timent, all humanity, and the weaker will always be found the suffering party.

I repeat it then, every American woman has reason to thank God every day of her life, that she was born in this happy country. She cannot read of any portion or period of the world, without becoming more and more convinced, that America is the Paradise of women.

The enlightened traveller, of whom I just spoke, expresses the opinion that the consideration with which women are treated in this country is carried to excess, that she suffers for it in the end, by the feebleness, effeminacy, helplessness and bad health which it induces. For my own part I must confess that I fully agree with her in this opinion. However important may be the sphere which woman was created to fill, however much she may do to adorn and embellish life, and promote social happiness, it is evident that ill health puts it entirely out of her power, either to enjoy her self, or minister to the happiness of others.

It must therefore, I think, be set down among the faults of the women of this country, that they do not take sufficient care of their health. There is evidently a great falling off in this particular within one generation. The

women that are now going off the stage, are certainly a very different race of beings from those who are coming on. When I see the fragile and diminutive forms of the women of our times, and compare them with the women whom I recollect as the partners of the men of the revolution, it seems to me that if the men of that age had had such mothers, we never should have had any revolution at all.

However sublimated may be our ideas of woman, she still belongs to this earth, she is still subjected to the laws of organized and animated nature. Those laws go on to their fulfilment regardless of sentiment, of fashion and the usages of society. Health is the result of obedience to those laws, and they cannot be infringed in the least degree, without a corresponding injury. Health is the result of simple food, abstinence from stimulants, seasonable hours of repose, regular employment, much exercise in the open air, proper clothing and a tranquil mind. Any transgression of any one of these laws is sure to be followed by suffering, by impaired health, an enfeebled constitution, disordered nerves, wretchedness and dejection. Now let us see if one single law of all these I have enumerated, is observed in this country,

especially among the higher classes. The' progress of luxury among us, the freedom of communication among all nations, has loaded the tables of the more affluent classes with the delicacies of all lands. It is as much as the most considerate and abstinent can do to restrain themselves amid SO many thousand temptations, within the bounds of healthful moderation. But what shall I say of the sumptuous entertainments which fashion has made necessary to those who mingle in general society? After having been compelled by ill health to make myself scientifically acquainted with this subject, when I see the feasts to which I am invited by the generous hospitality of my nearest and dearest friends, I confess I am appalled. When I see the variety and the richness of one course after another as it comes on, I am filled with astonishment, I marvel, not why there are so many invalids amongst us, but how we live at all.

This mode of living will possibly do for men who exercise much in the open air, and whose constitutions are more robust. It might do for women who are active housekeepers, or who consider it a sacred duty to take a long walk every day. But to those who do neither, but

sit in warm apartments, and busy themselves in reading or needle work, it is absolute destruction. When we add to this, late hours, crowded saloons, thin dressing, and hardly an apology for shoes, how should it be otherwise, than that our women, the most beautiful the sun has ever shone upon, should be the earliest to fade? At that period of life when the European woman is in the meridian of matronly beauty, full of energy, life, and cheerfulness, the American woman has shrunk into the withered proportions of advanced life. I consider this to be one of the most melancholy features of our state of society. And are the daughters of this land, who thus trifle with themselves, aware of the full import of the term, bad health? Those who have never experienced it, have no idea of the length and the breadth, the height and the depth of its sad significance. It means in the first place, the loss of all personal charms. It means a faded complexion, early wrinkles, and gray hairs. It means the decay of all the susceptibilities of enjoyment. It means a deadness to all that is cheerful and pleasant in life. It means a distressing sense of burden and oppression under the most common and easy

duties, which are otherwise the source of satisfaction and alacrity. It means a sick room, with all its horrible and loathsome paraphernalia of medicines, and drugs, and potions, at the very thought of which the soul sickens and revolts. If there be one woman within the sound of my voice, who possesses firm health and a sound constitution, I entreat her, if she have any regard for her own happiness, if she do not wish to strip this life of every charm, to make it her religious duty to preserve so invaluable a blessing.

She will do this the rather, as I shall go on to show, that her happiness depends upon it in more ways than she may at first be aware. It is impossible for ill health and a serene temper to go together. Ill health is almost always attended by weakness and irritability of the nervous system. Things that we can bear calmly when we are in health, become the causes of insupportable vexation when we are sick. Disagreeable thoughts then become almost as painful as cuts and bruises when we are in health. The female constitution is at all times much more liable to impressions than that of the other sex. In ill health this is greatly aggravated; and she must be a saint indeed,