a greater number of pages than we intended, and here we must pause. We would only add, by way of information, that our author's religious notions are as wide of the Christianity of the New Testament as his social notions are of the republicanism of the Constitution.

A word or two of advice to Charles Elwood, and we have done.

1st. In behalf of the working classes of New England, we beg leave to decline the boon which he offers them. They are industrious men, and they have no fancy for a system which should squander their honest gains upon the idle and the profligate. They are independent men, able and willing to clear a way for themselves by honest labor; they consider the offer to make them stipendiaries of government, to support them from their neighbor's crib, as no compliment. They are intelligent men, and it sounds. strange to them to be told that their condition is worse than that of the serfs of Russia or the slaves of Cuba.

2d. Our author informs us, that his first attempt to create a social revolution failed for want of combining with it a religious element. This difficulty he now, it seems, intends to obviate, by using the name of the Christian religion as a fulcrum, and persuading the Christian community that the religion which they profess leads to, nay, demands, the social state which he so warmly recommends, and asserts that he who does not adopt these views is "no true democrat, as he can be no true Christian." So also the regicides of France denominate the Saviour of the world, "the democratic son of Mary." In like manner, our author intersperses his declamation with many phrases peculiar to Christianity, as though he used them in the same sense as Christians. This is the old device of Catholicism; to render religion the handmaid of tyranny. In an ignorant age, and when the Bible was concealed from the laity, it succeeded, but it could not stand a moment before the freedom of the press. With the Bible open before men, neither our author nor Cousin can make it speak the language of Eclecticism, or of such a despotism as our author would prefer. We think that this part of his effort must be a failure, and we advise him to turn his attention in some other direction.

And lastly. If Charles Elwood sees any case of wrong in the system as it now is, let him bring it forth to light

VOL. V.-NO. XIX.

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and see that it be redressed upon principle. Or, if he believes the theory of our government to be wrong, let him address himself to the understanding and conscience of men; and thus persuade his fellow-citizens to modify or abolish it. These appeals to the fears of men, these threats of bloodshed and butchery, prove nothing. Men are not so easily frightened as he may imagine. In nothing are we more liable to deceive ourselves than in the estimate of our power of intimidation. For ourselves, we make no special pretensions to bravery, yet our nerves are not particularly moved by the threat of assassination. Were the guillotine before our eyes, we should despise the tyranny which he denominates liberty as thoroughly as we do at this moment. And one thing more, we should much prefer that "heroic remedy," as the French regicides call it, to the thraldom of Charles Elwood's political reformation. This sort of talk does not prove any thing, and it may as well be dropped. The author may look upon it as prophecy, but it is liable to create the impression that he would be pleased to see his prophecy fulfilled. This we do not believe for a moment, and we therefore advise him to predict on some other subject.

ARTICLE VIII.

INFLUENCE OF MOTHERS.

WITHIN a few years, some of the ablest pens have been employed in writing on the condition, duties and rights of woman. Even the titles of the works, which on these subjects have been issued from the press, have been so attractive as to secure some readers. We have had, "Woman as she should be," "Woman in her Social and Domestic character," "The Women of England, their Social duties and Domestic habits," "Woman's Mission," and to bring up the rear, we have had by Lady Blessington, "Woman and her Master." Most of these volumes are the productions of females, and are in the highest degree creditable to their talents and virtue. With the excep

tion of Lady Blessington's work, which we confess we have not read with sufficient attention to pass a just sentence upon it, we would cordially recommend the books we have named to the perusal of our fair friends whether married or unmarried. We may add to these the Mother's Monthly Journal, a periodical devoted to the noblest of purposes, one which has from the beginning deservedly received the warmest approbation, and which continues with unabating zeal and success to exhibit the importance, and facilitate the right exercise, of maternal influence. Nor can we withhold our commendation from a kindred journal, the Mother's Magazine, in which we seldom fail to discover the results of mature experience, wisdom and piety combined.

We regret to say, that there are individuals in our land, who, claiming to be wiser than the inspired writers, are laboring to make females dissatisfied with their present position in society. They would fain elevate her, as they suppose, by assigning her duties, and placing her in public stations which hitherto, in our happy country, man only has discharged and occupied. We will not impeach the motives of these professed friends of social reform. They may, for aught we know to the contrary, have the happiness and dignity of woman in view. They may think they are doing her service. However kind their intentions may be, we believe that they are altogether mistaken; and that evils innumerable and not to be named, would arise, were a general attempt made to reduce their theory to practice. The trumpeters of these new doctrines are generally those who are strangers to maternal feelings, whose hearts were never gladdened by the pleasures, nor oppressed with the responsibilities, of that sacred relation.

We cannot doubt that woman's proper sphere is Home. Her tender frame, and delicate structure of mind, giving her more sensibility, and less of vigor and robustness, indicate the station for which she was designed by her beneficent Creator. She was never intended by Providence for the bar, the senate chamber, or the pulpit. Those who would elevate her, by pushing her into the arena of public life, are not aware of the gulf of misery and degradation into which they would plunge her. Woman's greatest power over the heart of man is in her meek and gentle demeanor,-not in her mingling in

the noise of strife and debate. Her timid reserve is her strong fortress. If she lose this, the spoiler will come, and the ruin of her innocence will be almost inevitable. So great a blight never yet came over the morals of the nation as would be witnessed, were the "Rights of Woman," as advocated by some modern visionaries, realized. Were she to leave the quiet scenes of domestic life, and engage in public or political contests, she would cease to be loved and respected by man. She would become a rival instead of a companion, and an object of envy, of contempt and hate. Bereft of her own native modesty, she would associate with the vile, and become the victim of the lowest impulses and passions.

It was the design of the Creator that woman should be a help-meet for man; not by taking his place or performing his rougher and more public duties, but by offices more suited to her feminine nature. By her personal presence, her neatness, her amiable deportment, her assiduous attentions, her confiding love, she makes home an asylum, a quiet resting-place, a delightful retreat from the labors, the perplexities and disturbing scenes which her husband experiences abroad. He needs this repose. He needs to meet eyes which beam upon him with gladness as he enters his own dwelling, and to have one friend at least to whom he can trust all his thoughts, his cares, his joys, his plans. God has provided him with this sweet friend in woman. Her physical and mental powers are different from man's; that she may be qualified by tenderness and love, and a confiding spirit, to soothe his cares and increase his joys. Her sphere, then, is home, and no plea of superior piety, or regard for the public good, should ever cause her unseasonably to leave her station. She should never leave her husband to brood over his cares alone, or cause him to suspect that she prefers the society of others to him; she should feel, with Milton, that,

"Nothing lovelier can be found

In woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote;"

and if she have children committed to her care, she is especially called upon in the providence of God to watch over their interests,-to be their nurse in infancy,-to

The

With respect to the style and literary spirit which these works exhibit, we cannot be too strong in the expression of our high estimation of their worth. We place them among the very best specimens of pure and finished English with which we are acquainted. There is here no stretching of the language beyond its true capacities; no harsh and unnatural combination of words; no reckless defiance of established and classical usage. But, in the easy and harmonious flow of polished, though occasionally too elaborate, periods, we have the cherished views of a mature, a liberal and highly cultivated mind, that has pored long and deeply upon the histories and literatures of different countries and ages, while it has not been unmindful of the changes, both in taste and morals, that have marked its own times. The intellectual spirit, also, of these writings corresponds to their literary execution. views which they present are liberal and philanthropic, and are every where distinguished for that plain, oldfashioned common sense, which is always so becoming to the English mind. We have no startling paradoxes, or enigmatical sayings; no new-fangled philosophy, such as we are constantly meeting in the productions of that singular but able writer, Mr. Thomas Carlyle. Indeed, the literary characters of these two writers, both of whose miscellanies are now before the public, bear a very striking contrast with each other. Mr. Carlyle has for many years been one of the leading interpreters of the literature and philosophy of Germany, to the reading public of Great Britain. Catching the metaphysical spirit of that most philosophizing of intellectual nations, he has come out a bold and fearless speculatist, both in politics and morals; while, in the domain of criticism, he professes to judge by new criteria, and to try by new tests, the performances of genius. His views are those of a gifted but inordinately speculative mind, that has looked at the world mainly through "the loopholes of retreat," and been but little engaged in actual commerce with men. Hence, his writings are characterized by a subtler and more metaphysical spirit, that searches with a keener glance into the hidden springs of human character, and traces-sometimes, indeed, in the light of a favorite theory-the under-currents of passion and interest, that run far down beneath the surface of society.