A Discourse, Delivered at Danvers, June 24, 1823, Before Jordan Lodge, Danvers; Essex Lodge, Salem; Philanthropic Lodge, Marblehead; and Mount Carmel Lodge, Lynn.

Joseph Emerson (1777-1833), a distant cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, operated a school for girls in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Noticing that girls had aptitude for learning and that women were esteemed in the Bible, he decided to teach them arithmetic, rhetoric, chemistry, logic, and astronomy, as well as more traditionally female subjects like fan making and drawing. This pioneer in higher education for women also found time to be a minister and Freemason. On pp. 27-8, Emerson addresses the fact that woman cannot be Masons. Still, he hopes that the "daughters of sympathy" will assist the Masons in their work.