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( 267 )
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XLJX.—OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT.
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Ladies, Paris, November 20, 1861.
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.
( 267 )
( 267 )
Xljx.—Our French Correspondent.
XLJX . —OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT .
Ladies, Paris, November 20, 1861.
Ladies , Paris , November 20 , 1861 .
Female education is just now a subject greatly and very seriously agitated hereas its expansion is every day becoming more
pressingly necessary . , But if such be the case in Franceit is to be feared that in England the public mind wants to be fully , awakened
upon this subject , as in educational reports and the projects of great reformers it is seldom put forwardbeyond its application to the
lower classes ; although , so far as , the bourgeois classes go , the English girls are decidedly behind the French in mental training .
In Paris , among those of what we call genteel , or comfortable circumstances during a father ' s life-time , there is a far greater
amount of foresight displayed by " our volatile neighbors , " so far as their daughters are concerned , in securing something like a
future independence by an efficient mental training to meet the hardships of the world . As a general rulegirls in the rank already
mentioned are from an early period taught , , au fond , arithmetic and book-keepingso that in case the diploma they are also prepared
, to win at the Hotel de "Ville should not be able to secure a livelihoodthey can turn their attention to commercewithout
fearing an , immediate dismissal should the head of some , house of business consent to take them upon trial . Indeed , the term aufond
applies to French female education generally ; and to commence with the simplest elements is de rigueur , as well as to master them
b establishment efore entering . With any us of the the _^ case sup is erior entirel classes y different of an . educational Solidity is
sacrificed to accomplishment ; and even in the latter the English girl is lamentably deficient when compared to the young Parisienne
who , if she paints , knows the theory of perspective , of color , of light , and shade , as well as she understands the theory upon which the
morceau may be based that she plays so brilliantly , and with a marvellously good effect for one whom nature did not endow with
the finest ear in the world . It may be said without hesitation , that French ladies generally have the good sense not to be continually ;
in a state of alarm lest their daughters should not be initiated in such a number of accomplishments , and a smattering * of acquirements
of no possible use to them , and to know all of which with a very ' moderate degree of proficiency would appear prodigious in a
feminine Crichton , did such an impossible being exist . Nor do they in the least desire them to be , at school , taught foreign languages
till they fairly understand their own . The idea of English , German , ' lad br Italian y princi , pal being of put a _pensio forward ? i ? iat in des an demoiselle advertisement sas ( i , the by the langu unhappy age of ,
, the school , " would provoke as many jests as the project lately
xr 2 .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 267, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/51/
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