is peculiarly important, in the present state of the public mind with regard to education, we have postponed other valuable matter to make room for its insertion.

It is our intention to devote, if possible, a portion of each of our future numbers to the subject of the education of females; and we would take this opportunity of expressing our obligations to the distinguished individual who has favored us with an introductory article on her views and plans of instruction. The article alluded to will appear in our next; and our correspondent will, we hope, favor us with more of the particular results of her own experience in teaching; as we conceive they would form a body of valuable details, which would aid the efforts of teachers and superintendents of schools and other institutions for the instruction of females.]

A YEAR has nearly elapsed since this Society established a Seminary for male children, similar to that we contemplate opening in this building for the education of female children. That Seminary has answered the expectation of the Board of Trustees; and in their late report to a meeting of this Society, they have expressed themselves thus far entirely satisfied with the experiment which they had made.

We have, in truth, had many difficulties to encounter, and such as were to be expected in the opening of an Institution of this nature. The Principals, though eminent as teachers, and distinguished for their literary attainments, were not practically acquainted with the monitorial method of instruction, and had to acquire a proficiency in it by the experience of teaching. The pupils were new to their teachers, and were unaccustomed to this novel method of acquiring knowledge: monitors were to be instructed before they could be made the means of imparting instruction to others: some time, therefore, was consumed in these preparatory acquirements, before the institution could be considered as having been fairly got under way. Yet, with all these disadvantages, it has flourished equal to the sanguine hopes of those who were active in its establishment; and it promises to be a powerful auxiliary to those plans of education, which at present engage the attention of intelligent individuals, and of the public functionaries of the state. Thus encouraged, we have felt desirous that the usefulness of this Society should be enlarged, and that our daughters, as well as our sons, should participate in the benefits to be derived from our association.

It is not my intention, in the few remarks which I shall make to you at the present time, to dwell on the advantages of the monitorial system of instruction: this I had the honor of doing at the opening of the Institution to which this is an auxiliary; and indeed, the great utility of this system appears at present to be understood and admitted, if we may judge, from the number of seminaries which

have of late years been established in various parts of this state, and in which this system of instruction has been adopted.

I will only ask your indulgence, while I dwell for a few moments upon the great individual and public advantages, which will be derived from an attention to female education.

And here I am aware, that I have a powerful advocate in the bosom of every parent, and I would say, especially in the bosom of every father. I would ask each of those, which, of all the anxieties that beset his heart, clings to it with a firmer hold than that for the welfare of his female offspring? Our sons we can educate and launch into the world as we ourselves have been launched into it; and although we must feel great solicitude for their success, yet, both from nature, from habit, and from education, they are able to buffet with the stream, and to put back or overcome the difficulties with which they may be surrounded.

But what shall become of those tender plants which Providence has intrusted to our care and nourishment? What difficulties may they have to encounter? Who will stand up for them in the hour of necessity? How will they be enabled to struggle with those hardships, and meet those vicissitudes which they may experience in their progress through life? These are reflections which must continually occur to the parental mind, and in some measure cast a shade of sadness over those hopes with which a parent always brightens the future prospects of his children.

The affection which a father feels for his male offspring, is of a strong and lasting nature; but to his female offspring, who, like tender vines have entwined themselves around him, depending upon him alike for protection and support, while for them he feels the same abiding attachment, he is yet drawn towards them by sympathies of a tenderer nature. They come recommended to him by their attachment to their home, by their fond reliance upon him, and by all those sensibilities which constitutionally belong to their nature: the hold they take upon his affections is deep and powerful, it continues with him through every period and vicissitude of their lives.

And yet, with all these feelings of solicitude and affection, is it not extraordinary that so little attention has been hitherto paid to female education? We take all pains with the instruction of our sons, from a belief that a thorough education is absolutely necessary to their success in life; that their faculties must be sharpened to enable them to bear those jostlings and collisions which they must expect to encounter in the world-but as to females, it is generally presumed, from their retired and domestic habits, and from the sphere in which Providence has designed them to move, that superior intellectual endowments will not be requisite to their welfare and prosperity.

Yet, how often has this opinion been proved to be fallacious! How frequently has experience shown, that many who ought to have found protectors in those with whom their fortunes had been joined, have had themselves to bear the heat and burden of the day; and that on their feeble and unassisted efforts the sustenance of a whole family has had entirely to depend! How often again, have we beheld the same distressing results where disease or misfortune had sapped the strength of him who was ever ready to perform the offices of duty and affection!

Experience therefore, would teach us, that it is the part of wisdom, to prepare and strengthen the female mind to sustain and bear up against those trials.

But, although our daughters may not experience those melancholy changes of fortune, it is equally important for the purposes of their domestic happiness and their domestic usefulness, that their minds should be improved by a judicious education. Minds intelligent and well improved, generally obtain and secure the affections of minds equally informed and intelligent. They are drawn together by a similarity of taste and studies, and by a respect for the talents and mental acquirements of each other. It is true, that nothing may at first more powerfully attract the beholder than the graces of person which so peculiarly belong to woman, but it is the excellences of the mind, which must ripen into affection the impression thus made by what is admirable in the exterior. Even where the graces of person have been denied, where nothing at first sight was promising or attractive, this intelligence has appeared to irradiate the form in which it dwelt, and to secure for it the attachment of some congenial mind, established also upon a basis the most durable-a respect for the object of its affection.

In the after domestic relations of husband and wife, the advantages resulting from a good practical education will be equally manifest.

Thus endowed, the wife becomes in every sense of the word the companion of her husband; she enlivens his prosperity; she is his solace in misfortune and his adviser in difficulty. In the sad reverses of fortune which may befall him, he reposes on her bosom, unchanging towards him, and whose kindness increases in proportion as he stands in need of its succor.

Though timid in nature, and fragile in form, there is yet an innate firmness in the female character, which shines conspicuous in seasons of difficulty. Though alarmed at immediate danger, or unlooked for calamity, because unprepared for such sudden events, it is when evil has settled like a dark cloud upon their prospects, and appears to have closed every avenue to escape; it is then, when fortitude, patience and firmness are essentially necessary, that the

female mind appears in all its excellence, and displays that energy and courage which heaven seems to have bestowed upon it peculiarly for such emergencies. It arouses the flagging spirits of its companion, inspires confidence where all before was despondence, removes difficulties where difficulties appeared to be insurmountable, and again arouses into action those faculties of the man, which had bowed and given away under the pressure of adversity.

Heaven has ordained "that it is not good for man to be alone:" in fact he is dependent both for advice, for comfort and for aid, upon the very being who clings to him for support. How essential then is it those who can impart so much relief, when relief is so much required, should in addition to those powers which they naturally possess, be so improved by education as to become efficient counsellors at those times when the exercise of a sound judgment, and the advice of a sound mind, will be as necessary as the solace of affection!

It is indeed, intelligence which, gives variety to the female character, removing that tedium and sameness of home, which so many complain of, and diffusing gladness and sunshine in the dwellings of private life. Having a mutual reliance upon the judgement as well as upon the affection of each other, their hearts become anchored at home; that home which is the place of their greatest usefulness, becomes also the place of their greatest felicity. Thus, respecting each other, and respected by the world, they become living examples of the benefits to be mutually derived from a good education.

But there are also other duties, which in domestic life a mother is called upon to perform.

To her is intrusted the care of their offspring in their years of infancy. It is from the mother that the infant mind receives its first impressions, and its earliest bias. And who is there of us, that looks back upon his days of childhood, but must affectingly feel the truth of this observation?

Who was it that first taught the infant tongue to lisp the elementary principles of learning? Who first taught the infant knee to bend in prayer, and directed its aspirations to a being all perfect and benevolent? Who was it, that, with assiduous care sowed in its ductile mind those seeds of virtue, which in after life have produced such a rich harvest of blessing to itself, and of usefulness to others? For these, and countless acts of kindness, it is indebted, and almost entirely indebted, to maternal tenderness. There is no affection so untiring as the affection of a mother; there is no solicitude which equals her solicitude for the welfare of her offspring. The anxiety with which she watches over their years of helplessness, the patience with which she assists them to develope the infant

faculties which they possess, the pride which mantles in her bosom as she marks their progress in knowledge, the light which beams from her countenance at every fresh display of talent and of mental excellence. These heartfelt emotions, these looks of gladness, speak more eloquently than language, the watchfulness, the strength, and the endurance of maternal affection.

And if such is the power of maternal feeling, how important that those who will thus have the moulding of the infant mind, should themselves be thoroughly instructed! The stamp to character is then given the impression made in infancy is lasting the real germ of the future man is formed at that period. Long before his faculties shall be matured, he may have received an inclination different from that for which nature originally designed him, and which never can be entirely removed. For while we do justice to the female character, it must not be forgotten, that no greater evil can happen to the young, than to be left to the care of mothers ignorant or depraved. Maternal influence will still prevail, but how improperly may it be directed; maternal affection will still be there, but oh, how perverted in its usefulness! Spoiled by indulgence, or depraved by the force of a bad example, the spring-time of life will be suffered to run to waste, and those precious moments will be lavished in idleness, or what is worse, will be debased by vice, on the wise improvement of which, their future usefulness and prosperity must depend.

How much talent has been lost by the misapplication of those golden hours; and which misapplication has been occasioned more by the inconsiderate and perverse conduct of those who then unfortunately had the power to control, than by the follies and effervescence of youthful passion and extravagance! How also may false notions, and inveterate prejudices, and against which, a powerful mind in after life, has been able with difficulty to contend, how may these be traced to the enduring impressions made upon the mind in childhood! Though age shall have ripened the faculties, and though reason may refute, and innate manliness of character may generally cause the mind to rise superior to these delusions, yet the impression made by them in early life, will still be there; and its power will be felt in those moments of despondency when the strong faculties of the mind have been wearied into lassitude by over exertion, or have been subdued and broken down by misfortune.

The intellectual improvement of children does not generally arrest a father's attention, until after the years more properly belonging to infancy have passed. Engaged in the active pursuits of life, he has not leisure, nor indeed does it appear to him essential, that his time should be devoted to the mental improvement of his children. Their early instruction is therefore left to a mother's watch