means of more rational amusement, drives many, both young and old, to the most senseless and trivial gratifications? To this is to be attributed that excessive fondness for balls, theatres, cards, and, in short, every thing which can keep them from themselves. For this cause, hour after hour is spent in devouring the soup meagre trash of some cracked-brain novelist; sighing and crying over the sorrows of some love-sick swain; dwelling with anguish of heart upon the miserable fate of some fair damsel or disconsolate lover, and declaring, with the gentle Desdemona, that indeed ""Tis pitiful, 'tis wondrous pitiful.” Look at the innumerable circulating libraries; see the thousands of novels which are daily read; behold this species of reading forming the minds and character of the young and inexperienced, and all this through the want of a more useful and refined system of culture; and I apprehend that even the greatest op. posers of female education will be ready to exclaim, Give them science, give them learning, give them any thing, but save them, save them from this poison. The next objection of the opponent is rather curious. Learning, says he, sometimes makes men vain. If it makes men vain, it will make women more so; but as they have always a sufficient share of vanity without learning, consequently learning, as it would increase this, is worthy of the highest exprobration. This is the amount of his argument, convincing, perhaps, to himself, but I doubt whether many of his hearers, especially his fair hearers, will be much pleased or flattered by its introduction. But the argument can be fairly turned against his own conclusion. Now vanity necessarily presupposes that something is possessed by the individual superior to the rest of the world; therefore, by giving every individual an education precisely alike, you destroy the very source and fountain of vanity at once, for what every one possesses, surely no one in particular will be vain of. Let it be asked, as a sufficient answer to the argument, did ever any one hear a man boast that he had legs and arms, or a woman that she had a nose? The objection of the opponent is ridiculous. Next follows an observation which, even for the honour of his own sex, the opponent would much better have omitted. He says, that if the female sex were liberally educated, and by this means become enabled to converse on useful and important subjects, they "would experience a lamentable dearth of beaux, for who," says he, "would dare to converse with a literary amazon? Who would wish to expose his ignorance before female learning?" And is the character of our sex become so far degraded that we would willingly deprive the female sex of the benefits of learning, lest they should make more progress than ourselves, and put us to shame? Must we keep the mind of a female bound in the fetters of ignorance, because, perhaps, she might reach the goal of eminence sooner than ourselves, and snatch the victory from our hands? I would blush for myself, I would blush for the dignity of my sex, did we dare to give such an excuse to justify the keeping of them from the acquisition of knowledge. They would drive away their beaux, says the opponent, by the display of their learning. Well, what if they did? What characters are those whom they would drive off? The frivolous and the empty, the vacant brain and the unfurnished mind! Who, let it be asked, who would they drive off? The insignificant fop, whose knowledge is confined to the circle of his toilet; whose scale of excellence may be graduated by the number of his cravats; and whose importance among rational creatures, is derived from his tailor, his boot-maker, and his hair-dresser! I would risk my reputation as a man, as one who is desirous of advancing in knowledge, upon the issue of this trial. Give the female sex a liberal education, and they will never be deserted by any whose acquaintance is an acquisition. Give them a liberal education, and it will serve as a stimulus to our sex for the exertion of greater diligence; and by this means the general character of the community will experience a reverse as beneficial in effects, as it was noble and important in design. Once more: The opponent, in ridiculing female learning, says, "You talk of a woman who can make verses: give me one who can make pudding." Now a woman who could make nothing but pudding, might perhaps be a wife very much to his liking; but if I, or any other reasonable man, were going to choose, I fancy it would be one of a far different stamp. The question, however, is serious, What considerations should influence a man in the choice of a wife? I venture not to answer, yet thus much can be said, that he may be considered as supremely miserable whose wife is his housekeeper, not his companion; his servant, not the friend of his bosom. It may be folly, it may be enthusiasm, it may be madness, but I would consider my life but as a dreary and cheerless wilderness, if the companion of its path must be a wife from whose eye beamed no ray of intelligence; whose mind had never been formed by industrious education! I have now been so long in discharging one part of my duty, that I have not much time left to discharge the rest. The affirmant and opponent both agree, that education is necessary for the female sex ; but they differ as to the degree in which it is to be given, and, unfortunately, they both happen to be wrong. A medium between the two is probably the most correct standard of female education. A woman, it would seem, should not be ignorant of the general principles of philosophy, though we would hardly wish to see any woman a philosopher. Some knowledge of the learned languages, though not essential, would be harmless. History, geography, and poetry, are absolutely necessary; and above all, and what I fear is sought for least than all-a knowledge of her Bible. These are sources from which will flow, in unremitted streams, the most rational of all pleasures, that of conversation. Added to the acquirements which we have just mentioned, may be reckoned a knowledge of painting and music; but it is to be recollected that these should only be of secondary consideration. It is most unquestionably a fault in the present system of education, that too much time is employed in the obtainment of these accomplishments to the exclusion of much more important knowledge. "A great deal, to be sure," says an eloquent writer, "can be said in favour of the social nature of the fine arts. Music gives pleasure to others. Drawing is an art the amusement of which does not centre in him who exercises it, but is diffused among the rest of the world. This is true, but there is nothing after all so social as a cultivated mind. We do not mean to speak slightingly of the fine arts, or to depreciate the good humour with which they are sometimes exhibited; but we appeal to any man, whether a little spirited and sensible conversation, displaying modestly useful acquirements, and evincing rational curiosity, is not well worth the highest exertions of musical or graphical skill? A woman of mere accomplishments may, for half an hour, entertain with great brilliancy those who have the pleasure of knowing her; but a mind full of ideas, and with that elastic spring, which the love of knowledge only can convey, is a perpetual source of exhilaration and amusement to all who come within its reach, not collecting its force into single and insulated achievements like the efforts made in the fine arts, but diffusing over the whole of existence a calm pleasure, better loved as it is longer felt, and suitable to every variety and period of life. Therefore, instead of hanging the understanding of a woman upon walls or hearing it vibrate upon strings, instead of seeing it in clouds, or hearing it in the wind; we would make it the first spring and ornament of society, by enriching it with impressions and attainments upon which alone such power depends." Much, very much, might still be said, yet I fear your patience is not quite so exhaustless as the subject. Before I conclude, however, suffer me to repeat the consideration that scarcely any education would seem too good for those who are, as it were, by a law of their nature, destined to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot, What education, then, let it be asked, can be too good for those to whom this task is committed-this task, at once so delightful and responsible? They are to plant in the soil of the youthful heart, those seeds which, in future years, are to present to the parents the accomplishment of their fondest hopes in the beauty and vigour of the tree; or else be the source of acutest misery and self-condemnation, if they spring up naught but noxious and unprofitable weeds. If such considerations as these had always received the attention to which they are by their importance most justly entitled, many parents would have been saved the misery of beholding the depravity of their children; many children would have become the ornaments of society, instead of the miserable victims of disgrace and infamy. "Train up a child," says the wise man, "in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Sow, then, the seeds of virtue and of knowledge in the youthful breast, and cultivate them with unremitted attention. Then, when the youth shall have sprung up into the man, the plant which, by your industrious care, has been nourished and brought to maturity, shall repay you with tenfold interest: for you shall soon behold it flourishing in the richest luxuriance, and in your declining years you shall find under its branches a grateful-a refreshing shade. While he was remarkably fond of original composition, and acquired, as is here seen, an uncommon facility in this branch of education, he paid great attention also to the cultivation of a talent for public speaking. To this he was particularly devoted, and gained thus an instrument of influence which was employed for purposes of great usefulness in his subsequent life. He possessed, undoubtedly, great natural powers in this department, and he manifested his judgment and wisdom in improving them. In . |