regeneration of the world, of which no human mind--uninspired at least
--has ever yet conceived.

Would that our young females--sisters especially--had but an imperfect
conception of the power they possess to labor in the cause of human
improvement! Would that they had but an imperfect idea of female
responsibility!

My remarks are applicable to all young women; but they are particularly
so to elder sisters. To them is given in special charge, the happiness
and the destiny of all younger brothers and sisters, be they ever so
numerous. As the desires of Abel were to be expressed to Cain, and the
latter was appointed to rule over the former, so is the elder daughter
appointed to rule over those whom God has, in the same manner,
committed to her trust. Happy is she who has right views of her weighty
responsibilities; but thrice happy is she who not only understands her
duty, but does it!

But if the moral character, much more than the physical and
intellectual well being of the family, is given in charge to elder
sisters, and even to all sisters, it is scarcely possible for them to
form a correct idea of the weight of their influence, in this respect
at least, till they are past the age when that influence is most
necessary, most persuasive, and most effectual.

I have seldom found a young man who had strayed long and widely from
the path of virtue, who had enjoyed the society and influence of a
wise, and virtuous, and attentive sister. On the contrary, I have
almost uniformly found such individuals to have been in families where
there were no sisters, or where the sisters were not what they ought to