lth. But we should remember his
was an imaginary state, an Utopia, not a part of our plain, practical
world. I do not forget here the long line of Queens that grace the
annals of history; yet what had they achieved, wreaths though they wore
on their brows, had not man been usually the prime minister and
controlling agent in their governments? The affairs of nations require
in those who guide them a practical acquaintance with business
transactions, and a familiar knowledge of pursuits and interests with
which woman is not ordinarily conversant. And how unfeminine were it in
her to raise her gentle voice amid the storm of debate, or to rush into
the heat and strife of partizan politics! Let such scenes never be
coveted save by the Wolstonecrafts and the Wrights who have madly
unsexed themselves.

Nor can I admit that woman may with propriety be seen and heard at
Public Meetings, mingling with the opposite sex. Man becomes effeminate
by intermeddling with the province of woman. She also becomes coarse and
masculine, when she enters his sphere. Is her nature more mild than his?
Why then desecrate it, by those fierce collisions with him, which attend
so many of our public discussions? How unlady-like are contention,
violence, and passion. How certainly will woman sacrifice her best
influence over man by consenting to stir his spirit to hostility, in
ardent debate. Where are those mutual services, and friendly offices, so
beautifully ordained by Providence, between the two sexes, when once
they are ranged, as public competitors, in pride, zeal, envy, and
jealousy, stimulating each other to the struggle for victory?

But to speak on the positive view of our subject. What is the
appropriate sphere of woman? Miss Sedgwick, in her work on
Self-training, has answered this question well, and to that I refer the
reader. Meantime we all have, I think, an ideal of this sphere,
although in the details of it we may somewhat differ. We all desire to
see this portion of our race pure and pious; and we should add to these
qualities gentleness, graceful manners, and a delicate, modest
deportment. There are limits moreover of propriety, established in our
own minds, beyond which we should be pained to see a friend of this sex
ever pass. For one, I would not so contract these limits, as to repress
the powers, or to do injustice to the capacities, or trench on the
rights, of woman. I would encourage no Sultan spirit, nor arrogate a
single c