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FEMALE EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE CLASSES. ...
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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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-=Ss5 »-- Nearly Half A Century Lias Ela...
are to be broken and frittered down as tliey now are ? In short , there is not a single trait in that diversity of circumstances in which
the two sexes are placed , that does not decidedly prove the magnitude of the error we commit in neglecting ( as we do neglect ) the education
of women . - v" * * If the possession of excellent talents is not a conclusive reason why they should be improved , it at least amounts
to a very strong presumption ; and if it can be shown that women may be trained to reason and imagine as well as men , the strongest
reasons are certainly necessary to show _^ _ls why we should not avail ourselves of such rich gifts of nature ; and we have a right to call
for a clear statement of those perils which make it necessary that such talents should be totally extinguished , or , at most , very
partially drawn out . The burthen of proof does not lie with those who say" Increase the quantity of talent in any country as much
, as possible / ' for such a proposition is in conformity with every man ' s . feelings ; but it lies with those who say , " Take care to keep that
" understanding becoming strong weak and and powerful trifling . " , which The paradox nature has is made with them capable , not of
¦ with' us . In all human reasoning , knowledge must be taken for a goodtill it can be shewn to be an evil . But now , Nature _makes
, to us rich and magnificent presents ; and we say to her , " You are too luxuriant and munificent—we must keep you under and prune
you ;—we have talents enough in the other half of creation : —and if you will not stupify and enfeeble the mind of women to our
hands , we ourselves must expose them to a narcotic process , and and educate the away order that of sublunary fatal redundance things deranged with which . ¦* the * world - * is afflicted ,
In short , and to recapitulate the main points upon which we have insisted ; why the disproportion in knowledge between the two
sexes should be so great , when the inequality in natural talents " , is so small ; or why the understanding of women should be lavished
_iipon trifles , when nature has made it capable of higher and better things , we profess ourselves not able to understand . The
affectation charged upon feinale knowledge is best cured by making that knowledge more general : and the economy devolved upon women
is best secured by the ruin , disgrace , and inconvenience which proa ceeds direct from and , neg powerful lecting it x _^ . rovision For the ; and care the of children gentleness nature and has elegance made
of women is the natural consequence of that desire to please which is productive of the greatest part of civilization and refinementand
, which rests upon a foundation too deep to be shaken by any such modifications in education as we have proposed . If you educate
women to attend to dignified and important subjects , you are multi preparing plying , beyond 1 and medicating measure , those the chances early impressions of human which improvement always come , by
from the mother ; and which , in a great majority of instances , are quite decisive of character and genius . Nor is it only in the
business of education that women would influence the destiny of niea .
Female Education In The Middle Classes. ...
FEMALE EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE CLASSES . 221
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/5/
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