He is her protector, she is his helpmeet. His strength is
sufficient for her weakness, and her power is the support of his
irresolution and want of faith. Woman's rights are not man's rights; nor
are man's rights the measure of woman's rights. If she should assert
her independence, as some idiosyncratic persons desire, she could only
declare her intention to do all those acts and things which woman may of
right do. Given that this is accomplished, and I know not that she would
possess one additional domestic, political, or public right, or enjoy
one privilege in the family, neighborhood, or state, to which she is
not, in some degree, at least, already accustomed.
These views and reflections may serve to illustrate and enforce the
leading position of this address--that we are to educate young women for
the enjoyments and duties of the sphere in which they are to move. We
speak to-day of public instruction; but it should ever be borne in mind
that the education of the schools is but a part, and often only the
least important part, of the training that the young receive. There is
the training of infancy and early childhood, the daily culture of home,
with its refining or deadening influences, and then the education of the
street, the parlor, the festive gathering, and the clubs, which exert a
power over the youth of both sexes that cannot often be controlled
entirely by the school.
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