man race of one half its noblest privileges? Is it right that woman should have no action in those political movements which frequently so closely affect her no share in ordaining or suppressing those laws by which, often, she keenly suffers? Until this is the case, it may be said, she is deprived of a power which is not to her granted as a boon, but which is a right, that man has no authority to withhold; and his exclusive exercise of this power is an instance of the barbarism and injustice which yet largely mingle with our boasted privileges of liberty and light.

My answers to these questions are brief. The intellectual power of woman is a matter of fact, not of opinion. Has she exhibited a mental capacity as great as that of the other sex? Have her achievements been as splendid and as profound? In reply to this, we have unrolled before us a long list of glorious names

names that shall shine forever in the records of wit and morals, of poetry and philanthropy, of art and science. We know that some of

the noblest departments of literature, at the present day, are honorably filled by women, whose influence upon the age and upon humanity we cannot easily estimate. But as it is no compliment to the mental dignity, any more than to the moral sensibility, of woman, to flatter her at the expense of truth, I think we cannot in justice say that thus far she has attained to the same intellectual eminence as man. She has not yet equalled Homer, or Shakspeare, or Milton, or Raphael, or Descartes, or Newton. If it is said that this is owing to prejudice and error on our part, I say perish such prejudice and error as unjust and mean, and let time and opportunity dispose of this question.

As to the other point-the social equality of woman-I would say that it is, of course, just that woman should claim all the rights which her nature dictates as belonging to her. We are to inquire, not what man will allow, but what God has ordained. If woman aspires to the conflicts of the hustings and the caucus,

to the honors and influence of the cabinet, the representative hall, the judicial bench, or the executive chair, let her take them as the objects which her nature bids her seek, and to which, therefore, she has all the right that man can claim the right of humanity, the

commission of God.

But my own opinion is, that her nature does not aspire to these objects; that the reason why she has not sought and possessed them more, is not, merely, masculine prejudice and injustice, savage brutality, oriental sensualism, or chivalric idolatry; but a fine intuition of her own soul, a moulding of destiny which is from the Creator. Sometimes holy enthusiasm for a great cause may urge her to venture into the current of public action, the polluted arena of political conflict; even as the Maid of Orleans believed herself prompted by a celestial voice to draw the sword and unfurl the oriflamme of her country. But as a general thing, I believe woman no more desires the publicity and strife of political action, than she desires the control

of armies, the hazards of the battle-field, or the

discipline of the camp.

I would say, in one word, that my remarks upon this point involve the very fact upon which, in this discourse, I would chiefly insist. Woman has been created for a different sphere, or rather hemisphere, than man, to which do not belong the troubled elements of commercial, legislative, and political life. I do not say that she has no right to mingle among them; but I do say that, as a general thing, no one who feels the true dignity and mission of her womanhood wishes to mingle there. She glories in her station as the moon in her orbit. Should she leave it, she would break that beautiful duality which we behold in all things, and yet, which is difficult to describe without mysticism. But that there is such a duality no one can deny; a provision by which every part has its counterpart, which alone makes up a complete and harmonious whole, which reconciles diversity with equality, makes tenderness equal to strength, endurance to action,

skill to force. Thus woman is the counterpart of man. She is equal to him, not because she has the same work to do, but a work equally great and necessary, a work essential to the complete circle of human duty, to the consummation of human destiny. She differs from man not merely in bodily form and organization. This finer texture symbolizes and manifests finer issues of spirit.

What, then, is woman's position? Where is her sphere? Not denying her intellectual equality with man-contending that if she claims political suffrages and honors, her claim is a right—I still say that her peculiar position, her own sphere, is with the affections, and wherever these affections have dominion. Hers are the empire of home, the great and beautiful offices of benevolence and restoration, the work of developing the heart's best and holiest feelings; and here she reigns with a royalty no less dignified, a spiritual exaltation no less lofty, than that of man in the issues of debate, the marts of gain, the dazzling

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