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    10 THE PROFESSION OF THE TEACHER.

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    The Annual Reports Of The Governesses' B...

    labour of this Anglo-Saxon race directed , and how is the current to be turned into new channels ?

    To the first question we can see but one solution . Every race has its specialite of function in the great sum total of humanity .

    While the Hindoo pecks rice , sleeps , bathes , fights , and embroiders coats of many colours , and the Mohammedan Arab sits cross-legged

    in the sun and plays endless games of backgammon , the Anglo-Saxon man digs and ploughsspins and weavesbuys and sells .

    He is a sturdy sensible fellow , , has a square forehead , and an active body ; he can calculate well , and usually knows how to buy in

    the cheapest and sell in the dearest market . If he be neither literary nor artistic , and nationally he is surely neither the one

    nor the other , Mr . Bull has an unusually fair share of what is termed " good common sense . " Has Mrs . Bull no feminine counterpart

    to these fine sterling qualities ? We think she has . Mrs . Bull is what is usually termed a " motherly body" and not only looks

    , after the children , but after the storeroom too . She weighs the cheese and bacon , and metes out the flannel . She looks after the

    farmer's men , and flatters her husband's customers with a certain honest frankness which is delightful to behold . In fine , the

    Englishwoman in country districts , where many duties lie ready to her handand where the mania for rising in life has not turned the

    , best parlour into a boudoir , and the fiddle into a cornet a piston , represents the feminine side of the same active and sterling

    character which is supposed to mark the Englishman ; witness a host of popular songstalesand caricatures . Naywhen Punch takes

    , , , our gracious Queen as the typical lady of the country , what an indescribable air of wholesome activity he communicates to the

    picture , reminding one of Solomon ' s good woman ! Surely then the daughters of our flourishing tradesmen , our small merchants

    and manufacturers , who remain single for a few , or more than a few yearsmay find some occupation more healthymore exciting , and

    , , more profitable than the under ranks of governessing . If women so situated could more frequently assist their fathers and brothers

    as accountants or clerks , or would enter bravely into all such descriptions of business as are even now open to their sex ,

    cultivating those virtues of order , economy , and punctuality which business demands , they would find themselves far more happily

    and successfully engaged than by rigidly confining themselves to what they deem the gentilities of private life , and selling

    themselves to a family but little above their own station for 25 / . a year . And thus the higher class of governesses , who are fully educated up

    to the requirements of a higher social scale , would meet with but little competition and more assured pay .

    The arts , literature , and tuition might be safely left to provide for the livelihood of clever women , if sensible women would but

    turn their sense to its many legitimate spheres of action . But ,

    10 The Profession Of The Teacher.

    10 THE PROFESSION OF THE TEACHER .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/10/