PUBLIC LIBRARY 156443 ASTOR, LENOX AND 1699 Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York. INSCRIBED TO THE Men of America; WHO SHOW, IN THEIR LAWS AND CUSTOMS, RESPECTING WOMEN, IDEAS MORE JUST AND FEELINGS MORE NOBLE THAN WERE EVER EVINCED BY MEN OF ANY OTHER NATION: MAY "WOMAN'S RECORD" MEET THE APPROVAL OF THE SONS OF OUR GREAT REPUBLIC; THE WORLD WILL THEN KNOW THE Daughters are Worthy of Honour. (1) INTRODUCTORY-NEW AND OLD. 1 THIS Second Edition has been carefully revised. Some errors, hardly at first to be avoided in a work of such magnitude, have been corrected, a few names added (See Index, page xxxiv), and "Woman's Record" is now as complete as it can well be made. The opinions of the Press have been highly approving; the author trusts this. Edition will meet with increased favour, as each year brings the public mind more into harmony with the views advanced-namely, that on the right influence of women depends the moral improvement of men; and that the condition of the female sex decides the destiny of the nation. American Legislators are awakening to these truths; within the last three years, laws more equitable in regard to the property and rights of married women have been enacted; the education of girls is more liberally provided for; "Female Colleges," and "Schools of Design for Women," have been incorporated; Medical Science is opened to females; their fitness to be physicians for their own sex admitted; and over thirty women have received the full diploma of M. D. As teachers, young women are taking the place of men everywhere in our public schools, to the acknowledged improvement of national education. During the present century, these ideas of the true mission of woman have been developed. Within the last fifty years more books have been written by women and about women than all put forth in the preceding five thousand eight hundred years of the world. The greater portion of these books have appeared within the last twenty years-and "Woman's Record" is the exponent of all. The Publishers, it must be seen, have done their part well. The series of Engravings furnish a gallery of Portraits that, besides their usefulness in stamping on the mind of the reader a more permanent impression of each individual character thus illustrated, furnish an interesting study to the curious in costume and the adept in taste. Then, the Selections afford an opportunity of judging the merits of female literature; the choicest gems of thought, fancy, and feeling are here treasured, sought out from works in different languages, and brought together in the uniform design of a perfect Cyclopædia of reference and comparison as regards woman and her productions. No work extant is similar to mine; for this reason, I am sure it will be welcomed. The world wants it. "There are so many women of richly cultivated minds," says a British critic, "who have distinguished themselves in letters or in society, and made it highly feminine to be intelligent, as well as good, and to have elevated as well as amiable feelings, that by-and-by the whole sex must adopt a new standard of education.' Now, my work is prepared to be both an aid and incentive to such progress. In order for this, three things are indispensable: to understand what God intended woman should do; what she has done; and what farther advantages are needed to fit her to perform well her part. "The General Preface" is designed to answer the first query; also the "Remarks" at the beginning of each Era, and hints scattered through the book, will, I trust, be of service in the elucidation. To show what she has done, I have gathered from the records of the world the names and histories of all distinguished women, so that an exact estimate of the capabilities of the sex might be formed by noting what individuals have accom plished through obstacles and discouragements of every kind. The third proposition, growing naturally out of the two preceding, is answered by considering their import. If God designed woman as the preserver of infancy, the teacher of childhood, the inspirer or helper of man's moral nature in its efforts to reach after spiritual things; if examples of women are to be found in every age and nation, who, without any special preparation, have won their way to eminence in all pursuits tending to advance moral goodness and religious faith, then the policy, as well as justice of providing liberally for female education, must be apparent to Christian men. "The excellent woman is she who, if her husband dies, can be a father to their children," says Goëthe. If read aright, this would give the female sex every required advantage. Like all moral and social changes, the one now going on in the public mind concerning woman has its absurdities and its errors. When mists are rising, they often take fantastic shapes and reveal ugly features in the landscape; but truth, like the sun, will at last make all clear and beautiful of its kind. It has been my earnest endeavour to throw this true light over the important themes discussed. The Bible is the only guarantee of woman's rights, and the only expositor of her duties. Under its teachings, men learn to honour her. Wherever its doctrines are * See article on Mrs. Hemans, in Blackwood's Magazine, 1849. |