there will be great quantity raised, and few persons to consume it. But every step in the increase of population does so much to reverse this state of things, produces greater competition among laborers, and raises the price of those things which they consume. In this increased competition, woman, who is the weaker party, suffers the most, because she is the weaker, and in the scramble for something to do, is the last to be provided for. Her province of labor is invaded by the other sex, and thus the proper balance of employment is destroyed. Spinning and weaving, once the exclusive employment of women, have been taken out of their hands by the invention of machinery. One woman, with the aid of machinery, can manufacture as much cloth as fifty could without it. So far then as the manufacturing of cloth is concerned, forty-nine women are thrown out of employment, and great distress would be the consequence, were not the fabric produced for about one fourth of its former price, and thus the other three quarters may be laid out in something else that the industry of woman produces.

As a compensation for this loss of employment in the production of the coarser arti

cles of clothing, which has taken place in consequence of the extensive employment of machinery, there follows a greater ability to consume articles of luxury, which are fortunately, for the most part, the production of female labor. In this way, the immense wealth accumulated by the income of capital is again diffused among the masses, carrying comfort and abundance, as well as honest occupation in its way.

There is an increase too of domestic service, which gives a home and protection to multitudes of females otherwise destitute. There is no higher test of principle and humanity in a woman of affluence and condition, than the light in which she regards, and the manner in which she treats her humbler sisters, often more deserving, though less fortunate than herself. She may make them comfortable and happy in their lot, by uniform forbearance and consideration, or she may pour a double portion of bitterness into their cup by harshness, coldness and hauteur. If woman has any rights at all, it is certainly the right to gentleness, compassion and kindness, from the powerful and wealthy of her own sex.

LECTURE VIII.

ON THE MORAL USES OF POETRY.

HAVE been detained much longer than I anticipated by the subject I first took up, the Sphere and Duties of Woman. The consequence is, that what I have to say of Literary and Intellectual Culture will occupy a much smaller space in these lectures than I had intended. Having at length, however, despatched that prolific subject, I shall invite your attention this evening to the Moral

Uses of Poetry. The first distinction, which literature presents to us, is that of poetry and prose. As poetry is the most ancient of the two, it must be considered as the primary and most instinctive

development of the human mind. It is the first expression of what is in man, of the thoughts, emotions, sentiments, feelings, passions which are excited by all that he beholds and experiences in this life. Poetry preceded prose, because it preceded writing, and was the only form in which words could be remembered before any external signs were invented to represent them. Poetry preceded prose because it is capable of being set to music, which was a still earlier invention, while prose is not. Poetry and music both had their origin in the propensity, or rather instinct there is in us to express our emotions in words and tones. On the occurrence of a joyful event we give vent to our feelings by shouts of gladness. We repeat to ourselves in words, the facts, and the feelings which they excite over and over, because they have made a deep impression on our minds. Our exclamations when we are glad, reveal to us the origin of poetry, and show to us the Lyric Muse in her cradle. Just so is it with the low wailings of bereavement and sorrow. They too form themselves into music and poetry, but take the longer, slower measure of the elegy or the dirge. Thus it was that the

various feelings, sentiments, and passions of humanity found expression in the ruder ages of the world, and thus originated poetry, and thus in fact sprang up literature, the mightiest agent in the advancement of mankind.

But poetry differs from prose in its substance as well as its form. Prose is generally a literal representation of things. It adopts words which convey as nearly as possible a precise idea of the thing represented, otherwise it would fail of its purpose to convey true and just conceptions, and would thus be the instrument of deception. This is the form which our communications assume in the ordinary, unimpassioned intercourse of life. But let emotion spring up in the heart of the most prosaic, and poetry is instantly born. Literal words become no longer capable of expressing, not the things themselves, but our apprehension of them, the feelings we have concerning them. The man who has wronged us becomes a Turk. The man that has betrayed us becomes a Judas. The place where we have been happy becomes a Paradise, and the one where we have been miserable, a Pandemonium. Thus, then, a new language is invented, a language of symbols, instead of words. But it causes