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INTRODUCTION.

In this age of intellectual improvement, women have been admitted to a liberal participation of intellectual privileges. The lights of science and knowledge have been suffered to penetrate the night of ignorance, in which custom and prejudice had enveloped the female mind. There exists no longer that watchful jealousy of every step towards emancipation, which once made man the tyrant and oppressor of his feminine coadjutor. Women hold their appropriate station in the scale of being, without contention. They are allowed to mingle freely in the minor concerns of the social compact, and have full scope afforded to their latent energies. Their minds are no longer cramped by rigid, domestic discipline, but soar above the narrow limits of family avocations, and catch a glimpse of those lights hitherto reserved for their master spirits. The consequences of this partial illumination, are fraught with beneficial effects to social life. Man has truly a help meet, and woman is fulfilling her destiny according to the original design of her Maker.

But these advantages are liable to abuse, from those erring spirits, who grasp at more than their allotted

portion of power. Some aspiring females are not content to retain any vestige of subordination to the anointed lords of the creation. They aim at equality of rights; in other words, at absolute dominion: for it will be found, that whenever man consents to this illegal usurpation of equal privileges, he inevitably prepares himself for yielding, and his companion for asserting, despotic authority. Let us refer to such individual instances of a struggle for supremacy, as may have fallen under our observation, for the truth of this assertion. But when woman breaks down the barrier erected by Omnipotence around her, she renders herself liable to the full penalty of God's violated law. She was formed for man, and therefore must continue in contented subordination to his authority. As she was first in the transgression, it is additionally incumbent on her to make up to man, by dutiful obedience, for the evil she has occasioned him. It was for her offence that he was banished from his home of bliss. This thought should cast down her high aspirations, and stimulate her to endure contentedly a lot which is sweetened by many

mercies.

That man is capable of exalted respect and affection for his female companion, is clearly exemplified in the history of our first parents. "The woman tempted me, and I did eat," was Adam's excuse for disobedience; it is therefore plain, that man was intuitively impressed with a high idea of the importance of his help meet. The Lord implanted this feeling in his nature, as a guarantee for the safety of the weaker sex. Man still retains this sense of regard and respectful observance, in all nations where

God is worshipped. Among the heathen, a contrary practice is well known to predominate; a strong evidence that woman owes to her Maker, the attention she receives from her partner on earth.

In our happy country, the female sex are just beginning to participate in the benefits of rapidly progressing refinement. Education, such as deserves the name, is beginning to draw forth the innate energies of the female mind. It should be the object of all who really aim at moral improvement, to assist in developing the faculties of so large a portion of the human race. To train women for usefulness is the object of the following little unpretending work. In it they will find their appropriate duties explained, and their prevailing foibles noticed. They will find, it is to be hoped, much to encourage them to virtuous exertion, and little to stimulate that vanity which is said to be their rightful inheritance. The rising generation are now under female dominion. As the twig is bent in their hands, so will the patriarch of the forest incline, when years have spread his branches to the clouds. The peculiar difficulties of our southern housewives, are taken into consideration in the following pages, and a few hints offered to their accept

ance.

All the domestic arts admit of improvement from the combined energy and ingenuity of female genius. When it is considered how short a portion of a short life can be devoted to the pursuit of pleasure, it, is surely the part of wisdom to dispense entirely with that disqualifying era, that the mind may give its undivided energies to the cause of virtue. If the female who peruses this page is a devotee of fashion

a votary of pleasure,-I would here solemnly inquire of her, in the name of her Maker and Redeemer, what are her expectations in the life to come? When she stands before the judgment seat, and takes a hurried retrospect of past years, how will her present pursuits appear? What benefit will then accrue from her triumphs of vanity; from her indulgences of sense; from the trifling, flippant pursuits which have wasted precious time, and degraded precious talents? Let her now pause, and reflect that she can, by an instantaneous recantation of error, avert inevitable ruin. She can turn while it is to-day, and prepare for that eternity which may, perchance, commence to-morrow. If this hint should arrest one wanderer from the path of reason and rectitude, the author will have cause to pour forth rejoicings for ever to him who condescends to aid the feeble efforts of his creatures. The following anecdote will suffice to close this brief notice.

A votary of fashion once adorned herself splendidly for a ball. On her way to the scene of folly, she was accosted by a miserable object, who implored bread to keep him from starvation. "I have no money,' said the lady; the wretched creature passed on. At the ball, an intense pain smote the temples of the young female, who was carried to her bed in delirium. After a severe illness, she recovered to a new state of feeling and thinking. She declared that during her delirium she saw the beggar in Abraham's bosom, and called to him for a drop of water to cool her parched tongue; that he heard her cry, and came, bidding her beware lest the gulf which could not be crossed, should open before he came again.

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