d strong-hearted women. I
wish we had more of them. I know of no way to make them but to give our
girls more active Employment. Every girl should have a trade, a
business, a profession, or some honorable and useful way of gaining a
livelihood--some Employment in which her powers of body and mind may be
amply developed. If she has not, she will be dependent upon somebody,
and her dependence will degrade her; and her want of Employment will
keep her a half-developed specimen of humanity.

If I had half-a-dozen boys, and should let them grow up in play around
my house and on the streets, in visiting, gossiping, dressing, riding,
dancing, asking nothing of them only to bring me my slippers, or some
occasional act of kindness now and then, my neighbors would all cry out
against me, declaring that I was spoiling my boys. They would denounce
my course as absolute unkindness to the boys; would declare that they
never would be any thing with such a miserable training. And yet my
neighbors treat their girls in just this way. Now if it will spoil the
boys, why will it not spoil the girls? If it is unkindness to the boys,
why is it not unkindness to the girls? If boys can not be any thing with
such a training, how can the girls be?

If the present generation of boys should be reared just as we are
rearing our girls, what a puny race of men we should have with which to
commence the next century! Men complain that women are such weak,
good-for-nothing creatures that they are only fit to be wives and
mothers. Now it seems to me that no woman is fit to be a wife and mother
until she is a strong, self-reliant woman, both bodily and mentally. I
take it that the more vigorous a woman's body and mind are, the better
she is qualified to fulfill the duties of wife and mother.

I take it that the more self-reliant and independent a woman is, the
better she is qualified to be a helpmate for her husband, and a wise and
judicious counselor for her children. I take it that dignity of
character, power of action, resolute will, commanding judgment, steady
temper of mind, strong inward resources, are as essential in a good wife
and mother as in a good husband and father. In a word, I take it that
all that is noble, dignified, useful, and beautiful in character and
life, is as essential in women as in men. If so, then why not give woman
opportunities such as are necessary to develop her powers and form her
character? Those opportunities can not be