INTRODUCTION.
AFTER conſidering the hiſtoric page, and viewing the living world with anxious ſolicitude, the moſt melancholy emotions of ſorrowful indignation have depreſſed my ſpirits, and I have ſighed when obliged to confeſs, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization which has hitherto taken place in the world has been very partial. I have turned over various books written on the ſubject of education, and patiently obſerved the conduct of parents and the management of ſchools; but what has been the reſult?—a profound conviction that the neglected education of my fellow-creatures is the grand ſource of the miſery I deplore; and that women, in particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring cauſes, originating from one haſty concluſion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy ſtate; for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a ſoil,
