some of her own and the best securities of humanity. We may admit,
and cheerfully do so, that she might, with propriety, be allowed
some additional legal privileges of a domestic sort. But the great
object of attainment, which is the more serious need of the sex--her
own more full development as a responsible being--seems mainly
to depend upon herself, and upon self-education. The great first
duty of woman is in her becoming the mother of men; and this duty
implies her proper capacity for the education and training of the
young. To fit her properly for this duty, her education should become
more elevated, and more severe in degree with its elevation. But
the argument is one of too grave, too intricate, and excursive
a character, to be attempted here. It belongs to a very different
connection. It is enough, in this place, to say that Margaret Cooper
possesses just the sort of endowment to make a woman anxious to
pass the guardian boundaries which hedge in her sex--her danger
corresponds with her desires. Her securities, with such endowments,
and such a nature, can only be found in a strict and appropriate
education, such as woman seldom receives anywhere, and less, perhaps,
in this country than in any other. To train fully the feminine
mind, without in any degree impairing her susceptibilities and
sensibilities, seems at once the necessity and the difficulty of
the subject. Her very influence over man lies in her sensibilities.
It will be to her a perilous fall from pride of place, and power,
when, goaded by an insane ambition, in the extreme development of
her mere intellect, she shall forfeit a single one of these securities
of her sex.