Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

of man.

knowledge at such a period of life, we | tural difference of original conformacould not convey; but we might fix a tion of mind. As long as boys and decided taste for its acquisition, and a girls run about in the dirt, and trundle strong disposition to respect it in others. hoops together, they are both precisely The formation of some great scholars alike. If you catch up one half of these we should certainly prevent, and hinder creatures, and train them to a particular many from learning what, in a few set of actions and opinions, and the years, they would necessarily forget; other half to a perfectly opposite set, of but this loss would be well repaid, course their understandings will differ, if we could show the future rulers of as one or the other sort of occupations the country that thought and labour has called this or that talent into action. which it requires to make a nation There is surely no occasion to go into happy, or if we could inspire them any deeper or more abstruse reasoning, with that love of public virtue, which, in order to explain so very simple a pheafter religion, we most solemnly believe nomenon. Taking it, then, for granted, to be the brightest ornament of the mind that nature has been as bountiful of understanding to one sex as the other, it is incumbent on us to consider what are the principal objections commonly made against the communication of a greater share of knowledge to women than commonly falls to their lot at present for though it may be doubted whether women should learn all that men learn, the immense ME BROADHURST is a very good sort disparity which now exists between of a man, who has not written a very their knowledge we should hardly bad book upon a very important sub- think could admit of any rational ject. His object (a very laudable one) defence. It is not easy to imagine to recommend a better system of that there can be any just cause why female education than at present pre- a woman of forty should be more. vals in this country-to turn the atten- ignorant than a boy of twelve years of tion of women from the trifling pursuits age. If there be any good at all in to which they are now condemned-female ignorance, this (to use a very and to cultivate faculties which, under colloquial phrase) is surely too much the actual system of management, might of a good thing. almost as well not exist. To the examination of his ideas upon these points We shall very cheerfully give up a portion of our time and attention.

FEMALE EDUCATION.

(E. REVIEW, 1809.)

Advice to Young Ladies on the Improve meat of the Mind. By Thomas Broadburst. 8vo. London, 1808.

Something in this question must depend, no doubt, upon the leisure which either sex enjoys for the cultivation of their understandings:-and we cannot help thinking, that women have fully as much, if not more, idle time upon their hands than men.

Women

A great deal has been said of the original difference of capacity between men and women; as if women were more quick and men more judicious-are excluded from all the serious busias if women were more remarkable for ness of the world; men are lawyers, delicacy of association, and men for physicians, clergymen, apothecaries, roger powers of attention. All and justices of the peace- - sources of this, we confess, appears to us very exertion which consume a great deal fanciful. That there is a difference in more time than producing and suckling the understandings of the men and the children; so that if the thing is a thing women we every day meet with, every- that ought to be done-if the attainbody, we suppose, must perceive; but ments of literature are objects really worthy the attention of females, they cannot plead the want of leisure as an excuse for indolence and neglect. The lawyer who passes his day in exaspe

there is none

surely which may not be accounted for by the difference of cirmstances in which they have been placed, without referring to any conjec

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

rating the bickerings of Roe and Doe, | sider such an unusual extension of
is certainly as much engaged as his knowledge, without connecting with it
lady, who has the whole of her morn- some sensation of the ludicrous, should
ing before her to correct the children remember, that, in the progress from
and pay the bills. The apothecary, absolute ignorance, there is a period
who rushes from an act of phlebotomy when cultivation of the mind is new to
in the western parts of the town to in- every rank and description of persons.
sinuate a bolus in the east, is surely as A century ago, who would have be-
completely absorbed as that fortunate lieved that country gentlemen could be
female who is darning the garment or brought to read and spell with the ease
preparing the repast of her Esculapius and accuracy which we now so fre-
at home; and in every degree and quently remark, or supposed that they
situation of life, it seems that men could be carried up even to the ele-
must necessarily be exposed to more ments of ancient and modern history?
serious demands upon their time and Nothing is more common, or more
attention, than can possibly be the case stupid, than to take the actual for the
with respect to the other sex. We are possible - to believe that all which is,
speaking always of the fair demands is all which can be; first to laugh at
which ought to be made upon the time every proposed deviation from practice
and attention of women; for, as the as impossible-then, when it is carried
matter now stands, the time of women into effect, to be astonished that it did
is considered as worth nothing at all. not take place before.
Daughters are kept to occupations in It is said, that the effect of knowledge
sewing, patching, mantua-making, and is to make women pedantic and
mending, by which it is impossible affected; and that nothing can be
they can earn tenpence a day. The more offensive, than to see a woman
intellectual improvement of women is stepping out of the natural modesty of
considered to be of such subordinate her sex, to make an ostentatious dis-
importance, that twenty pounds paid play of her literary attainments. This
for needle-work would give to a whole may be true enough; but the answer is
family leisure to acquire a fund of real so trite and obvious, that we are almost
knowledge. They are kept with nim- ashamed to make it. All affectation
ble fingers and vacant understandings, and display proceed from the suppo-
till the season for improvement is ut-sition of possessing something better
terly past away, and all chance of than the rest of the world possesses.
forming more important habits com- Nobody is vain of possessing two legs
pletely lost. We do not therefore say and two arms; because that is the
that women have more leisure than precise quantity of either sort of limb
men, if it be necessary they should lead which every body possesses. Who ever
the life of artisans; but we make this heard a lady boast that she understood
assertion only upon the supposition French? for no other reason, that
that it is of some importance women we know of, but because everybody in
should be instructed; and that many these days does understand French;
ordinary occupations, for which a little and though there may be some disgrace
money will find a better substitute in being ignorant of that language,
should be sacrificed to this considera- there is little or no merit in its acqui-
tion.
sition. Diffuse knowledge generally
among women, and you will at once
cure the conceit which knowledge
occasions while it is rare. Vanity and
conceit we shall of course witness in
men and women as long as the world
endures :-but by multiplying the at-
tainments upon which these feelings
are founded, you increase the difficulty
of indulging them, and render them

We bar, in this discussion, any objection which proceeds from the mere novelty of teaching women more than they are already taught. It may be useless that their education should be improved, or it may be pernicious; and these are the fair grounds on which the question may be argued. But those who cannot bring their minds to con

[ocr errors]

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]

mal extend:

Onnecting
udieron

me progr
here is a p
e mind b
ption of pers
would bare
ntlemen ont
pell with the

We Do N
pposed

even to th

modern har ommen, fr the actual r that all thes

first to

s

tion from p when it is nished that ffect of know en pedante c nothin, ། ?

n to see a

natural mode
ostentat
attainments
; but the

that we are a
it. All af

ed from the s
g something e
the world p
possessing twit

because that 2
either surf
Possesses. Wa

that she des
o other reason
ecause everthi
understand Fr
may be some
t of that

no merit in 14
nowledge
nd you wis

• which kom
is rare. Vandr
of course wit
as long as the w

multiplying - L
which thee be
increase the
1, and recór as

[ocr errors]

much more tolerable, by making them secured from the perilous inroads of
the proofs of a much higher merit. knowledge.
When learning ceases to be uncommon
among women, learned women will
cease to be affected.

We would fain know, too, if know-
ledge is to produce such baneful effects
upon the material and the household
A great many of the lesser and more virtues, why this influence has not al-
obscure duties of life necessarily de-ready been felt? Women are much
volve upon the female sex.
The better educated now than they were a
arrangement of all household matters, century ago; but they are by no
and the care of children in their early means less remarkable for attention to
intaner, must of course depend upon the arrangements of their household,
them. Now, there
a very general or less inclined to discharge the offices
nction, that the moment you put the of parental affection. It would be
education of women upon a better very easy to show, that the same ob-
footing than it is at present, at that jection has been made at all times to
moment there will be an end of every improvement in the education of
all domestic economy: and that, if both sexes, and all ranks and been
You once suffer women to eat of the as uniformly and completely refuted
tree of knowledge, the rest of the by experience. A great part of the
family will very soon be reduced to the objections made to the education of
same kind of aerial and unsatisfactory women are rather objections made to
diet. These, and all such opinions are human nature than to the female sex :
referable to one great and common cause for it is surely true, that knowledge,
of error;-that man does everything, where it produces any bad effects at
and that nature does nothing; and that all, does as much mischief to one sex
everything we see, is referable to posi-as to the other, and gives birth to
tive institution, rather than to original fully as much arrogance, inattention
feeling. Can anything, for example, to common affairs, and eccentricity
be more perfectly absurd than to sup. among men, as it does among women.
pose, that the care and perpetual solici- But it by no means follows, that you
rade which a mother feels for her chil-get rid of vanity and self-conceit, be-
dren depends upon her ignorance of cause you get rid of learning. Self-
would desert an infant for a quadratic and the best way to make it more
equation? We seem to imagine, that tolerable, and more useful, is to give to
we can break in pieces the solemn in- it as high and as dignified an object as
gitutions of nature by the little laws possible. But, at all events, it is un-
of a boarding-school; and that the fair to bring forward against a part of
existence of the human race depends the world an objection which is equally
upon teaching women a little more or powerful against the whole. When
little less-that Cimmerian ignor- foolish women think they have any
ance can aid parental affection, or the distinction, they are apt to be proud of
circle of arts and sciences produce its it; so are foolish men.

But we appeal

destruction. In the same manner, we to any one who has lived with cultilove of order, arrangement, and all has not witnessed as much pedantry, forget the principles upon which the vated persons of either sex, whether he the arts of economy depend. They as much wrongheadedness, as much depend not upon ignorance nor idle- arrogance, and certainly a great deal Des; but upon the poverty, confusion, more rudeness, produced by learning and ruin which would ensue from in men than in women: therefore, we Deglecting them. Add to these prin- should make the accusation general ples the love of what is beautiful and or dismiss it altogether; though, with magnificent, and the vanity of display; respect to pedantry, the learned are -and there can surely be no reason- certainly a little unfortunate, that so able doubt but that the order and very emphatic a word, which is occa

economy of

VOL L

private life is amply sionally applicable to all men em

N

barked eagerly in any pursuit, should be reserved exclusively for them: for, as pedantry is an ostentatious obtrusion of knowledge, in which those who hear us cannot sympathise, it is a fault of which soldiers, sailors, sportsmen, gamesters, cultivators, and all men engaged in a particular occupation, are quite as guilty as scholars; but they have the good fortune to have the vice only of pedantry,-while scholars have both the vice and the name for it too.

--

or which in itself is very faint; then simple pleasures seem to be very nearly synonymous with small pleasures; and if the simplicity were to be a little increased, the pleasure would vanish altogether.

As it is impossible that every man should have industry or activity sufficient to avail himself of the advantages of education, it is natural that men who are ignorant themselves, should view, with some degree of jealousy and alarm, any proposal for improving the education of women. But such men may depend upon it, however the system of female education may be exalted, that there will never be wanting a due proportion of failures; and that after parents, guardians, and preceptors have done all in their power to make everybody wise, there will still be a plentiful supply of women who have taken special care to remain otherwise; and they may rest assured, if the utter extinction of ignorance and folly be the evil they dread, that their interests will always be effectually protected, in spite of every exertion to the contrary.

We

We must in candour allow, that those women who begin, will have something more to overcome than may probably hereafter be the case. cannot deny the jealousy which exists among pompous and foolish men, respecting the education of women. There is a class of pedants, who would be cut short in the estimation of the world a whole cubit, if it were gene

Some persons are apt to contrast the acquisition of important knowledge with what they call simple pleasures; and deem it more becoming that a woman should educate flowers, make friendships with birds, and pick up plants, than enter into more difficult and fatiguing studies. If a woman have no taste and genius for higher occupations, let her engage in these, rather than remain destitute of any pursuit. But why are we necessarily to doom a girl, whatever be her taste or her capacity, to one unvaried line of petty and frivolous occupation? If she be full of strong sense and elevated curiosity, can there be any reason why she should be diluted and enfeebled down to a mere culler of simples, and fancier of birds? why books of history and reasoning are to be torn out of her hand, and why she is to be sent, like a butterfly, to hover over the idle flowers of the field? Such amusements are innocent to those whom they can occupy; but they are not innocent to those who have too power-rally known that a young lady of ful understandings to be occupied by them. Light broths and fruits are innocent food only to weak or to infant stomachs; but they are poison to that organ in its perfect and mature state. But the great charm appears to be in the word simplicity — simple pleasure! If by a simple pleasure is meant an innocent pleasure, the observation is best answered by showing, that the pleasure which results from the acquisition of important knowledge is quite as innocent as any pleasure whatever but if by a simple pleasure is meant one, the cause of which can be easily analysed, or which does not last long,

eighteen could be taught to decline the tenses of the middle voice, or acquaint herself with the Æolic varieties of that celebrated language. Then women have, of course, all ignorant men for enemies to their instruction, who being bound (as they think), in point of sex to know more, are not well pleased, in point of fact, to know less. But, among men of sense and liberal politeness, a woman who has successfully cultivated her mind, without diminishing the gentleness and propriety of her manners, is always sure to meet with a respect and attention bordering upon enthusiasm.

There is in either sex a strong and permanent disposition to appear agreeable to the other: and this is the fair answer to those who are fond of supposing, that a higher degree of knowledge is, upon the whole, the most ledge would make women rather the innocent, the most dignified, and the rivals than the companions of men. most useful method of filling up that Pre-supposing such a desire to please, idleness, of which there is always so it seems much more probable, that a large a portion in nations far advanced common pursuit should be a fresh in civilisation. Let any man reflect, source of interest than a cause of con- too, upon the solitary situation in tention. Indeed, to suppose that any which women are placed, the ill mode of education can create a general treatment to which they are sometimes jealousy and rivalry between the sexes, exposed, and which they must endure is so very ridiculous, that it requires in silence, and without the power of only to be stated in order to be refuted. complaining, and he must feel conThe same desire of pleasing secures vinced that the happiness of a woman all that delicacy and reserve which are will be materially increased in proof such inestimable value to women. portion as education has given to her We are quite astonished, in hearing the habit and the means of drawing men converse on such subjects, to find her resources from herself. them attributing such beautiful effects There are a few common phrases in to ignorance. It would appear, from circulation, respecting the duties of the tenor of such objections, that igno- women, to which we wish to pay some rance had been the great civiliser of the degree of attention, because they are world. Women are delicate and re- rather inimical to those opinions which fined only because they are ignorant; we have advanced on this subject. -they manage their household, only Indeed, independently of this, there is because they are ignorant; - they at- nothing which requires more vigilance tend to their children, only because than the current phrases of the day, of they know no better. Now, we must which there are always some resorted really confess, we have all our lives to in every dispute, and from the sovebeen so ignorant, as not to know the reign authority of which it is often value of ignorance. We have always vain to make any appeal. "The true attributed the modesty and the refined theatre for a woman is the sick chimLanners of women, to their being well ber; "-"Nothing so honourable to a taught in moral and religious duty, woman as not to be spoken of at to the hazardous situation in which all." These two phrases, the delight of they are placed, to that perpetual Noodledom, are grown into commonVigilance which it is their duty to places upon the subject; and are not exercise over thought, word, and ac- unfrequently employed to extinguish tion,-and to that cultivation of the that love of knowledge in women, which, mild virtues, which those who culti-in our humble opinion, it is of so much vate the stern and magnanimous vir- importance to cherish. Nothing, certes expect at their hands. After all, tainly, is so ornamental and delightful let it be remembered, we are not say in women as the benevolent affections; ing there are no objections to the but time cannot be filled up, and life ditfusion of knowledge among the employed, with high and impassioned female sex. We would not hazard virtues. Some of these feelings are of proposition respecting any- rare occurrence- all of short duration thing; but we are saying, that, upon or nature would sink under them. the whole, it is the best method of em- A scene of distress and anguish is an ploying time; and that there are occasion where the finest qualities of fewer objections to it than to any the female mind may be displayed; other method. There are, perhaps, but it is a monstrous exaggeration to 50,000 females in Great Britain, who tell women that they are born only for

are exempted by circumstances from all necessary labour: but every human being must do something with their existence; and the pursuit of know

[ocr errors]

such a

« AnteriorContinua »