their thoughts; they are neither warriors, magistrates, nor legislators; they are wives and mothers-they are what the Creator has willed they should be. They form one-half of the human race, which, on account of its very weakness, has escaped the corruptions of our power and of our glory. Oh, let them cease to regret that they have no share in these fatal passions; let them leave to us legislation, the political arena, armies, war; were they to partake of our fury, who would there be on earth to appease it? Herein lies their influence; here is their empire. As they bear in their bosoms future generations, so likewise do they carry in their souls the destinies of these generations. Let them cause to be heard over the whole world the words of humanity and liberty; let them excite the single sentiment of the love of God and men, and their mission will be accomplished. Armies are required to conquer nations, a moral sentiment alone is required to civilize and to save them.

E

BOOK II.

EDUCATION OF THE SOUL.

PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE MOTHER OF A FAMILY.

CHAPTER I.

STUDY OF THE FACULTIES OF THE SOUL.

"Nous ne travaillons qu'a remplir la mémoire, nous laissons l'entendement et la conscience vides."

MONTAIGNE.

"L'Education doit mettre au jour l'idéal de l'individu."

JEAN PAUL RICHTER.

THIS book comprises the first elements of the education of the soul, and in as far as it depends upon us, the two following books shall develope and complete its exposition.

Let us not be alarmed at the apparent dryness of these studies. If the words be severe, the science is divine; it is exercised by ourselves, and in ourselves, in the depths of our souls-that immortal sanctuary, where all announces to us that we have to meet a God.

And we will dare to promise it: every woman, who, with the fervour of a mother and a wife, will accompany us, with the eyes and the heart, in the search of truth, will revive, as if by enchantment, to a new and a more comprehensive life-to loftier ideas-to a love more pure. She will feel what she has never felt; she will be what she has

never been; not that these studies can add anything to what she is, but they can make her enjoy all that she is. They can vivify in her the sense of the beautiful, and bestow on her that supreme reason which our educations deny her.

To develope the soul of woman, in order that woman should be something more than the plaything of our coarse passions; to develope the soul of woman, in order that woman may become in reality that heavenly creature of which we dream in our youth; to develope the soul of woman, in order that that soul may renew our own. Such is the object and the aim of this book.

But we can acquire nothing without labour, not even thought. The intellect sleeps if it be not awakened; the functions of the body rust if it be not exercised; even the soul, which exhibits itself with so many charms during infancy, falls into apathy, if it be not repeatedly called to the performance of new works. Its life being derived from God, it is silent when not occupied about God. Then it is that intellect, which becomes expanded among the things of earth, seeks to usurp its empire. It begins by calumniating reason, that bright ray of the soul, and then finishes by substituting for it argumentations, those aberrations of thought. It goes so far as to deny the soul, in order to take its place, and proudly relying upon the perfectness of the arts, the discoveries of science, the progress of mind and matter, it exclaims, "These are my works: man owes every thing to me: I am the queen of the universe."

It is amidst this chaos that we must seek for, and find the soul, in order to raise it raise the soul-the logical reason of this phrase is full of depth! To raise or elevate : to restore man to his true place, whence the isolation of his intellect has caused him to descend.

What would happen, for instance, if, after having con

founded the faculties of the soul with the faculties of animal intelligence, during a period of ten centuries, we should only think of cultivating the latter? The soul would be continually overpowered; there would arise in every direction, intellects, brilliant, but cold and powerless for the achievement of great things: for intellect imparts to us neither the love of country, nor the love of the human race, nor the sentiment of the divinity, nor the sublime devotedness of virtue. The morality of the intellect, when it has a morality, is only a calculation applied to ambition. Observe our intelligent and thoughtful youth: they are occupied solely with two ideas, liberty and well-being, which are construed by their passions, into licence, power, and riches.

Descend lower among the crowd, you will find it occupied with but one object, that of living; but one thought, that of enriching itself.

Thus the soul is absent from all our works, and truth escapes us, for all truth springs from the soul.

Some will not fail to reply by adducing the example of a few superior beings, who still live for virtue. One must believe' in the spiritual death of the whole human race, if privileged souls did not now and then escape, by the means of maternal grace, from the consequences of our lamentable modes of education. It is not the exceptions which I deny, it is the condition of the mass which I deplore. I grieve for the present, from the remembrance of the past, and from an apprehension of the future. Are we, then, so old as to have forgotten the lamentations of our fathers? Fifty years ago, the colleges sent out into the heart of Paris, a generation of Spartans. Twenty years ago, the lyceums delivered over to Buonaparte a generation of soldiers: yet more recently, the Jesuits wished to produce a generation of congregationists.

Religion was everywhere wanting everywhere the human soul was misunderstood, and the moral sense stifled. Beneath the red cap, the uniform, and the cassock, France saw the same ambitions appear. We had executioners, heroes, and hypocrites. What better could our educations produce? One could not expect a perfect man from those to whom a mere intellect had been given to instruct, or a mere animal to train up.

The ancients accomplished great things by pursuing a course directly the reverse. They left the intellect barren, and developed one or two faculties of the soul, thus establishing the power of Sparta, Crete, and Rome, by means of the love of virtue, subordinate to the love of country.

The soul once awakened by these two powers, all the human passions were called upon to serve it, and these governments were heroical because their principle was immortal.

What is the principle which directs our modern legislations?

We derive fortune and pleasure, our greatness, and our miseries, from our intellects; man, deceived by his education, likewise requires from it happiness, as if the happiness of a moral being could emanate from faculties which animals possess in common with him.

All power, all happiness, comes from the soul. This bright truth, applied to education, opens out a new era to the civilised world. But this soul, of which the education is so important, what is it? where are the proofs of its power, the evidences of its superiority, of its immortality? How can it be recognised amidst earthly passions, and the habits of the material world? The necessity of providing for the wants of the body, naturally directs our attention towards external things, among which we are detained by