n it, and an obligation
to seek for it, just as binding as that which rests on him. All souls
are equal, and though intellects may vary, yet the pursuit of truth for
the exaltation of the soul is common to all. As this obligation to
unfold the powers of the intellect, that we may grasp the truth, is
primary, taking precedence of other objects--since all duty is based on
knowledge, and all love and worship, and right action on the
intelligence and apprehension of God--so education, which in this
department is but the development of our capacity, preparing us to
pursue the truth, and master the difficulties which frown us away from
its attainment, rises into a duty the most imperative upon all rational
beings. The same path here stretches onward before both sexes, the same
motives impel them, the same objects are presented to them, the same
obligations rest upon them. Neither youth nor age--neither man nor
woman, can here make a limitation that shall confine one sex to a narrow
corner--an acre of this broad world of intelligence--and leave the other
free to roam at large among all sciences. Whatever it is truly healthful
for the heart of man to know, whatever befits _his_ spiritual nature and
immortal destiny, that is just as open to the mind of woman, and just as
consistent with her nature. To deny this abstract truth, we must either
affirm the sentiment falsely ascribed to Mahomet, although harmonizing
well enough with his faith in general, that women have no souls; or take
the ground that truth in this, its widest extent, is not as essential to
their highest welfare as it is to ours; or assert, that possessing
inferior intellects, they are incapable of deriving advantage from the
general pursuit of knowledge, and therefore must be confined to a few
primary truths, of which man is to be the judge. The first supposition
we leave with the fanaticism that may have given it birth, and with
which it so well harmonizes; the second we surrender to those atheistic
fools and swindling politicians who can see no excellence in knowledge,
save as it may minister to their sensual natures, or assist them to
cajole the people; while the man who maintains the third, we would
recommend to a court of Ladies, with Queen Elizabeth as judge, Madame de
Stael as prosecuting attorney, and Hannah More, Mrs. Hemans, and other
bright spirits of the same sex, as jury.

I have dwelt thus at length on the first and most general object before
us in t