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    The great end of education is to fit woman , as an individual , to create happiness for herself by means as purely self-dependent as the nature of things will admit ; and to fit her , as a relative creature , to be a zealous and liberal labourer in the midst of the whole human family for the advancement of the whole human

    race . It might be imagined , were there no avenues to a knowledge of human nature but through books , that for the cement of the union of the sexes , attraction need exist on one side only . How is this ? Is it that personal preference and attachment is essential to satisfy the heart of woman , while necessitated or enforced adhesion is enough for that of man ? As long as * the mind possesses a power which spurns arbitrary control ; by which

    it springs , in spite of law , or prudence , or policy , from that which disg usts to that which delights ; so long must the charm which attracts , the spell which binds , be equally necessary to man as to woman ; unless to hold the hand without the heart suffice for him . I nauseate at all I read , and hear , and see upon this subject , tending , as it does , to universal evil- Thank heaven , with all that is said , the practice is not so bad as the preaching ,

    and though marriage be a market , there be some above purchase ; though domestic life be perpetually a slavery or a sovereignty , there be some above the debasement of either state .

    Education ought to aim at perfecting men and women ; instead of which it aims at making ladies , gentlemen , professional people , commercial people , mechanical people , and so on ; and with all this there is such an utter absence of general harmony , that it is as impossible for them to blend and associate as it is to make

    a circle out of a triangle . As for the companionship of the sexes , like paper money , it passes current for that which it is not . How is it possible that it should be otherwise ? Are they not the antipodes of each other in habits of thinking , in principles of taste , and possession of knowledge ? Actuated by some motive of interest , fashion , custom , or preference , they conform to , or they endure , each other ' s society ; but among the millions who meet , how many enjoy each other ' s society ? Oh , if drawing-rooms could

    bear evidence against the moral capital often floating through them , and show an account of the dividends of pleasure ! Why our bank dividends , reduced , as they have been of late years , would look glorious in comparison with such a percentage . What , it may be asked , are the grounds of companionship ? Some equality of powers of thinking , some degree of common knowledge , and community of regard for general interests . Who among * men do we observe to be the companions of each other ? Are the temperate and the hard drinkers ever companions ? No , they

    mutually shun each other . Are the profound mathematician a the mere dancing-master ever companions ? No , they mutually contemn each other . Are the generality of men and women more calculated to be companions than these ? I fear not

    Untitled Article

    Acephald . 773

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1834, page 773, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2639/page/27/