x would sink to a still lower position in
public estimation than they now hold, and would be abandoned to those
least able conscientiously to fulfil them. The combination of
legislative and maternal duties would indeed be a difficult task, and,
of course, the least ostentatious would be sacrificed.

Yet women have a mission! ay, even a political mission of immense
importance! which they will best fulfil by moving in the sphere assigned
them by Providence: not comet-like, wandering in irregular orbits,
dazzling indeed by their brilliancy, but terrifying by their eccentric
movements and doubtful utility. That the sphere in which they are
required to move is no mean one, and that its apparent contraction
arises only from a defect of intellectual vision, it is the object of
the succeeding chapters to prove.

FOOTNOTES:

[103] We hare come to the close of the Letters. The following pages are
quoted from writers of eminence, and bear directly upon the main subject
of "Female Education." The first quotations are from the anonymous
author of "Woman's Mission." They are of inestimable value. EDITOR.

[104] Aime Martin.

[105] Aime Martin.

[106] Ibid.

[107] See the Memoirs of Pepys, Evelyn, De Grammont, &c.

THE SPHERE OF WOMAN'S INFLUENCE.

"The fact of this influence being proved, it is of the utmost importance
that it be impressed upon the mind of women, and that they be
enlightened as to its true nature and extent."

The task is as difficult as it is important, for it demands some
exercise of sober judgment to view it with requisite impartiality; it
requires, too, some courage to encounter the charge of inconsistency
which a faithful discharge of it entails. For it _is_ an apparent
inconsistency to recommend at the same time expansion of views and
contraction of operation; to awaken the sense of power, and to require
that the exercise of it be limited; to apply at once the spur and the
rein. That intellect is to be invigorated only to enlighten
conscience--that conscience is to be enlightened only to act on
details--that accomplishments and graces are to be cultivated only, or
chiefly, to adorn obscurity;--a list of somewhat paradoxical
propositions indeed, and hard to be received; yet, upon their favourable
reception depends, in my opinion, the usefulness of our influence, the
destinies of our race; and it is my intention to direct all my
observations to this point.

It is astonishing and humiliati