of Syrian women,
would deny the existence of the noonday sun. Do not men shun even an
allusion to women, and if obliged to speak of them, do they not
accompany the remark with "a jellak Allah," as if they were speaking of
a brute beast, or some filthy object? Are they not treated among us very
much as among the barbarians? To what do they pay the most attention? Is
it not to ornament and dress, and refining about styles of tatooing with
the "henna" and "kohl?" What do they know about the training of
children, domestic economy and neatness of person, and the care of the
sick? How many abominable superstitions do they follow, although
forbidden by their own religions? Are not the journals and diaries of
travellers full of descriptions of the state of our women? Does not
every one, familiar with the state of society and the family among us,
know all these things, and mourn over them, and demand a reform? Would
that I might awaken among the women the desire to learn, that thus they
might be worthy of higher honor and esteem!

"Woman should be instructed in _religion_. This is one of her highest
rights and privileges and her bounden duty.

"She should be taught in her own vernacular tongue, so as to be able to
express herself correctly, and use pure language. Woman should learn to
_write_.

"She should be taught to _read_. How is it possible for woman to
remember all her duties, religious and secular, through mere oral
instruction? But a written book, is a teacher always with her, and in
every place and circumstance. It addresses her without a voice, rebukes
her without fear or shame, answers without sullenness and complaint. She
consults it when she wishes, without anxiety and embarrassment, and
banishes it if not faithful or satisfactory, or even burns it without
crime!

"Why forbid woman the use of the only means she can have of sending her
views and feelings where the voice cannot reach? _Now_ when a woman
wishes to write a letter, she must go, closely veiled to the street, and
hire a professional scribe to write for her, a letter which she cannot
read, and which may utterly misrepresent her!

"Woman should also have instruction in the _training of children_. The
right training of children is not a natural instinct. It is an art, and
a lost art among us. It must be learned from the experience and
observation of those who have lived before us; and where do we now find
the woman who knows how to give proper care to t