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change as well as the large. Nothing promotes this kind of necessary change, unalloyed, so much as pure Religion.

WIT.

Sense is our helmet-wit is but a plume;

The plume exposes 'tis our helmet saves.-Young.

GENUINE Wit may be compared to a kaleidoscope ; every time it is shook, it presents new and beautiful figures. The latter please the eye, and enables carpet and calico manufacturers to obtain new designs for their work; the former pleases us all over, without really benefitting us any where. Like lightning in a dark night, its illuminations are momentary in most cases. Sheridans and Hopkinsons are very rare. They were as highly charged with Wit, as a cloud sometimes is with the electric fluid, emitting flashes in such quick succession, that darkness is scarcely visible.

Wit, like a coquette, is pleasing company for the time being; but no man, knowing her character, courts her with the intention of marriage, and no sensible man is long edified with her company.

Wit and wisdom may be found in the same person, but when the former is flashing, its glare hides the latter. It serves to amuse and exhilarate, but rarely produces profitable reflection, or elevates sound common It is emphatically a plume, and exposes the head it ornaments, to many an arrow from the bow of revenge. Some wits had rather lose a friend than a keen, cutting remark upon him. This has often occurred, and is exchanging treasure for trash. Wit may

sense.

obtain many conquests, but no willing subjects. It is like echo, it always has the last word. It is more difficult to manage than steam, and often wounds by its explosions. It produces many bon mots, and but few wise sayings. It is like some heartless sportsmen, who shoot every bird indiscriminately, and kill more innocent ones, unfit for food, than hawks, that prey upon our poultry.

In no way is Wit so pernicious, as when perverted to injure the Bible and the Christian religion. It then forfeits, to its possessor, the esteem of all good men; and every flash serves to render the incumbent more obnoxious to them, and endangers his own happiness.

Finally, flashing WIT is an undefined and undefinable propensity-more to be admired than coveted; more ornamental than useful; more volatile than solid; a dangerous, sharp-edged tool, often cutting its most skilful master; rarely imparting substantial benefits to mankind; but often serious injury. Let those who have it, endeavor to control it, and those who have it not, can make better use of the sense they have.

WOMAN.

The man who lays his hand upon a woman,

Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch,

Whom 'twere gross flattery to call a coward.-Shakespeare.

To write an essay upon Woman, and do her impartial justice, is an imposing and delicate task. On no other subject have writers run into greater extremes, or differed more widely. The most nauseating flat

tery, the keenest satire, and most vindictive anathemas; have been showered upon Woman, in copious effusions. She merits neither, no more than man. The second cast of some metals refines them more, so only Woman differs from man in her nature. Frailty is stamped upon both.

The man who flatters is apt to betray Woman. The man who condemns the sex as a species, has been unfortunate in his associations, or in his advances-perhaps both. The vilest of men have been Women haters good men-never. The person who invented the most dreadful tortures, ever inflicted on man or brute, was so bitterly opposed to women, that he never would look one in the face. The man who cherishes a contempt for the female sex, shows that he has never been favored with the company of intelligent, refined Women, or that he has a very bad heart. It is an insult upon Deity, who made her, to advance the happiness of man, and if the end is not accomplished, the fault is his, not hers. Some men use their wives, as farmer's girls do split brooms; when new, they only sweep the parlour with them; then the kitchen, then scrub with them, then take them for oven brooms, and when the splits are burnt off, they use them for cow knockers. O! shame, where is thy blush!

Man was made to protect, love, and cherish, not to undervalue, neglect, or abuse Woman. Treated, educated, and esteemed, as she merits; she rises in dignity, becomes the refiner, and imparts a milder, softer tone to man. No community has ever exhibited the refinements of civilization and social order, where Women were held in contempt, and their rights not properly respected and preserved. Degrade Woman, and

you degrade man more.

She is the fluid of the ther

mometer of society, placed there by the hand of the great Creator. Man may injure the instrument, but can neither destroy, or provide a substitute for the mercury. Her rights are as sacred as those of the male sex. Her mental powers are underrated by those only, who have either not seen, or were so blinded by prejudice, that they would not see their development. Educate girls as boys, put Women in the business arena designed for men, and they will acquit themselves far better than boys and men would, if they were placed in the departments designed for females.

As a species, the perception of Woman, especially in cases of emergency, is more acute than that of the male species; unquestionably so designed by an all-wise Creator, for the preservation and perpetuity of our race. Her patience and fortitude, her integrity and constancy, her piety and devotion; are naturally stronger than in the other sex. If she was first in transgression, she was first in the breach. Her seed has bruised the serpent's head. She stood by the expiring Jesus, when boasting Peter and the other disciples had forsaken their Lord. She was the last at his tomb, embalmed his sacred body, and the first to discover that he had burst the bars of death, risen from the cleft rock, and triumphed over death and the grave.

Under affliction, especially physical, the fortitude of Woman is proverbial. As a nurse, one female will endure more than five men. That she is more honest than man, our penitentiaries fully demonstrate. That she is more religiously inclined, the records of our churches will show. That she is more devotional, our prayer meetings will prove.

The fact of greater numbers of females becoming pious, than males; has been often referred to by infidels, to prove the fallacy of religion, by asserting their inferiority in strength of mind. The argument proves the reverse in the abstract. Religion is the loftiest subject that can engage the attention of the human mind, and is more enrapturing to a strong, than a weak one. Base must be that heart, that aims to destroy the one and degrade the others, with the same poisoned arrow. The very fact, that Woman depraved, excites in the breast of man, a stronger feeling of regret and disgust, than to see the male sex degraded; arises from our innate consciousness of her more refined nature, and her less frequent appearance in the arena of vice and crime. This trait in her character, is of vast importance in a moral and religious point of view. From the mother, the child receives its first impressions, which are most lasting. Her example is its model, her lessons its sentiments, her precepts, its laws. These impressions have a strong influence in forming the character of the adult. To their mothers, Washington, La Fayette, Sir Philip Sidney, and many other great and good men; were indebted for their bright and noble career. To mothers, we are indebted for the liberty we enjoy; on mothers its perpetuity depends.

Montesquieu truly observed, "The safety of a State depends on the virtue of Women," and I will add, the virtue of Women depends on their being properly treated by men. By elevating them in the scale of being and intelligence, their virtue is best protected. By elevation, I do not mean an introduction into the poisonous atmosphere of fashion and gaiety; the danc

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