no
after-scouring shall ever be able entirely to efface. This most
important part of education is left entirely in the hands of the
mother. She prepares the soil for future culture; she lays the
foundation upon which a superstructure shall be erected that
shall stand as firm as a rock, or shall pass away like the
baseless fabric of a vision, and leave not a wreck behind. But
the mother can not give what she does not possess; weakness can
not impart strength.

Sisters, you have a duty to perform--and duty, like charity,
begins at home. In the name of your poor, vicious, outcast,
down-trodden sister! in the name of her who once was as innocent
and as pure as you are! in the name of her who has been made the
victim of wrong, injustice, and oppression! in the name of man!
in the name of all, I ask you, I entreat you, if you have an hour
to spare, a dollar to give, or a word to utter--spare it, give
it, and utter it, for the elevation of woman! And when your
minister asks you for money for missionary purposes, tell him
there are higher, and holier, and nobler missions to be
performed at home. When he asks for colleges to educate
ministers, tell him you must educate woman, that she may do away
with the necessity of ministers, so that they may be able to go
to some useful employment. If he asks you to give to the churches
(which means to himself) then ask him what he has done for the
salvation of woman. When he speaks to you of leading a virtuous
life, ask him whether he understands the causes that have
prevented so many of your sisters from being virtuous, and have
driven them to degradation, sin, and wretchedness. When he speaks
to you of a hereafter, tell him to help to educate woman, to
enable her to live a life of intelligence, independence, virtue,
and happiness here, as the best preparatory step for any other
life. And if he has not told you from the pulpit of all these
things; if he does not know them; it is high time you inform him,
and teach him his duty here in this life.

This subject is deep and vast enough for the wisest heads and
purest hearts of the race; it underlies our whole social system.
Look to your criminal records--look to your records of mortality,
to your cemeteries, peopled by mothers before the age of thirty
o