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THE GOVERNESS QUESTION. 1G5
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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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^«»» " Governesses Again? We Really Thou...
think tliree meals a day the summum bonum ; and as to questions ! the nonsensical and irrelevant ones they ask seem to afford ladies
positive enjoyment . The office of preceptor or teacher was not always despised . Philip
of Macedon thanked the gods , not so much for having given him a son , as letting him be born when Aristotle lived , that he might
have such a preceptor . Philip was a poor benighted pagan ; in our enlightened dayshe would have known better than to _-value a
preceptor , even an , Aristotle . In the life of Dr . Chalmers is an account of his early days , when he was engaged as tutor in a family : he
had a taste of ' " the spurns which patient merit from the unworthy take . " He repeats to his father : " They don't seem to know how
to beliave to a tutor . " If he spoke he was checked , often never addressed at alland when guests were present , his supper was sent to his
, room . At last * , when the latter politeness occurred , he told the servants not to trouble themselves , he would go out and sup , which he
always did : upon this his superior , with true dog-in-the-nianger spirit-took him to tasksaying" You have a great deal too much
, , , pride , sir , " etc . Chalmers' reply is almost Spartan . " There is that pride which lords it over inferiors , and there is that pride which
rejoices in repressing the insolence of superiors : the first I have none ofthe second I glory in . " One cannot forbear a triumphant
smile in , thinking how mortified the wretched imbeciles must have felt , when , after a few years , the blaze of Chalmers' towering
genius shone forth like a fiery comet , almost scorching with its splendor . His biographer has suppressed the name of the modern
Mecenas , from delicacy we presume . Delicacy , forsooth ! colors to a blind man .
Parents who send their daughters into the world as governesses , * thinking it a provision for them , should bear in mind that there is
not one thing- which ladies so truly begrudge paying for as their children ' s education . Of course they say they consider it a point of
great importance , and iuould make any sacrifice ; we really must use the polite language of the Houhynims , and believe " they say the
thing that is not . " We can judge only by what they do : except in rare cases , the salaries of governesses are now almost nominal ,
whatever they may have been some years ago . Look down the columns of the " Times , " seethe _requirements and the price offered ,
and this assertion will not appear exaggerated ; indeed salaries seem to decrease in proportion as requirements increase . Very
lately a young lady was required for five children , the eldest fourteen , ( little dear !) French , music , drawing , English , in all its
coursesand to look after their wardrobes :. salary twenty guineas . , * ' Punch" pithily observed , looking after means patching , mending ,
etc ., for four guineas per annum each child , that is one shilling and sevenpence farthing per week . Formerly people talked of going to
the continent for cheap education ; the continent may return the
compliment and send children here . We defy France or Germany
The Governess Question. 1g5
THE GOVERNESS QUESTION . 1 G 5
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/21/
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