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346 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
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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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.
Intellectual Wome Education N. By , Emil...
mental selection , and to ask him or herself how many of these ladies were constituted by nature to live by the pursuit of knowledge ,
or in the vocation of a scholar ? One perhaps could do so , just as there are a few men to whom learning is meat and drink . But the
other nineteen;—have they not indomitable activities in every fibre of their womanly natures ? Are they not either busily absorbed by
home duties , or longingly aspiring to those of the world at large ;—or delicate invalids , to whom the blessed call of any urgent duty might
prove as potent as the words of the Saviour , " Daughter , I say unto theearise !"
, It may seem strange that we should argue against intellectual culture for its own sake ;— -are we to have no poets , no antiquarians ,
no amateur devotees of any sweet and refining pursuits ? Shall we shut up Kantand lay aside the classics , because they do not help us
, to gain our daily bread ? No ! far from it , O gentle and cultured reader : let us have all these things in ample measure ; but not as the
main occupation , the distinguishing characteristic of a life , unless they be pursued professionallyin which case the responsible and
, productive use of a mental faculty becomes the very noblest end of a human creature ' s existence . In that case the labor is undertaken
to benefit others , and , by its connection with the moral nature , becomes fit food to strengthen and enlarge the soul .
We can conceive no greater misfortune to a community than the setting apart of an influential class—influential by reason of the
inherent domestic affections—for a life of learned leisure alone . Let those women whose appointed lot forbids any active intermingling
with the affairs of the outward world , or with the professional region which , is daily extending for their sex , accept freely their share of
household work , assured that by so doing they will best preserve bodily health and mental vigor . Man was intended to live in close
connection with the material world at all points . The exertions of the great bulk of the race are wholly absorbed in wresting food , and
clothes , and shelter , from the powers of nature ; manufacturers and merchants devote their exertions to a collateral end;—shall women
feel it any degradation to perform heartily their share of the universal labor , in superintending , or in executing , the nicer details required
for the perfection of clothing , food , and household order ? Moreover , the active mistress of a household is , or ought to be ,
responsible for a larger share of social benefit than her own inmates could require at her hands . The stranger within our gates and the
neighbour just outside them , have upon all women in comfortable circumstances a sacred claim ; a claim not incompatible with a large
amount of self culture , but wholly precluding it as a main occupation . While advocating , —as we are known to advocate the throwing
open of those intellectual professions to the female sex , which are usually considered suitable for men only—we would strenously
, uphold the nobility of purely industrial occupation in its own place .
But , Miss ShirrefF ' s well considered pages deserve more than a
346 Notices Of Books.
346 _NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 346, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/58/
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