dation which produces the mischief, as it is this which makes the difference between the soldier and the assassin.

The influences in favor of virtue here are greater than in most other countries-the temptations to vice are less; and our society consequently has a high tone of morality; but to raise that tone still higher, we have only to increase the beneficial influences, and to diminish the inducements to immoral conduct.

The American women are courageous and patriotic, in an extraordinary degree, as has been manifested on a thousand occasions. Mixing freely in general society, and at an early age, they take a great interest in the business and politics of the country, and are often the leaders in religi ous and philanthropic, as well as social movements. In energy of character, in intelligence, and the religious and domestic virtues, the women of America have no superiors in the world, and in all these respects their character is still improving. The standard of private education and excellence rises higher and higher, with the advance of society, and woman is destined to lead the van in the reforms which are to elevate the character and work out the noble destiny of the human race.

The general character of woman has been beautifully given by the traveller, Ledyard, in the following passage, which is no more beautiful than just:

"I have always remarked," said this careful observer of manners, "that women in all countries are civil, obliging, tender and humane; that they are inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest; and that they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. Not haughty, not arrogant, nor supercilious, they are full of courtesy, and fond of society; more liable, in general, to err than men; but in general, also, more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he. To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has often been otherwise. In wandering through the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden and frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the widespread regions of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold,

wet or sick, the women have ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and to add to this virtue (so worthy of the appellation of benevolence,) their actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry, I ate the coarseest morsel with a double relish."

WOMA N.

PART EIGHTH.

PROMISE OF THE FUTURE.

FROM the past history and present condition of woman, we turn with hope and joy to the spectacle of her future destiny. It cannot be that God has created this lovely portion of our race for a never-ending condition of degradation and slavery. We cannot fathom the designs of Omnipotence-but it is the highest honor we can pay to a Being of infinite wisdom and justice, to believe that our race is moving forward toward a condition of higher development and greater happiness.

It must be that the world is yet in its infancy-that the race has a far nobler destiny than it has yet enjoyed and in that higher civilization of which we see the dawning promise, there must be for woman some glorious compensations for the sufferings and miseries of the past. Beautiful woman was made to be the queen of the earth, the joy and pride of the human race, the purest and loveliest of the creatures of God; and we are not infidels enough to doubt that all manifest destinies will one day or other be accomplished.

We might be faithless, and feel desperate in regard to man; but we cannot give up woman to the miseries of savageism, barbarism, and even of civilization, through all coming centuries. We might suppose that it was the destiny of men to oppress, enslave, and butcher each other, in all coming time, as it has been in all time past; but we must believe in a better fate for that portion of our race, which, even now, is gifted with angelic attributes, and whose influence and society give us our only idea of paradise.

Yes the day is coming when woman, developed, refined, elevated to the position which God has designed for her, will preside over a beautified planet, and worthily receive the homage and adoration of the sex that now treats her with ingratitude, and, too often, with ignominy. We record the prophecy, with a deep faith that its fulfilment is approaching; yet it must be generations-it may be centuries-before this promise will be realized by even the most favored portions of our race. Nations must be revolutionized, sects decay, institutions crumble, perhaps whole races perish; but, as surely as the earth is as surely as God exists-the fulness of time will come, when all that the Creator has designed for man on the earth, will be accomplished. Atheists may scoff, infidels may jeer, but the grand passions which God has implanted in the breast of man, point ever to his destiny-the destiny of the human race, the planet created for its home, and all subordinate existencies upon it. The most brilliant being of that glorious future will be woman-and some of the steps by which she is to advance to the happiness in store for her, we shall endeavor to point out in our concluding pages.

With a few bright passages of soft sunshine, the picture of the past of woman has been a gloomy one. It is darkened all over with horrors. Poor, sick, ignorant, enslaved, crushed with bigotries, maddened with fanaticisms-enduring a thousand forms of untold misery-the fate of woman has been dark and damning. In her best condition-under the highest civilization-she suffers multiplied miseries; and for too many of the gentle sex, this bright worldgemmed all over with Divine beneficence-has been only a "vale of tears." Shall we not strengthen our faith in God, with the belief that a better day is dawning?

We look for no miraculous revelations of Omnipotenceno ushering in of a millennium, with the pomp of angelic ministration and sublime elemental phenomena. The sun will shine on in the heavens; the order and harmony of the universe will not be disturbed. No-the means by which our race is to advance to a high condition of happiness, are of a natural and simple character. We have only to look back upon the past, to judge of the future. We have advanced from savageism to civilization—and

the same means must continue to carry us still onward and upward. Light seems to be just dawning over the earth-but even in that dawning light, what vast advances have been made! If the meagre and ill-diffused intelligence now existing, has accomplished so much, what may we not expect from general enlightenment? He has not rightly studied the past, who permits himself to despair of the future.

Great changes will doubtless take place in the world, within the progress of a few centuries. On this continent, we see the red race gradually fading from existence. A similar change in population seems to be going on in Australia and Polynesia. We may reasonably look forward to the time, when Asia and Africa will be repeopled, by races of a higher order than those by which they are now inhabited. The amalgamated European races, there is reason to believe, will in a few centuries occupy every portion of the habitable globe. The repeopling of the American continent by these races is going on with such regularity and rapidity, that its progress can be calculated with some degree of certainty.

With these changes in population and races, there cannot fail to be corresponding revolutions in governments and institutions. Progress is death to despotisms. The American continent will doubtless be a vast congeries of republics, united together under one or more federal governments. All tyrannies will be overthrown, before the spread of intelligence, until the earth shall be filled with knowledge and liberty.

Man has been left to work out his own destiny, and to the regular and infallible operation of the laws which regulate the moral world; as others govern the physical. We can no more doubt the inevitable results of the operation of one, than of the other. The same God that made the universe, has also made man; in the physical creation order came by degrees from chaos; we cannot doubt that the same brilliant result will be displayed in due season, in the progress of human society. Without such a faith, we must believe that all has been left to blind chance, or that the creation of the human race has been a lamentable failure. There can be no true faith in God, or reverence