INTRODUCTORY—NEW AND OLD.
This Second Edition has been carefully revised, i Some errors, hardly at first to be avoided in a work of such magnitude, have been corrected, a few names added — (See Index, page xxxiv), and "Woman's Record" is now as complete as it can well be made.
The opinions of the Press have been highly approving; the author trusts this Edition will meet with increased favour, as each year brings the public mind more into harmony with the views advanced—namely,—that on the right influence of women depends the moral improvement of men ; and that the condition of the female sex decides the destiny of the nation. American Legislators are awaken ing to these truths ; within the last three years, laws more equitable in regard to the property and rights of married women have been enacted ; the education of girls is more liberally provided for; "Female Colleges," and "Schools of Design for Women," have been incorporated ; Medical Science is opened to females; their fitness to be physicians for their own sex admitted ; and over thirty women have received the full diploma of M. D. As teachers, young women are taking the place of men everywhere in our public schools, to the acknowledged improvement of national education.
Daring the present century, these ideas of the true mission of woman have been developed. Within the last fifty years more books have been written by women and about women than all put forth in the preceding five thousand eight hundred years of the world. The greater portion of these books have appeared within the last twenty years—and "Woman's Record" is the exponent of all. The Publishers, it must be seen, have done their part well. The series of Engravings furnish a gallery of Portraits that, besides their usefulness in stamping on the mind of the reader a more permanent impression of each individual character thus illustrated, furnish an interesting study to the curious in costume and the adept in taste.
Then, the Selections afford an opportunity of judging the merits of female literature; the choicest gems of thought, fancy, and feeling are here treasured, sought out from works in different languages, and brought together in the uniform design of a perfect Cyclopaedia of reference and comparison as regards woman and her
