But now, since we have all decided upon a profession, let us hear what the young ladies intend doing with themselves; let them consult their imagination for a beautiful future gilded with sunshine, and embroidered with gold." "There is only one occupation for women," said Mrs.Becker, "and that is too well defined to admit of speculation, and too important to admit of fanciful embellishments." "Well, then, mother, let us hear what it is." "It is to nurse you, and rear you, when you are unable to help yourselves; to guide your first steps, and teach you to lisp your first syllables.

For this purpose, God has given her qualities that attract sympathy and engender love.

She is so constituted as to impart a charm to your lives, to share in your labors, to soothe you when you are ruffled, to smooth your pillow when you are in pain, and to cherish you in old age; bestowing upon you, to your last hour, cares that no other love could yield.

These, gentlemen, are the duties and occupations of women; and you must admit, that if it is not our province to command armies, or to add new planets to the galaxy of the firmament; that if we have not produced an Iliad or an AEnead, a Jerusalem Delivered, or a Paradise Lost, an Oratorio of the Creation, a Transfiguration, or a Laocoon, we have not the less our modest utility." "I should think so, mother," replied Jack; "it would take no end of philosophers to do the work of one of you." "It surprises me," said Willis, "that not one of you has selected the finest profession in the world--that of a sailor." "The finest profession of the sea, you mean, Willis.

There is no doubt of its being the finest that can be exercised on the ocean, since it is the only one.