603 
Mrs, Wright's Travels in the United States. 
deuce, and had drawn a sword in its 
support. He recollected the first ap¬ 
pearance of 44 Common Sense,” and the 
electric shock that it produced through¬ 
out the country. He could recal the 
various circumstances of the war, and 
all the hopes, and fears, and rejoicings 
of the people. 44 All,” to use his own 
words, 44 as if it were yesterday. I 
have lived,” he continued; 44 to see my 
country established in her rights ; to 
see her trebled in population, and quit 
of party jealousies and factions ; and I 
think,” said the old man, smiling, 
44 that I have now lived enough.” I 
felt somewhat affected by his parting 
salutation. His discourse had very 
naturally fixed my attention, which he, 
perhaps as naturally, had observed with 
pleasure. When the boat touched the 
shore, 44 You seem,” he said, 44 to be a 
foreigner ; I wish you may soon become 
a citizen, for I think that you are 
worthy to be a citizen of our country.” 
The old patriot meant this for a com¬ 
pliment ; as such I received it, and as 
such, I assure you, I felt it. 
the wo me?*:. 
I believe I have before remarked 
upon the beauty of the young women ; 
I might almost say girls , for their 
beauty is commonly on the wane at five 
and twenty. Before that age their 
complexions are generally lovely ; the 
red and white so delicately tempered 
on their cheeks, as if no rude wind had 
ever fanned them ; their features small 
and regular, as if moulded by fairy 
fingers; and countenances so gay and 
smiling, as if no anxious thoughts had 
ever clouded the young soul within. It 
is a pity that the envious sun should so 
soon steal the rose and lily from their 
cheeks, and perhaps it is also a pity 
that the cares of a family should so soon 
check the thoughtless gaiety of their 
hearts, and teach them that mortal life 
is no dream of changing pleasures, but 
one of auxieties and cheating hopes. 
The advantages attending early mar¬ 
riages are so substantial, and the coun¬ 
try in which they are practicable, is in 
a condition of such enviable prosperity, 
whether we regaad its morals or its hap¬ 
piness, that I almost blush to notice 
the objections which, as an idle obser¬ 
ver, one might find in a circumstance 
resulting from so happy an order of 
things. The American youth of both 
sexes are, for the most part, married 
ere they are two and twenty; and in¬ 
deed it is usual to see a girl of eighteen 
a wife and a mother. It might doubt¬ 
less, ere this, be possible, if not to fix 
them in habits of study, at least to store 
their minds with useful and general 
knowledge, and to fit them to be not 
merely the parents but the judicious 
guides of their children. Men have ne¬ 
cessarily, in all countries, greater faci¬ 
lities than women for the acquirements 
of knowledge, and particularly for its 
acquirement in that best of all schools, 
the world. I mean not the world of 
fashion, but the world of varied society, 
where youth loses its presumption, and 
prejudice its obstinacy, and where self- 
knowledge is best obtained from the 
mind being forced to measure itself 
with other minds, and thus to discover 
the shallowness of its knowledge, and 
the groundlessness of its opinions. In 
this country, where every man is called 
to study the national institutions, and to 
examine, not merely into the measures 
but the principles of government, the 
very laws become his teachers; and, in 
the exercise of his rights and duties as 
a citizen, he becomes more or less a po¬ 
litician and a philosopher. His edu¬ 
cation, therefore, goes on through life; 
and though he should never become 
familiar with abstract science or orna¬ 
mental literature, his stock of useful 
knowledge increases daily, his judg¬ 
ment is continually exercised, and his 
mind gradually fixed in habits of obser¬ 
vation and reflection. Hitherto the 
education of women has been but 
slightly attended to ; married without 
knowing any thing of life but its amuse¬ 
ments, and then quickly immersed in 
household affairs and the rearing of 
children, they command but few of 
those opportunities by which their hus¬ 
bands are daily improving in sound 
sense and varied information. 
The manners of the women strike 
me as peculiarly marked by sweetness, 
artlessness, and liveliness; there is 
about them, at least in my eyes, a cer¬ 
tain untaught grace and gaiety of tho 
heart, equally removed from the stu¬ 
died English coldness and indifference, 
and the no less studied French vivacity 
and mannerism. They enter very early 
into society ; far too early, indeed, to 
be consistent with a becoming attention 
to the cultivation of their minds. I 
am, however, acquainted with striking 
exceptions to this general practice. 
There are some mothers in this city 
who anxiously preside over the educa¬ 
tion of their daughters, and are yet more 
desirous of storing their minds with 
solid information than of decking them 
with 
