of marriage. (Applause). I
hope women will not copy the vices of men. I hope they will not
go to war; I wish men would not. I hope they will not be
contentious politicians; I am sorry that men are. I hope they
will not regard their freedom as a license to do wrong; I am
ashamed to acknowledge that men do. But we need not fear. We may
safely trust the judgment of those who tell us that politics and
morals, and every department into which woman may enter, will be
elevated and refined by her influence.

So far as navigation is concerned, I think many women would not
be attracted to that life. There might be now and then a Betsy
Miller, who could walk the quarter-deck in a gale, and that
certainly would indicate constitutional ability to become a
sailor. I do not suppose so much violence would be done to her
nature by navigating the seas, as by helping a drunken husband to
navigate the streets habitually. (Applause). In relation to
running up the rigging like a monkey, or in regard to any other
monkey performance, I do not believe that women will ever enter
into competition with men in these things, because the latter
have shown such remarkable aptitude for that business. (Laughter
and applause). But after all that may be said on this subject, we
fail to reach one class in the community who have spare time,
spare energies, abundance of power for work. I mean young ladies
of wealth and rank. The world shows a degree of toleration now
toward any young woman who from necessity has engaged in any
industrial avocation to which women have not heretofore applied
themselves. But there is no such toleration for the rich. Many of
these are now striving to kill time with fancy-work and fiction,
with flirtation and flaunting. Some are destitute of aspiration
for anything better. These could be moved only by some convulsion
in the social system, like the earthquake, or like the volcano
that opens the ground at our feet and shows us our danger. But
there are others whose convictions lead them to desire something
better; who feel that they are living to no purpose; who know
that their own powers, good as any God ever created, are lying in
inglorious repose. Some of the advocates of our cause have said
that for these there is no profession but marriage. If they a