his linen, it muſt follow, that the firſt care of thoſe mothers or fathers, who really attend to the education of females, ſhould be, if not to ſtrengthen the body, at leaſt, not to deſtroy the conſtitution by miſtaken notions of beauty and female excellence; nor ſhould girls ever be allowed to imbibe the pernicious notion that a defect can, by any chemical proceſs of reaſoning, become an excellence. In this reſpect, I am happy to find, that the author of one of the moſt inſtructive books, that our country has produced for children, coincides with me in opinion; I ſhall quote his pertinent remarks to give the force of his reſpectable authority to reaſon[1].
- ↑ A reſpectable old man gives the following ſenſible account of the
method he purſued when educating his daughter. 'I endeavoured to
give both to her mind and body a degree of vigour, which is ſeldom
found in the female ſex. As ſoon as ſhe was ſufficiently advanced
in ſtrength to be capable of the lighter labours of huſbandry and
gardening, I employed her as my conſtant companion. Selene, for that
was her name, ſoon acquired a dexterity in all theſe ruſtic employments,
which I conſidered with equal pleaſure and admiration. If
women are in general feeble both in body and mind, it ariſes leſs from
nature than from education. We encourage a vicious indolence and
inactivity, which we falſely call delicacy; inſtead of hardening their
minds by the ſeverer principles of reaſon and philoſophy, we breed
them to uſeleſs arts, which terminate in vanity and ſenſuality. In
moſt of the countries which I had viſited, they are taught nothing of
an higher nature than a few modulations of the voice, or uſeleſs
poſtures of the body; their time is conſumed in ſloth or trifles, and
trifles become the only purſuits capable of interesting them. We ſeem
to forget, that it is upon the qualities of the female ſex that our own
domeſtic comforts and the education of our children muſt depend.
And what are the comforts or the education which a race of beings,
corrupted from their infancy, and unacquainted with all the duties of
life, are fitted to beſtow? To touch a muſical inſtrument with uſeleſs
ſkill, to exhibit their natural or affected graces to the eyes of indolent
and debauched young men, to diſſipate their huſband's patrimony in riotous
and unneceſſary expenſes, theſe are the only arts cultivated by
women in moſt of the poliſhed nations I had ſeen. And the
conſequences are uniformly ſuch as may be expected to proceed from ſuch
poluted ſources, private miſery and public ſervitude.
'But Selene's education was regulated by different views, and conducted upon ſeverer principles; if that can be called ſeverity which opens the mind to a ſenſe of moral and religious duties, and moſt effectually arms it againſt the inevitable evils of life.'
Mr. Day's Sanford and Merton, Vol. III.
