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cannot but liavc been greatly distorted and dis­guised ; and no one can safely pronounce that if ■women's nature were left to choose its direction as freely as men's, and if no artificial bent were at­tempted to be given to it except that required by the conditions of human society, and given to both sexes alike, there would be any material diffe­rence, or perhaps any difference at all, in the character and capacities which would unfold themselves. I shall presently show, that even the least contestable of the differences which now exist, are such as may very well have been produced merely by circumstances, without any difference of natural capacity. But, looking at women as they are known in experience, it may be said of them, with more truth than belongs to most other generalizations on the subject, that the general bent of their talents is towards the practical. This statement is conformable to all the public history of women, in the present and the past. It is no less borne out by common and daily experience. Let us consider the special nature of the mental capacities most characteristic of a vornan of talent. They arc all of a kind which fts them for practice, and makes them tend towards it. What is meant by a woman's capacity of intuitive perception ? It means, a rapid and correct insight into present fact. It lias nothing to do with general prin-