GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK
Philadelphia, January 1850

THE beginning of a new volume and a new year naturally excites the inquiry – What have we to do? To answer this question rightly, we must well understand, not only what we have done, but also what we have intended to accomplish. What has been our aim? The Lady's Boot has had, from the first, but one grand design – to subserve the best interests of Woman.

What a wonderful change in public opinion concerning the powers of the female mind has been effected since our journal was first published! Then – that is, twenty years ago-very little interest was taken in female education. The subject of "woman's rights" had been foolishly and clamorously urged by a fear, who, with a "zeal without knowledge" or discretion, would have broken down the barriers of true modesty, and destroyed the retiring graces of woman's nature, in which her most beneficial influence is concealed, like the flower in its calyx.

Gently to unfold this flower, as the sun's rays in the spring warm and expand the rose till its beauty is seen and its sweet incense induces the admirer to preserve it for its virtues as well as its loveliness, has been the work of the Lady's Book.

And now, who questions the beneficial influence of woman's cultivated intellect? or doubts the great effect it is to exercise on the improvement and happiness of the world?

We are intending, in this Table, to serve up a few of the recent opinions of English and American writers on these interesting subjects – Woman, .and her intellectual and moral influence, selected from works not, probably, yet seen by the greater portion of our readers. And first from a true poet: –

Woman is not undeveloped man,
But diverse: could we make her as the man,
Sweet love were slain, whose dearest bond is this,.
Not like to like, but like in difference:
Yet in the long years like must they grow;.
The man be more of woman, she of man;
He gain in sweetness and in moral height,
Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world;
She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care:
More as the doable-natured poet each;
Till, at the last, she sot herself to man
like perfect music unto noble wards;
And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time,
Sit side by side, full-summed in all their powers,
Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be,
Self-reverent each, and reverencing each,
Distinct in individualities,
Rut like each other, even as those who love.
Then comes the statelier Eden back to men;
Then reigns the world's great bridals chaste and calm;
Then springs the crowning race of humankind.
May these things be! – Tennyson's Princess.

The difference between the mental qualities of the sexes is owing, we apprehend, far more to education than to nature. At all events, there is no such natural difference as warrants the distinction we make in the mental discipline we provide for them. There are certain professional studies with which no one thinks of vexing the mind of any one, man or woman, but those who intend to practice the professions; but why, in a good English library,: there should be one-half of it, and that the better half, which a young woman is not expected to read – this we never could understand, and never reflect on with common patience. Why may not a Locke, or a Paley, or a Dugald Stewart, train the mind of the future Mother of a family? Or why may not an intelligent young woman be a companion for her brother or her husband in his more serious moods of thought, as well as in his gayer and more trifling? Would the world lose anything of social happiness or moral refinement by this intellectual equality of the two sexes? You vex the memory of a young girl with dictionaries and vocabularies without end; you tax her memory in every conceivable manner; and, at an after age, you give the literature of sentiment freely to her pillage; but that which should step between the two – the culture of the reason – this is entirely forbidden. if she learns a dozen modern languages; she does not read a single book in any one of them that would make her think. Even in her religious library, the same distinction is preserved. Books of sentimental piety – some of them maudlin enough – are thrust, with kindest anxiety and most liberal profusion, upon her; any work of theology, any work that discusses and examines, is as carefully excluded.– Blackwood's Magazine.

But matters are mending, and will continue to mend. There are so many women of richly cultivated minds who have distinguished themselves in letters or in society, and made it highly feminine to be intelligent as well as good, and to have elevated as well as amiable feelings, that, by and by, the whole sex must adopt u new standard of education. It must, we presume, be by leaders of their own, starting out of their own body, that the rest of the soft and timid flock must be led.– Ibid.

The mothers of this generation must form the men and women of the next. No degree of masculine cultivation can make up for a lack of mental and physical development in woman. It is the mother who gives the elements of greatness. Every day's observation teaches us this' lesson; and no society, no nation can advance where the culture, and all that goes to form the character of woman, are neglected; and no nation can fail of greatness where women are held in genuine respect.

We have said little of the "Rights of Woman." Her first right is to education, in its widest, sense – to such education as will give her the full development of all her personal, mental, and moral qualities. Having that, there will be no longer any question about her rights; and rights are liable to be perverted to wrongs when we are incapable of rightly exercising them. Give woman health, beauty, high intelligence, and that purity of soul and benevolence of heart which belong to her nature, and she would have no difficulty in making her proper place in society; for she would have the forming of the thought, and taste, and moral sentiment of the world. It seems hard to regenerate the world; but the work would be easy, if we could but see the means which God has appointed. We have only to give full play and free development to the love principle, which finds its form and expression in the pure nature of woman, in order to reform the world.

There is no danger that we shall ever esteem too highly, honor too much, or treat with a too tender consideration, the mothers of our race. No chivalry was ever extravagant; it was only misguided. The impulse was holy, but misdirected. That impulse gave us civilization; the same chivalric feeling, with more enlightenment, will give us that state of society that glows in beauty in our radiant dreams of the future. Physically and morally, God has made woman worthy to be the mother of mankind. Her nature is as exalted as her function. Love, and truth, and purity are the instincts of her being. Religion is the grand impulse of her soul. Even in her present imperfect state, after ages of neglect and suffering, she commands our admiration, and receives our love and worship. All that is truly good and beautiful in society, we owe to woman. The regeneration of the race, and the opening of a higher and happier existence to mankind, are sufficient motives to influence us in using all our exertions to improve the condition of woman; while her elevation and happiness will be the most gratifying feature of a new order of society.

Woman must be the motive power of all human progress. Man may be, to whatever extent we please to contend, the head and hands of any true movement; but woman must be its warm heart. Hers is the empire of the affections; and her attractions are sufficient to elevate the world, if she be only elevated to the vantage-ground that belongs to her. If woman, for the past century, had not been shut out from her rightful share of the advantages of education and opportunities for culture, the world would have made more rapid advances. The great mistake of men has been, to leave her behind, and to endeavor to get along with- out her. Such a one-sided advance is impossible. Woman must advance step by step with man; in some things, she must even lead and guide him, or there can he no advancement. For man to endeavor to move on alone, leaving his "better half" to lag behind him, can only produce discord, mischief, and misery. Humanity becomes a divided body, without a living soul.

If any difference be allowed in the means of education and the facilities for improvement, it should be in favor of the female sex; for, in the period of our youth, it is the highest ambition of every man to make him- self agreeable, acceptable to, and worthy of the other sex. The intelligence and refinement of woman, therefore, would secure the education and elevation of man, in the present generation, by the law of sexual attraction, while it would still more secure the improvement of both sexes of the coming generations, by the laws of hereditary descent.

As philosophers, recognizing the laws of the material and moral universe; as philanthropists, seeking the elevation and happiness of our species; as Christians, having faith in the goodness and wisdom of God, and in the temporal and eternal salvation of his children – we should work earnestly to undo the wrongs of ages, and give to woman that place in society for which God designed her; and that opportunity for the development of her gifts and graces which would secure her own happiness, fulfill the promise of the future, and make her the glory of the race, in that condition of social order and moral harmony to which all the attractions of humanity tend, and in which the highest earthly destiny of the human race shall be accomplished.– Thomas L. Nicholas.

Our selections are from masculine writers; and from hundreds of others, of the highest genius and most eminent fame, similar sentiments might be quoted. We are encouraged and guided by this popular opinion. THE LADY'S BOOK (including the Boston Lady's Magazine) was the first avowed advocate of the holy cause of woman's intellectual progress; it has been the pioneer in the wonderful change of public sentiment respecting female education, and the employment of female talent in the work of educating the young.

We intend to go on, sustained and accelerated by this universal encouragement, till our grand aim is accomplished, till female education shall receive the same careful attention and liberal support from public legislation as are bestowed on that of the other sex.

Such is the mission of the Lady's Book for 1850. Does not every Lady in America wish success to her own Book? We are sure its readers do; and, in return, this number is charged with the greetings of its editors to all their friends. May each and all enjoy a happy New Year!

TO CORESPONDENTS– We endeavored, in our last number, to prepare our contributors for the disappointment that, to many, would be unavoidable – namely, a rejection of their articles. The following list contains all we can find room for – indeed, several of these will have to wait a long time. But these ere accepted.

"The Thread of Life," "Autumn Winds," " The Young Enthusiasts," "Morning, Noon, and Evening," " The Inquiry and Answer," " The Infant," " What is Life?" "Musings," "Elsincur," "Autumn," and " Fanny Wharton."

We do not condemn the articles we decline; many – indeed, most of' them – possess merit that deserves encouragement; but we have room only for the very few and very beet. Does "Aramis" wish his poem returned?

We have so. often been called upon to furnish designs for children's fancy dresses, that we have thought best to publish them, and oblige all our friends at once.

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