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204 THE POSITION; OB WOMAN. '¦I
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
" Whosoever My Shall Brother Do , The An...
his side and aided Ms resolution of abstrusest problems . Tlie most abstract of logicians lias deemed a lady's mind the strength of his :
strength . The dead languages have sprung into = life beneath a woman ' s eye . Warring nations have obeyed woman ' s genius of
command . Whatsoever differences of occupation natural constitution may demand , there is not one single subject man alone has the
power of studying . The great God , then ,, having given woman capacity for study , what is man that he should say , " I will not have
It" ? Every arbitrary limitation of the subjects of woman ' s studies Is a declaration to God that He has made a woman's head too large
for her duties . Rather would we fall back on God ' s creative wisdom ,, and ; argue from thatthat woman ' s capacity for learning is the
measure of her duty , of study ; and what a woman m ? _z learn that she should .
Woman ' s duties , even if confined to household functions , demand the highest culture . For the sake of- -wedded love is the noblest
culture needed . It will prove the source of great domestic misery if national education increases in range of subject among men while
woman ' s education is left In the lurch If a woman have no _edu- " cated interest in the highest pursuits of her husbandshe will
, naturally feel a sad and dreary loneliness grow over her ; she will dread lest her husband should despise her ignorance ; she will be
jealous of his care for matters she cannot understand ; weary for want of adequate exchange of thought ; and wonder why she is no
happier . For the education of childrenwhat knowledge can be too great ?
, For many years the attention of educationists has been turned to mem- —men have been told of the shame of ignoranceand a blush
, , for the idle waste of hours that should be laden with thought has been brought to manly cheeks—but women have been almost passed
over . If want of- culture in man injures its thousands , want of culture in woman injures its tens of thousands . A man may rise up
and defend himself , but a little child is at a woman ' s mercy . Her unskilled ignorance may not only bring disease upon its body , but
pervert its sweetest temper and quench its finest sympathies . Education is an-art ) needing clear thought and earnest study . Womanly
instincts may on * many points carry a mother right , but there are matters which untutored impulse cannot avail to guide .
Goodnatured instincts may exist , and yet _undiscijDlined ignorance may sow in children ' s minds the seeds of those passions which vex the
world . Many objectionshoweverare urged against woman ' s completer
education . It is sai , d that if , women are too highly educated they will not be able to discharge their household duties . On the
contrary , we hold that the highest minds can best discharge the least dutiesin the same way as those who know most about any science
, can best teach its rudiments . A woman trained to the ordering of
her thoughts , will by that very discipline be fitted to regulate ten .
204 The Position; Ob Woman. '¦I
204 THE POSITION ; OB WOMAN . '¦ I
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 294, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/6/
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