envied rather than pitied, as she shares
with her young husband the hopes and enterprises of pioneer life. But,
when the body fails, then the eye of hope grows dim, the heart sickens,
the courage dies; and, in solitude, weariness, and suffering, the
wanderer pines for the dear voices and the tender sympathies of a far
distant home. Then it is, that the darkest shade is presented, which
marks the peculiar trials and liabilities of American women, and which
exhibits still more forcibly the disastrous results of that delicacy of
constitution which has been pointed out. For, though all American women,
or even the greater part of them, are not called to encounter such
trials, yet no mother, who rears a family of daughters, can say, that
such a lot will not fall to one of her flock; nor can she know which
will escape. The reverses of fortune, and the chances of matrimony,
expose every woman in the Nation to such liabilities, for which she
needs to be prepared.

FOOTNOTE:

[B] So little idea have most ladies, in the wealthier classes, of what
is a proper amount of exercise, that, if they should succeed in walking
a mile or so, at a moderate pace, three or four times a week, they would
call it taking a great deal of exercise.

CHAPTER III.

REMEDIES FOR THE PRECEDING DIFFICULTIES.

Having pointed out the peculiar responsibilities of American women, and
the peculiar embarrassments which they are called to encounter, the
following suggestions are offered, as remedies for such difficulties.

In the first place, the physical and domestic education of daughters
should occupy the principal attention of mothers, in childhood; and the
stimulation of the intellect should be very much reduced. As a general
rule, daughters should not be sent to school before they are six years
old; and, when they are sent, far more attention should be paid to their
physical developement, than is usually done. They should never be
confined, at any employment, more than an hour at a time; and this
confinement should be followed by sports in the open air. Such
accommodations should be secured, that, at all seasons, and in all
weathers, the teacher can every half hour send out a portion of her
school, for sports. And still more care should be given to preserve pure
air in the schoolroom. The close stoves, crowded condition, and
poisonous air, of most schoolrooms, act as constant drains on the health
and strength of young children.

In addi