ood and independence for
herself! As a general rule, profitable employments are not
considered open to woman, nor are her business capabilities
encouraged and developed by systematic training. Gloomy must be
the feelings of the father of a family of young daughters, when
he is about to bid farewell to the world, if he is leaving them
without the means of pecuniary support. Their brothers may go out
into society and gain position and competency; but for them there
is but little choice of employment, and, too often, they are left
with repressed and crippled energies to pine and chafe under the
bitter sense of poverty and dependence.

Their pursuits are to be determined, not by their inclination,
judgment, and ability, as are those of man, but by the popular
estimate of what is proper and becoming. In Turkey public
delicacy is outraged if a woman appears unveiled beyond the walls
of the harem; in America a sentiment no less arbitrary presumes
to mark out for her the precise boundaries of womanly propriety;
and she who ventures to step beyond them, must do it at the peril
of encountering low sneers, coarse allusions, and the withering
imputation of want of feminine delicacy.

Even for the same services woman generally receives less than
man. The whole tendency of our customs, habits, and teaching, is
to make her dependent--dependent in outward circumstances,
dependent in spirit.

As a consequence of her fewer resources, marriage has been to her
the great means of securing position in society. Thus it is that
this relation--which should ever be a "holy sacrament," the
unbiased and generous election of the free and self-sustained
being--too often is degraded into a mean acceptance of a shelter
from neglect and poverty! We ask that woman shall be trained to
unfold her whole nature; to exercise all her powers and
faculties.

It is said that the domestic circle is the peculiar province of
woman; that "men are what mothers make them." But how can that
woman who does not live for self-culture and self-development,
who has herself no exalted objects in life, imbue her children
with lofty aspirations, or train her sons to a free and glorious
manhood? She best can fulfill the duties of wife and mother, who
is fitted for other and varied usefu