pecially from discovering the painting of what appears to be just such an instrument, in the French work, as alluded to above.1

This instrument is indeed rarely to be found sculptured on the monuments of Greece and Rome. It may nevertheless have been common among them. Indeed, the close resemblance between it and the modern tambûra, implies as much. The fact that no more frequent mention is made of it, and that it does not oftener appear in sculpture, may possibly have arisen from the fact that it was a vulgar instrument like our fiddle, and consequently out of place in dignified scenes. The portable size of the instrument is certainly in favor of this supposition. It is far more probable, however, that the infrequency of its occurrence among the ancients is owing to the fact that they did not appreciate the means it furnished them of diminishing the number of strings, and consequently, that it was indeed never very much in use among them. However this may have been, we see that the belief of the Spaniards as to its antiquity has a foundation in truth, inasmuch as the instrument belongs to some of the highest antiquities of Egypt.

The great question, then, as to the antiquity of the harp, the lyre, and the guitar, has now been decided. We know that instruments were common in the earliest ages of Egypt, the cradle of the arts and sciences, possessed of the same general form as the harp, the lyre, and the guitar of modern times. The discoveries made of late years among the ruins of Egypt, have clearly decided this point, and placed it beyond controversy. True, among the ancients, there was a great variety of other stringed instruments; but these constituted the leaders of them all, and contain the grand characteristics of the several classes, at the head of which they respectively stand. Here then what I at first proposed has been accomplished, and, for the present, I drop the subject, not because I have not investigated further, but for the same reason that this portion of it has been detained by me for more than fifteen months, -lest disgust should be created by what most readers consider a dry and uninteresting theme.

1 See p. 295.

ARTICLE III.

MRS. SIGOURNEY'S LETTERS.

Letters to Young Ladies, by Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. Third Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837, pp. 259.

THE notion that education is reserved for man alone, and is not to be imparted to the softer sex, is a prejudice that ought long since to have been dissipated before the increasing light of civilization. Woman has a soul; and the gospel tells us it is immortal. If belonging to the household of the faithful, she is soon to take her seat in the upper sanctuary, where, we may well imagine, that one of the employments of eternity is to be the ceaseless acquisition of knowledge. In the school of heaven, woman will doubtless be a student equally privileged with man. Why then should she be excluded from equal access to those fountains of knowledge, which flow on earth?

The argument, that education disqualifies woman for the faithful discharge of the duties belonging to her own peculiar province, has been tried by the test of experience and proved destitute of foundation. Females of the present generation are better educated than those of any former age. But by this advancement in education, have the distinctive features of female excellence been in any way deteriorated? Are our wives less faithful housekeepers than their grandmothers? Has learning robbed our sisters of the gentle domestic charities? Are our daughters less affectionate and dutiful than the daughters of other generations? When, since the apostolic age, has woman been more beautifully decorated in the vestments of philanthropy, than at the present enlightened period? Look at the efforts of female benevolence now in progress, at home and abroad, for the melioration of the condition of our race. Who are these mothers and sisters of charity? Commune with them, and you will find many, perhaps most of them, to be women whose minds are expanded and elevated by an enlightened education, and who glory in making their acquired knowledge a willing and useful handmaid in the service of religion.

Perhaps no happier illustration can be found of the benefits resulting from female education, and its entire compatibility with

the ordinary duties of life, than the case of the author of the volume before us. She has, we understand, been devoted from early life to the love of letters. About twenty years ago, if we rightly recollect, and before she had yet changed her maiden name of Lydia Howard Huntley, a little volume of her youthful poems was collected and published. Since then, at least four volumes of her poetical effusions have appeared. Of these, it is not now our province to speak. They have been generally and justly admired in her native country, and their praise has been echoed back from Europe. She is now, by universal consent, regarded as one of the ornaments of the age in which she lives, and of the country from whence she sprang. But we understand that these literary attainments, and this literary fame, have not estranged her from the patient discharge of the practical, homely, and every day duties of woman. Authentic report in

forms us that no one better fills the arduous station of a New England housekeeper, in all its various and complicated departments. Nor are the calls of benevolence unheeded. Like that distinguished philanthropist, from whom she derives her intermediate name, she is said to go about doing good. Much of her time is devoted to the practical, silent, unambitious duties of charity. Nor must we omit the crowning praise of all-the report of her humble, unassuming, unpretending, untiring devotion.

But we detain the reader, perhaps too long, from the volume before us. This volume, besides a short preface, and an appeal to the guardians of female education, contains sixteen Letters to Young Ladies on the following subjects, viz.: value of time; religion; knowledge; industry; domestic employments; health and dress; manners and accomplishments; sisterly virtues; books; friendship; cheerfulness; conversation; benevolence; self-control; utility; motives to perseverance.

One of the first things observable in the perusal of this work, is the accurate estimate which the author forms of the true excellencies of the female character. With a kind of intuitive precision, she perceives and delineates all the delicate shades which go collectively to constitute the real loveliness of woman. She treats woman, not as the gay insect of the hour, to be admired and followed after for some brief space of time; but as a rational, immortal, accountable being. She seeks to exalt the standard of her mental and moral attainments; to make her useful and happy here, and prepare her for the companionship of

angels hereafter. The book contains no sentiment or thought, which a dying christian mother would not wish to have engraved deeply on the heart of her daughter.

Such is the character of the sentiments inculcated. The mode of inculcating them, is so bland, so meek, so full of the milk of human kindness, and christian love, that it would seem impossible that the author should plead in vain with the youth of her sex. There is no monitorial dictation or stoical formality. It is the going forth of the heart to meet hearts; it is the communion of an elder sister with beloved younger sisters, portraying the loveliness of knowledge and of virtue, and fondly alluring them to follow her own footsteps in the onward, upward

course.

The work is replete with classical and historical illustrations, evincing that the mind of the author is "rich with the spoils of time." The style is a fine specimen of good writing. Though buoyant with the spirit of poesy, it is nevertheless remarkable for its simplicity and precision. While it assimilates to the gracefulness of Goldsmith and the simple elegance of Addison, it presents a point and strength of diction, which we were not prepared to expect from the female pen.

But it is time we should allow the author to speak for herself. The whole introductory address eloquently enforces the importance of female education. Take for instance the following extract.

That the vocation of females is to teach, has been laid down as a position, which it is impossible to controvert. In seminaries, acade. mies and schools, they possess peculiar facilities for coming in contact with the unfolding and unformed mind. It is true, that only a small portion are engaged in the departments of public and systematic instruction. Yet the hearing of recitations, and the routine of scholastic discipline, are but parts of education. It is in the domestic sphere, in her own native province, that woman is inevitably a teacher. There she modifies by her example, her dependants, her companions, every dweller under her own roof. Is not the infant in the cradle, her pupil? Does not her smile give the earliest lesson to its soul? Is not her prayer the first message for it in the court of heaven? Does she not enshrine her own image in the sanctuary of the young child's mind, so firmly that no revulsion can displace, no idolatry supplant it? Does she not guide the daughter, until placing her hand in that of her husband, she reaches that pedestal, from whence, in her turn, she imparts to others, the stamp and coloring which she has herself received? Might she not, even

upon her sons, engrave what they shall take unchanged through all the temptations of time, to the bar of the last judgment? Does not the influence of woman rest upon every member of her household, like the dew upon the tender herb, or the sunbeam silently educating the young flower? or as the shower, and the sleepless stream, cheer and invigorate the proudest tree of the forest?

Of what unspeakable importance then, is her education, who gives lessons before any other instructor-who pre-occupies the unwritten page of being-who produces impressions which only death can obliterate and mingles with the cradle-dream what shall be read in eternity. Well may statesmen and philosophers debate how she may be best educated, who is to educate all mankind.

Nothing is more important than to impress deeply on the youthful mind, the value of time. And few things are more difficult. We think the author happy in the following brief appeal.

Suffer me, then, with the urgency of true friendship, to impress on you the importance of a just estimate of time. Consider how much is to be performed, attained, and conquered, ere you are fitted to discharge the duties which the sphere of woman comprehends. Think of the brevity of life. The most aged have compared it to a span in compass-and to a shuttle in flight. Compute its bearings upon the bliss or wo of eternity, and remember if misspent, it can never be recalled. Other errors admit of reformation. Lost wealth may be regained, by a course of industry;-the wreck of health, repaired by temperance;-forgotten knowledge, restored by study ;alienated friendship, soothed into forgiveness :-even forfeited reputation, won back by penitence and virtue. But who ever again looked upon his vanished hours?-recalled his slighted years and stamped them with wisdom?-or effaced from heaven's record, the fearful blot of a wasted life?

The amiable virtue of respect for old age, is often is often very feelingly alluded to in the writings of Mrs. Sigourney. Take the following touching passage as an example.

There is one virtue which I wish to recommend to your attention, my young friends, in which the present age has been pronounced deficient. I mean, respect to the aged. To "honor the hoary head, and rise up before the face of the old man," is a command of Jehovah. Those who have borne the burdens of life until strength has failed, in whose bosoms are treasures of experience to which we are strangers, whose virtues are confirmed beyond the fear of change or fluctuation, and who by the short space that divides their ripened piety from its reward, may be literally said to be "but a little lower than the angels," are surely worthy of the veneration of youth.