er, that
in following out the high behests of her own soul will be found
her exceeding great reward.

William Henry Channing then gave the report from the committee on the
social relations. Those present speak of it as a very able paper on
that complex question, but as it was not published with the
proceedings, all that can be found is the following meagre abstract
from _The Worcester Spy_:

Woman has a natural right to the development of all her
faculties, and to all the advantages that insure this result. She
has the right not only to civil and legal justice, which lie on
the outskirts of social life, but to social justice, which
affects the central position of society.

Woman should be as free to marry, or remain single, and as
honorable in either relation, as man. There should be no stigma
attached to the single woman, impelling her to avoid the
possibility of such a position, by crushing her self-respect and
individual ambition. A true Christian marriage is a sacred union
of soul and sense, and the issues flowing from it are eternal.
All obstacles in the way of severing uncongenial marriages should
be removed, because such unions are unnatural, and must be evil
in their results. Divorce in such cases should be honorable,
without subjecting the parties to the shame of exposure in the
courts, or in the columns of the daily papers.

Much could be accomplished for the elevation of woman by
organizations clustering round a social principle, like those
already clustered round a religious principle, such as "Sisters
of Mercy," "Sisters of Charity," etc. There should be social
orders called "Sisters of Honor," having for their object the
interests of unfortunate women. From these would spring up
convents, where those who have escaped from false marriages and
illegal social relations would find refuge. These organizations
might send out missionaries to gather the despised Magdalens into
safe retreats, and raise them to the level of true womanhood.

Mr. Channing spoke at length on the civil and political position of
woman, eloquently advocating the rightfulness and expediency of
woman's co-sovereignty with man, and closed by reading a very eloquent
letter from Jeanne Deroine and Pauline Roland, two remarkable French
women, then in the prison of St. Lagare, in Paris, for their liber