It is peculiarly desirable that this subject be insisted upon. The work of individual self-formation is a duty not only to yourselves and your immediate relations, but to your fellow-creatures at large. On the use you make of your early energies; the conduct of your intellect, when it is capable of the most vigorous action; the discipline of your heart, when it is susceptible of the most lively impressions, will mainly depend what you shall henceforth be. This will involve much sacrifice, yea, lifelong struggle; yet we venture to press the demand. Should you never rise higher in society, you have already gained an honoured and holy position. You carry with you a blessed charm to lighten toil, to assuage affliction, to purify attachment, to conquer death. Yon have trained yourself in the way in which you should go, and when you are old you will not depart from it. Sisters, have you courage for the conflict? For in the Divine order, fighting precedes victory, and labour goes before reward.
“’Tis first the true, and then the beautiful; Not first the beautiful, and then the true; First the wild moor, with rock and reed and pool; Then the gay garden, rich in scent and hue.
’Tis first the good, and then the beautiful; Not first the beautiful, and then the good; First the rough seed, sown in the rougher soil, Then the flower-blossom, and the branching wood.
Not first the glad, and then the sorrowful; But first the sorrowful, and then the glad; Tears for a day—for earth of tears is full— Then we forget that we were ever sad.
’Tis first the fight, and then the victory; Not first the victory, and then the fight; The long dark night, and then the dawning day, Which ushers in the everlasting light.”
“Without intending a silly compliment, I think I may say, if you look at the two sexes and ask which is the best product, and does the most credit to its own training, he would be a bold person who would say it was the male sex.”
Whether woman’s powers are equal to those of man seems to us hardly to admit of discussion. The proper question is not one of equality but of adaptation. In the very nature of things, between the two sexes there is a difference as well as a similarity. It was not good for man to be alone, therefore God provided an help meet for him. The one sex is the compliment of the other. “Man and woman,” to adopt the language of Dr. Craik, “are fitted the one for the other as much by their difference as by their similarity. The parts which they have to act, the spheres in which they have to move, are as distinct in some respects as they are identical. Of all false social philosophies, that is the blindest and shallowest which overlooks or denies this, and would seek to improve the character or elevate the condition of women by making them, as far as possible, exchange their own proper character for that of the other sex.” The functions, the occupations, and consequent duties of man and woman grow out of their bodily and mental structures. Each sex is perfect for its purpose; and when the one encroaches on the other, inferiority, incongruity, and antagonism is the result. What so odious as a masculine woman? What so contemptible as a feminine man? Alas! both are frequently met in the world.