and trivial; and that the proper
discharge of her duties, demands far less expansion of mind and vigor of
intellect, than the pursuits of the other sex. This idea has prevailed,
because women, as a mass, have never been educated with reference to
their most important duties; while that portion of their employments,
which is of least value, has been regarded as the chief, if not the
sole, concern of a woman. The covering of the body, the conveniences of
residences, and the gratification of the appetite, have been too much
regarded as the sole objects, on which her intellectual powers are to be
exercised.

But, as society gradually shakes off the remnants of barbarism, and the
intellectual and moral interests of man rise, in estimation, above the
merely sensual, a truer estimate is formed of woman's duties, and of the
measure of intellect requisite for the proper discharge of them. Let any
man, of sense and discernment, become the member of a large household,
in which, a well-educated and pious woman is endeavoring systematically
to discharge her multiform duties; let him fully comprehend all her
cares, difficulties, and perplexities; and it is probable he would
coincide in the opinion, that no statesman, at the head of a nation's
affairs, had more frequent calls for wisdom, firmness, tact,
discrimination, prudence, and versatility of talent, than such a woman.

She has a husband, to whose peculiar tastes and habits she must
accommodate herself; she has children, whose health she must guard,
whose physical constitutions she must study and develope, whose temper
and habits she must regulate, whose principles she must form, whose
pursuits she must direct. She has constantly changing domestics, with
all varieties of temper and habits, whom she must govern, instruct, and
direct; she is required to regulate the finances of the domestic state,
and constantly to adapt expenditures to the means and to the relative
claims of each department. She has the direction of the kitchen, where
ignorance, forgetfulness, and awkwardness, are to be so regulated, that
the various operations shall each start at the right time, and all be in
completeness at the same given hour. She has the claims of society to
meet, calls to receive and return, and the duties of hospitality to
sustain. She has the poor to relieve; benevolent societies to aid; the
schools of her children to inquire and decide about; the care of the
sick; the nursing of infancy;