r to show the great progress
that has been made since 1836, in preparing a religious literature. It
is no longer true as in Mrs. Smith's day, "that we have no psalms or
hymns adapted to the capacities of children." Nor is it longer true that
"_children's literature is incompatible with the genius of the Arabic
language_."

In a letter addressed to the young women in the "Female Academy at
Norwich," February, 1836, Mrs. Smith gives a vivid description of the
"average woman" of Syria in her time, and the description holds true of
nine-tenths of the women at the present day. There are now native
Christian homes, not the least attractive of which is the home of her
own little protege Raheel, but the great mass continue as they were
forty years ago. She says, "My dear friends, will you send your thoughts
to this, which is not a heathen, but an unevangelized country. I will
not invite you to look at our little female school of twenty or thirty,
because these form but a drop among the thousands and thousands of youth
throughout Syria; although I might draw a contrast even from this not a
little in your favor. But we will speak of the young Syrian females at
large, moving in one unbroken line to the land of darkness and sorrow.
Among them you will find many a fine form and beautiful face; but alas!
the perfect workmanship of their Creator is rendered tame and insipid,
for want of that mental and moral culture which gives a peculiar charm
to the human countenance. It is impossible for me to bring the females
of this country before you in so vivid a manner that you can form a
correct idea of them. But select from among your acquaintances a lady
who is excessively weak, vain and trifling; who has no relish for any
intellectual or moral improvement; whose conversation is altogether
confined to dress, parties, balls, admiration, marriage; whose temper
and faults have never been corrected by her parents, but who is
following, unchecked, all the propensities of a fallen, corrupt nature.
Perhaps you will not be able to find any such, though I have
occasionally met with them in America. If you succeed, however, in
bringing a person of this character to your mind, then place the
thousands of girls, and the women, too, of this land, once the land of
patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in her class." "These weak-minded
Syrian females are not attentive to personal cleanliness; neither have
they a neat and tasteful style of dress. Their appar