Peculiarly should virtue be enthroned in her heart, with all its sanctions; for there are times when, if she denies it, it will indeed be cast out and trampled under foot. And of all persons, she needs that discipline which enables us not only to do, but to endure, and to suffer. Force of nerve, and headlong impetuosity of will, may often serve man in the departments of his action; but woman's sphere, if she truly fills it, demands those virtues which only issue from deep moral effort. That patience which is the ingathering of a sublime strength, and that enables her to wait and suffer to the last. That forgiveness which makes her anoint the hands that have abused her, and shield and succor in its hour of desolation the spirit that once scorned and rejected her. That love that watches by the sick bed and illuminates the prison cell; that burns like a taper through the long night of affliction, and flows with no slackening for the object it has once cherished, however that object may be hated by the world; that transfigures pov

erty, and rebukes fear, and glorifies itself by performing the meanest offices, like Christ washing the disciples' feet. That faith which believeth all things, and endureth all things; which is not to be shaken, or obscured, because it draws its assurance from near communion with the things in which it trusts. For these virtues-(and she who truly fills a woman's sphere most surely needs them) nothing is sufficient but a spirit that has been trained by a diligent moral culture. Nay, why shall I not use a term that if not more comprehensive is more vital than this? Woman, of all beings, needs the life and the power of religion. When we consider what she is called upon to do, what interests come under her influence, what brave yet tender virtues she must cherish, where can she go but to him who alone has lived these virtues, and from whom alone their spirit emanates? True culture is consummated only when she attains to that spiritual excellence of which Christ was the perfect manifestation; and in that at

tainment alone can she say, "Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more."

LECTURE III.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. - PROVERBS 31: 22.

THE difference between civilization and barbarism is indicated not only by the increase of intellectual and moral power, and of all those useful elements which build up and consolidate society, but by those ornamental accessories, those beautiful productions of art, which evince a refined and luxuriant culture. For instance the garments of the civilized man may be of the same primeval fabric as those which so scantily clothe the dweller of caves and forests. They may be no more durable or comfortable. And yet the civilized man is not only dressed more completely than the

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other, but more exquisitely and skilfully; and that exquisiteness and skill illustrate the social difference between the two, illustrate the whole advancement of ages in discovery and invention, in commerce and manufactures, in chemistry and botany, and the long array of the useful arts. The canoe with which the savage crosses the rivers and glides along the coasts of his country has in it all the fundamental elements of the ship that traverses the globe; yet how different the noble vessel with all its appointments, with its chronometer, telescope, and compass, with its elaborate workmanship and its store of luxuries, from the fishing-boat of the Indian or New Zealander! And here, again, the superiority of civilization is illustrated by skill and equipage. The amenities of social life, the rules of good breeding, are but politer methods of exercising a respect or affection that is the same in Australia as in New York or Boston. Civilization has only created a more refined expression.

I say, then, in short, that culture is mani