The ladies' garland. [volume] (Harpers-Ferry, Va. [W. Va.]) 1824-1828, 1828-01-12

Dy tnOSt WHO cOnlcnI tndt tnc Iliifu IS
incapable Of that high cultivation, that energy
Of thought, that strength of reasoninst, for which
nature has exclusively prepared the mind Of
man, are told to look through the infinite
gradailon Of created beings, from the highest
to the lowest order in every species; the female,
conscious Of her weakness, -eeks protection IN
! the superior strength and superior courage OF
! the other sex Thus is analogy dressed in the
I specious garh Of reason. ihsidiously intro
duc-d AS argument! Bat let US for a moment
consult the page of history. Do the fragments
of Sapphn betray an lnierority OF mental pow
ers ? So sensible were the Lesbians of their
muses. merit, Of the elegance and sweetness of
her composition.' that temples and affairs
erected to her, medals were stamped with her
image; and divine honors were paid to her me-
mory. Can dc ticiency of intellect be attrl-
buted to the character of Aspasa whose ablll
ties and el,qnence seduced the statesman the
| philosopher, and the warrior; the fasclnations
! of whose accomplishments Perlcles, Socra
| ties. and AlcIblades were unable to resist, and
whose conversation attracted the most celfbrat
ed artists, and men of letters OF the age? Can
we maintain that females unfit for councils,
when Altenlisia, queen of Halicarnassls, before
the battle OF Salams, saved, by her advice. the
mighty army of NcrXes, who remarked when
the battle was over, =" that on this day, the wo-
| Illcn Hdu UeNdNeu like men, ana tne men ike
women. - or shall we say they are unfit to 20
vern, when the ability with which Semi,ams
swaycd the sccptre Of Ass, ria induced Plato to
MAINTAIN. :" that women as well as men ought TO
be entrusted with the government Of states, and
the conduct of military opcra,ionso'
But 1t IS unnecessary to search the annals Of
antiquity for examples Of strength and viSour in
the Iutciect Of woman modern times will rxhl-
bit an equally favourable portraiture Of the ie
male mind; we see in the character of llelolsa
every qualification which nature in her kind
est humours could give, or education could per
feet; she was gentle and mild as innocence
learned as the most learned of her age; her soul
was Roman, and her heart was heart of fire i
Born in the snllen q 1om of the 18th century,
when superstition cast solemn shade ever the
whole world, Helosa, Ike the phosphorlc glow
worm, shone with unborrowed splendour in the
| midst of Darkness Before the invention of
printing, immured within the precincts Of a
cloister, She possessed soul pregnant with the
most liberal and sublime ideas her mind was
stored with the beauties of antiquity, and she
inusedinto her writings that attic elegance, that
nerve and vigour by which the ancients
generally characterised i she, superior, rose
above her contemporaries,
Mr. Addison, in a most beautiful and happy
manner, has applied to the poetlcal remains Of Sap
| pho. these two lines:
80 s,lavis ANNA qnalem tedicam bonam
| Antehac fuisse, tales sint relquia!'
o sweet soul! since thy remains are so delicious,
what must have been myself!
Berrington's lives Of Abelard and Heloisa-Pre-
| face