The assertions of the poet are, in a general sense, true, because they harmonize with the declarations of Holy Writ. Men should provide for women; the hard work of the world belongs, with the government of the world, to men; the "household good," the education of the young, the gentle and spiritual influences that humanize man and harmonize society, are the appropriate work of women. When the good time comes, feminine value will be appreciated as highly as feminine virtues, and the last are now the basis and the glory of Christian life. But the good time is not fully come even in our happy land, therefore many women are yet obliged to toil for their own support. Some mothers have to maintain their little children, other women must provide for parents and those who helplessly depend on them. For these reasons, it is necessary that every young woman in our land should be qualified by some accomplishment which she may teach, or some art or profession she can follow, to support herself creditably, should the necessity occur. If the trial of self-exertion never comes, women will be better qualified by such useful education for their happiest position, that of presiding over, guiding, and adorning the well-ordered home.

These educational views, that we have always held and urged on our readers, are now fast becoming the fashion and rule in society. We are happy to note the change—to find grave men, whose experience of life is practical wisdom, uniting in plans to promote the usefulness of woman's talents. Give her education and opportunity, let it be seen by actual trial what she can learn and what she can do, then a true estimate of the best means of promoting and insuring the happiness of humanity may be made.

Among the various plans for woman's advantage, adopted in our country within the past five years, three are most worthy of note, viz., opening "Female Medical Colleges," "Schools of Design for Women," and "Schools to Teach the Art of Type-setting." The first and most important of these we have often and zealously advocated and described in our "Book." We shall continue to uphold Female Medical Education as one of the best and most important advantages for woman and for the race. Now, however, we will give some account of another excellent improvement.

The Philadelphia School of Design for Women.—This school, the first of the kind in America, was founded by Mrs. Sarah Peter, 1848. It is now an incorporated institution, with a Board of gentlemen Managers, from among the most eminent citizens of Philadelphia, and a Board of lady Assistant Managers, who attend to the internal affairs of the school, the admission of pupils, their deportment, proficiency, &c.

"The changes of the last few years," says the editor of a religious paper, "have deprived woman of some of the sources of employment and supply which tended to her comfort, and are bringing her into a state of dependence upon man, such as is not compatible with her best interests. New sources of employment, consistent with her nature, are to be sought out, by which her usefulness may be increased, her comfort promoted, and her true dignity maintained. One of these will be found opened by the School of Design.

"The pupils are employed in drawing and coloring, in copying and in producing original patterns, and on lithographs and wood-engravings. The products of their industry are used by our manufacturers of cotton prints, delaines, and paper hangings, and by the publishers of ornamented books and periodicals. Hitherto, the Schools of Design in France have enabled that country to lay the world under contribution for tasteful fabrics. We hope that Philadelphia will encourage an enterprise from which both city and country will derive a benefit.

"Several specimens of the skill of the pupils are now, we understand, on exhibition in the Crystal Palace."

Thus our readers will see that this noble institution for the development of woman's talents is sustained by the good will and good offices of men. An endowment of $50,000 is in hopeful progress; when that is obtained, as it surely will be in this rich city, the Philadelphia School of Design will become the model for such institutions in every section of our land.

About ten thousand children of both sexes, from the working classes, are said to be now under this art instruction in the city of Paris; probably twice that number of scholars are in the different Schools of Design throughout France. But, then, it is about two hundred years since their first school of decorative art was established.

The first school of the kind in England was opened about twenty years ago, through the exertions of Lord Sidmouth. Now there are many institutions of the kind, and thousands of English girls and young women engaged in the study and practice of designing, drawing, &c. We trust that, in a very few years, thousands of our young and talented countrywomen will be emulating, if not excelling the taste, beauty, and perfectness shown by Europeans in every branch of decorative art.

INFLUENCE OF FEMALE EDUCATION IN GREECE.—Our readers are aware, probably, that a Mission School for the instruction of girls was established in Athens, Greece, some twenty-five years ago. At the head of this school were the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Hill. Under their care, about five thousand young women have received instruction. In a recent letter from Rev. Dr. Hill to the Foreign Mission, he thus describes the effect of this education:—

"Our prospects for the ensuing season of missionary labor were never more encouraging; on every side we witness the fruit of our twenty years' toil, in the improved religious and moral character of those around us. Some of these have received their training in our schools, and have carried with them the principles they were taught by us into their own domestic and social circles. They are scattered over the whole of Greece. Very pleasing accounts are continually being brought to our ears by American and English travellers who visit the Morea, the islands and the provinces of northern Greece, regarding those who were once our pupils, and are now mothers of families. But the influence of our principles and our instructions is not confined to those only who were brought up under our immediate care. The 'leaven has leavened,' if not the whole, at least a large 'lump,' and the effect of our labors, it may be said with great truth, is visible to a greater or less degree among the whole community. There is no end to the applications we have for admission to the privileges of our schools, nor are there any bounds to the facilities we have for preaching the Gospel freely, and for the dissemination of the Word of God, and of religious and other useful tracts. Under my own roof, I assemble twenty indoor pupils from the age of six to eighteen, with my own family, for morning and evening worship, and for religious instruction; and our outdoor pupils, when our schools shall be reopened, will outnumber four hundred. I have just added five more rooms in a contiguous building to those hitherto devoted to our missionary schools; and, if I could obtain a much larger space, or could afford the outlay, we could fill every portion of it."

READING WITHOUT IMPROVEMENT.—"Some ladies, to whose conversation I had been listening, were to take away an epic poem to read. 'Why should you read an epic poem?' I said to myself. 'You might as well save yourselves the trouble.' How often I have been struck at observing that no effect at all is produced, by the noblest works of genius, on the habits of thought, sentiment, and talk of the generality of readers; their mental tone becomes no deeper, no mellower; they are not equal to a fiddle, which improves by being repeatedly played upon. I should not expect one in twenty, of even educated readers, so much as to recollect one singularly sublime, and by far the noblest part, of the poem in question: so little emotion does anything awake, even in the moment of reading; if it did, they would not forget it so soon."

So says good, sensible John Foster, whose thoughts are always as clear and pure as rock water. There is another sentiment of his we should like to have read and remembered, too, by those who are soon to be married:—

LOVE—HOW TO SECURE IT.—"I have often contended that attachments between friends and lovers cannot be secured strong, and perpetually augmenting, except by the intervention of some interest which is not personal, but which is common to them both, and towards which their attentions and passions are directed with still more animation than even towards each other. If the whole attention is to be directed, and the whole sentimentalism of the heart concentrated on each other; if it is to be an unvaried, 'I towards you, and you towards me,' as if each were to the other not an ally or companion joined to pursue happiness, but the very end and object—happiness itself; if it is the circumstance of reciprocation itself, and not what is reciprocated, that is to supply perennial interest to affection; if it is to be mind still reflecting back the gaze of mind, and reflecting it again, cherub towards cherub, as on the ark, and no luminary or glory between them to supply beams and warmth to both—I foresee that the hope will disappoint, the plan will fail. Attachment must burn in oxygen, or it will go out; and, by oxygen, I mean a mutual admiration and pursuit of virtue, improvement, utility, the pleasures of taste, or some other interesting concern, which shall be the element of their commerce, and make them love each other not only for each other, but as devotees to some third object which they both adore. The affections of the soul will feel a dissatisfaction and a recoil, if, as they go forth, they are entirely intercepted and stopped by any object that is not ideal; they wish rather to be like rays of light glancing on the side of an object, and then sloping and passing away; they wish the power of elongation, through a series of interesting points, on towards infinity."

PUBLIC LIBERALITY.—The State of New York, which has expended, from time to time, upwards of half a million of dollars in the advancement of medical education, has more recently divided thirty thousand dollars between the two Medical Colleges at Albany and Geneva.

Would it not be better to devote a little money to educate those who have the normal care of humanity in their hands—rather than give all to those who are preparing to cure its diseases? Women are the preservers of infancy, they form the physical constitution of their children; give women that knowledge of the laws of health which their duties require, and one-half the present number of male physicians might be spared.

A RULING PASSION.—I have the highest opinion of the value of a ruling passion; but if this passion monopolizes all the man, it requires that the object be a very comprehensive or a very dignified one, to save him from being ridiculous. The devoted antiquary, for instance, who is passionately in love with an old coin, an old button, or an old nail, is ridiculous. The man who is nothing but a musician, and recognizes nothing in the whole creation but crotchets and quavers, is ridiculous. So is the nothing but verbal critic, to whom the adjustment of a few insignificant particles in some ancient author, appears a more important study than the grandest arrangements of politics or morals. Even the total devotee to the grand science Astronomy, incurs the same misfortune. Religion and morals have a noble pre-eminence here; no man or woman can become ridiculous by his or her passionate devotion to them; even a specific direction of this passion will make a man sublime—witness Howard; specific, I say, and correctly, though, at the same time, any large plan of benevolence must be comprehensive, so to speak, of a large quantity of morals.

HE who administers medicine to the sad heart in the shape of wit and humor, is most assuredly a good Samaritan. A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather. To make a sick man think he is dying, all that is necessary is to look half dead yourself. Open, unrestrained merriment is a safety-valve to the heart and disposition. If overburdened with the noxious gases of care, pull the string of wit, up flies the valve of fun, and out go the troubles and vexations of life to the four winds of heaven.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.—The following articles are accepted: "The Linden," "The Song-Birds of Spring," "My Early Days," "To one who Rests," "Cupid's Arrows," "Bury me in the Evening," "To an Absent Dear One," "Some Thoughts on Training Female Teachers," "The Lily and the Star" (the two other poems by the same writer are not wanted, because we are overstocked with poetry), "Truth" (the other poem is not accepted for want of room), "A Song," "I miss thee, Love," "The Young Enthusiast," and "Love and Artifice."

The following articles are declined: "Letter from Eden," "The faded bloom of Spring" (the poem is not without merit, but there are faults of rhythm and rhyme which make it inadmissible), "True Friendship" (the acrostic Mr. Godey will give from his "Arm-Chair," and thanks Theresa for her compliments, which are pleasant, though her poetry is not perfect), "Sudden Death," "Exercise in the Morning," "A Long Story," "Arabella," "Sonnets," "The Old House," "Ages," "Seeing is not Believing," and "Good-Bye."