On this page
-
Text (1)
-
10 AMAI/EE S1EVEKING;
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
^ Amalie Wilheimine Sieyekin© Was Born I...
taking part in the work , " rather that I wish to take the opportunity of learning * to make a shirt , " observed the sagacious girl , " than that
I think it a very serviceable work , when there are so many poor seamstresses who _wcmld be glad to earn a trifle by doing it . "
After a time , when ordinary tranquillity was restored , the family life went on as usualand her scholars continued to visit her for
, three or four hours several times a week , while she again began taking lessons in dancing , in order , she said , that she might not
seem an oddity among joyous dance-loving young people . What was still her greatest trouble was a natural tendency to melancholy ;
so successfully however did she combat this , that later in life no amount of pain or sorrow could impair her cheerful serenity . Her
favorite motto was tlie text " Kejoice in the Lord always , and again I say unto you rejoice ; " and when one of her pupils once remarked
that her life had been a thorny one , she replied that _" It was a mistake to say this , for the roses had so outnumbered the thorns
that she had often felt sad at the words ' through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God ;"' adding , " that if she were to
write her own biography she should entitle it ' Memoirs of a Happy Old Maid' in order to let people know that happiness could be
found out of the El Dorado of marriage /' This happy frame of mind was , however , not yet reached , but she
had at least begun to see her way to it , and in a letter to her brother remarks " The only true life is working in love , and they live the
most who do the most and do it with the greatest cheerfulness . " In 1816 Madame B . ' s childless daughter adopted a little girl , and
wished much that Amalie should undertake its education , but as ifc was much younger than her other scholars , she found herself under
the necessity of seeking out six other children of similar age , and opening an additional class . Nofc "without fear and trembling did
she do this , for she had begun to doubt how far such an extension of her teaching work was consistent with what , as a woman , she
was destined for . After sufferiDg much distress of mind on the subjectshe resolved once for all to consider the question in all its
, bearings , and then albideby what she should determine to be her duty . She thus described the conflict , " I asked myself three
questions : Whether I could maintain my feminine character while thus extending iny undertaking ? What did I owe to my aunt ? And
what to the parents of the children intrusted to me ? And thus I answered myself : the education of children ( for I should not content
myself with mere lesson-giving ' ) must belong specially to woman ' s business ; but tlien it is only a part of itand do I not give more time than
, " I but ou then ght to housekeep this part ing ? 1 as I certainl it is carried y do but on in littl most e in household Hamburg matters houses ,
hardly deserves the name , for it consists in little more than giving out and writing down . Other departments of woman ' s work I fbel
myself to bo deficient in , but then I know at least something of all
of them ; I always find time to keep , my own dress in order , and it
10 Amai/Ee S1eveking;
10 AMAI _/ EE S 1 _EVEKING ;
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031860/page/10/
-