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GERMAN IilTERATURE. 315
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.
No. Iii. As An Instance Of The Evil Whic...
roused for the well-being of lier daughters , has too often forgotten the han beneath her roofwhose sensitive nature is daily jarred
orp , "by careless speeches , and who longs for some grain of sympathy to make her cup of loneliness more palatable . It is sometimes the
habit to treat the governess with cold indifference , as if she were Isolated by circumstances or caste equally from the rich and the
poor ; whilst occasionally the result of such neglect is to engender feelings of pride and distrustand to fill the heart of the desolate
, one with bitter resentment and selfishness . Baffled tenderness may often lead to narrowness or scepticism . The life of a woman cannot
be entirely subjective ; she must live without as well as within . The selfism of a man may take the form of indifference , and his
faculties may be concentrated upon some foreign object or some Intellectual pursuit .
But the book before us furnishes an illustration of the favorite theorythat women are seldom negative in their characters ; but that
loving , nothing , they seldom fail to hate . The evil may be partly the result of education . He who places all his hopes and affections
In man and the pleasures of this life must certainly be disappointed . We are not living In a prison or a torture-house , but in a world in
which all may be happy who seek and take their _hapiDiness from God . And yet a certain amount of discomfort is some times
Inseparable from the highest happiness . Night and day , summer and winter , sunshine and rain have their
analogies in the invisible world . The infant suffers before he can discern the evil from the good ; and the veteran groans In
disappointment and loneliness of soul when he has found out how mucli this earth is worthand knows of nothing better .
We all see the , world and color it according to our own experience . It is surprising how much our individual prejudices and
disappointbefore ments may usfor modif instance y our perceptions has ainted of such truth . ictures The writer of Eng of lish the , ladies book pp
and Engli , sh home-life , in the nineteenth century as may circulate without danger throughout the Continent . They are far more
comic than tragic , and may be read with fairy tales of ogres , or _" Gulliver's Travels . " Yet the writer has deceived herselfand
, appears to be gravely in earnest . In silly novels or imaginary biographies b" silly women" we have often a curious illustration
of the laws which y govern thoug , ht . Thinking implies an action of the willbwhich the mind is steadily kept to one fixed point ;
while each , y ideaas it is separately presented to the understanding , Is compared with , another and reasoned upon . In slumber , volition
Is suspended ; and the thoughts , being confined to no pivot , and _^ deprived _reproduces of the all events guidance of , the wander preceding confusedl day y and in dreams imagination . Memory ( like
a cunning painter ) colors them to its own , liking . In a wellbalanced mind judgment and reason act as even counterpoises to
imagination and fancy ; but in the period of sleep the ballast is
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German Iilterature. 315
GERMAN IilTERATURE . 315
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1862, page 315, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071862/page/27/
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