as man;
sometimes to those even more arduous. But the progress of refinement and
civilization always establishes a marked distinction between the two
sexes, in this respect. Nature revolts at the thought of the Amazon. A
Boadicea and a Joan of Arc, were they now to appear, would be almost
universally regarded as disloyal to their sex. A masculine woman and an
effeminate man are in equal disesteem. We instinctively pronounce her to
unsex herself, who arms for the battle-field, or engages in those
agricultural, mechanic, or other manual pursuits, which demand great
bodily vigor. God hath made the sexes herein to differ, and man, we
feel, ought not to confound them.

In respect also to Intellectual Powers, there is among most people a
conviction that severe reasoning, comprehensiveness, and logical
acuteness belong pre-eminently to man. I know there are illustrious
exceptions to the truth of this statement; but do we not rightly esteem
the Elizabeths and Somervilles that occasionally challenge our
admiration of their intellectual strength, as exceptions to the ordinary
female mind? Ascribe this difference, if you please, to the neglect of
their education, say that man is only the superior, because of his
higher advantages of culture, still must not the fact of his present
mental superiority be conceded?

Nor should I deem it to the discredit of woman, were it incontestibly
proved, that her Maker had given her less intellectual power in some
provinces than man. For though, in civil affairs, in controlling the
destinies of nations, in framing laws and administering justice, man
labors in his exclusive sphere, yet in delicacy of perception and
taste, and as a guardian at the fountains of Imagination, to woman he
must yield the superiority. In the silence of her retirement she ponders
on the themes of fancy, and while the consecrated names of Hemans and
Sigourney shall endure, let man be slow to assume an absolute dominion
in all the noble provinces of intellect.

But maintain as we may our constitutional ascendancy in the Physical and
Mental capacities, there is one realm where woman reigns in undisputed
supremacy; it is the realm of Moral power.

God has given her a keen sensibility, and a strength of feeling, and
sympathies and affections which prepare her for singular eminence in
moral attainments. In the religion of Ancient Greece, it was she who
presided at the tribunal of fate; her native enthusiasm qualified her
f