ful companion in health, if not capable of
sharing his more intellectual occupations. She can be the support and
comfort of her parents in the decline of life, or of her children in
their helplessness, according as her situation may be. And out of her
house she may be the benefactress and example of a whole neighborhood;
she may comfort the afflicted, and clothe and feed the poor, and visit
the sick, and advise the ignorant; while, by the domestic industry, and
peaceful, unaspiring habits, with which she plods, as you may please to
call it, through the duties of her station, whether higher or lower, she
is a perpetual example to those beneath her, to like sober assiduity in
their own, and to her children's children to follow in the path in which
she leads them. She may be superintending the household occupations, or
actually performing them; giving employment by her wealth to others'
ingenuity, or supplying the want of it by her own, according as her
station is, but still she will make many happy.

"I am not so prejudiced as to say that your woman of talent will refuse
these duties; of course, if she have principle, she will not. But
literary pursuits must at least divide her attention, if not unfit her
altogether for the tasks the order of Providence has assigned her; she
will distaste such duties, if she does not refuse them; while the
distance at which her attainments place her from ordinary minds, forbid
all attempts to imitate or follow her."

"You have drawn a picture," answered Mrs. A., "which would convert half
the world, if they were not of your mind already, as I believe they are.
It is a picture so beautiful, I would not blot it with the shadow of my
finger. I concede that talent is not necessary to usefulness, and a
woman may fulfill every duty of her station without it. But our question
is of comparative usefulness; and there I have something to say. It is
an axiom that knowledge is power; and, if it is, the greater the
knowledge, the greater should be the power of doing good. To men,
superior intelligence gives power to dispose, control, and govern the
fortunes of others. To women, it gives influence over their minds. The
greater knowledge which she has acquired of the human heart, gives her
access to it in all its subtleties; while her acknowledged superiority
secures that deference to her counsels, which weakness ever pays to
strength.

"If the circumstances of her condition require it, I believe the g