general scheme of female instruction should be appro priate to the female character and sphere of action. A zealous advocate for the rights of women, who is accustomed to follow theory rather than the track of nature, might allege, that, as their capacities are competent to the profoundest investigations and disquisitions, any limitation to their pursuits in literature or the sciences, is an abridgement of those intellectual privileges and enjoyments, which they ought to possess, in common with men. But without calling in question the strength of female intellect, or attempting to abridge its charter of rights, I would offer for consideratiou the following queries:-Are not they the happiest among women, who are contented within the circle of such enjoyments, pursuits, and amusements, as are principally of the domestic kind ?-Does woman ever appear so graceful and lovely, as in the domestic characters and relations of a dutiful daughter and affectionate sister-of a loving and faithful wifeof an excellent mother, rearing up her offspring and guiding them in wisdom's ways-of a discreet mistress of a family, combining prudent economy with hospitality ?-Finally, would not any man of sense and correct taste, choose to be connected in marriage with a woman of a plainly cultivated understanding, an obliging temper, domestic in her habits, and capable and dispo sed to guide his household affairs with discretion, rather than with a Mary Wolstoncraft, who handed wine to a gentleman-visiter in a broken tea cup-excusing herself, that she was too much occupied in literary matters to pay any attention to the furnishing of her room? One of the brightest ornaments of her sex and of human nature itself, remarks :-"The profession of women, to which the bent of their instruction should be turned, is that of daughters, wives, mothers and mis 1 tresses of families. They should therefore be trained with a view to these several conditions, and be furnish ed with a stock of ideas, and principles, and qualifications and habits, ready to be applied and appropriated, as occasion may demand, to each of their respective situations."-And again, when speaking of embellishments, or the showy and ornamental parts of female education, she observes :-Though the arts which merely embellish life must claim admiration; yet when a man of sense comes to marry, it is a companion whom he wants, and not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint, and play, and dress, and dance; it is a being who can comfort and counsel him ; one who can reason, and reflect, and feel, and judge, and act, and discourse, and discriminate; one who can assist him in his affairs, lighten his cares, sooth his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his principles, and educate his children."* It is for the Daughters of our America to co-operate in supporting and perpetuating the independence, and the many inestimable privileges, which her Sons have achieved by their valour, and with their blood. On the purity of their morals, and the prudence and propriety of their conduct, the permanence and the weal of this great Republic, and the hopes of generations to come, are essentially depending. NUMBER LXII. Of cruelty to the brute animals-instanced in the barbarous usage of that noble animal, the Horse. THE Horse, more frequently than any other of the inferior animals, has been the subject of descriptive po *Miss Hannah More. etry; and that, not so much by reason of his beautiful form and generous nature, as on account of the superb figure he makes in the battles of the warriors. In the book of Job, which is the oldest poem in the world, and, as to some parts of it, one of the sublimest, the war-horse is described in a manner superior to any thing of the kind that can be found in other authors. In reading this description, even in our English prose translation, one seems actually to behold the horse himself, now "pawing in the valley" with eagerness for the battle, and then "going forth to meet the armed men"-" mocking at fear." It is not the mere picture of the Arabian war-horse: we seem to see him prance, paw the ground, and rush forward to the battle, rejoicing in his strength. Old Homer has given several fine descriptions of the war-horse. His battles were fought in chariots, and his horses bore a conspicuous part in the glory of the frays. The following four lines in Pepe's translation of Homer, are horribly picturesque. "The horses' hoofs are bath'd in 'human gore, The groaning axle sable drops distils, And mangled carnage clogs the rapid wheels." The three last lines in the following stanza, being part of Maurice's ode to Mithra, give as magnificent a description of the war-horse, as perhaps can be found any where except in the book of Job. Instant a thousand trumpets sound, In the last line of all, the poet probably had his eye upon this passage in Job" The glory of his nostrils is terrible." My intention in making these splendid quotations is not so much, however, to eulogize the horse, as to vindicate him from the unfeeling cruelty of man. The horse, in his wild state, while traversing the forests of Asia, is represented by travellers as being the happiest of animals; living perpetually in the society of his kind and in the enjoyment of freedom and plenty. Freedom is not, however, one of the rights of his nature. He is destined to come under the dominion of man, and to minister to the service and to the pomp and pageantry of this lord of the lower creation. Man has a charter right to this animal from the registry of heaven. He has a right to use him as not abusing him; to be his lord and master, but not his unfeeling tyrant. And it might have been expected that the superior excellence of this creature, his wonderful usefulness, both in war and peace, the beauty of his form and the nobleness of his nature, would have protected him from wanton cruelty and yet there is no animal else that men are in the habit of treating so cruelly. The noxious animals have their lives taken from them at once. Few possess the ferociousness of disposition that would delight to put to death a fox, or even a wolf, by lingering tortures. But the horse experiences this horrible treatment from the hands of man, in a thousand instances. Backed, or driven, by an unfeeling human monster-in the attire perhaps of a gentleman-his sides. are goaded with the spur, or his flanks lashed with the whip, till he faints, falls, and expires in dumb agony: and then he is substituted by another, and that by another yet, to the number perhaps of half a dozen; which all, each in his turn, are tortured to death-and that, not to save human life, but for the sake of conveying with unrivalled speed, a speech, or an article of news, that would suffer no damage though it arrived a few hours later. What would a disciple of Pythagoras say in this case? or what would he say in innumerable other cases of unfeeling barbarity used toward a creature so estimable for his usefulness, his faithfulness, and his courage? Assuredly he would say, "These christians will have their reward. In the next stage of their existence, they will be compelled to do penance in the bodily form of the animal they have so wantonly abused." But, fiction apart, we are fully assured, upon divine authority, that without mercifulness of disposition and conduct we are not entitled to the expectation of finding mercy; and that "a merciful man, is merciful to his beast." Mark this!-There is no worse sign, in children, nor any thing more necessary to be nipt in the bud, than a strong propensity to exercise cruelty upon the brute creatures within their power. It was the sport of Nero's boyhood, to impale flies upon the point of a needle; of his manhood, it was the sport, to inflict every kind of torture upon his fellow beings. NUMBER LXIII. Of the vainness of trying to please every body-instanced in the authentic story of the minister's wig. THERE is a happy medium betwixt the heartless disposition to please nobody, and the absurd aim to please every body; and fortunate are they who find this middle line, and keep to it so steadily as seldom to run into the extreme on either side. |