her when we remind her how much influence she has in forming the taste and directing the pursuits of the other sex, how far the hope of her favor determines the aspirations and the efforts of those who are forming characters for life. She needs not be assured, that it is for her own sake that we invite her into the pleasant walks of letters, that there is nothing more congenial with her retired and quiet occupations, no better solace for her solitary hours, no better resource against ennui and depression, nothing which so prepares her to adorn and enjoy society, nothing, except piety, which can so arm her against those troubles which are the lot of all. Let her know that there is nothing which rules by diviner right than woman, and there is nothing to which the human heart more involuntarily bows down than to woman when she adds to the natural charms and loveliness of her sex, the crowning glory of a vigorous, a refined, and cultivated intellect. LECTURE II. ON THE SPHERE AND DUTIES OF WOMAN. HAVE promised to devote a portion of this course of lectures to the SPHERE AND DUTIES OF WOMAN. Meditation upon the subject, while it has more and more opened to me its magnitude and importance, has more and more convinced me of the difficulty of treating it with profit to you, or credit to myself. While I addressed my own sex, I felt at home and at ease. As all I said was drawn from my own experience and observation, I knew my ground and felt sure at every step. I felt that what I said could not be mistaken or misjudged. I could not be suspected even of being any other than just and fair. I am now to address the other sex, a task which I had much The rather had fallen to one of themselves. very circumstances of the case render it impossible for me to be as well acquainted with my subject as I was before. I cannot even in imagination put myself in the position of the opposite half of the species, and though I may form a judgment of what their conduct should be, I cannot comprehend the difficulties of their situation, nor fully appreciate their merit when they fill up the measure of my conceptions of right and duty, nor their culpability when they fall below it. What I hope to do is this, to lead those who listen to me to serious reflection, to give them a more thorough knowledge of their constitution, faculties, aptitudes, a clearer conception of their relative position, and the duties which grow out of it, those dispositions and habits which it is incumbent on them to cherish, the studies they are to pursue, the accomplishments they are to acquire, in short how they are to demean themselves in the successive relations of daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, neighbor, Christian, the heir of immortality. To produce a systematic treatise on the Sphere and Duties of Woman is not my purpose. I have neither the leisure nor the ability to do it. All that I can hope to do is to drop here and there a hint, which will awaken thought and reflection, which ripened by time and confirmed by experience, will mature into true and solid wisdom. The question has been raised, and often discussed, whether the original intellectual endowments of woman are as great, or rather the same as those of man. Both sides of the argument have been defended with equal zeal and pertinacity. It is a question however which never can be settled, and which it is unimportant to decide one way or the other. It is a question to which the human powers are inadequate. All souls come from God and are made for immortality. The distinction of the sexes is intended for this world alone, a point only in the infinite line of the soul's existence. It does not seem probable that the Deity would make a difference in favor of one half of his rational creation, and to the disadvantage of the other, which should be radical and essential, for the sake of a relation that is to endure but for a short season. It is certain, however, that the manifestations of mind depend much on physical organization, and still more on education. The difference of organization we know to be very great, particularly in the nervous system, which is the very seat of the mind. Education contributes even more to this difference. Habits of life seem to have the power of overcoming even the disparity of physical organization. In some ages and countries the labors which are appropriate to men have been imposed by their tyranny upon the weaker sex, and what a difference does it immediately produce! What a contrast between the delicate daughter of a city and the wife of a peasant, who shares with him in the labors of the field. The same hand, which in the gilded saloon touches the musical instrument with so much grace, "In notes, with many a winding bout if condemned to handle the axe and spade would have been a very different thing. Those arms, which scarcely seem made for use, had they been destined to gather in their grasp the sheaves of autumn instead of sustaining some delicate piece of embroidery, would certainly have shown a very different development and proportion. The sylph-like form would soon disappear among the labors of the field. Who can tell then, how far the alleged inferiority of intellectual power would |