Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/16

8 that it will be kept prominent throughout this volume. It is a truth as essential to a woman’s, as to a man’s happiness.

Feeling and perception are the peculiar distinguishing features of a woman’s mind; and by these, more than by a process of reasoning on a subject, does she ordinarily arrive at conclusions, and determine her actions. By virtue of this her peculiar form of mind, she is able, in most cases, to determine a question of right and wrong correctly; but this she cannot always do: her reason must, after all, be, in the main, a guide to her perceptions; and this reason, to be an unfailing guide, must be enlightened by truth. There must be true modes of thinking, or there cannot be uniform, correct action. The one is absolutely essential to the other.

Our fair young friends will see, by these few introductory remarks, that we shall, as already said, address their reason. It is the highest gift bestowed upon them by God. It is, in fact, that which makes a man or a woman distinctively human. For a woman to think in her sphere, is as essential as for a man to think in his; and the more truths she has from which to think, the more accurate will be her conclusions. Still, there is a very great difference between the mind of a woman and the mind of a man—a difference