It is useless for me, from this desk & at this period of the history of education in our country & of the march of the human mind, to enter a laborious investigation of the uses of information, of the advantages of study, of the pleasures of intellectual enjoyment. The fountains of pure happiness which education has opened in our land, are no longer locked up from the female sex, but all are equally invited to drink of their waters & in no way is the superiority of our favoured country more notedly manifest than in the blessings of mental discipline being poured upon the heads of the female sex. Have you ever, my dear young friends, as your eyes glanced over the map of the world, & your memories were stored with the facts of Geography. felt your hearts rise in aspirations of gratitude to your heavenly Father, that you were not like the unhappy females of which you read; compelled to the lowest & meanest pitch of outward degradation, & the darkest night of mental ignorance; condemned by “man, imperial man” alternately, to be the slave of his passions, & the victim of his tyranny; condemned to the toil & labour & suffering of a life of barbarity, the galley slave of ignorance & brutality, with no other prospect at its close, but to mount the funeral pile of your lord & master, & with no hope of the brightness of that “life & immortality,” which the gospel has brought to light. The religion of Christ & the influence of education have made this difference in your happiness here, & your prospects hereafter. and it is useless for me to occupy your time one moment in any laboured proof of the value of education to you. It was not always so. Eighteen years ago, well can I remember the prejudices, the fashions, the antipathies with which I had to contend. The taste for frivolous accomplishments was to be crushed, & something besides the embellishment of the exterior was to be forced upon the consideration of the light & trifling. The singular prejudice of some of the good & pious of the community, that all information beyond that of the Bible, was profane & useless, was to be softened down & modified. The false idea that the exclusive station of woman was the kitchen, & her exclusive discipline an acquaintance with culinary concerns was to be counteracted, & a better feeling of her value & her influence to be created. But that time has passed, & the full importance of female improvement, & the culture of female intellect have been justly appreciated, & the numerous seminaries that crowd our land, show that “scattering the seed” of female education is an object of the highest utility.