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THE GENERAL EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 79
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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.
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A Y By Way Of Fixing 1 The Whereabouts O...
duty to study and to obey ? Obedience to laws not known or understood can be but the result of cliance ; and it seems to nie that when the
Deity , in his infinite wisdom , made on the one hand the well-being of this and succeeding- generations , male and female alike , dependent
on our observance of these laws , and on the other hand , gave us , male and female alike , faculties which enable us to study and
comprehend those laws , —lie has implicitly , but emphatically , commanded all who have ears to hear , to study . that they may understand ,
and to . understand that they may obey . Then again , what is there in the problems , difficult and complicated ,
but deeply interesting , as they are , of political , social , and economical science , unfit for the mind of woman to examine . On no subject ,
perhaps , is there so much prejudice to subdue as on this . By almost common consent , women are supposed incapable of enlightened
interest in such matters , or even if not incapable , tlieir title to such knowledge is vehemently denied . I know not how often I have
heard it said , sometimes in contempt , sometimes in exultation , that all women are Tories , neither party supposing that there was
any reason at work to bring about this assumed fact . And yet I confess I cannot see why a womanwho maywithout loss of caste ,
, , plead guilty to some knowledge as to Cromwell , or StrafFord , or Cecil , or Charlemagne , should shrink from inquiries about Sir Robert
Peel , or Metternich , or Louis Philippe . It seems to me a sad thing that any woman should pass away her life in sublime indifference to
the fate of nations , which is being decided in her own day ; and while thrones are falling , and blood is being shed , and tlie whole
world is being shaken as with a thousand earthquakes , should be an unconcerned looker-on , or even too unconcerned to take the trouble
of looking on . It is with a profound pity that I sometimes hear a lady simper out that for her part she takes no interest in politics , —
which is , when rightly interpreted , liistory in the making ; the destiny of the world evolving itself from the past , and stretching into the
future , through the eventful present . Surely , did they but know , as Oxenstiern told his sonwith how little wisdom the world is governed ,
, they would not be so ready to acknowledge an incapacity so humiliating and so untrue . I think I hear it asked : would you have
women angry political partisans , aud fierce disputants ? I answer , Surely not ; but neither would I have men angry or party disputants ;
and while I know full well that there are other reasons for tliis fierce partisanship among menI cannot help thinking that , were women
, admitted to an intelligent participation in political interests and discussions , there would be less bitterness and more moderation and
calm wisdom in the councils of men on these all-engrossing and alldividing questions .
Thus might I go over the whole range of subjects to which , human
inquiry can be directedand strive to show that all are as suitable for women as for men . , But these examples must suffice ; and , once
ibr ail , I would th . ro vv the burden of negative-proof on those who
The General Education Of Woman. 79
THE GENERAL EDUCATION OF WOMAN . 79
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1860, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041860/page/7/
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