your greatest glory not to be deficient in the virtue peculiar to your sex, and to give the men as little occasion as possible to talk of your behaviour, whether well or ill.

Among the Romans, females enjoyed a greater freedom, commanded a higher respect, and exerted a more extensive and salutary influence, than among the Greeks. They were accustomed to mix freely in society, and to occupy the most frequented part of the house. Roman notions upon these points, are contrasted by Cornelius Nepos, with the scruples of the Greeks, as follows:-"Which of us Romans is ashamed to bring his wife to an entertainment? And what mistress of a family can be shown, who does not inhabit the chief and most public part of the house? Whereas, in Greece, she never appears at any entertainments, except those to which relations alone are invited, and constantly lives in the uppermost part of the house, called gynæconitis, into which no man has admission, unless he be a near relation." This diversity of treatment resulted from the peculiar characteristics of the two nations. The Romans were sober and practical; the Greeks volatile and imaginative; by consequence the former were faithful and cordial in their altachments; the latter fickle and treacherous. The Romans worshiped at the domestic altar; the Greeks at the public shrine. The Roman revered his household gods; the Greek the guardian divinities of the state. The Roman was roused to action by appealing to his domestic sympathies; the Greek by kindling his love of fame. This may be detected upon almost every page of the two great orators of antiquity. Demosthenes rouses the fears of his countrymen, by showing that their great idol, the state, is in danger; enkindles their rage by pointing to the insults which the foe has offered to their country's honor; fires their ambition by showing the glory that will accrue to the state from their victories, and animates their courage by pointing to the spoils that have been gathered by a nation's prowess. Cicero strikes the chord of domestic affection. He calls on his countrymen to protect their domestic altars and household gods; to save their wives from hostile pollution, their children from butchery, and guard their fanes and temples from profanation. Neither orator plead in vain. Both understood the instruments they played upon, and both accomplished their objects. Perhaps it may be said, that this difference of appeal results from a

difference of circumstances in the two auditories. This is true in part. Still these different susceptibilities existed in the respective nations, else these appeals would not have been made, nor the results have followed.

During the first five hundred years of Roman history, it is said that there did not occur a single instance of divorce. These were the best days of Rome. Roman virtues were then most conspicuous. The most distinguished generals cultivated their own farms. The luxury and corruptions of a later age were unknown. Industry and frugality were held in high esteem. When our ancestors, said Cato, wished highly to praise a good man, they called him a good farmer. The same Cato ranks an honest husband higher than a great senator. The women of early Rome are as highly commended for their industry and economy as the men. "Roman husbands," says Columella, "having completed the labors of the day, entered their houses, free from all care, and there enjoyed perfect repose. There reigned union and concord and industry, supported by mutual affection. The most beautiful woman depended for distinction only on her economy and endeavors to assist in crowning her husband's diligence with prosperity. All was in common between them. Nothing was thought to belong more to one than another. The wife, by her assiduity within doors, equalled and seconded the industry and labor of her husband." We need no stronger evidence of the exalted estimate of female chastity among the Romans, than the histories of Lucretia and Virginia, where an insult, in the one case, offered to a Roman matron and in the other an attempt to ensnare a Roman virgin, produced a radical revolution of the government. The whole nation rose to avenge insulted purity. These instances alone suffice to show the high estimate that was placed upon female virtue. There is good evidence also that a portion, at least, of the Roman women were educated for the duties of their appropriate sphere. The unfortunate Virginia was going to school, when her beauty attracted the attention of the libertine Appius. Roman matrons also educated their own children. Cicero attributes the purity of language, copiousness of diction, and polished elocution of some of the most eminent Roman orators, to the early instructions of their mothers. Tacitus ascribes the vicious manners of his own age, the decline of liberal studies, and the corruption of the Latin

tongue, to the disuse of this good old custom, and the inexcusable negligence of Roman matrons, in educating their children. 66 Anciently," says he, "the infant as soon as born was not consigned to the mean dwelling of a hireling nurse, but was reared and cherished in the bosom of a tender parent. To regulate all household affairs, to attend to her infant race was then the glory of the female character." Speaking of his own age, he says, (6 now the infant is committed to a Greek chambermaid, and a slave or two, chosen for the purpose, generally the most abandoned of the whole household, all utter strangers to every liberal notion. In this way the vulgarisms of the servants are adopted, their vices copied, and not only the language of the child is corrupted, but his morals are vitiated." When the mother thus abandoned her children to slaves and hireling nurses, and sought entertainment at the public spectacles, home lost its attractions, the domestic ties were weakened, and the very life-blood of civilization was tainted.

When female virtue became venal, and marriage was no longer respected, Roman integrity was gone forever. When the fire ceased to burn upon the domestic altar, the light of true civilization went out-but not for ever. It was destined to revive again, and shine, with meridian splendor, under a northern sky. Many of the elements of modern civilization may be traced to the woods of Germany. The Gothic tribes, whose hardy virtues. were engrafted upon the decayed stock of a degenerate race, entertained a peculiar respect for the female character. The old Germans believed that woman possessed something sacred and prophetic. They sought her advice in times of peril. She girded the warrior for battle, and followed him to the scene of conflict. Her presence inspired his fainting courage; her cries of terror at the prospect of captivity, nerved his arm to deeds of desperate valor. She took off the harness of the weary soldier, and numbered and dressed his bleeding wounds. She even required the exhibition of blood as the condition of her favor. To her the warrior looked for approbation. Her praise was his highest honor.

This peculiar reverence for woman, among the Teutonic tribes, co-operated with Christianity in giving to her that high station which she holds in modern society. Chivalry, that strange compound of religion and gallantry, growing out of

the natural respect for woman entertained by the Goths, and their superstitious worship of the holy virgin, for a time, exerted a salutary influence upon society, and contributed to soften the manners of a barbarous age. But chivalry, like almost every other institution of the dark ages, was the monstrous offspring of religious faith and superstition. Instead of adopting the true standard, which the gospel prescribes, for the estimation of woman, it surrounded her with an atmosphere of angelic sacredness, and converted love into adoration, respect into religion. The influence of this affected devotion is seen in the history of that age of frivolous gallantry, which succeeded the introduction of chivalry. Still even this worship of woman was not without utility in that dark age. It was based upon genuine affection, and though greatly abused to frivolity and superstition, yet it gave birth to many of the amenities and courtesies of refined society. "This feeling," says an eminent writer, "exaggerated as it seems to us, did, unquestionably, influence in a high degree, the opinions of the age, their tastes and their modes of expression. Its effect upon modern literature has been most remarkable. It has rendered the principle of romantic love the main spring of modern poetry and of imaginative composition in general." The immediate influence of chivalry upon the females of that age, who possessed but little mental cultivation, was injurious. It filled their minds with extravagant notions of their own charms; created a thirst for unmeaning compliments, and gave them a fondness for splendid dress and equipage. The effect of this undue exaltation was scarcely less pernicious to them than oppression. But a more rational Christianity has relieved us of the evils of both. "It is," says Lieber, "by observing a proper medium between servitude and deification, by treating the sex as women, and not as slaves, or goddesses, by cultivating their minds and hearts, as well as by adorning them with the graceful accomplishments, that our own times have, in some measure, restored this part of our race to their rights and duties.

From the brief survey we have taken of the different epochs that mark the history of the world, we have seen that the elevation of the female sex is intimately associated with the elevation of our race; that the condition of women, in any age, is a true index of the condition of society, and

that the progress of human civilization has only kept pace with the progress of female education. If this be true, we can scarcely estimate too highly the advantages that would result to our own country, from a more thorough system of female education. Much has been done, within the last fifty years, to elevate the standard of female education. If the list of studies, taught in our female academies now, be compared with the requisitions of that period, they will be found. to be vastly superior. President Dwight, in remarking upon this subject, in his day, says: "It is owing to the innate good sense of the women of this country, that they are not absolute idiots. I would not give a farthing to have a daughter of mine go to many of the schools of our country. Observe the state of our schools for females, and compare them with the colleges for males. The end kept in view, in the education of males, is to make them useful; in that of females, to make them admired. Men will pay any sum to have their daughters taught to manage their feet in dancing, to daub over a few pictures, to play a few tunes upon the piano, to be admired by a few silly young men." "I cannot speak of this subject," adds the venerable President, "without indignation." Though many institutions have been established, within the last half century, for the education of girls, and great efforts have been made to elevate the standard of scholarship, still not a tithe of what ought to be done, and what the best good of society requires to be done, has yet been accomplished. The romantic ideas of the dark ages have not wholly disappeared. The chivalrous notion still prevails, in refined society, that men need knowledge, but women, accomplishments, for success in life. Consequently, boys, in a course of education, are confined to the severe discipline of the languages and mathematics, while girls, after obtaining a superficial knowledge of the elementary branches of an English education, are confined to music, drawing, and other similar accomplishments, accompanied, perhaps, with a slight smattering of French. I would, by no means object to the cultivation of those elegant branches of female education, but I would not have them substituted for that intellectual training, without which even these are worthless.

The question here occurs: What is the best course of discipline for female minds? I answer, precisely that which.