merican woman, then, has any occasion for feeling that hers is an
humble or insignificant lot. The value of what an individual
accomplishes, is to be estimated by the importance of the enterprise
achieved, and not by the particular position of the laborer. The drops
of heaven which freshen the earth, are each of equal value, whether they
fall in the lowland meadow, or the princely parterre. The builders of a
temple are of equal importance, whether they labor on the foundations,
or toil upon the dome.

Thus, also, with those labors which are to be made effectual in the
regeneration of the Earth. And it is by forming a habit of regarding the
apparently insignificant efforts of each isolated laborer, in a
comprehensive manner, as indispensable portions of a grand result, that
the minds of all, however humble their sphere of service, can be
invigorated and cheered. The woman, who is rearing a family of
children; the woman, who labors in the schoolroom; the woman, who, in
her retired chamber, earns, with her needle, the mite, which contributes
to the intellectual and moral elevation of her Country; even the humble
domestic, whose example and influence may be moulding and forming young
minds, while her faithful services sustain a prosperous domestic
state;--each and all may be animated by the consciousness, that they are
agents in accomplishing the greatest work that ever was committed to
human responsibility. It is the building of a glorious temple, whose
base shall be coextensive with the bounds of the earth, whose summit
shall pierce the skies, whose splendor shall beam on all lands; and
those who hew the lowliest stone, as much as those who carve the highest
capital, will be equally honored, when its top-stone shall be laid, with
new rejoicings of the morning stars, and shoutings of the sons of God.

FOOTNOTE:

[A] Miss Martineau is a singular exception to this remark. After
receiving unexampled hospitalities and kindnesses, she gives the
following picture of her entertainers. Having in other places spoken of
the American woman as having "her intellect confined," and "her morals
crushed," and as deficient in education, because she has "none of the
objects in life for which an enlarged education is considered
requisite," she says,--"It is assumed, in America, particularly in New
England, that the morals of society there are peculiarly pure. I am
grieved to doubt the fact; but I do doubt it." "The Auld-Robin-Gray
story