assion, by love of intrigue and
deception, by jealousy, envy, and hatred. The true remedy for the
melancholy stagnation or the frightful effervescence of their
existence is not indeed to call them forth into a contest with men
for the notice of society and the prizes of the world; but to give
them their liberty, remanding them to their own consciences and the
social sanctions of the great laws of right and wrong, to educate
them to the highest point in every department of knowledge and
sentiment, and to throw open to them the boundless field of private
and public moral influence, with a fair chance for the achievement of
happiness.

Therefore, while as perfect an education, and as absolute a liberty,
are claimed for women as for men, they are to be adjured to remember
that their conscious aims should be wisdom, goodness, spiritual
force, delicacy, and harmony, with the consequent moral influence and
contentment; and not the trophies of power, or the publicities of
fame. And precisely the same duty holds with regard to men.

The effort to attain the highest graces of character, instead of
plunging recklessly into the selfish ways of the world, is as truly
obligatory for man as for woman.

Brazen impudence, unprincipled greed, ignorance, cruelty, are vices
in him too; modesty, patience, obedience, cleanliness, and
aspiration, are virtues in him too. If those vices were to receive a
new development, these virtues a new check, by setting before women
the higher industries and prizes of society, it would be an immense
evil. But is it not probable that such a course will do more to
elevate than to degrade, by a larger diffusion of the moral
stimulants and restraints of life more closely assimilating the sexes
in their diversity, interchanging their respective traits for mutual
advantage, and speeding them forward in the common race? The two most
pronounced feminine characteristics are tenderness and purity;
masculine, courage and knowledge. Humanity will not be perfected,
either in individual character or social destiny, by the greater
separate enhancement of these in the sexes, but only by their
balanced diffusion in both, making the women wise and courageous, the
men tender and pure.

It is necessary to see more clearly the grounds on which women, as a
class, have hitherto been excluded from public activity and
authority, in order properly to understand the justice or the
injustice of that exclusion. And, in studying