ectually
comprehend the other's sphere. For although not so well fitted to
perform the peculiar duties which belong to the other sex--yet each one,
in order to intelligently perform its own labor, must of necessity
understand and sympathize entirely with that of the other.

We cannot linger now upon how society and government always act and
react upon each other--how, in our own particular case, the colonial
matrons of the country lived democracy, before our forefathers
instituted it--how, in times of after peace, the introduction of the
leaven of the spirit of European manners and society caused the
daughters, not having been sufficiently warned and instructed of their
danger, to fall from the practised faith of their mothers, till to-day
we read the alarming fact that American society has slid back, little by
little, till now, alas, it is nearly in conformity with the moral
barbarism of aristocratic institutions! In view of this retrograde state
of things, as patriotic women of America, we can do nothing less than
perform the work of our mothers over again. God grant we may do it--and
do it more effectually than they--inasmuch as we, it is to be hoped,
realize the necessity of so instructing our daughters, that after
generations of women will never, like us, see society lagging behind the
divine principles of true democracy.

The heart of many a patriotic female, throbbing with anguish for her
torn and bleeding country, who has no husband, struggling on the side of
the holy cause, at home or in the army, to be sustained by the
inspiration of a loving woman's self-denying patriotism; who has no sons
or brothers to send to the battle field, and to write brave, cheering,
blessed letters to; whose means are so swallowed up by daily necessities
that she has no money--has not even time to bestow on aid societies and
loyal leagues--the heart of many such, in our land now, bends low in
self-abasement, and groans daily with the thought that she is useless to
her country in its hour of bitter need. Let all such females raise up
their drooping heads, cheer up their hearts, and take courage. Neither
God nor her country requires a woman to act in the face of circumstances
which are inexorable. But this work of reforming the spirit and
remodelling the customs of society on a simple democratic basis, is one
in which every woman--no matter what her condition, nor how
circumstanced--is capable of doing loyal service to country and
h