341 ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDLY FEMALE SOCIETY, DELIVERED APRIL 7, 1802. MY HIGHLY RESPECTED FRIENDS, PERMIT me cordially to congratulate you on the progress which you have made in attempting an establishment which aims at providing permanent relief to the aged, infirm, helpless and diseased of your own sex; a design which reflects equal honour on the head which conceived it, and on the hearts which unite to promote it. It is of very inferior importance to ascertain with whom this gracious idea originated, and by whom it has been thus far supported. You are not, like ordinary females, contending for praise and pre-eminence, but have associated to "provoke each other," blessed contention, " to love and good works!" At a period, when the emulation, in some of what are called the higher circles of female society, is to display profuseness of expense, and giddiness of dissipation, when the columns of our public journals ostentatiously exhibit the brilliancy and waste of noc turnal revels, and when the solemnity of the Lord's Day is suspended, to make way for the more solemn and important pursuit of fashionable amusement; it is no slight consolation to reflect, that there is some counterbalance to female folly, existing in female good sense; that while so many smooth, and flattering, and patent highways conduct to the haunts of pleasure, there is at least one quiet sequestered path, that leads to the temple of Virtue; that while some high-born and high-bred dames are sinking time, health, and substance in unprofitable and ruinous luxury, Princesses and many ladies of exalted rank are uniting their exertions with yours, to wipe away the tear from the eye of misery, to administer a cordial to the drooping heart, to shelter the withering palsied limbs from the wintry blast, to smooth the pillow under the hoary head of deserted old age! Where could the hallowed design originate but with the compassionate Friend of the human race, who, in dying agony, provided a home and a protector for his desolate mother? You have wisely taken the management of this great concern into your own hands. You stand in no need of male assistance. It is one of those domestic businesses in which it were indecent for men to interfere. You need no law to regulate your conduct but the law of mercy to the miserable, and the law of kindness among yourselves. Other interests divide and separate, excite jealousy and kindle strife; this is a source of mutual endearment, a band of love. Other interests are limited to time, and expire with it; this looks into eternity, and bids defiance to death. You have wisely stated the sum of your contribution toward the support of your humane Institution at a very moderate rate. It is desirable to have the countenance of greatness, and the munificence of wealth co-operating with you; but, next to God, you must look to number for solid and durable strength. From women like yourselves, and from women in still inferior situations, you must expect your chief supplies. The object needs but to be made known in order to obtain unbounded approbation and corresponding encouragement. From the lowness of the annual subscription, even persons in a servile condition will be induced to cast in their mite into the general stock, in the prospect of a late return, when the industry and thrift of youth "When service should in their old limbs lie lame, You must lay your account with opposition and discouragement; for where is the cause that has not been called to encounter difficulty and opposition, from the great cause of Christianity itself, down to the establishment of a petty parochial school? Objections will be started merely for the sake of objecting. Those who are unwilling to part with their money can easily find a pretence for withholding it, and yet think to save their credit. Some, as Brutus said of Cicero, 66 Arm yourselves, therefore, with patience, with fortitude; "be not weary in well-doing; in due season ye shall surely reap, if ye faint not." Hitherto ye have followed the impulse of a good and honest heart, and the dictates of a sound mind; as you proceed, the lessons of experience will assist you in modelling, improving, extending your original plan; for the designs of Deity alone are perfect from the first conception to the final execution, and even they, unfold themselves by degrees to the human understanding. Expect not too much, but exert yourselves as if your object were to be attained in its utmost latitude. Lay your account with having to encounter that |