cter is not associated with
refinement of manners. This misfortune is traceable to a defective early
education, both in the school and the home; for, had either been
faithful and intelligent, the evil would have been averted. And, as
there are many homes in city and country where refinement of manners is
not found, and, of course, cannot be taught, the schools must furnish
the training. In this connection, the value of the high school for
females--whether exclusively so or not, does not seem to me
important--is clearly seen. Young women are naturally and properly the
teachers of primary, district, and subordinate schools of every grade;
and society as naturally and properly looks to them to educate, by
example as well as by precept, all the children of the state in good
habits, good manners, and good morals. We are also permitted to look
forward to the higher relations of life, when, as wives and mothers,
they are to exert a potent influence over existing and future
generations. The law and the lexicons say "_home_ is the house or the
place where one resides." This definition may answer for the law and the
lexicons, but it does not meet the wants of common life.

The wife will usually find in her husband less refinement of manners
than she herself possesses; and it is her great privilege, if not her
solemn duty, to illustrate the line of Cowper, and show that she is of

"The sex whose presence civilizes ours."

It is the duty of the teacher to make the school attractive; and what
the teacher should do for the school the wife should do for the home.
The home should be preferred by the husband and children to all other
places. Much depends upon themselves; they have no right to claim all of
the wife and mother. But, without her aid, they can do but little. With
her aid, every desirable result may be accomplished. That this result
may be secured, female education must be generous, critical, and pure,
in everything that relates to manners, habits, and morals. Much may be
added to these, but nothing can serve in their stead. We should add, no
doubt, thorough elementary training in reading, writing, and spelling,
both for her own good and for the service of her children. Intellectual
training is defective where these elements are neglected, and their
importance to the sexes may be equal. We should not omit music and the
culture of the voice. The tones of the voice indicate the tone of the
mind; but the temper itsel