 'Hagerstown Female Seminary,' " as passed the General As- 
 sembly of Maryland at its present session. 
 
 In testimony whereof we hereunto subscribe our names on 
 this 31st day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and fifty-two. 
 
 J. PINKENY, Secretary of the Senate, 
 JOS. STEWART, OVk. to Rouse of Delegates. 
 
LUTHERVILLE FEMALE COLLEGE. 
 
 The other institution is to be called the Lutherville Fe- 
 male College, and is to be located within twelve miles of 
 Baltimore, between the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad, 
 and the Baltimore and York Turnpike. The following is the 
 GENERAL announcement. 
 
 We whose names are found in the subjoined charter, unite 
 to form a body politic and corporate, for the purpose of es- 
 tablishing an Institution in the county of Baltimore, Md., to 
 be called " Lutherville Female College." 
 
 MODE OF RAISING THE REQUISITE FUNDS. 
 
 To raise the pecuniary means necessary to establish and en- 
 dow this Institution, it is designed, 
 
 1st. To create a joint stock company, to sell 1,000 shares 
 of stock at $50 per share, making $50,000, and in attempting 
 this, to make such liberal provision in behalf of stockholders, 
 in the terms of tuition for their daughters, or the daughters 
 of their friends, and also in the way of dividends, as will, it 
 is believed, render the stock a safe as well as useful invest- 
 ment, and therefore insure its speedy sale. 
 
 2nd. It is also designed to sell the right of having a pupil 
 taught for a long period, usually called a scholarship. For 
 $500, a person and his successors will have the perpetual right 
 of having one pupil taught ; $300 will secure the privilege for 
 twenty continuous years ; $200 for ten continuous years ; 
 $150 for five continuous years — in the latter three cases the 
 charge to those who do not board in the house will be fifteen 
 per cent, more to the above rates. 
 
110 A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 3d. It is yet further designed to lay out a village in the 
 vicinity of the College, to be called "Lutherville," for which 
 the requisite amount of land has already been secured, most 
 beautifully and eligibly situated, and the profits arising from 
 the sale of lots, are to be appropriated to the building up of 
 the College and other purposes specified in the preceding 
 pages. 
 
 4th. And, finally, it is designed to appoint one or more 
 agents to solicit donations or free-will offerings from the friends 
 of education and good morals in the neighborhood and else- 
 where. 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF STOCKHOLDERS. 
 
 1. Stockholders' children, and children recommended by 
 them, will have preference in order of admission to the advan- 
 tages of the Institution. 
 
 2. Each stockholder will be entitled to a deduction on bills 
 of tuition, at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum on each share 
 for which he may send a scholar. The daughters of minsters 
 shall receive their tuition at 25 per cent, below the establish- 
 ed prices, and those of poor Lutheran ministers, gratis. 
 
 3. Each stockholder is entitled to receive a pro rata divi- 
 dend, according to the full amount of stock owned by him, on 
 all proceeds of the Institution not otherwise appropriated by 
 the Board of Trustees. 
 
 It is proper to remark that, in the application of the above 
 conditions, it is always expected that stockholders will give 
 timely notice, in order to secure seats for their children. It 
 would not be right to displace one pupil during the progress 
 of a quarter, to accommodate another ; nor would the pupil of 
 a stockholder be retained, when her conduct rendered her un- 
 fit, according to our established rules, to be a member of the 
 Institution. 
 
 THE DESIRABLENESS OF THE STOCK. 
 
 1. The shares are fixed at a low valuation, ($50 each,) being 
 less than is usual in similar institutions. 
 
A PLEA FOR FEMALE EDUCATION". Ill 
 
 2. Being transferable, they will find their way into the 
 hands of those who most value the advantages they secure. 
 
 3. As the Institution grows in reputation and in endow- 
 ments, and as the surrounding population increases, these 
 shares will be in greater demand, and consequently more val- 
 uable. 
 
 4. Meantime, stockholders or patrons have their tuition at 
 the lowest practicable rates, and that independent of dividends 
 and of percentage deducted. 
 
LJBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 = 019 654 037 4 
 
 M'KEE & KOBERTSON, 
 
 DEALERS IN 
 
 ESOKS, STATIONERY, BOOTS, SHOES, &G V 
 
 Nos. 2 <f 3, Hagcr's Boiv, 
 
 Hagerstown, Md., 
 
 Keep a carefully selected stock in the various departments 
 of their business, to which they call the attention of pur- 
 chasers. * 
 
 Law, Medical, Theological, ScnooL and Miscellaneous 
 Books, furnished at the prices of the various publishers, 
 and especial attention paid to the faithful execution of all 
 orders entrusted to us. 
 
 Orders for the Importation of Foreign Books promptly 
 executed; our facilities being combined with those of a 
 Philadelphia importing house. 
 
 Book and Pamphlet Printing — for which we are well pre- 
 pared — will receive our personal supervision ; and our 
 good Book Printing arc moderate. 
 
 ks not in our shelves, will be furnished to order at short 
 notice. Libraries furnished to order. 
 
 The L.v ilarly received, and pieces not on 
 
 lied to order at short notice. Pianos of the 
 
 '•; factories furnished at manufacturers prices and 
 
 ted. Musical Instruments of all descriptions form 
 
 a part of our assortment. 
 
 Agents for the sale of popular books arc constantly want- 
 In this branch of our ] it i'acili- 
 lo give a em] loyment. 
 
 
 
 
 #W