nature are, for the most part, lost upon them. They will not endure the necessary fatigue in order to view her wildest and most imposing features, but rest content with seeing what lies about their doors and windows. They would not-I speak of that class of fashionables which comprises more than three-fourths of those who go into the country-make a three hours' climb in summer to see the grand old sun scattering the supernal splendors of his rising over the snowy peaks of Mont Blanc. And yet on a warm afternoon of the August last passed, a party, composed principally of ladies, spent three hours in ascending and descending a hill to sit upon a bank of moss and look upon the town and valley below. I need scarcely say that they were country ladies, not as robust either as many who come out of the city, but they were not afraid to make an effort. And they returned home none the worse for the climb, save in the depredations of musquitos, the greedy custom-house officers of that lofty region.

There should be no false ideas about the country, and yet literature abounds in them. Country youths are drawn as Apollos-country maidens as Graces. What is called the golden age, when Apollos courted the Graces beneath overspreading trees and filled up the pauses of courtship with amorous strains of the pipe, the business of said Apollos and Graces being to watch sheep, will certainly never return, because it has never been. Claude and Salvator may paint such scenes, but the sun has never shone on them. Why cannot writers write naturally? Cannot they go out into the country and see things as they are? Some

body has written thus: (I quote from memory.)

"How blest the farmer's happy life!

How pure the joy it yields. Free from the world's tempestuous strife, Amid the scented fields."

Poetically, the verse is very good, practically, it is very poor. Talk to the farmer, who is labouring in the hayfield under a sky of June, when the thermometer stands at 100° in the shade, about his "free life" and "the scented fields," and if he laughs in your face and thinks your ideas confused, do not be surprised! His "free life" is a life of bone-aching toil and "the scented fields" are covered with hay that is to support his family, and that is the sum total of his poetry in hay-making. It is far more true to life than the verse quoted, and, consequently, according to Wordsworth, better poetry.

I love the country and am jealous of her honor. Those who live upon her bosom are often sneered at and stigmatized as boors, clod-hoppers, etc., ad infinitum, by many who have never, in all their lustrums, felt a throb of nature's great heart. Let such sneer! Here and now I do aver that a nobler, truer, more refined people, (I do not speak of the fictitious graces and refinements of etiquette, but of natural goodness and that symmetrical cultivation of mind and heart which constitutes true gentility,) never were ruled over by a Mayor, or plundered by an Alderman. Here and now I do aver that, as far as extensive observation gives one a claim to speak, the people of the country are, at least, the equals of their more pretending brethren of the city.

This is emphatically an age of progress and philanthropy, both practical and speculative. Hardly an object of human sympathy but has some wise and beneficial provision for its alleviation. The bonds of common brotherhood are daily strengthening, and the links of the golden chain of benevolence which binds society together, are kept bright. Nor is this philanthropy contracted in its sphere of action. Its sphere is not bounded by the metes of any one country, but comprehends in its circumterraneous circle a world of suffering. The far off heathen feels its Christianizing influence; the coast of Africa exhibits the grateful results of its labors; in fine, wherever human necessity or human misery calls for relief, philanthropy responds in the universal language of humanity. It has become cosmopolitan in its ministerings, world-wide in its influence, and universal in its application. But the objects of philanthropy are far from being all provided for, and its resources far from being exhausted. In truth its labors can scarcely be said to have more than commenced.

New associations are being formed daily for new and important charities. Charity seems more than half disposed to clip the wings of philanthropy,

VOL. XXVI-5

and to invite her home. She has been recently engaging her attention towards the amelioration, in many instances, of the condition of the female sex in our society. With all our boasted enlightenment many undue burthens are sustained by the weaker vessel. A philanthropy at once fearless and investigating seeks them out, and aims to relieve them. What a field has it found in opening new sources of employment for poor girls in the cities? How many has it taken from the disease-inviting sewing-stool, and placed in the factory and printing office? It has not shrunk from prying into our domestic economy, nor been frightened by the legal visage of our sage legisla tors. It has sought to elevate woman from marital nonentity, and to soften the hard conditions of the civil contract, which at once deprives her of personal liberty and private property. Among these ef forts of associated philanthropy one class of suffering females seem entirely to have escaped the searching eye of the humanitarian. Why is it that there is no combined effort to usher neglected females into the bonds of that relation, which in some sort constitutes their real and only life? The whole country is studded with charitable institutions: the deaf, dumb,

blind, insane, orphan, and indigent, all have asylums, and their wants, as far as may, supplied. The blind have sight from the magic touch,-the dumb converse with manual speech; the orphan finds parents in attentive teachers; but who supplies or undertakes to supply husbands for, "for single ladies of a certain age?" Is this not a legitimate object of philanthropy? Who can listen unmoved to the recital of struggles with a cold and unsympathizing race of bachelors; the taunts and jeers of gay and thoughtless mothers; and the crushing, grinding weight of hopeless celibacy! What bosom does not bleed at the thought of ardent hopes and bitter disappointments, long and patient watching and waiting, with no record but the prospect of lonely and indefinite maidenhood? What Christian philanthropist can behold that irrelevancy of nature, an old maid,— the virgin with her lamp extinguished, mourning in the dark over the tomb of her lost beauty, and withered hopes,and refuse a helping hand to lift her to her proper sphere and seat her on the throne of the domestic circle?

How strange that there should not be in the broad limits of our land a single institution private or public, whose direct object is to afford relief to these acknowledged objects of sympathy. There are some it is true whose ulterior object is to effect this relief, nor would I be understood to depreciate their laudable efforts in this direction; such are the, "Boston Society for furnishing female teachers for the South," The American Woman's Educational Association," (of which Miss Beecher is president,)—" The Woman's Rights Society of Utica," and some others all bearing onward in a career of usefulness, and effecting much towards the regeneration of old maids. But yet their efforts, mixed up as they are with other measures of reform, have not that extent and efficiency of design which the importance of the subject demands. Associated effort needs prompting in a directer line towards the accomplishment of its object. The reformer who is to fill the largest space in the eye of the nineteenth century, will be he who cures that anom

aly in our society—involuntary celibacy! The ancients struggled against this evil by legislative effort, and the great American utilitarian philosopher, Benjamin " Franklin, looked to that source for a cure of the evil among ourselves. Rome had her Poppaan law, by which the honors of the state were graduated according to the number of a man's children, and which excluded the unmarried man from half the privileges of citizenship. "Cæsar gave rewards to those who had many children. All women under forty-five years of age, who had neither husband nor children were forbid to wear jewels, or to ride in litters; an excellent method," continues the historian, "thus to attack celibacy by the power of vanity." But a most unreasonable one, he might have added, thus to punish in woman that which all experience teaches us, is more her misfortune than her fault. Franklin understood the principles of our nature better, when in the dim light of a then just dawning, but now soon to be developed philosophy, he expressed the wish. that "the legislature would order an electrical machine, large enough to kill a turkey-cock, at least, to be placed in every parish, at the cost, and for the benefit of all the old bachelors of the same." But the individualism of this age will not permit us to rely upon legislative aid in curing the evils of our society. As humanitarians we are bound to take a more extensive view of the question than that of individual happiness subserved by philanthropic efforts in behalf of old maids. We must look to the interests of civilization, and the welfare of communities, and take into the account the aims, hopes, and final destiny of man. How will the successful execution of any project to provide husbands for single ladies of an uncertain age affect the advancing interests of our civilization? What tale will it tell upon future generations?

It was such a train of reflection as the above which led the writer of this report to the determination to set on foot a project for the accomplishment of a long cherished idea of effecting something in the behoof adverted to. He claimed no exalted rank in the scale of humanitari

3

ans, but simply position as an humble but ardent member of the universal brotherhood of Philanthropical Reformers. Accordingly early in April last, he set himself to working out the outline for the plan of “The Marriage Promoting Association, for the benefit of Middle-aged and Elderly Single Ladies." Having satisfied himself of the eligibility and feasibility of the plan, he collected around him a band of chosen and tried confidential friends, and with their aid completed the details of the plan, and opened the way clearly for its execution. He has to thank Providence that the germ he so anxiously cultivated is now firmly established in fruitful vigor, and that his novel experiment is now a brilliant success.

The Association have founded an “ Old Maids' Asylum,” the details in the plan and conduct of which are simple, but effectual.

We have a large and commodious building in the heart of this (Boston) city, with chambers, and drawing-rooms, elegantly, and fashionably furnished. Our Association is classified into Working and Sinecure Members, the former class being comprised in what we style The Executive Committee. This committee is subdivided into the Matrimonial and Bachelor committees, with duties assigned partly separate, and partly concurrent. The Executive Committee consists entirely of married gentlemen and ladies, to whom is entrusted the whole conduct of our institution; while our sinecure members consist exclusively of bachelors and widowers. The separate duty of the Bachelor Committee, is to hunt up bachelors and widowers of good character and standing, candidates for matrimony, and induce them to join our Association. Upon doing so, they record their names, connections, professions, and fortunes in the appropriate register, and then, upon performing certain initiatory ceremonies, the principal of which, (as in most societies), is a pecuniary formality, and promising to conform to our regulations, and faithfully to perform the duties imposed, they are entitled to all the privileges of membership. These privileges and duties are the following: they are bound to visit the asylum regularly, and as fre

quently as their business will permit: they must attend all parties, and entertainments given at the Asylum, unless prevented by reasonable necessity; they must be polite to the ladies, and particularly attentive to those recommended to their notice, and thrown in their company; they must cultivate an internal marriageable disposition, and a lively sentimentality, and endeavor to make themselves good conductors of animal magnetism;-in fine, we bind our members over in a sort of matrimonial recognizance to use all honest endeavors to get married, and select a bride from some of the ladies whose company they enjoy at our Institution.

A word on the régime of our institution, and our mode of selecting beneficiaries. Among the almost overwhelming number of applications, the Matrimonial Committee perform their duty honestly and fearlessly, by selecting only such as come up to our standard of education, position, age, &c. The Asylum is intended solely for the relief of old maids, and hence the applications of widows have been uniformly rejected,-long experience having taught us that they are abundantly able to take care of themselves. And here let me, once for all, remark as to the term old maid, which to some has, in its homeliness and familiarity, something of offence; the Committee, after mature deliberation, determined not to discard it, nor to sacrifice a term without a synonyme to silly prejudice. But our chief difficulty was in fixing upon the proper age at which this advanced stage of female single-blessedness should be said to commence. The various views entertained on this interesting point were really surprising. One thought twenty-five the proper chronological stand-point; while another contended that woman's life had only properly commenced at that age, and cited in support of this view the laws of European nations in latitudes not more northern than ours, which only allow ladies to be marriageable at twenty-five. Some fixed upon thirty-five as the middle of woman's three score and ten years, and hence the turning point of her destiny; while one