power of acquiring it, to acquaint themselves with subjects. which now are supposed to form a part of every school-room course. But this difference only marks the heavier blame due to those who have the opportunities and do not use them. When knowledge was rare, and only to be attained by a struggle, and cherished as a secret treasure, ordinary minds incapable of the effort were at least humble in their ignorance; but when the semblance of knowledge spreads, there is a self-sufficient jactance in those who have skimmed its surface, which shows that the mind has not been disciplined or matured, though the memory is better stored.

The same arguments for the spread of enlightened female influence would have held good at any period, but women are more to blame who lose sight of these considerations now. When the blessings of education are within their own reach, under what plea can they shelter themselves if still incapable of educating their children? When knowledge is freely open. to them, and they may, if they choose, share all the interests it opens, and enter into the great social questions so earnestly discussed in our day, what excuse have they to give for remaining indifferent to the progress of knowledge, and ignorant of the social relations amidst which they live? What was blameless in a former generation is culpable in them, and inasmuch as the modern system of education tends to hide real incapacity, and to blind us to its blamable results, in so far as it makes a false show and pretends to keep pace with the necessities of the times, while, in truth, doing little more than widen the sphere of frivolity, in so far we think all the boasted improvements of female education only leave the young women of the present day exposed to reproaches, which could not justly be made to those of a less cultivated generation. In some respects, also, as we have noticed before, the influence of women is more needed in this age of intellectual excitement, but the influence of ignorance will not suffice in such an age. Too wide a gulf separates the interests, the whole world of thought, of those united by the closest ties, if, while the one is urged forward in the ceaseless race, the other is content to

remain stationary and indifferent. It is always, indeed, as a moral that the influence of women is needed; but its power character must be different now from that which sufficed to soften and refine the rude mind of a warlike age, or shed purity and tenderness over home relations in periods when society was sunk in corruption. The moral power now, to accomplish its purpose, must be strengthened by mental vigor, and it is in this that modern education so signally fails, and it is for this that we call it no less defective in its purpose, than superficial in its results.

With regard to the inactivity of woman's life, the remedy to that is also best to be found in increased mental exertion. The external life of women must necessarily be limited within a narrow circle. School-room discipline often needlessly repressing childish pleasures, — a short period of gay but not free enjoyment; finally, the lottery of marriage, with its joys and its cares, or single life, with its quiet neglect; such is the round of their existence. But that a ball or a wedding should remain its highest excitement, that nursery cares, needlework, and visiting among rich or poor, should be its highest objects of interest,

this is the fault of education. No social changes could give to women the high excitement of active life, or the stirring aims of public ambition; if, then, they would rise to a less contracted sphere of existence, it must be by the expansion of their own minds and the better cultivation of their own powers. When they learn to extend their sympathies beyond the drawing-room or the nursery, to all that affects the well-being of their fellow-creatures, when the treasures of knowledge are opened to them with all the wonders of the past and the hopes of the future, and they are able to take an interest in all that is worthy to excite the interest of rational beings,— when they study and appreciate their own position as affecting, and affected by, wide social relations, and perceive the magnitude and importance of the duties it imposes, they will feel that the trammels which seem hopelessly to fetter them are in great measure removed, and that the narrowness of the outer existence cannot, in active minds, confine the free life of thought and feeling.

But even within the narrow limits of women's recognized sphere of action, there is much that requires a far different training from that which they generally receive. Society, with its ceaseless encouragement of female frivolity, is by no means indulgent towards the neglect of female duties. Yet, to prepare for these duties, their childhood is given up to superficial booklearning, and their youth to idleness! Even the so-called education, trivial as it is, is far superior to the mode of life that follows. In the former, there is, at least, regular occupation, and some pursuit of knowledge; in the latter, all semblance of study is thrown aside, and every aim directed toward the paltry triumphs of worldly vanity. In the former, amusement was kept secondary; in the latter, it is made the one serious pursuit of life; and the girl who at twelve years' old would have been punished for reading Miss Edgeworth's stories, instead of Rollin's History, when she is eighteen reads nothing but novels, or at best some gossiping biography. Even when the mind is. naturally too active, and the heart too warm, to be long satisfied with this monotonous trifling, no opening is left for them to turn to better things. Reluctance to join in the round of fashionable folly is denounced as equally absurd and unnatural, and quiet tastes and pursuits considered as singularities their parents are ashamed to own, lest they should draw down upon them the ridicule of the world. The utmost folly in the opposite extreme often meets with more indulgence; and many parents who, with an unselfishness worthy of a better purpose, make considerable sacrifices of money and convenience to dress and dissipation, would probably deny with positive rigor half that outlay for books, or assistance in any grave pursuit, and even refuse the leisure to study. The position in which young girls thus stand is, perhaps, the only one, through the varied changes of human life, in which frivolity is erected into a duty, and inculcated by those very lips whose teaching at other times shows forth the sacredness of virtue, and the responsibilities of religion! While such is woman's first practical lesson in life, how can the due fulfilment of subsequent obligations be expected of her? Whatever earnestness or strength of char

acter she does show in fulfilling them may truly be said to be in spite of her education and of the influence of society.

The evil of idleness is fully acknowledged where exertion is required to obtain any worldly purpose, whether money or distinction, — but its effect on the mind itself is not duly considered, or it would be seen how destructive it must be to female usefulness and happiness. Where there is activity there is life, and some measure of wholesome vigor; and the mind of man is so constituted that these are essential elements of happiness. But in idleness there is a numbness of all the faculties, — a torpor of the soul, — which, being in opposition to its natural tendencies, produces irritation and discomfort. Why then is idleness, which in men is considered almost as a vice, looked upon with such indulgence in women, except from the perpetually recurring error, that nothing is of importance but as it affects our worldly position? The activity of women would not add to wealth; what matters it then that it might add to their happiness, that it might save some minds from being worn and fretted in the weary treadmill of idleness?

Once more, if, while the education of men is carried on at universities, and by the severe training of laborious professions, women undergo a systematic deterioration of tastes and habits during the most precious years of youth, who can be astonished that their influence is not what it should be? The more earnest the lives of men, the less, we repeat, can they be influenced by frivolous women. The only real wonder is, that the moral results should not be worse; that, with idleness and frivolity, a deeper taint of levity and corruption should not spread over society. Such would probably be the case, as we see in some foreign countries, - but for the severe domestic habits of English life, and for that inevitable moral training of a subordinate position that we spoke of above. Just as poverty is in some respects a wholesome check to the vulgar and uneducated classes, whose vices, if aided by wealth, would acquire a frightful development, so dependence and constraint prevent the full effect of ignorance and idleness in women. Give to the majority of men the same mental education, and expose them to the

same influences from society, and the world would ere long become one scene of confusion, and progress give way to decline.

Some persons may, perhaps, object that our observations refer to one small class of persons only. We wish it were so; but although a constant round of society and amusement is certainly not within the reach of all, the same absence of any rational occupation prevails. The love of dress, devotion to trifles, and gossip do not belong to fashionable circles more than to those most remote from Almack's or Hyde Park; they are not the errors of circumstance, but the vices of vacant and frivolous minds. If care of the poor, to which some women give much time and attention, is brought forward as an exception to the common want of occupation, we would point to the results generally obtained, as affording the most complete illustration of the fitness of weak characters and superficial minds to become the guides and instructors of others; while showing at the same time how much frivolity may be mixed up with the most sacred objects. No doubt there are admirable exceptions; there are some whose labors among the poor are truly a national benefit; but these belong not to classes, but to individual characters; and, as we said before, in a general view exceptions must be set aside.

If now we proceed to seek the cause of the deficient education, and the subsequent frivolous, inactive life, which we have considered as lessening the influence of women, we believe we may find it in a low and narrow view of life itself, making worldly advancement or prosperity its first objects, separating religion from secular life, and limiting the Christian's obligations to a profession of faith, to the observance of certain forms, and of some moral precepts. Such a view, the disastrous effects of which are but too evident among men, holds out to women no incentive to aim at a higher standard of intelligence and moral feeling; and marriage offering the only means by which they can improve their worldly position, marriage becomes the great goal of their endeavors. They are taught to consider it indispensable to their happiness, and if not to their own self-respect, at least as a title to the respect of others. This fundamental,