he Gospel, the spirit and practices of
Paganism. "In one place on the road," says a recent traveller in Italy,
"we saw at least one hundred young girls, mixed up with as many rough
coarse men, carrying baskets of earth, some fifty rods, upon their head,
for the purpose of filling up an embankment or road." "Heathenism, and
paganized Christianity," he remarks, "degrade woman to a level with the
slave." "In none of the slave States which I have visited," says
Professor Stowe, "have I ever seen negro women drudging in such toilsome
out of door labors, as fall to the lot of the laboring women in Germany
and in France." "Haggish beldames fill all our markets," says Chevalier,
"and three-fourths of our fields."

But in the beautiful language of another, when speaking of the sect
called Friends, which language I would apply to all genuine piety, "The
Inner Light sheds its blessings on the whole human race; it knows no
distinction of sex. It redeems woman by the dignity of her moral nature,
and claims for her the equal culture and free exercise of her
endowments. As the human race ascends the steep acclivity of
improvement, the Quaker cherishes woman, as the equal companion of the
journey." The Christian's home is a scene of retirement favorable to
moral culture and to growth in grace. There the soul may contemplate its
Creator, and hold communion with the lovely image of his Son. Far from
the fields of ambition and gain, away from the agitations of a public
arena, in sacred seclusion pursuing her domestic avocations, why should
not woman be distinguished for her spiritual attainments? Can it be,
that with the same watchfulness, and self-denial, and toil, she should
not surpass man in the acquisition of holiness and purity?

Another circumstance, friendly to the developement of woman's
capacities, is the state of society and the country in which we live.
Our free institutions do much to remove those obstacles, that elsewhere
exist, to the full exercise of her powers and faculties. Those false
distinctions in society, by which wealth and rank alone can secure to a
child its rightful education, are here seldom witnessed. In the public
schools, the daughters of all, rich or poor, high or low, mingle for
literary instruction. A mighty arm is thus raised to level that barrier,
which in other lands, rises even between the cradles of the titled and
the obscure.

Not only is the intellect of woman thus trained in childhood to equal