SEE PLATE.

ONE of the most beautiful of the exquisite group of pictures which constitute the inimitable L'Allegro, of Milton, has been very successfully realized in the accompanying plate. A quiet and peaceful spirit suffuses itself over the scene, and the design and execution of the piece are in fine harmony with the idea of the The poem. poem itself forms its most fitting counterpart. We present, accordingly, that part of it which the artist has seized upon as the theme of his graceful composition. At a future time we may present another equally beautiful illustration of the same poem, and with it the remainder of the poem. However frequently perused, we are confident no one will greet its reappearance with any other feeling than gratification.

"HENCE, loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,
In Stygian cave forlorn,

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy Find out some uncouth cell,

Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings,
And the night raven sings;

There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks,
As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.
But come, thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven yclep'd Euphrosyne,
And by men, heart-easing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth,
With two sister Graces more
To ivy-crown'd Bacchus bore;

The frolic wind that breathes the spring,
Or whether (as some sages sing)
Zephyr, with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a-Maying;
There on beds of violets blue,
And fresh-blown roses washed in dew,
Fill'd her with thee, a daughter fair,
So buxom, blithe, and debonaire.

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Jest and youthful jollity, Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter, holding both his sides. Come and trip it as you go, On the light fantasti: toe; And in thy right hand lead with thee, The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty. And if I give thee honor due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreproved pleasure free; To hear the lark begin his flight, And singing startle the dull Night, From his watch-tower in the skies, Till the dappled dawn doth rise; Then to come in spite of Sorrow, And at my window bid good morrow, Through the sweet briar, or the vine, Or the twisted eglantine; While the cock with lively din Scatters the rear of darkness thin, And to the stack, or the barn door, Stoutly struts his dames before : Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring Morn, From the side of some hoar hill, Through the high wood echoing shrill: Sometime walking not unseen, By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green, Right against the eastern gate, Where the great sun begins his state, Rob'd in flames, and amber light, The clouds in thousand liveries dight, While the ploughman near at hand Whistles o'er the furrowed land, And the milk-maid singeth blithe, And the mower whets his scythe, And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale."

Он, to see one's own emotion
Make another's cheek burn bright!
Oh, to mark one's own devotion

Fill another's eye with light! Tears are types of woe and parting, But o'er woe a charm is thrown, When from other eyes are starting Tears that mingle with our own.

Never sweeter-never dearer

Seems the world and all it holds, Than when loving hearts see clearer All that "Sympathy" unfolds! Every thought, and look, and feelingEvery passion we can name Still a second-self revealing! Still another-yet the same!

FROM Christianity woman has derived her moral and social influence. To it she owes her very existence as a social being. The mind of woman, which the legislators and sages of antiquity had doomed to eternal inferiority and imbecility, Christianity has developed. The Gospel of Christ, in the person of its great Founder, has descended into this neglected mine, which wise men regarded as not worth the working, and brought up a priceless gem, flashing with the light of intelligence, and glowing with the lively hues of Christian graces.

Christianity has been the restorer of woman's plundered rights. It has furnished the brightest jewels in her present crown of honor.

Her pre

vious degradation accounts, in part at least, for the instability of early civilization. It is impossible for society to be permanently elevated where woman is debased and servile. Wherever females are regarded as inferior beings, society contains, within itself, the elements of its own dissolution. It is impossible that institutions and usages, which trample upon the very instincts of our nature, and violate the revealed law of God, should be crowned with ultimate success.

The family is a divine institution. The duties and rights of its respective members are plainly indicated by the laws of our physical constitution. They are more fully prescribed by the Word of God. In the infancy of the world, the family and the state were intimately associated. Both society and government naturally grew out of the divinely constituted relations of the family. The first human pair were not "isolated savages," as they have been termed by groveling infidels, nor was the natural state of mankind a state of warfare, as the philosopher of Malmesbury would have us believe. Admitting what revelation clearly teaches, that the first human pair were intelligent, civilized beings, united by God, "in the bands of holy wedlock," we have then a foundation sufficiently broad for the whole social fabric to rest upon. We need not resort to "a state of nature," (technically so called,) nor to a "social compact," for the origin of government, nor to "necessity" for the origin of society. The family contained the elements of both. An enlarged fam ily is a society. The regulations adopted by a fa

ther, for the management of his household, constitutes a government. Upon this natural foundation "the state" is based; from these simple relations an endless variety of political institutions has arisen

Though the family and "the state" are so closely united in their origin, still we must not confound their relations. The rights and the duties of the father and the magistrate, the son and the subject, are, by no means, identical. "The state and the family differ, not only in size, but in the essentials of their constitution. At the same time, however, it is undeniable that there have been stages in the history of humanity, when the ideas of state and family were closely interwoven and almost blended together. They were mixed in the patriarch; they were continued when the family grew into a tribe; they were not always formally separated when the tribe became a nation." A more enlightened philosophy has distinguished these analogous relations, and defined the duties and rights of the father and the magistrate. The government of the family is based upon mutual affection and sympathy; the government of the state upon mutual justice and political equality. Still, the family is the nursery of all those virtues which adorn the state. "Pat

riotism, as all languages testify, springs from the hearth." The good father makes the good magistrate. The son, "who has borne the yoke in his youth," makes the exemplary citizen; while the enlightened and cultivated mother and sister give to society its highest dignity, and to home its fondest endearments. Whatever interrupts the harmony of domestic life or disturbs its divinely-appointed relations, poisors the very wellsprings of society, and introduces disease into its political organization. The tyrannical father is not a safe depository of delegated power. The dis disobedient son early learns to contemn the wholesome restraints of law; and before his maturity, often becomes a hardened culprit. The uneducated, undisciplined daughter is often the disgrace of her family and the reproach of her sex. In a word, the condition of the family is the true index of the condition of society. Where domestic happiness is most fully enjoyed, there society is most matured and civilization most advanced.

The family obtains a higher importance as so

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ciety improves and woman assumes the true position for which she is so admirably adapted by the laws of her physiological and mental constitution. Among savage nations the condition of woman is always degraded and servile. This is one of the most odious features of barbarism, and one of the most difficult to eradicate. No system of religion recognizes woman as the companion and equal of man, except Christianity, and under no other system can she enjoy her inalienable rights. Society may change in its external aspect, may exhibit the glitter of wealth, the refinements of taste, the embellishments of art, or the more valuable attainments of science and literature, and yet the mind of woman remain undeveloped, her taste uncultivated, and her person enslaved. But wherever Christianity enters, woman is free. The Gospel, like a kind angel, opens her prison doors, and bids her walk abroad and enjoy the sunlight of reason and breathe the invigorating air of intellectual freedom.

A survey of the different epochs that mark the history of the world would demonstrate most conclusively that the elevation of the female sex is intimately associated with the elevation of our race; that the condition of women, in any age, is a true index of the condition of society, and that the progress of human civilization has only kept pace with the progress of female education. We can, then, scarcely estimate too highly the advantages that would result to our own country, from a more thorough system of female education. Much has been done, within the last fifty years, to elevate the standard of female education. If the list of studies taught in our female academies now, be compared with the requisitions of that period, they will be found to be vastly superior. President Dwight, in remarking upon this subject, in his day, says: "It is owing to the innate good sense of the women of this country, that they are not absolute idiots. I would not give a farthing to have a daughter of mine go to many of the schools of our country. Observe the state of our schools for females, and compare them with the colleges for males. The end kept in view, in the education of males, is to make them useful; in that of females, to make them admired. Men will pay any sum to have their daughters taught to manage their feet in dancing, to daub over a few pictures, to play a few tunes upon the piano, to be admired by a few silly young men. not speak of this subject," adds the venerable president, "without indignation." Though many institutions have been established within the last half century for the education of girls, and great efforts have been made to elevate the standard of scholarship, still not a tithe of what ought to be

I can

done, and what the best good of society requires to be done, has yet been accomplished. The romantic ideas of the dark ages have not wholly disappeared. The chivalrous notion still prevails in refined society, that men need knowledge, but women accomplishments, for success in life. Consequently, boys, in a course of education, are confined to the severe discipline of the languages and mathematics, while girls, after obtaining a superficial knowledge of the elementary branches of an English education, are confined to music, drawing, and other similar accomplishments, accompanied, perhaps, with a slight smattering of French. I would by no means object to the cultivation of those elegant branches of female education, but I would not have them substituted for that intellectual training, without which even these are useless.

The question here occurs, What is the best course of discipline for female minds? I answer, precisely that which is best for the development of any mind. Females have the same mental powers as the males, and these require the same discipline in order to their complete, symmetrical development. To meet the difficulties of life, the female needs the same acumen of intellect, the same maturity of judgment and refinement of taste as the male; and whatever is valuable as a mental discipline for the one, is equally so for the other. There is no way to acquire intellectual strength, but by vigorous intellectual exercise. The mind can be matured only by hard study, patient and protracted study, discriminating study, incessant study. Mind expands only by patient thought. This cannot be secured by attention to mere accomplishments. A severer discipline is needed, if women would have strong minds, cultivated minds, mature minds; if they would acquire an intellectual strength and soundness of judgment, which will enable them to meet with fortitude the stern realities of life. If females are confined to the merely ornamental branches of education, they are, by that very process, doomed to everlasting mediocrity, if not to inferiority. Whatever is essential to the education of the male mind, is equally essential to the development of the female mind. But, says an objector, would you fit females for the pulpit, the bar, and the halls of legislation? By no means. I would only prepare them for the faithful and intelligent discharge of those duties which the God of Nature has assigned to them. In their own appropriate sphere they will find abundant use for all the acumen, all the sound judgment and cultivated taste, which the most thorough mental discipline can give. It does not follow, because profound learning in the dark ages, and to a con