ng.

The needle is also capable of becoming an important monitor to the
female heart; and we would impress this truth seriously upon their
recollection, that as there is

"Sermons in stones,
And good in every thing."

so the needle they so often use, is, or may be, a silent but salutary
moral teacher. They all know that however good the eye of a needle may
be, if it were rusted and pointless, it would be of little use. Let them
also recollect, that though it may posses the finest point and polish in
the world, if destitute of the eye, it would be of no use at all. The
lesson we wish them to derive from hence, is this; that as it is the eye
which holds the thread, and that it is by the thread alone that the
needle becomes useful, so it is the eye of intelligence directed to the
attainment of useful ends, that gives all the real value to the point
and polish, which is so much admired in the educated female; and that
unless the intellectual powers of the mind be engaged in the pursuits of
goodness, all other endowments will be useless to their possessor. Let
them learn also, not to despise such of their companions as, though
intelligent and useful, are neither possessed of wit or elegance equal
to their own. Circumstances may have rendered them, like the needle,
rusty and pointless; but the eye of intelligence is there, and they may
still be useful.

The want of a work containing clear instructions, without unnecessary
diffuseness, by which the uninitiated may become their own instructors,
has long been sensibly felt; and this want, the following pages are
intended to supply. Our aim is, not to make young ladies servile
copyists, but to lead them to the formation of habits of thought and
reflection, which may issue in higher attainments than the knitting of a
shawl, or the netting of a purse.

Indeed, it is only when accomplishments are rendered subservient to the
development of moral goodness, that they may become pursuits at all
worthy of an accountable being. We were not sent into this world to
flutter through life, like the gaudy butterfly, only to be seen and
admired. We were designed to be useful to our fellow beings; and to make
all our powers and capabilities, in some way or other conducive to the
happiness and welfare of our co-journeyers on the path of time. To this
end, we wish our fair countrywomen to devote their best attention; and,
in its attainment, to exert every energy which they p