me?" Let any one peruse, with all
intentness, the lineaments of this portrait, and he will be impressed
with the fact, that it is possible for woman to fulfil her mission,
and become a true helpmeet. This woman was not a copy. She was not
a cipher. She was an original; and while she loved and honored her
husband, she thought for herself on all subjects, with so much
intelligence, that he could and did look on her as a sister and friend
also.

The third and highest grade of marriage union is the religious,
which may be expressed "as a pilgrimage round a common shrine." This
includes the other,--home sympathies and household wisdom,--for these
pilgrims know how to assist each other along the dusty way.

These facts should be remembered in her education. The beautiful forms
which everywhere exist in nature should be impressed upon the female
mind, and the treasures of elegant literature should be opened to her
in no stinted measure.

A well-disciplined and a well-stored mind she does indeed require;
but a heart of pure affections, a lively imagination, and quick
sensibilities to give depth, and form, and beauty, and vivacity to the
character of her mind, are so peculiarly feminine accomplishments,
that without them a woman of the greatest intellect is, as it were,
unsexed and disrobed of her loveliest charms. She may be a Queen
Elizabeth, and conquer a Spanish Armada, but she will never conquer
the heart, nor be recognized as a model of female character. She is to
be the mother of her race. This fixes the sphere of her duties in the
home. Think of Helen Olcott, the wife of Rums Choate; of the first
Mrs. Webster, and of her influence upon that man who won the proud
appellation, "The Great Expounder."

The story is told of Daniel Webster meeting a woman with her two boys
loaded down with bundles, at the Jersey Ferry, in New York. The lady
had lost her fortune through the failure of her husband. She was poor,
and the old set ignored her. But she lived in a little cottage in New
Jersey, and made it bright with her face of love. She was tired and
sad. Many had passed her. Mr. Webster, seeing her perplexity, offered
to relieve her of her bundles, and take charge of one of the boys.
They entered the cars. He talked to her of her God-given trust, of her
work, and of the results that would naturally flow from her efforts;
of the province of a mother, of the trust reposed in her by God
himself. She was encouraged and strengthe