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4 ON THE ADOPTION OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE B...
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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Transcript
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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.
——.. ^ We Do Not Propose To Consider In ...
most easily attain , —the result of insight into humanity . As periodicals have waxed numerousso has female authorshiwaxed
, p strong-. The magazines demanded short graphic papers , observation , wit , and moderate learning—women demanded work such as
they could perform at home , and , ready pay upon performance ; the two wants met , and the female sex has become a very important
element in the fourth estate . If editors were ever known to disclose the dread secrets of their densthey onlcould ive the
public an idea of the authoresses whose , unsigned names y are g Legion ; of their rolls of manuscripts , which are as the sands of the sea .
Since this direct influence of women , exerted in periodical literature , now extends from the quarterlto the monthlfrom the
monthly to the weekly and daily press y , embracing all y top , ics , from the weightiest to the lightestpoliticsmoralsartliteratureand the
ephemera of the day ; since it , is backed , up b , y a , serious cultivation , , among an increasing minorityof those branches of knowled
which require volumes for their , elucidationand a life-time for ge their due research , we may fairly regard the , literary profession as
one already conquered hj its feminine aspirants . "We have placed it at the beginning of our list , because it is in one sense the easiest
of all ; Its successful exercise demands little or none of that moral courage , which more public avocations require . It shewshowever
to a most remarkable extentwhat a latent vithere , is in the , intellect of womenready to flow , forth into gor channelscould
these be easily cut . , any , The next profession which we will take into consideration ia
that of the artist . The female artist is , in England , also the creation of the century . One swallow does not make a summer , and
Angelica Kauflmann , accused of studying at the Academy in her suit of boy ' s clothes , was the fortunate accident of her daynor
can she be fairly regarded as having risen above mediocrity in , her painting . Her beauty , her accomplishments , her virtues and her
misfortunes , gained for her a fame to which her professional excellence alone could scarcely have entitled her . But the same rising current
which bore so many women into literature has of late years divided and part of the stream sets steadilfor the realms of art . This is
exemplified not only by the progressive y achievements , but even by the very failures of female artists . Not onlwomen of
special talent , but young women possessing very y young little , now devote themselves to one of the many branches which cover the whole
debateable land between the sublime and the ridiculous . Some of these , such as wood engraving , require only perseverance and
delicacy , and if a girl has to earn her livelihood , and is clever and ambitiousshe thinks twice as to whether she will try writing
, in the magazines or attending the classes at Marlborough House , and a trifling weight decides the scale .
passab But l it y wel is infinitel l _, and fo more r this difficult simple reason draw , passabl that , our y well ordinary than to educa write -
4 On The Adoption Of Professional Life B...
4 ON THE ADOPTION OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE BY WOMEN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1858, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091858/page/4/
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