Women, we fear, cannot do every thing; nor every thing they attempt.  But what they can do, they do, for the most part, excellently—­and much more frequently with an absolute and perfect success, than the aspirants of our rougher and ambitious sex.  They cannot, we think, represent naturally the fierce and sullen passions of men—­nor their coarser vices—­nor even scenes of actual business or contention—­nor the mixed motives, and strong and faulty characters, by which affairs of moment are usually conducted on the great theatre of the world.  For much of this they are disqualified by the delicacy of their training and habits, and the still more disabling delicacy which pervades their conceptions and feelings; and from much they are excluded by their necessary inexperience of the realities they might wish to describe—­by their substantial and incurable ignorance of business—­of the way in which serious affairs are actually managed—­and the true nature of the agents and impulses that give movement and direction to the stronger currents of ordinary life.  Perhaps they are also incapable of long moral or political investigations, where many complex and indeterminate elements are to be taken into account, and a variety of opposite probabilities to be weighed before coming to a conclusion.  They are generally too impatient to get at the ultimate results, to go well through with such discussions; and either stop short at some imperfect view of the truth, or turn aside to repose in the shade of some plausible error.  This, however, we are persuaded, arises entirely from their being seldom set on such tedious tasks.  Their proper and natural business is the practical regulation of private life, in all its bearings, affections, and concerns; and the questions with which they have to deal in that most important department, though often of the utmost difficulty and nicety, involve, for the most part, but few elements; and may generally be better described as delicate than intricate;—­requiring for their solution rather a quick tact and fine perception, than a patient or laborious examination.  For the same reason, they rarely succeed in long works, even on subjects the best suited to their genius; their natural training rendering them equally averse to long doubt and long labour.

For all other intellectual efforts, however, either of the understanding or the fancy, and requiring a thorough knowledge either of man’s strength or his weakness, we apprehend them to be, in all respects, as well qualified as their perceptions of grace, propriety, ridicule—­their power of detecting artifice, hypocrisy, and affectation—­the force and promptitude of their sympathy, and their capacity of noble and devoted attachment, and of the efforts and sacrifices it may require, they are, beyond all doubt, our superiors.