Woman

Among the striking characteristics of the present age, there is none more obvious, or important, than the social elevation of woniaxi. Her true position is found to be the centre of the domestic circle, - love, her talis- man, - influence, her magic wand, - affection, her gift, - happiness, her dower. In pagan lands, it is true, she is still a slave, while in many half civilized countries, though somewhat raised in the scale of humanity, she is still degraded below the sphere in which Providence designed her to move. The tendency of Christianity has been, to exalt her virtues, to consecrate and hallow her affections, to ennoble her reason, to shed a halo of light about her path, and thus to add dignity to her nature, and influence to her sway. It is the glory of modern times, that woman is no longer the abject, dis- pised being, that she once was, and now is, in many parts of the earth ; but exalted to a station, correspond- ing to her lofty aspirations, and high destiny. If true to herself, she may wield a degree of moral and social power, far more extensive, and all-controlling, than the grandest conceptions of man ever reached, - a power more diffusive and irresistible over human character and fortune, than was ever wielded by a Caesar or Napoleon, in their palmiest days ; for while armies are necessary to conquer a world, woman's moral in- fluence alone can civilize and save it. If this be so, it may be asked, why do we hear the cry of injustice and oppression on the part of the other sex ; of rights withheld, - privileges denied, - hard- ships endured, - justice refused ? With these weighty charges, come a long list of grievances, civil, political, domestic ; - of the cruelty of depriving woman of a seat on the judicial bench, in the senate chamber, and the legislative hall ; of her being driven from the bal- lot box, and the arena of public life, without a voice in the representation, - obliged to submit to laws, to which she has never signified allegiance, and in the making of which she has borne no part, - " governed without consent," - ruled by usurped authority, and compelled, through a life of drudgery and pain, to move in a subordinate sphere, and ever feel the op- pressive tyranny of man. Such is the language, not only of Miss Martineau and others of her sex, but which we find reiterated in some of our respectable jour- nals and periodicals ; several of which openly main- tain that our laws relating to divorce should be altered, so as to allow greater facility of separation, and that marriage does not need to be guarded by all the legal barriers, with which, at present, it is surrounded ;- that woman should possess equal rights with man, as to the possession and disposal of property and children, -in short that our whole legislation on this subject is wrong, barbarous and inhuman, designedly oppressive to the weaker sex, and therefore needing reform. We cannot here enter upon a discussion of these questions, but shall consider them somewhat at length in the Appendix, to which we would direct the atten- tion of the reader. Suffice it now to say, that we neither subscribe to the justice or truth of such repre- sentations, which spring from a false notion of the appropriate sphere of woman, and a misapprehension of the principles, upon which our laws are founded. A comparison of the present condition of females in our own country, with that of former ages, or with that which they now occupy, in other parts of the world, cannot but inspire us with a degree of pride and satisfaction in the institutions of our land, which so manifestly tend to exalt and ameliorate, instead of degrading and oppressing them.