THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF EDUCATED AND UNEDUCATED FEMALES. BY MISS DAPHNE S. GILES, Of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Co. Mich. WITH AN INTRODUCTION. BY REV. SERENO HOWE. Boston: J. HOWE, 39 MERCHANTS ROW. 1849. INTRODUCTION. The object of the following remarks is rather to introduce to the reader the authoress of this book, than to enlarge upon its theme. We wish to know something of the person who is presenting thoughts to our minds, especially if the exhibition of those thoughts is attended with peculiar difficulties.Doubtless all who read the ensuing pages will feel a deepened interest when they know that the obstacles in the way of their preparation were such as probably few would have overcome. The writer has not beheld the glorious light for more than twenty years. Miss GILES was born in New Haven, Vt., October 2, 1812, and passed her youth without incidents, necessary to mention, until at the age of fourteen, disease laid the foundation of such misfortune as bows the strongest heart. time, upon creation. She had looked, for the last The aid of the most enlight 143810 ened medical skill was sought, but in vain. The eyes were too far impaired to permit the hope of recovery. She was consigned to "ever-during dark." This fact gives her a special claim upon the sympathies, and kind offices of all. The reader is not, however, to consider her as destitute of the means of happiness. In youth, she sought and found that peace which the world cannot give, and which the severest troubles cannot tear away. She was awakened to view her lost condition, and, with joy, received Christ, as the light which cheers with more than sun-beam brightness. Religion has been her comfort, when the world has been dark and cold. In more mature life, she enjoyed those advantages, which benevolent ingenuity has provided for giving the blind an education, which in other days, it was thought impossible, for them to obtain. She was connected with the Institution for the Blind in New York city, where she acquired that knowledge which has been, to her, the source of much enjoyment, and has enabled her to spread out before the world her views of truth. INTRODUCTION. 5 This is not the first time, that Miss GILES has appeared as an authoress. Many of her poetical effusions have appeared in the public journals. Some years since these were collected and printed, with some other poems; the whole comprising a volume of one hundred and seventy pages. The sale of this production has been the source of essential pecuniary aid, and it is to be hoped, that the present attempt to be useful, to others, may not be fruitless in supplying the wants of the writer. The present volume is the result of much labor, and is, to its writer, the subject of much solicitude. Only a sightless author can comprehend the hopes and fears which cluster around it. It was dictated to an amanuensis, and must go to the press without that personal revision, generally deemed indispensable. Yet to her, whose anxieties with reference to this production are keenly awake, the reflection is full of comfort, that the eye of kindness will look upon her work, and that the circumstances under which it has been written, will not be forgotten. If any, whose occupation, or disposition incline them to play the |