Works these qualities naturally belong to woman. of an extended description seldom suit her, although they be on subjects suited to her intellect. The training she receives renders her unfit either for wire-drawn doubt or lengthened labour. "For all other intellectual efforts, however, either of the understanding or the fancy, and requiring a thorough knowledge either of man's strength or his weakness, we apprehend them [women] to be, in all respects, as well qualified as their brethren of the stronger sex; while in their perceptions of grace, propriety, ridicule their power of detecting artifice, hypocrisy, and affectation- the force and promptitude of their sympathy, and their capacity of noble and devoted attachment, and of the efforts and sacrifices it may require, they are, beyond all doubt, our superiors. "Their business being with actual or social life, and the colours it receives from the conduct and dispositions of individuals, they unconsciously acquire at a very early age, the finest perception of character and manners, and are almost as soon instinctively schooled in the deep and dangerous learning of feeling and emotion; while the very minuteness with which they make and meditate on these interesting observations, and the finer shades and variations of sentiment, which are thus treasured and recorded, 'trains their whole faculties to a nicety and precision of operation, which often discloses itself to advantage in their application to studies of a very different character. When women, accordingly, have turned their minds-as they have done but too seldom-to the exposition or arrangement of any branch of knowledge, they have commonly exhibited, we think, a more beautiful accuracy, and a more uniform and complete justness of thinking, than their less discriminating brethren. There is a finish and completeness about everything they put out of their hands, which indicates not only an inherent taste for elegance and neatness, but a habit of nice observation and singular exactness of judgment."* CHAPTER III. MORAL NATURE. "God has a bright example made of thee, The human species have sensations, feelings, and affections in common with the inferior animals. Each individual class has distinctive traits of character after its kind. Many of the inferior animals have the senses in a stronger degree than animals of a higher class. Some are endowed with quicker scent, and some with quicker hearing than others; various birds are distinguished for strong, far reaching sight. Sensation is the lowest characteristic of the animal economy; and the senses of the lower forms of life are answered by a strong impulse and a ready exercise. The human infant does not feel this strong impulse and ready exercise. The senses unfold themselves like an opening flower to the light. Development and advancement are the laws which govern here. The first part of education is connected with the senses. Infancy is the appointed time. This is the first place each one has to occupy in the school of life. "At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms: And then, the whining school-boy, with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school."t Childhood is the age of discipline. If the ad *Lord Jeffrey. Appendix H. † Shakspere. vantages presented be not attended to at this period, the golden age of youth will go, and leave no gold behind. A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. "Parents first season us; then schoolmasters Deliver us to laws; then send us bound To rules of reason-holy messengers."* Feelings and affections are matured in the third period of existence, -the period of youth. The deepest and broadest cup of feeling lies hid in the human breast. A perpetual running spring helps to fill it, and drop after drop, falling into it, will in the end fill it to the brim. A cup, brim-full of happiness, is the lot of holy angels, but certainly of few, if any, among the sons of men. In the outer world we have days bright and dark, long and short, with rain and sunshine, heat and cold, beauty and deformity, happiness and misery, mingled together. And in the human breast there are feelings of joy with grief, and pain with pleasure. What ingredients find their way into this cup of human feeling! Misery mocking at transient pleasure, but silenced with holy love. This cup, at times, is filled to overflowing. Sometimes there are falling into it the tears of grief, at other times the tears of joy. When sorrow upon sorrow had once filled it to overflowing, with deep significance it was said, "Let this cup pass from me.' The stand points from which may be witnessed the doings of human nature, in its moral developments, are two, the masculine and the feminine. The masculine soul possesses strong and coarse passions, with an overbearing confidence in self. Prompt in action and persevering in energy. A deep moral sense of right and wrong; a high conception of justice, and a towering ambition to achieve some deed, or deeds, of glory and renown. * Herbert. An impetuous love, which shows itself at times, both warin and rich. Such is man: and often impelled to action, by ambition and the moral sense, before the affections are thoroughly awake. The feminine soul has clear and gentle instincts, with more of passivity than activity, except on extraordinary occasions, and not caring to act unless affections move. A heart to guide to right, and prompt to duty, but only as the guidance and promptness lead to love. And woman's love, when possessed and cherished, continues with constancy, a perennial spring, a perpetual summer, a transparent lake, without a ripple on the surface, a sea of glass, clear as crystal, and the heart in which love is enshrined, she gives as a welcome home to man. Masculine souls, by disappointments, by grief, and constant sorrow, from the loss of those they love, are often changed into something very much like, if not into the actual feminine characteristics. In this way man, by suffering and trial, in order to prove his worth, to see if there be any good thing in him, is elevated to the feeling of a woman's soul, and it may in an emphatic sense be said, "We all, with open face beholding, as in a glass, Woman, the Glory of the Man, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." Sensitiveness is the very essence of woman's constitution and character. The emotional state is one in which the desires seek to be gratified. Objects are sought and followed until found. Discrimination will select the objects, and give to each its proper place and value. Sensibility is soon awakened by emotional appeals. Affection must have life in order to gratify its feeling. "They that love early become like-minded, and the tempter toucheth them not: They grow up leaning on each other, as the olive and the vine. Youth longeth for a kindred spirit, and yearneth for a heart that can commune with his own; He meditateth night and day, doting on the image of his fancy.”* *Proverbial Philosophy. Love has a twofold existence, and has to do with the grave as well as the gay,-with smiles when in possession, with tears when disappointed,-sometimes like a siren, sometimes like a fury.* "The lover Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad The passions are often as wild, and keen, and noisy, as the winter wind. The emotional state may for a time be becalmed,-the transparent medium no sooner reflects some lovely image within itself, than the tranquil sea has first a ripple, and then a ceaseless wave, crested with foam, moving upon its surface; before noon the heavens may lower, and before nightfall a raging storm. The sea of the emotions is beset with depths and shallows, rocks and quicksands. This is a watery world to many a human soul. It is the lot of some to be tossed about on this sea, and never find safe ground for any certainty of anchorage. Distressed mortals! driven with the wind and tossed. Doomed to find no haven; fated to find no rest. Certainly they have a claim on human and angelic commiseration, sympathy and tears. To the mortal memory of the poor victims who have been swallowed up in these seas, and as a beacon, and a warning for all future mariners, we, out of profound sympathy for the lost, and from deep anxiety for the safety of the present and future generations, herewith build a breakwater and erect a lighthouse upon the same, in order that such dangerous and fatal places as "bachelor's depths," and "spinster's shallows," may be visible to the eye of every one both night and day. Notwithstanding every caution given in maps, and charts, and navigation tables, the voyage to many becomes a wreck. The vessel in which they are is often splintered, and seldom fails to spring a |