A Treatise on Domestic Economy

ry, which it is important that they should consider. The great maxim, which is the basis of all our civil and political institu

ve thy neighbor as thyself;" and "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," are the Scripture forms, by which the Supreme Lawgiver requires that each individual of our race shal

then, are identical with th

ed, which sustain certain relations and dependencies in social and civil life. What these relations and their attending obligations shall be, are to be determined, not with reference to t

here must be the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, teacher and pupil, employer and employed, each involving the relative duties of subordination. The superior, in certain particulars, is to direct, and

e Creator. He has given children to the control of parents, as their superiors, and to them they remain subordinate, to a certain age, or so long as they are

but the one she chooses for herself; nor is she obliged to take a husband, if she prefers to remain single. So every domestic, and every artisan or laborer, after passing from parental

rior as a ruler. The weakest, the poorest, the most illiterate, has the same opportun

uliar privileges to a favored class, at the expense of another. Every law, and every institution, is tested by examining whether it secures equal advantages to all

eat mass of the people. Thus, the throne and aristocracy of England are supported by laws and customs, which burden the lower classes with taxes, so enormous, as to deprive them of all the luxuries, and of most of the comforts, of l

l interest in all social and civil concerns; and that no domestic, civil, or political, institution, is right, which sacrifices her interest to promote that of the other sex. But in order to secure her the more firmly in all these privileges, it is decided, that, in the domestic relation, she take a subordinate station, and that,

unctions, impose on both the same duties, and grant to both the same rights. They would mix them in all things,-their business, their occupations, their pleasures. It may readily be conceived, tha

design was, to give a distinct employment to their various faculties; and they hold, that improvement does not consist in making beings so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in getting each of them to fulfil their respective tasks, in the best possib

which are always different. American women never manage the outward concerns of the family, or conduct a business, or take a part in political life; nor are they, on the other hand, ever compelled

yond it. Hence it is, that the women of America, who often exhibit a masculine strength of understanding, and a manly energy, generally preserve gre

iation must have a head, in order to accomplish its object; and that the natural head of the conjugal association is man. They do not, therefore, deny him the right of directing his partner; and they maintai

by submitting to it. It appears to me, on the contrary, that they attach a sort of pride to the voluntary surrender of their own will, and make it their boast to bend themselves to the yoke, not to shake it off. Such, at least, i

re very superior to their progenitors, the English." "In England, as in all other Countries of Europe, public malice is constantly attacking the frailties of women. Philosophers and statesmen are heard to deplore, that morals ar

ntly affects to be the slave of woman, it may be seen, that he never sincerely thinks her his equal. In the United States, men seldom compliment women, but th

lain truth, and her heart as firm to embrace it, and they have never sought to place

the human species, and considered as seductive, but imperfect beings, and (what may well provoke astonishment) women ultimately look upon themselves in the same

at they suppose them to be virtuous and refined; and such is the respect entertained for the moral freedom of the sex, that, in the presence of a woman, the most gua

he same form, or the same direction, as to that of man; but they never doubt her courage: and if they hold that man and his partner ought not always to exercise their intellect and understanding in the same manner, they at least believe the understanding of the one to be as sound as that of the other, and her i

one of extreme dependence, I have nowhere seen women occupying a loftier position; and if I were asked, now I am drawing to the close of this work, in which I have spoken of so many imp

s of making a comparison, is sanctioned by the assent of all can

equal value. They are made subordinate in station, only where a regard to their best interests demands it, while, as if in compensation for this, by custom and courtesy, they are

mpathize with their family and personal friends; but in all cases, in which they do feel a concern,

ses, and in all questions relating to morals or manners, they have a superior influence. In such concerns, it would be impossible

of a barbarous or aristocratic age may remain in our civil institutions, in reference to the interests of women, it is only because they are ignorant of them, or do not use t

Christianity carried into operation, and that they tend to place woman in her true position in society, as having equal rights with the other sex; a

work of the above author, which demands

rating the position, that, for ages, there has been a constant progress, in a

who have intentionally labored in its cause, and those who have served it unwittingly; those who have fought for it, and those who have declared thems

t possesses all the characteristics of a Divine decree: it is universal, it is durable, it constan

dread, produced in the author's mind, by the contemplation of so irresistible a revolution, which has advanced for

e to us the unquestionable signs of His will. We can discern them in th

y is at once the past and future of their history, this solitary truth would confer the sacred character of a Divine decree upon the change. To attempt to check demo

have acknowledged this revolution, as a fact already accomplished, or on the eve of its accomplishment; and I have selected the nation, from among those which have undergone it, in which its developement has been the most peaceful and the most complete, in order to discern its natural consequences, and, if it

ing the signs, and are predicting the approach, of the same grand consummation. There is a day advancing, "by seers predicted, and by poets sung," when the curse of selfishness shall be removed; w

arried into every social, civil, and political institution; and, though we have, as yet, made such imperfect advances, already the light is streaming into the dark prison-house of despotic lands, while startled kings and sages, philosophers and statesmen, are watching us with that interest, whi

flection. Are we, then, a spectacle to the world? Has the Eternal Lawgiver appointed us to work out a problem, involving the destiny of the whole earth? Are such momentous interests to be a

n this great moral enterprise, is the point to

t, as a thousand tyrants are more to be dreaded than one. It is equally conceded, that the formation of the moral and intellectual character of the young is committed mainly to the female hand. The mother forms the character of the future man; the sister bends the fibres that are hereafter to be the forest tree; the wife s

earth, is committed the exalted privilege of extending over the world those blessed

e importance of the enterprise achieved, and not by the particular position of the laborer. The drops of heaven which freshen the earth, are each of equal value, whether

the schoolroom; the woman, who, in her retired chamber, earns, with her needle, the mite, which contributes to the intellectual and moral elevation of her Country; even the humble domestic, whose example and influence may be moulding and forming young minds, while her faithful services sustain a prosperous domestic state;-each and all may be animated by the consciousness, that they are agents in accomplishing the greatest work that ever

TNO

enacted tragedy here; and one of the worst symptoms that struck me, was, that there was usually a demand upon my sympathy in such cases."-"The unavoidable consequence of such a mode of marrying, is, that the sanctity of marriage is impaired, and that vice succeeds. There are sad tales in country villages, here and there, that attest this; and yet more in towns, in a rank of society where such things are seldom or never heard of in England."-"I unavoidably knew of more cases of lapse in highly respectable families in one State, than ever came to my knowledge at home; and they were got over with a disgrace far more temporary an

pent several weeks at a time in five other States. She has also had pupils from every State in the Union, but two, and has visited extensively at their houses. But in her whole life, and in all these different positions, the writer has never, to her knowledge, seen even one woman, of the classes with which she has associated, who had lapsed in the manner indicated by Miss Martineau; nor does she believe that such a woman could find admission in such circles any where in the Cou

ceding Summer. This demonstrates the necessity of shade"! A woman, with so little common sense, as to swallow such an absurdity f