If God intends woman to walk side by side with man wherever he sees fit to go, the movement now beginning must materially develop civilization. Finer elements will be poured into the molten metal of society; and, when the next cast is taken, we shall see sharper edges, bolder reliefs, and a finer lining, than we have been wont. Nor shall we miss the gentler graces. The classical world bitterly mourned the young and gifted lecturer, Olympia Morata; but not with the broken-hearted agony of the husband whose strength and life she had always been. Clotilda Tambroni was crowned, not only with the laurels of a Greek professorship, but with modesty and every virtue. It was the tender appreciation of the WOMEN of Bologna that erected a stately monument to Laura Veratti. In England, a woman writes admirable tales to endow a bishopric in a distant land. In our country, it was a pleasant omen, that the woman who first made literature a profession was urged to it, neither by scholarly taste nor an eccentric ambition, but to fulfil a mother's duty to four orphan children. Her literary career is not yet closed; and, though not lofty in its range, has been steadily pursued, and deserves the regard which it has won. The names of Sedgwick, Sigourney, Kirkland, and Child suggest womanly excellences first of all. Let us pay the debt we owe these women, by following hopefully in the paths they have opened, till we create a public opinion without reproach. "If I speak untenderly, This evening, my belovèd, pardon it; And comprehend me, that I loved you so, I set you on the level of my soul, And overwashed you with the bitter brine Of some habitual thoughts." "Alas! long-suffering and most patient God, Thou need'st be surelier God to bear with us, Than even to have made us! Belovèd, let us love so well, Our works shall still be better for our love, And still our love be sweeter for our work!" FOOTNOTE: [10] In allusion to the Unitarianism of Florence Nightingale. THE MARKET; OR, WOMAN'S POSITION AS REGARDS WAGES AND WORK. IN THREE LECTURES, DELIVERED IN BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1859. I.--DEATH OR DISHONOR. II.--VERIFY YOUR CREDENTIALS. III.--"THE OPENING OF THE GATES." "And could he find A woman, in her womanhood, as great As he was in his manhood, then, he sang, The twain together well might change the world." "But he never mocks; For mockery is the fume of little hearts." "For, in those days, No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in scorn; But if a man were halt or hunched,--in him, By those whom God had made full-fed and tall, Scorn was allowed, as part of his defect." GUINEVERE, in _Idyls of the King_. THE MARKET. I. DEATH OR DISHONOR.