REV. MR. STONE'S ADDRESS. 137 



Cincinnatus quitted it to command the Roman armies, or our 

 own Washington, to be the saviour of his country. 



In the remarks now offered, I have made no reference to 

 farmers' daughters. I would not, from this cause, be supposed 

 to cherish indifference to their intellectual improvement. Far 

 from it. The advantages I demand for the son, I claim for the 

 daughter. When, in the olden time, a prayer was offered, 

 "that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth," it 

 was added, " that our daughters may be as corner stones, pol- 

 ished after the similitude of a palace." In my plea for educa- 

 tion, I can make no distinction in the sexes that God has not 

 made. I believe the best education, and the fullest develop- 

 ment of their intellectual powers, that circumstances will per- 

 mit, is the right of both, of the sister as much as the brother. 

 If knowledge is a blessing to the latter, it can be nothing less to 

 the former. The purpose of female education, as is justly re- 

 marked by a successful female educator, is to lead the sex " in 

 the path of duty ; to make better daughters, wives and moth- 

 ers ; and better to qualify them for usefulness in every path 

 within the sphere of their exertions. The true object of educa- 

 tion, is not to lead woman from her own proper sphere, but to 

 qualify her for the better discharge of those duties which lie 

 within it. By being enabled to see more clearly the peculiar 

 obligations which devolve upon them in their various relations, 

 and to discern the boundary between their duties and those of 

 the other sex, they will be restrained from indelicately passing 

 the barrier which the Almighty himself, in the peculiarities of 

 physical as well as mental constitution, has established between 

 them. Females are not called upon to lead armies, make and 

 execute laws, or to preside over public safety." But they may 

 be called to equally important and responsible duties. They 

 '•maybe called upon to preside over the domestic circle; to 

 regulate families by their wisdom, and to guide and enlighten 

 the youthful mind. In the proper performance of these duties, 

 they will need all that clearness of reason, and solidity of judg- 

 ment, to which a thorough and well conducted education may 

 conduce. No law, human or divine, forbids that the female 

 mind should seek to penetrate science," or that it should be 

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