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    SCIENCE FOR WOMEN. 147

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    One Of The Chief Points Of Good Husbandr...

    And if tlie deficiency be felt even by tlie girl at school , yet more fully will it "be experienced in after lifewlien the young" lady at

    , home has hours and days of leisure of which she knows not how to dispose . Is it likely she will " continue her studies" considering

    , what amount of suitability to her talents and disposition she had hitherto found in those studies ? The question may be answered

    by observing" how a vast majority of girls in such a position spend the precious hours of their prime , unless some happy chance occur

    to give their energies a loftier aim . Their powers of observation find lay in scrutinizing the dress and household appointments of

    their p acquaintances ; their memory , in treasuring up such particulars ; their patience expends itself on interminable webs of knitted

    counterpanes or crochet curtains ; and their quick eyes and delicate _^ fingers find no worthier _occirpation than the mechanical eoj > ying of

    some elaborate embroidery ; for their school-training has laid no foundation for anything better , has pointed out no more fruitful

    field for which their endowments specially fit them , and in which they could work with the pleasant consciousness that they were

    certainly improving themselves , and might become useful to the world . Prom not being aware of the nobler purposes to which they

    might be dedicated , their talents lie dormant , or are only exercised upon trivialities and work which , in its place , is by no means to be

    despised , as it can be engaged in when other pursuits could not possibly be followedand which is elegantand sometimesin a measure , useful ;

    but which , cannot with impunity , be made , as it , too often is , the mainbusiness of life . The necessity for gentle but incessant action is a

    primary law of woman's nature , and therefore manual occupation of some kind is absolutely essential to her ; but there can be no

    doubt that , in many cases at least , an almost mindless one would not occupy so immoderate a share of attention if anything could

    be substituted for it which would equally give employment to tho fingersand yet at the same time call forth the mental powers as

    well . , There are departments of science which would exactly supply such a desideratumand to form an acquaintance with which in early

    , youth would prove an advantage from the very first . Suppose some branch of Natural History—Botany , for instance—were introduced

    among the ordinary studies at ladies' schools , what a new field would be opened for the display of abilities whose existence was

    unknown or unnoticed from their having been heretofore so little required ! The keenest senses would be exercised and sharpened in

    the discovery and examination of specimens ; observation , memory , and judgmentall used and quickened in comparing * and identifying

    various species , . How , too , would the one study re-act upon others , either inciting to new ones or giving- zest to the old ! Chemistry

    would claim some consideration as connected with _veg-etable physiologygeology excite attentionand geography acquire added

    interestin , relation to the distribution , of plants , and drawing and pai , nting be recognized in all their importance as visual

    descrip-31 2

    Science For Women. 147

    SCIENCE FOR WOMEN . 147

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1862, page 147, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051862/page/3/