likewise suppose, that the Hindoo mothers, while they continued to express by words their utter abhorrence of those who had, by a breach of the laws of Brama, forfeited their cast, nevertheless received, cherished, and caressed the degenerate beings whom they thus affected to contemn; and then let us ask ourselves, whether we can possibly imagine that the character of the Hindoo nations would remain unchanged, and continue uniform and stationary, as it has done, for ages ?

We might pursue a similar train of reflection with regard to the savage tribes of the Western hemisphere; and supposing that by some strange revolution in sentiment, it became customary with them to inspire their children with an effeminate love of ease, and dread of pain, and to render death the object of terror to their imaginationslet us ask, whether the war song would then produce the same effect upon their minds, rousing the energies of the soul, as it now does, when every idea of glory is

connected with ideas of victory and vengeance?

That, in both the instances I have given, an important change in the national character would be produced, by such a change in the early education of infants as we have supposed to take place, cannot, I think, be doubted. The inference, indeed, does not rest upon conjecture. It is confirmed by every page in the history of mankind, and justified by the observations of those most eminent for wisdom in every age and nation.

Shall we, then, with such examples before our eyes, persist in asserting that the impressions made upon the tender mind are of no importance? or, if we admit their influence, shall we be at no pains to render them beneficial to the objects of our care?

Illumined as we are by the sun of truth, having a divine model of perfection, and a standard of morals to refer to, of which even they who doubt its divine origin confess the superior excellence ;-shall we, who

are possessed of these advantages, still be guided, in the education of our children, by no higher principle than that of custom? Is it possible, that the votaries of a religion which teaches us that the due government of the heart, temper, and dispositions, is essential to our eternal well-being, should nevertheless leave the heart, temper, and dispositions of their children, to the care of chance? This surely could never be the case, but from some great deficiency in the reasoning powers, or from some generally received error, which operates to prevent their due exertion.

As the wisdom of Providence has adapted every creature to the situation it was intended to fill, we cannot doubt that the powers of the female mind are capable or expanding in such a degree, as to acquire a complete knowledge of all that is requisite to the discharge of its duties, throughout all the stages of society. It is, then, in some erroneous opinion of the nature of its duties, and not in want of capacity for

comprehending them, that we are to look for the cause of the inconsistency to which I have alluded. Nor, perhaps, is it with our own sex that the error has originated. The high estimation in which men are accustomed to hold the acquirements of learning and science, naturally disposes them to date the commencement of education from the period in which these acquirements begin to be made; and to consider the early part of existence as a blank. The human mind is ever willing to exaggerate the effects of its own exertions; and where these exertions have been solely directed to the cultivation of the understanding, we must expect to find, that whatever is great or laudable in human character will be ascribed to the fortunate circumstances, which, by opening the sources of knowledge, have aided the development of the reasoning powers. By those who argue in this manner, the propensities of the heart, whether good or bad, are considered to be innate,. and the strength or weakness of the various

faculties of the mind to be altogether independent of the pains that have been taken to cherish or retard their progress. When the first years of life are thus regarded as of no importance, the character of the mother with whom they are spent comes to be of little consequence. Her duties are, indeed, on this system, reduced to a very narrow compass, extending little beyond the exercise of that instinctive tenderness, of which she has an example in all the mothers in the brute creation. With the education of her daughters she is indeed entrusted. But the same ill-founded prejudices which have deprived her of any confidence in the subsequent effect of the infant education of either sex, tend to render Fashion her sole guide and authority; nor does she question the propriety of an implicit obedience to its decrees. On the subject of education the decisions of fashion are, by such minds, deemed conclusive. Whatever tricks or accomplishments she prescribes, must, at all events, be acquired: and this even under