_Dear Sir:_--You have been so kind as to solicit something from my pen
for your interesting periodical. With great pleasure I transmit the
enclosed sheets, in the hope that you may find them suitable to the
Messenger.
The subject I consider as particularly congenial with this delightful
season, which has been truly said to constitute the "great jubilee of
nature;" awakening our sympathy with young life, and drawing our
attention to the promise and hazards of the vegetable creation, amid
the cheerful labors of agriculture.
Nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos;
Nunc frondent sylvæ, nunc _formosissimus annus_.
But I am sure that my subject has an interest, independent of the
delightful associations of the season at which I write, and that most
of your readers will be ever ready to exclaim in the gallant strain of
the _sweet_ Irish Bard,
Oh woman! whose form and whose soul
Are the spell and the light of each path we pursue!
Whether sunn'd in the tropics, or chill'd at the pole,
If woman be there, there is happiness too!
What I have written in this first number of my Dissertation, has
reference principally to what may be termed the _sentimental_ portion
of our nature. I must therefore beg of your readers, to suspend all
judgment as to the partiality or impartiality of the execution, until
I have drawn the whole picture. I am yet to compare the sexes
together, in relation to the intellectual powers.