ble like geese, without the
trouble of _thinking_. The things they see and hear every day awaken no
consecutive thought. The stars shine above them, and they call them
pretty things, but never ask the astronomic story of their magnificence.
The world beats its great march of life around them, but they seek not
to know the rich lessons of human activity therein. I know that society
does not hold out so great inducements for woman to think and educate
herself as it ought. I know woman is oppressed with legal and customic
disabilities. I know she is shut out from many fields of activity and
industry for which she is eminently fitted by her natural endowments. I
know that her labor is not half rewarded, that her ambition is cramped
into a narrow field. I know that by custom and law she is the slave of
man, who holds her person, children, and property in his custody. I know
that men think they must be silly and simpering in woman's presence,
because they suppose she can appreciate and enjoy nothing higher. I know
that many men have an awful horror of "strong-minded women," really
educated women. I know that any thing beyond housewifery or parlor
gracefulness by many is considered unwomanly; yet woman may overcome all
the obstacles in her way if she will educate herself to _think_, and
think soundly and forcibly. She must be her own deliverer from these
barbaric customs and laws, and her own _thought_ must be the instrument
of delivery. Let women everywhere become solid thinkers so far as their
capacities will admit, instead of triflers; let their life-education be
deep, useful, and practical, instead of superficial and theoretical; let
them be as well acquainted with the principles of society as they are
with those of fashion; let them be as much interested in human progress
as they are in dress and gossip; let them take into their hands the keys
of knowledge and unlock the storehouses of practical wisdom all about
them, and go in and lay hold of the treasures, and human society would
soon blossom as the rose. The great thing needed now by our society is
more woman-influence--more woman-thought, character, and power. Our
female Education is too superficial, trifling, babyish. Our girls are
not half developed. Our young women do not exhibit one half their real
strength and beauty. Their minds are robbed of much of their natural
vigor. They are dwarfed by their delicate nutriment.

As soon as a little girl begins to be a young