, and enabled them to see the injustice that is
done to woman.

Mrs. ELIZABETH JONES, of Ohio, was the next speaker. She said: I
wish to preface my remarks with this resolution:

_Resolved_, That woman's sphere can not be bounded. Its
prescribed orbit is the largest place that in her highest
development she can fill. The laws of mind are as immutable
as are those of the planetary world, and the true woman most
ever revolve around the great moral sun of light and truth.

As a general proposition, we say that capacity determines the
true sphere of action, and indicates the kind of labor to be
performed. I often hear women discussing this subject, much more
in earnest than in jest, though they profess to be simply amusing
themselves. One says: "If I were a man, I should be a mechanic";
another says: "I should be a merchant." One says: "I am sure I
should be rich"; another, in the excess of her humor, thinks she
should be distinguished. Why do women talk thus? Because one
feels that she has mechanical genius; the power to construct, to
perfect. Another understands the secrets of trade, and would like
to incur the heavy responsibilities it involves. A third is
conscious that she was born a financier; while a fourth has an
intuitive perception of the elements of success.

Many women are beginning to judge for themselves the proper
sphere of action, and are not only jesting about what they should
do under other circumstances, but are already entering upon such
paths as their taste and capacity indicate. Some will doubtless
make mistakes, which experience will rectify, and others will
perhaps persist in striving to do that which it will be very
evident they have no ability to perform. This is the case with
men who have had freedom in every sphere. Look at the American
pulpit, for instance. Go through the country, and listen to those
who claim to be the messengers of God, and if you do not say that
many are destitute of capacity to fill the sphere they have
chosen, we shall regard it as an act of obedience on your part to
the command which says: "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
(Laughter). Let adaptation be the rule for pulpit occupancy, and
while it would eject some who are now no honor to the station,
and no benefit t