The great question of the day is education. Daughters, as well as sons, are born with faculties capable of improvement; and the claims of the former to as good an education as the latter are beyond dispute. Indeed, some are of opinion that if either of the sexes ought to have a superior education, that boon is the birthright of females. Certainly, women have as important duties to perform as men, and therefore their discipline ought at least to be as strict.

In the more usual sense, education is the art of drawing out, or developing, every part of your many-sided nature. Its object, and when rightly conducted, its result, is to make a perfect creature. Young women are too often allowed to consider that education is the work of girlhood. Strictly speaking, it covers the whole area of life. A great living poet truly says—

We often hear what a glorious thing it is to be a man. With Daniel De Foe, and other great men, we think it as glorious a thing to be a woman. “A woman, well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison.” You are capable of being moulded into the noblest types of womanhood. There is no limit to your progress, no elevation which you may not pass; your present attainments are not the measure of your capabilities.

This book would be radically defective, and would greatly fail in its purpose, did we not attempt to show what woman can be, and what therefore she ought to strive after. The best definition we can give of true womanhood is, that it consists in having all the faculties, physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, existing in a healthy and vigorous condition, so as to be able to perform, in an efficient manner, all the functions for which they are destined. Our aim is bold, broad, truthful delineation. We would not lead you to indulge in baseless visions of future eminence; yet your nature is such, that, did you act worthy of it, you might, with the help of God, become more than we are able to describe. The proudest and fairest ideal grows out of the real, and the loftiest tree must have its roots in the ground.

In education, as hitherto conducted, the physical powers have not had their due share of attention. Anatomy, physiology, and chemistry clearly teach that the general principles which are true of the vital processes in the lower animals are equally true of the vital processes in human beings. But this has not yet become a part of the living faith of the world. Hundreds and thousands, even among the upper classes, are as ignorant of the wonders and mysteries of the human frame as if God had committed the great practical solecism of making them incapable of self-knowledge. The earth is full of wholesome nourishment, the atmosphere is carefully mixed by a Divine hand, to suit the wants of humanity. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter are each beautiful. The oak is strong, and the rose is lovely; the domestic animals are full of vigour; but the young maiden drops off, smitten by consumption, scrofula, or rapid failure of the vital power. Happily, the laws of health are beginning to attract attention, and we are coming to the conclusion that this great blessing might be much more common.

The principal components of the body will naturally indicate and classify the topics for discussion in dealing with the subject of physical education. The body may be roughly described as an organisation of bones and muscles, permeated by blood, covered with skin, and containing a breathing and digestive apparatus.

The chief process by which life is maintained, and health and strength developed, is the receiving of food. That over-feeding and under-feeding are both bad is a truism. Of the two, however, the latter is the worse. Not only are there a priori reasons for trusting the appetites, but there is no other guidance worthy of the name. Instead of measuring your food by an artificial standard, eat your fill. Have less faith in human opinion, and more confidence in nature. The current idea is, that diet should not only be restricted, but comparatively low; but the verdict of leading physicians and distinguished physiologists is exactly the opposite. The grounds for this conclusion are obvious. Compare different kinds of people, or the same people when differently fed, and you will find overwhelming evidence that the degree of energy essentially depends upon the nutritiveness of the food. Between the ill fed African and the well fed European there is a contrast which no one can fail to notice. Moreover, it is a fact, established by numerous experiments, that there is scarcely one article of diet which supplies all the elements necessary for carrying on the vital processes; and hence, in order to good bodily training, mixture and variety are highly important. The proper beverage for the physical constitution has been warmly discussed of late, and many have, much to their own advantage, and that of society at large, pronounced in favour of water; and although it may not be easy to refute the argument for the moderate use of stimulating liquors, produced from the fruits of the earth by the process of fermentation, in the earlier stages of life water is undoubtedly the best drink at meals for the purpose of quenching thirst.

A good supply of pure air is intimately connected with bodily vigour. There are, in every country, whole districts, of larger or smaller extent, in which the air is either permanently or periodically noxious; its bad qualities arising generally from the miasma of fens, or the mud banks and mud deposits of rivers. In all our towns, large or small, there are to be found narrow streets, dark passages, small courts, and back yards, where the atmosphere is always loaded with impurities, in consequence of imperfect drainage, the accumulation of filth, and the position of the buildings. In such places, the inhabitants are, for the most part, a feeble and sickly race. Even when healthy, it is absolutely certain that the respiratory organs should not always breathe the same atmosphere. The unwholesome rooms in which children are penned up, the close apartments where many women are doomed to labour, and the smoke, chimneys, and long rows of houses that hem in the path of others, are producing sad havoc among the softer sex. If you would have health, strength, and longevity, you must now and then refresh your lungs, by taking a stroll on a common, a walk by the sea-side, or spending a day amid the ranges of the great hills with their wild peaks and morning mists. The breathing of fresh air is, we maintain, an essential part of physical culture.

Cleanliness has a most important and salutary influence on your material nature. In the skin of a person of average size there are tubes connected with the pores, measuring, if put end to end, twenty-eight miles. These ought always to be kept open. Checked perspiration is direct injury to the membranes of the air passages, and frequently to the alimentary canal. It is therefore necessary to remove from the skin all refuse matter from within or without. This can only be done by washing from head to foot every morning and night. It is safe, and for many reasons most beneficial, to use cold water. The flesh brush is of great service in stimulating the skin to action, opening and cleaning out the pores, promoting a copious circulation of blood, and producing a healthful and exhilarating glow; the strength of which sufficiently attests the advantages derived. Soap is useful, and the common and coarse kinds are better than most of those sold by perfumers. Next to cleanliness in your persons, is cleanliness in your dwellings. Every house ought to undergo an annual, or rather half-yearly visitation of all its cellars, its scullery, washhouse, garrets, loft, cupboards, closets, and all dark places and corners, for the removal of dirt, or anything in its wrong place. As nearly as possible the house ought to be turned “out of windows.”

All who know anything about the construction of the human frame admit the necessity of exercise as a means of physical training. Exercise produces strength; inaction produces weakness. If we may trust the author of the “Castle of Indolence,” the women of England, a hundred years ago, were too effeminate:—

This graphic description, with little or no modification, may be applied to a large class still. The peasant girl, when her spirits are buoyant, is allowed to obey her natural feelings—to dance and skip and run; and thus she grows up strong and straight. But the young lady is receiving constant admonitions to curb all propensity to such vulgar activity, and, just in proportion as she subdues nature, she receives the praise of being well-bred. Why this difference? Mammas, aunts, and governesses may be of opinion that a robust physique is undesirable—that health and vigour are plebeian—that delicacy, feebleness, and timidity are ladylike: but rosy cheeks, laughing eyes, and a finely rounded figure draw admiring glances from the opposite sex. A playground is an essential department of every school, and girls as well as boys should be taught the importance of vigorous exertion. But at all periods of life exercise is indispensable to health. Indolence destroys the very capacity of enjoyment; whereas labour puts the body in tone. A sensible young lady, some time ago, wrote as follows to the Medical Journal:—“I used to be so feeble that I could not lift a broom, and the least physical exertion would make me ill for a week. Looking one day at the Irish girls, and noticing their healthy robust appearance, I determined to make a new trial, and see if I could not bring the roses to my cheeks, and rid myself of the dreadful lassitude that oppressed me. One sweeping day I went bravely to work, cleaning the parlours, three chambers, the front stairs and hall, after which I lay down and rested until noon, when I rose and ate a heartier meal than for many a day. Since that time I have been occupied some portion of every day in active domestic labour, and now all my friends are congratulating me upon my improved and wondrous vigour, to which I have hitherto been a stranger. Young ladies, try my catholicon.” Of course, moderation is to be observed in exercise; immoderate exertion produces exhaustion.

It is well known how greatly physical comfort depends upon clothing. The want of sufficient clothing occasions a vast amount of suffering among the poorer classes; and many who can afford to dress as they please subject themselves to various mischiefs, under the influence of ignorance, carelessness, or fashion. The most common mistake is, to dress too coldly in summer and too warmly in winter. Flannel ought to be worn next the skin all the year round. It is of as much use for absorbing the perspiration in hot weather, as for warming the body in cold. “The rule is,” says Dr. Andrew Combe, “not to dress in an invariable way in all cases, but to put on clothing in kind and quantity sufficient in the individual case to protect the body effectually from an abiding sensation of cold, however slight.” Females of all classes need to be warned against the evils of tight lacing. The dress of the bride celebrated in the Song of Solomon combined utility with taste; but our ladies must have habiliments that outrage every law of propriety, and force their bodies into the most unnatural shapes. Loose garments are both cooler in summer and warmer in winter than integuments closely compressing the body.

By attention to these subjects on which suggestions have been offered, you cannot fail to secure the preservation and improvement of the health of the body. It is your duty to employ all practicable means for this purpose. “Know ye not that your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost?” Honour therefore the body as a holy thing; and beware how you put the chains of slavery upon it, or expose it from selfishness to hunger and nakedness. The importance of physical training needs to be rung into the ears of all, as with the peal of a trumpet. “It is reckoned,” says Dr. Robert Lee in a sermon preached before royalty, “that one hundred thousand persons die annually in England of preventible diseases. In the same proportion more than a million and a quarter must die annually from the same causes in Europe. In the fact that the platform, the press, and the pulpit have lifted up their voices on behalf of physical education, we recognise one of the most hopeful signs of the times.”

Although all rational men believe that women ought to be better instructed, there is a class of pedants who are of opinion that the same facilities for the acquisition of knowledge would make them rather the rivals than the companions of men. Hence our famous seats of learning are open to the one sex, and the most tempting prizes are within their reach; but no such privileges are accorded to the other. We are glad that the question regarding the propriety or impropriety of young women availing themselves of an academical education has been raised, in a somewhat unexpected form, at the oldest university in Scotland. A young English lady, Miss Elizabeth Garrett, the daughter of a gentleman of independent fortune, who had educated herself highly in classics and some of the physical sciences, with a view to the study of medicine, visited St. Andrews a few summers ago, and intimated her desire to become a student in several of the classes during the winter. Some of the professors gave her decided encouragement; and others were understood to say that they would offer no opposition. They were all ordinarily gallant, except Professor Ferrier, whose strong conservative tendencies led him to oppose. She applied to the secretary for a matriculation ticket, received the ticket, paid the fee, and signed her name in the book. Next day she presented her ticket to Dr. Heddle, and asked leave to attend his lectures on chemistry. He had no objection, and gave her a letter to Mr. Ireland, authorising him to give her a ticket for the class. In the same way she obtained a ticket for Dr. Day’s class of anatomy and physiology. He gave her a cordial welcome. But alas! the senatus met and passed a resolution to the effect that the issuing of the tickets to Miss Garrett was not sufficiently authorised, that the novel question raised ought to be deliberately considered and decided, that the opinion of other universities and lawyers should be taken, and that in the meantime the lady should not be allowed to attend on the classes of the university. All honour, and all success to those noble men who are labouring to destroy such exclusiveness, and to make these national institutions free to all, whether male or female. Your business, meanwhile, is to make the most and the best of the appliances within your reach.

Different schools of mental philosophy have variously divided and named the intellectual faculties; we are not careful to follow the exact definitions, divisions, or phraseologies of the metaphysician; it will serve our purpose better to take those prominent points which all may comprehend and appreciate. It appears to us that there are four distinct stages of mental development, characterised by four distinct classes of faculties. The first is distinguished by the perceptive; the second by the conceptive; the third by the knowing; and the fourth by the reasoning. These are discriminated from one another by the peculiar activity of the faculties which are distinctive of each; and they are mutually connected by the necessity of a certain amount of simultaneous active development.

The perceptive faculties adapt you to the material world, and furnish you with information concerning the powers, properties, and glories of matter. Their distinctive office is to observe; and they should be cultivated with the utmost care, for they not only lie at the basis of all mental superstructure, by furnishing the other faculties with the stock, or raw materials to work on; but in proportion to the distinctness of the perceptions will be the accuracy of the memory, and probably the precision of the judgment. How then can their power and activity be developed? simply by exercising them—by opening your eyes and keeping them open. The world is full of objects; but multitudes pass through life of whom it may be said, “having eyes they see not.”

The peculiar function of the conceptive faculties is to store the mind with ideas formed out of previous knowledge. When you completely enter into a scene portrayed in history or in poetry, and approach the situation of the actual observer, you are said to conceive what is meant, and also to imagine it. There is a notion pretty prevalent, that the culture of those powers which relate to the ornamental rather than the essential is to be sought only by the rich, or those destined to occupy a high position in society. No mistake could be more mischievous and cruel. Not only are they sources of enjoyment, but the main safeguards of purity—if, indeed, we should distinguish these; for in being the former they become the latter. The means of Æsthetic cultivation are, more or less, within the reach of all. Contemplate the towering mountain and the extending plain—the starry firmament and the boundless ocean; listen to music and oratory; visit the galleries of art, mechanism, and industry. But literature is at once the most potent and most widely available instrument for the expansion of the susceptibilities. Literary artists are the true unveilers of nature.

But for them, nature, aye and humanity too, in their higher teachings, would remain sealed books—dead languages, to the millions of the race.

The knowing faculties enable you to apprehend the objects of knowledge, whether generals or particulars, present or absent; and also to classify, extend, and generalise these judgments, and express them in the form of propositions. These mental operations indicate a high region of thought, and give a wide range of view. The study of the abstract terms and phrases of language, arithmetic, geometry, and grammar cultivate these powers. But natural science in its various branches is the grandest instrument for the development of the understanding. It should form a part in the education of every human being; yet it is almost entirely neglected in our schools, and our colleges have rarely given it an adequate place in their curriculum. Let us hope that, in the improvements contemplated in the whole system of education, this lamentable deficiency shall be remedied. Meanwhile, let every woman try to educate herself as best she can. Owing to the inordinate use of pseudo-classical phraseology, this fascinating study has too long been considered as a profession restricted to a favoured few, and interdicted to the many. By means of books written in a simple and popular style, and the application of your own faculties, you may become acquainted with the laws, creatures, and forms of the material universe—supply your educational deficiency, and acquire the power of levying from everything in nature a store of happiness.

The reasoning faculties methodise the materials of thought and investigate truth according to certain definite principles. With a penetrating and comprehensive glance they examine all the processes of thought, and not merely seek knowledge, but endeavour to discover its sources. They are less likely to manifest themselves than the other intellectual groups; but in well regulated minds they hold all the other faculties in subjection, and harmonise and regulate their operations. No part of your nature is more susceptible of cultivation than this; and it ought to be cultured most assiduously, for it lies at the basis of all practical application of knowledge and experience. How can these crowning powers be developed? By inductive and deductive reasoning. Analyse, compare, draw conclusions, and search for causes. Weigh well the validity of your arguments, or, it may be, the accuracy of your processes of investigation. Never contend for opinions which you do not believe; false reasoning distorts and warps the soul, and confounds the distinction between right and wrong. Remember that you are as responsible for your opinions and judgments as for your actions and conduct.

From what has been advanced, it will be seen that in our view intellectual education does not consist in the amount of knowledge acquired, but in the due exercise of all the faculties. Education is an art; the art, namely, of qualifying human beings for the functions for which they are destined. Now, in order to the perfection of an art, it must be founded on a corresponding science. But so far is such a science from being yet constructed, that the necessity for it has only been recently pointed out. Notwithstanding the lack of scientific foundation, the practical art has lately undergone great improvement in almost all its details. The method of nature is the archetype of all methods; and had educators followed her teachings, we should never have heard of the once universal practice of learning by rote, nor of the forcing system now happily falling daily into more discredit, nor of the old system of rule teaching, instead of teaching by principles; that is, the leaving of generalisations until there are particulars to base them on. As regards formal intellectual development, you labour under disadvantages, but need not despair. If the proudest princess may not become a scholar in an English, Scotch, or Irish university on the same conditions as the other students, the humblest domestic servant may matriculate in the university of nature, and enter upon studies more exalted and varied than can be pursued anywhere else. Ladies’ medical colleges are springing up, by means of which you may enter upon a lucrative occupation, most womanly in its character, and unrivaled in scope, variety, or usefulness by any other female employment. Mechanics’ institutes and lyceums have their female classes, where you may get valuable instruction, have access to books of every description, and thus at pleasure hold intercourse with the best and wisest of your species; hear all the wit, and serve yourselves heir to all the wisdom, which has entertained or enriched successive generations. By-and-by we hope to see working women’s colleges established in all our great cities and manufacturing centres, where special education shall be given about all that a maiden ought to learn, a wife to know, and a mother to practise. National organisations for being taught, examined, and diplomatized are not absolutely necessary. Many great minds have been educated without them. The essential elements of mental development are within your reach. You want no more than the will. Resolve therefore to make yourselves equal to the important duties you are called upon to fulfil.

Britain has been called the “paradise of women.” As regards moral position, this is certainly true. Mighty is your power in this respect. A virtuous woman in the seclusion of her home, breathing the sweet influences of virtue into the hearts and lives of her beloved ones, is an evangel of goodness to the world. The instinctive and disinterested love of a mother consecrates every lesson which she may give to her children. “There is a love of offspring,” says the eloquent author of the “Natural History of Enthusiasm,” “that knows no restrictive reasons, that extends to any length of personal suffering or toil; a feeling of absolute self-renunciation, whenever the interests of children involve a compromise of the comfort or tastes of the parent. There is a love of children, in which self-love is drowned; a love which, when combined with intelligence and firmness, sees through and casts aside every pretext of personal gratification, and which steadily pursues the highest and most remote welfare of its object, with the determination at once of an animal instinct and of a well considered rational purpose. There is a species of love not liable to be worn by time, or slackened, as from year to year children become less and less dependent upon parental care; it is a feeling which possesses the energy of the most vehement passions, along with the calmness and appliancy of the gentlest affections; a feeling purged, as completely as any human sentiment can be, of the grossness of earth; and which seems to have been conferred upon human nature as a sample of emotions proper to a higher sphere.” Mothers have no business with children until they are prepared to train them up in the way they should go. If you would discharge this high function, you must discipline all the moral faculties. Your opportunities are eminently favourable.

The moral powers of your nature are divided by Dr. Reid and Mr. Stewart into appetites, desires, affections, self-love, and the moral faculty. They call those feelings which take their rise from the body, and which operate periodically, appetite. By desires, they mean those feelings which do not take their rise from the body, and which do not operate periodically. Under the title of affections, they comprehend all those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication of joy or pain to your fellow creatures. According to them, self-love is an instinctive principle in the human mind, which impels you to preserve your life and promote your happiness. The moral faculty they define to be an original principle of your nature, whereby you distinguish between right and wrong. To treat this subject adequately, or to give all the rules and maxims by which your active and moral powers may be stimulated and regulated, would belong to a treatise on ethics. Your moral nature may be classed under two great principles, the self-seeking, and the disinterested; and the most important part of moral discipline is to depress the former, and exalt the latter.

The control of the selfish feelings is essential to moral growth. To live to gratify the flesh, or to become rich, or to be distinguished in places of fashion and amusement, is to be less than women. Destitute of the high power of which we are speaking—if no predominant passion has yet gained the ascendancy—you will yield to the pressure of the multitude, and be fashioned by your companions. But if the passions be strong, by-and-by you will become the slaves of vice. The noblest endowments will not save from such a catastrophe; indeed, the danger of being seduced is greatest to minds of high sensibility. We could name not a few, of the largest sympathies, the noblest sentiments, the most splendid genius, who have been degraded and destroyed, because they failed in the maintenance of self-control.

To be able, amidst the multiplied vexations of life, to exercise comprehensive and sustained self-control, is worth more than the proudest victory ever achieved in the field, and it is a battle you may win.

The great idea of duty, which springs up within you in opposition to interest, must be cultivated above all others, for on it all others depend. Conscience has a regulative power over all the faculties of your nature.

The universality of a moral sense has been questioned by many; yet the idea of duty is felt by all. When enlightened as well as sincere, and carried out to its legitimate extent, it exalts and dignifies human nature. This may be called the great conservative law of creation. It is the reflection of this principle in the material world that we see binding the spheres to their central sun, and preventing them dashing from their orbits in wild and disastrous confusion. The sense of moral accountableness alone has power to conquer the “lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the mind,” and hold them in subjection. The poet of our age has apostrophized duty in words which you should make your own.

You are happy or miserable, you are honoured or degraded, just as you neglect or observe this primal duty. Armed with a sense of duty, you are proof against all representations of danger. In confirmation of this, we can adduce a cloud of witnesses, an host of martyrs, multitudes of all nations and ages, and conditions and sexes, for whom the flames of the tormentor were kindled in vain; against whom the sword of persecution was drawn to no purpose; and who held fast their integrity, though they knew death to be the consequence. Those who are nerved with a sense of duty cannot be worsted. They fall back upon the strength of the Eternal, and set all the powers of evil at defiance.

We are not unmindful of the difficulty of cultivating in due proportion the qualities we have now described. Only a very few of our race have possessed, in an eminent degree, strong passions and strong command over them, a conscience quick in its discernment, and a will unswerving in its purpose. But while we recognise this, we contend that moral discipline is something possible. It has foundations in your nature. Its elements and means are simple and common. Every condition of life furnishes aids to it. Storms, disasters, hostilities, and sufferings are designed to school selfish feeling and promote generous satisfaction. Goodness is not worth much unless tried in these fires. Home is indeed the great sphere for preparing the young to act and to endure. “What would my mother say?” is the first whisper of conscience in the breast of the simple child; and, “What would my mother think?” its last note as it expires under a course of debauchery and sin. Nevertheless, it is equally certain that the best training will not make you women apart from your own efforts. On the other hand, however bad your early training may have been, with a resolute will, a brave heart, and Divine help, you may conquer your early habits, and stand forth moral heroines. Human nature grows in every direction in which it is trained, and accommodates itself to every circumstance placed in its way; therefore, you may take all the flowers that grow in the moral garden and hang them round your neck for a garland. Dr. Chalmers well says: “In moral education, every new achievement of principle smooths the way to future achievements of the same kind; and the precious fruit or purchase of each moral virtue is to set us on higher and firmer vantage-ground, for the conquests of principle in all time coming.”

Atheism is the most unnatural thing in the universe. The creed inscribed on its black flag is absolutely dreadful. It proclaims, in characters visible to every eye, that there is no God, no resurrection, no future state, no accountability, no virtue, no vice, no heaven, no hell, and that death is an eternal sleep. But atheism only proclaims human weakness; it does not disprove God’s existence. There is something in your very nature which leads to the recognition and worship of a superior Being. The evidence of this propension is as extensive as the race, and as prolonged as the history of humanity. The religious rites and idolatries to be found in each of the four quarters of the globe, and the piercing cry which has resounded in every age, “Where is our Father? We have neither heard His voice, nor seen His shape. Oh that we knew where we might find Him, that we might come even to His seat!” are the proofs of this capacity for worship. In every human breast there springs up spontaneously a principle which seeks for the infinite, uncreated cause; which cannot rest till it ascend to the eternal, all-comprehending Mind. Nothing but the contemplation and enjoyment of Deity can satisfy the souls that He has formed for Himself. Until that is obtained, the usual want in humanity never can be filled.

Christianity is the great necessity and the only sufficiency of your nature. It stirs up the lowest depths of your spiritual being, that the soul, in all its completeness, may lay hold on God and be blessed. All infidel philosophy is wrecked here. It does not understand, and consequently cannot explain, your relations to the Invisible, and your capacities for a blessed immortality. It can mark the contrasts in your character, but is unable to reconcile them. The grave, although a shallow, is to it a soundless abyss. All is over and done with the being who is deposited there. Christianity alone elucidates the mystery of humanity. It utters certain sounds as to whence you came, what you are, and where you are going. The Scriptures teach that you derive a corrupt nature from your original progenitors, and this is a satisfactory solution of the aversions and propensions you display. A scheme is also propounded for the remission of human guilt, and the renovation of the human soul. The fact that one condition essential to spiritual culture is a supernatural condition, does not affect self-effort; for here, as everywhere in the whole economy of grace, it will be found that the reaping will be in proportion to the sowing. Let us now see the influence of true religion upon the spiritual powers of the soul.

The faculty of hope cannot stop at what exists in time, but must wander through eternity. Its due exercise redoubles all your pleasures, by enabling you to enjoy them twice,—in anticipation as well as fruition. In trouble, this principle is a sure support.

Hope protests against breaking down under discouragements. She inscribes her loveliest rainbows on your murkiest clouds. Christianity is adapted to this power. It unfolds an infinitely higher order of life—an eternity of happiness, the boundaries of which the largest hope mounted on her loftiest pinions cannot survey. The inhabitants of that heavenly world look back upon their trials as evils which exist only in recollection; and to heighten the transport, they will remember that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Religion teaches you not to diminish hope by mourning the loss of dear children or Christian friends, but to cultivate it with the faith that they are now in heaven.

Christian hope maketh not ashamed. The wonders of Providence and grace will yet be completed.

The faculty of faith summons to the steady and devout contemplation of spiritual truth. It believes in the superhuman, and rebukes those who pride themselves in accepting nothing till it is proved. Christianity is a universal spiritual religion, which encircles in its design the whole human family, and blesses by its influence all who receive it. Seeing then that faith is the great motive power of the whole plan, its culture becomes vitally important. Although not alone sufficient, in every instance, the ordinary means of grace are specially calculated to promote this end. When the great apostle has enumerated the achievements of a host of believing worthies, he adds, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God.” The character of Christ is the most wonderful that you can contemplate, as it combines the perfections of the Divine nature, displayed in their most commanding as well as their most lovely aspect, with all the sinless sensibility of humanity. But the whole discipline of life is needed for the growth of faith. Your labours, your trials of various kinds, your experiences, your successes and failures, your very errors, may, by the Divine blessing, He made instrumental to its increase. For the higher attainments of faith, trials are not only useful, but indispensable. The martyrs reached their great faith by great tribulation. Thus we see powerful reasons why all the people of God are more or less subjected to trials and hardships.

The faculty of veneration inspires devotion, and leads to the manifestation of a feeling of dependence. It centres upon the Supreme Being, and largely developed takes great delight in the exercises of religion, and never eats a morsel of bread, nor drinks of the cooling stream, without spontaneous thanksgiving. To culture this, is eminently to educate yourselves. The contemplation of the stupendous works of God promotes veneration. Well might the poet exclaim—

Prayer is admirably calculated to produce fervency of spirit. Paul understood the philosophy of this subject when he said, “But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Hence the commandment that you should pray always. The influence of music upon this sentiment is well known.

In all the resources of thought, material cannot be found so subduing and overpowering as in the scenes of redemption. Veneration was large in Cowper, Charles Wesley, Watts, and Newton; and their hymns will fan devotion till the end of time.

Your opportunities of spiritual culture are abundant. None need be so diligent in business as to have no time for religion. The Sabbath guarantees a season for unmolested attention to the soul. Wealth cannot buy up its spiritual blessings, and poverty operates as no disqualification for its favours. It smiles as sweetly in the humble cottage as in the marble palace. On this day thousands of recognised ministers, and hundreds of thousands of Sabbath-school teachers, reason, plead, and expostulate with millions of their fellow-creatures, on the greatest of all themes. Over and above these, what earnest lessons are being instilled in the retirements of home! There is also another source of spiritual education, open nearly to all, namely, access to books whose aim is to teach the practical principles of religion. Then the Bible is within the reach of all. It is the text-book of the pulpit, the daily manual of the school, and the familiar companion of the family. Full of human sympathies, breathing unsullied purity, illustrating principles by examples, investing precepts in poetry, and commending itself not more to the learned than the unlearned, the Bible possesses every quality which can contribute to success as an instrument of spiritual culture.

Thus have we sketched, on a small scale, a complete scheme of education. How to live?—that is the question. How to use all your powers to the glory of God and the greatest advantage to yourselves and others—how to live completely? The intellectual part of your nature is superior to the physical; the moral higher than the intellectual; and the spiritual highest of all. Education complete is the full and harmonious cultivation of these four divisions. Not exhaustive development in any one, supremely important though it may be—not even an exclusive discipline of two, or even three of these divisions; but the culture of them all, and the training in due proportion of all their faculties. When these powers act simultaneously and harmoniously, no one unduly depressed, and no one improperly exalted, education has discharged its function, and a type of womanhood is realised which closely resembles your Creator’s ideal. Perfect culture is perfect character. What a glorious creature is such a woman! Her body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and her mind is enriched with the fine gold and jewellery of knowledge. Not only friends but even foes are constrained to acknowledge that she is the “glory of man,” in every sense a “help corresponding with his dignity.” More glorious than anything in the material universe is she who earnestly cultivates all her powers and practically recognises all her relationships, who has come to a perfect woman, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. We admit that all are not created alike, but we know that it is impossible to set limits to the attainments of the smallest or the achievements of the weakest. For the sake of your country—for the sake of your race—for the sake of your children—we urge you to begin now to cultivate, in all their compass and variety, the attributes of true womanhood.