captivating a beau.  They were sensible, modest, and moral women, and their virtues live after them in the exalted character of their illustrious sons.  Their literary education in early life was, of necessity, neglected, because of the want of opportunities; but in the virtues and duties of life, they were thoroughly educated; and none of these, or any of their like, was ever Mrs. President or Secretary of any pretentious or useless society or association.

The little education or literature they acquired was in the old log school-house, where boys and girls commingled as pupils under the teaching of some honest pedagogue, who aspired to teach only reading, writing, and arithmetic, in a simple way.  It must not be supposed, from the foregoing remarks, that I object to female education; on the contrary, I would have every woman an educated woman.  But I would have this education an useful and proper education; one not wholly ornamental and of no practical use, but one obtained at home, and under the parental care and influence—­such an one as made Mrs. Ripley, of Concord, Massachusetts, the wonder and admiration of every sensible man.  She who studied La Place’s Mecanique Celeste when she was making biscuit for her breakfast, and who solved a problem in the higher mathematics when darning her stockings; an education where the useful may be taught and learned to grace the ornamental—­where the harp and piano shall share with the needle and the cooking-stove, and the pirouettes of the dancing-master shall be only a step from the laundry and the kitchen.

The duties of wives and mothers are to home, husband, and children; and this includes all of woman’s duty to the country, and in the intelligent and faithful discharge of which the great ends of life are subserved.  Good neighborhood, good government, and happy communities secure the implanting and cultivation of good principles, and the proper teaching of proper duties.  The wise direction of literary education to sons and to daughters, all comes within the range of home, and home duties especially incumbent upon mothers.  The domestic duties and domestic labors should be a prime consideration in the education of daughters.  The association of the mother and child from birth, until every principle which is to guide and govern it through life is implanted, makes it the duty of the mother to know the right, and to teach it, too.  Example and precept should combine; and this necessity compels a constant watch, not only over the child’s, but over the mother’s language and conduct.  All these duties imply a close devotion to home:  for here is the germ which is to grow into good or into evil, as it is nursed and cultivated, or wickedly neglected.  Begin at the beginning, if you would accomplish well your work; and to do this, application and assiduity are indispensable; and these are duties only to be discharged at home.  They admit of a relaxation of time sufficient for every social duty exacted by society, if that society is such as it should be; and if not, it should neither occupy time not attention.