productions. No work extant is similar to mine; for this reason, I am sure it will be welcomed. The world wants it.
"There are so many women of richly cultivated minds," says a British critic, "who have distinguished themselves in letters or in society, and made it highly feminine to be intelligent, as well as good, and co have elevated as well as amiable feelings, that by-and-by the whole sex must adopt a new standard of education."[1]
Now, my work is prepared to be both an aid and incentive to such progress. In order for this, three things are indispensable: to understand what God intended woman should do; what she has done; and what farther advantages are needed to fit her to perform well her part.
"The General Preface" is designed to answer the first query; also the "Remarks" at the beginning of each Era, and hints scattered through the book, will. I trust, be of service in the elucidation.
To show what she has done, I have gathered from the records of the world the names and histories of all distinguished women, so that an exact estimate of the capabilities of the sex might be formed by noting what individuals have accomplished through obstacles and discouragements of every kind.
The third proposition, growing naturally out of the two preceding, is answered by considering their import.
If God designed woman as the preserver of infancy, the teacher of childhood, the inspirer or helper of man's moral nature in its efforts to reach after spiritual things; if examples of women are to be found in every age and nation, who, without any special preparation, have won their way to eminence in all pursuits tending to advance moral goodness and religious faith, then the policy, as well as justice of providing liberally for female education, must be apparent to Christian men. "The excellent woman is she who, if her husband dies, can be a father to their children," says Goethe. If read aright, this would give the female sex every required advantage.
Like all moral and social changes, the one now going on in the public mind concerning woman has its absurdities and its errors. When mists are rising, they often take fantastic shapes and reveal ugly features in the landscape; but truth, like the sun, will at last make all clear and beautiful of its kind.
It has been my earnest endeavour to throw this true light over the important themes discussed.
The Bible is the only guarantee of woman's rights, and the only expositor of her duties. Under its teachings, men learn to honour her. Wherever its doctrines are[[#endnote_{{{1}}}|[{{{1}}}]]]
- ↑ See article on Mrs. Hemans, in Blackwood's Magazine, 1849.
