CONTENTS. LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON THE PRESENT CONDITION AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND Page "Every one must have observed the new influence, which is not being asserted or sought, but is falling to the lot of women, in swaying the destinies of the world. It is not a share in directing the patronage of ministers or guiding the councils of kings, as in former times, but a portion in the formation and the moulding of public opinion. For a great part of our periodical literature,-for much of that world of fiction in which many live and nearly all take delight, we are indebted to the ethereal fancy, the delicate perception, and the grace of expression possessed by women. It seems to me-and I am confirmed in this opinion by the bright examples of heroic benevolence-that if the young generation are to be an improvement on their fathers, if sin is to have less dominion and religion more power, if vice is to be abashed and virtue to be honoured, it is to Woman we must look for such a generation." Opening Address, by LORD JOHN RUSSELL, at the Second Annual Meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1858. |