ly fashioned Will"--_i.e._, a completely
educated Will. If it is "completely fashioned," it must of necessity be
consistent. It is scarcely necessary here to call attention to the fact
that by character, in any educational sense, we mean that which the
woman really is--not what she is thought to be by others.

Character may, it is evident, be either good or bad; for one may be
consistently bad as well as consistently good. But we are concerned only
with the building of character where that building means the "making
permanent the direction of the individual Will towards the actualization
of the good."

The woman of good character is she who, while she acts spontaneously,
acts in all things consistently; the parts of whose life grow together,
as it were, into one organic unity. We know what to expect of her. In
her friendship we confide, on her love we safely rely, by her judgment,
provided she has been intellectually educated, we regulate our action in
times of difficulty and distress. "The heart of her husband doth safely
trust in her, and her children rise up and call her blessed," and when
she passes through the gate of death, her country should mourn, for it
can ill-afford to miss her.

RELIGIOUS CULTURE.

When the girl has learned to accept duty as the decisive guide of her
actions, she is acting conscientiously, and passes over into the real
religious life. A distinction must be here made between Religion and
Theology, the latter of which belongs to special educators. At first, in
the child, religion is a feeling, a sentiment, which the mother
generally fosters and directs. It appears in the form of wonder at
natural phenomena, of fear and terror when these are disagreeable, and
of gratitude when they are agreeable. But this feeling or sentiment of
religion the savage has, and it properly belongs, in civilized Christian
communities, only to the period of childhood. If the little girl be not
educated into a higher religion than this, and if, at the same time, her
whole mental horizon have, from unfinished intellectual education,
remained narrow, she has nothing on which any teaching of Theology can
be based, and nothing which will bear the stress and strain of actual
life. In such a case--that is, if her religion is only gratitude for
favors, if her only idea of God is that of a Benefactor--when benefits
fail, her religion will fail also. While she has all that she can
desire, she is full of religious faith.