nd
her future, is in most cases the best medicine.

Of this developing period of life it may be even more safely said than
of any other, that "constant employment is constant enjoyment," and this
employment, though steady, must be varied, so as to shift the effort
from one set of powers or muscles to another.

I am not one of those who believe that girls require more care than boys
through this period, if the laws of life are properly observed in both
cases; and I think that when women and mothers come to utter words of
the same scientific weight on this subject, their testimony will differ
entirely from that of the leading physicians who now hold the public
ear.

It is claimed that man is made for sustained, and woman for periodic
effort. It is by no means certain that this is so, and if it be indeed a
law of organization, then it must be a law which will dominate the whole
life. It will not only keep a girl back from mastering her tools until
the time for using them is passed, but it will interfere with her steady
use of them through her whole life, shut her out from the markets of the
world, and unfit her for all steady, consecutive duty, either public or
private.

Let no girl be deterred from steady and faithful work in the vain fear
that she will unsex herself, and to a loving mother's needful anxieties
let not this superfluous care be added. True, we may all make mistakes
as to what is desirable, needful, or possible, but to the humble seeker
after the right way, a clear sight will always come, and to the
preposterous cautions, born of a morbid and unwise interference with the
courses of life, I oppose these words quoted from that "physiology of
Moses," which it is said that we have not outgrown: "Ye shall not offer
unto the Lord that which is bruised or crushed or broken or cut;" these
words are true, whether spoken of a dove's feathers or a girl's soul; or
the still later and wiser words, "Take, therefore, no thought for the
morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."
The foundations of true manhood and true womanhood are fortunately laid
too deep for our meddling. It is true that we may destroy the perfume of
life, for men and women, by mistaken efforts and perverse guidance, but
the fruit of our error is not immortal, and it is never too late to
retrieve our false steps.

So far from losing what is best in either sex, as we advance in life, we
may be sure that increasing years wi