GENERAL PREFACE
The want of the world is moral power. Philosophy has become clear-sighted to the importance of physical and mental improvement; new discoveries in science arc rife on every side, each one designed to aid man in his appointed task of subduing the earth; but who has found out the way to attain that moral power which only can enable him to govern his own spirit, and thus fit him to rule in righteousness and peace over the world he is conquering?
Schools of learning educate the mind, but not the soul; the world's school develops physical energies, sharpens the senses, enlightens the understanding, incites the passions; but does not purify the heart. Even the blessed Gospel, as set forth by its appointed teachers, fails to move the mass of mankind the right way. There is a dead weight of earthly propensities pressing down the Christian world; every advance in material prosperity and intellectual power brings in its train an increase of degradation and misery to a large class of society, »nd new devices of crime and sin to darken history and discourage hope.
Are these things always to continue? Is the theory of those philosophers, who hold that mankind will remain to the end of time in this miserable state of perpetual change without moral advancement, true? Not if the Word of God is true. A better time is promised,—the "good time," when " the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteous ness, quietness and assurance for ever."[1] And the time will surely arrive, as the prophet predicted, when beholding by the spirit what the nations of the earth should become, he declared—"They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid."[2]
There must then be somewhere an agent to promote this radical change, and, in harmony with the Gospel, and by the aid of the divine blessing, carry on and out the moral advancement of society.
Now I believe (allow me to use the "pronoun in the first person singular," as I only am responsible for the views this preface contains) that I have found the true source of moral power in human nature, and also the way in which this power must be regulated and applied to ensure the absolute moral advancement of mankind. I believe, and trust I shall make it apparent, that Woman is God's appointed agent of morality, the teacher and inspirer of those feelings and sentiments which are termed the virtues of humanity; and that the progress of these virtues, and the permanent improvement of our race, depend on the manner in which her mission is treated by man.
There are learned theologians who hold that the human heart is utterly corrupt by reason of the "first transgression." Other theologians, equally learned, reject this doctrine of total depravity, affirming that there are good dispositions or qualities inherent in human nature, which may be cultivated and become noble moral virtues.
Without entering into the arguments on either side of this question, permit me to say that my theory satisfies both. Man, by the "fall," was rendered incapable of cultivating, by his
