et, made such imperfect advances,
already the light is streaming into the dark prison-house of despotic
lands, while startled kings and sages, philosophers and statesmen, are
watching us with that interest, which a career so illustrious, and so
involving their own destiny, is calculated to excite. They are studying
our institutions, scrutinizing our experience, and watching for our
mistakes, that they may learn whether "a social revolution, so
irresistible, be advantageous or prejudicial to mankind."

There are persons, who regard these interesting truths merely as food
for national vanity; but every reflecting and Christian mind, must
consider it as an occasion for solemn and anxious reflection. Are we,
then, a spectacle to the world? Has the Eternal Lawgiver appointed us to
work out a problem, involving the destiny of the whole earth? Are such
momentous interests to be advanced or retarded, just in proportion as we
are faithful to our high trust? "What manner of persons, then, ought we
to be," in attempting to sustain so solemn, so glorious a
responsibility?

But the part to be enacted by American women, in this great moral
enterprise, is the point to which special attention should here be
directed.

The success of democratic institutions, as is conceded by all, depends
upon the intellectual and moral character of the mass of the people. If
they are intelligent and virtuous, democracy is a blessing; but if they
are ignorant and wicked, it is only a curse, and as much more dreadful
than any other form of civil government, as a thousand tyrants are more
to be dreaded than one. It is equally conceded, that the formation of
the moral and intellectual character of the young is committed mainly to
the female hand. The mother forms the character of the future man; the
sister bends the fibres that are hereafter to be the forest tree; the
wife sways the heart, whose energies may turn for good or for evil the
destinies of a nation. Let the women of a country be made virtuous and
intelligent, and the men will certainly be the same. The proper
education of a man decides the welfare of an individual; but educate a
woman, and the interests of a whole family are secured.

If this be so, as none will deny, then to American women, more than to
any others on earth, is committed the exalted privilege of extending
over the world those blessed influences, which are to renovate degraded
man, and "clothe all climes with beauty."

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