BY REV. SAMUEL W. FISHER.


The nature of female education, its influence, its field of action,
comprehending a wide range of the noblest topics, render it utterly
impossible to do justice to the entire theme in the brief limits here
assigned to it. Indeed it seems almost a superfluous effort, were it not
expected, nay, demanded, to discuss the subject of education in a work
like this.

Thanks to our Father in Heaven, who, in the crowning work of his
creation, gave woman to man, made weakness her strength, modesty her
citadel, grace and gentleness her attributes, affection her dower, and
the heart of man her throne. With her, toil rises into pleasure, joy
fills the breast with a larger benediction, and sorrow, losing half its
bitterness, is transmitted into an element of power, a discipline of
goodness. Even in the coarsest life, and the most depressing
circumstances, woman hath this power of hallowing all things with the
sunshine of her presence. But never does it unfold itself so finely as
when education, instinct with religion, has accomplished its most
successful work. It is only then that she reveals all her varied
excellence, and develops her high capacities. It only unfolds powers
that were latent, or develops those in harmony and beauty which
otherwise would push themselves forth in shapes grotesque, gnarled and
distorted. God creates the material, and impresses upon it his own laws.
Man, in education, simply seeks to give those laws scope for action. The
uneducated person, by a favorite figure of the old classic writers, has
often been compared to the rough marble in the quarry; the educated to
that marble chiselled by the hand of a Phidias into forms of beauty and
pillars of strength. But the analogy holds good in only a single point.