they would be more sensibly and more honestly brought up. Do we force your daughters to waste their time in sillinesses? Do we compel them, in spite of themselves, to pass half their lives at their toilet after your example? Do we prevent you from instructing them and causing them to be instructed according to your own will? Is it our fault if they please us when they are beautiful, if their affectations seduce us, if the art which they learn from you attracts and flatters us, if we love to see them dressed with taste, if we permit them at leisure to sharpen the arms with which they subjugate us?-Well, adopt the plan of bringing them up like men; they will consent to it with all their hearts. But the more they would resemble them, the less they will govern them.

"To cultivate, then, in woman, the qualities of men, and to neglect those which are proper to them, is evidently to labour to their disadvantage. The cunning ones see this too well to be its dupes; in trying to usurp our advantages, they do not abandon their own; but thence arises that, not being able to manage both, because they are incompatible, they remain below their own capacity, without reaching ours, and lose half their value. Trust to me, judicious mother, do not make of your daughter an honest man, as if to give the lie to nature; make her an honest woman; and be assured that she will be of more worth both to herself and to us."

And it is after all this, that Mrs. Wolstonecraft says, "I still insist, that not only the virtue, but the knowledge of the two sexes should be the same in nature, if not in degree!"

Other qualities, indeed, contribute as much to wo

man's happiness as wisdom; and, therefore, I do not dislike the following answer of the beautiful, accomplished and unfortunate Queen Mary to the agent of the ugly, malignant and vicious Elizabeth.-When one of the Cecil family, a minister from England to Scotland in Mary's reign, was speaking of the wisdom of his sovereign, Elizabeth, Mary stopped him short, by saying "Seigneur Chevalier, ne me parlez jamais de la sagesse d'une femme; je connois bien mon sexe, la plus sage de nous toutes n'est qu'un peu moins sotte que les autras."*

Nay, we may venture to assert, that a high degree of intellect would ensure the misery of woman. It would be easy to show, says Dr. Brigham, "that efforts to make females excel in certain qualities of mind, which in men are considered most desirable, to make them as capable as men of long-continued attention to abstract truths, would be to act contrary to the dictates of nature, as manifested in their organization, and would tend to suppress all those finer sensibilities, which render them, in every thing that relates to sentiment and affection, far superior to men." Such edu. cation is, indeed, incompatible with the due exercise of their vital, and most important system; and it requires a developement of the head which is often fatal in parturition.

There is, however, a view on this subject, which seems never to have been taken, and which may perhaps constitutes an addition to the philosophy of Epicurus.

* "Sir Chevalier, talk not to me of the wisdom of woman-I know my sex well, the wisest of us all, are but little less foolish than the rest.”

The toil in advancing knowledge is for man; enjoyment of all it brings, for woman. It should be asked-In how many men out of all that live, is the mind employed for any other direct purpose than vital enjoyment? And, in those who employ mind directly to obtain truth, freedom, justice, how many deem these only the means of procuring peace, plenty, &c.—in short, of supplying vital wants just as those do who take a directer course.

It would appear, that he who labours with his head has the same ultimate object as he who labours with his hands. The object of both is life or vitality. It follows, then, that woman who has the largest vital system, is in the largest enjoyment of that for which man struggles so variously, that nature has secured her the quiet possession of all this without labour or study, on account of the paramount importance of her vital system, and has only cast a glory over mental pursuits to seduce man into struggles which were useful to the security and enjoyment of her favourite, woman. Is not mind a means only?

Does an immortality of any useful kind to the philosopher attach to his labours ?-What know we of the mother and the grandmother of Grecian genius and art-of Egypt and of India? Were prospective objects to be named at the same time with the substantial benefits which the men of those times and countries enjoyed? Were any of the benefits they earned of equal importance with shelter, clothing, food, and all that was necessary to life.

"But see," I shall be told, "what mind achieves : see the difference between the savage and the civilized being!" That, however, does not alter their common

object with slight modifications, it is chiefly the same enjoyments: how easy to dispense with all othershow impossible with these!" But the mental pursuit is itself delightful!" True, it has its moments, its days of delight. Yet is it not unfair to ask-what means of permanent happiness does it provide for the pursuer? What has been the fate of the majority of those who have laboured for the happiness of mankind?

I suspect that, after all, women have the best of life. It looks as if woman were in possession of most enjoyment, and as if man had only an illusion held out to make him labour for her!

PART II.

MORALS.

THE natural sensibility, feebleness and timidity of woman lead her instinctively, and with little aid from reasoning, to observe the circumstances which prompt mankind to act, inspire her with a SENSE OF WHAT IS FITTING, induce her imperceptibly to measure her procedure and graduate her language, and imbue her with the spirit of society.

Women are accordingly peculiarly sensible to ridicule, and attach great importance to little faults. They are less influenced by the great qualities that more than atone for these. Nay, they often laugh at them; and it is very probable, as St. Lambert observes, that Xantippe made fun of Socrates, and that the patrician women of Rome told very amusing tales of Cato.

The further necessity of woman's placing her weakness in safety-a necessity perpetually felt, and therefore requiring little to be reasoned, leads her instinctively to regulate her language and actions more