sedulously to be avoided by her.
It is of the utmost importance to men to feel, in consulting a wife, a
mother, or a sister, that they are appealing _from_ their passions and
prejudices, and not _to_ them, as imbodied in a second self: nothing
tends to give opinions such weight as the certainty that the utterer of
them is free from all petty or personal motives. The beneficial
influence of woman is nullified if once her motives, or her personal
character, come to be the subject of attack; and this fact alone ought
to induce her patiently to acquiesce in the plan of seclusion from
public affairs.

It supposes, indeed, some magnanimity in the possessors of great powers
and widely extended influence, to be willing to exercise them with
silent, unostentatious vigilance. There must be a deeper principle than
usually lies at the root of female education, to induce women to
acquiesce in the plan, which, assigning to them the responsibility, has
denied them the _eclat_ of being reformers of society. Yet it is,
probably, exactly in proportion to their reception of this truth, and
their adoption of it into their hearts, that they will fulfil their own
high and lofty mission; precisely because the manifestation of such a
spirit is the one thing needful for the regeneration of society. It is
from her being the depository and disseminator of such a spirit, that
woman's influence is principally derived. It appears to be for this end
that Providence has so lavishly endowed her with moral qualities, and,
above all, with that of love,--the antagonist spirit of selfish
worldliness, that spirit which, as it is vanquished or victorious, bears
with it the moral destinies of the world! Now, it is proverbially as
well as scripturally true, that love "seeketh not its own" interest, but
the good of others, and finds its highest honour, its highest happiness,
in so doing. This is precisely the spirit which can never be too much
cultivated by women, because it is the spirit by which their highest
triumphs are to be achieved: it is they who are called upon to show
forth its beauty, and to prove its power; every thing in their
education should tend to develop self-devotion and self-renunciation.
How far existing systems contribute to this object, it must be our next
step to inquire.

EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

"The education of women is more important than that of men, since that
of men is always their work."[108]

We are now to consider ho