CORNELL 
 UNIVERSITY 
 ' LIBRARY 
 
 BEQUEST 
 
 OF 
 
 STEWART HENRY BURNHAM 
 1943 
 
Cornell University Library 
 arV11856 
 
 The young la«'y,',f,,,?,?,9||j„ 
 
 olin,anx 
 
 3 1924 031 449 030 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031449030 
 

rOTTRTH THOUSAND. 
 
 THE 
 
 YOUIG LADY'S BOOK: 
 
 OB, 
 
 :^iiDrr|iks nf $tmz\t <Bhmlm. 
 
 BT 
 
 WILLIAM HOSMER,- 
 
 EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. 
 
 AUBURN: 
 DEEBT AND MILLER. 
 
 1S51. 
 
 0-y' • . 
 
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 !\niiU^ 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by 
 
 WILLIAM HOSMER, 
 Xh the Clerk's Office for the Northern Disti-ict of New Yortt. 
 
 HWO 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The following pages require little explanation by 
 way of preface. They owe their existence to a deep 
 conviction that the present system of female educa- 
 tion is essentially defective. As a friend to human 
 improvement, the author could do no less than con- 
 tribute to the best of his ability to remove the evil. 
 The aim has been to produce a work which, by em- 
 bodying the ethics of the New Testament, and the 
 progressive spirit of the nineteenth century, should 
 meet the demands of public opinion and relieve the 
 wants of society. How far the effort will prove suc- 
 cessful, must be left for time to determine ; but the 
 writer, conscious of having performed a duty, will 
 cheerfully abide the result whatever it may be. 
 Having expressed himself fearlessly, he is not dis- 
 posed to weaken the force of truth by apologies. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It ought, perhaps, further to be stated, that so 
 much of the title-page as is contained in these words, 
 — "The Young Lady's Book" — is not to he under- 
 stood in any restricted sense. The work is designed 
 for the married as well as the unmarried, and will, 
 it is hoped, he found useful to readers of all classes. 
 
 AcjBUUN, March, 1851 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 -•-•-•— 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 PAQK 
 ■WOMAN AS A HUMAN BEING, 9 
 
 CHAPTER II ■*" 
 
 WOMAN AS A SOOUL BEING, 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MORAL EDUCATION, 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION, 86 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 150 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DOMESTIC EDUCATION, . 230 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CIVIL EDUCATION, 289 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ORNAMENTAL EDUCATION, 296 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 If woman has the responsibilities of human 
 nature, she certainly ought to have its advan- 
 tages also ; the privileges should go with the 
 duties, the means with the obligation to use 
 them. Probably there are few who will dis- 
 pute so reasonable a position as this, and yet 
 there are many who do not feel its force, or are 
 reluctant to admit its consequences. The al- 
 most universal impression is, that as the sta- 
 tion in society and the physical constitution of 
 women are, in some respects, subordinate and 
 inferior to that of men, their education should 
 be of a corresponding character. That is, a 
 subordinate education for a subordinate sta- 
 tion, and slender acquirements for a slender 
 constitution ! Doubtless this is something bet- 
 ter than the absolute servitude and degrada- 
 
.0 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 tion of a darker age. A woman with some 
 education will be likely to rise above the con- 
 dition of an abject menial, but without an 
 equal education, she can never rise to an equal 
 standing with the other sex. 
 
 It is useless to argue the question of com- 
 parative ability for scientific acquisitions, un- 
 til we have settled the character of the claims 
 which are imposed upon women. The slight 
 grounds on which their right to participate in 
 the best advantages of education, has been set 
 aside, show that prejudice rather than reason 
 has influenced the decision. Let the claims 
 of women be judged by the same rules that 
 those of men are ; let both branches of the hu- 
 man race receive according to their actual 
 wants, and there can no injustice be done. 
 We shall point to the general elements of our 
 nature as the only competent guide to a true 
 standard of femp-le education. And in none 
 of these elements is the female less concerned, 
 or can she perform her duties with less as- 
 sistance. 
 
 The first and greatest concern of all man- 
 kind is religion or morals. In the high duties 
 
WOMAN AS A HUMAN BEING. 11 
 
 which we owe to God as Creator, Preserver, 
 and Redeemer, no one will deny that woman 
 is interested ; she must worship Grod, and to 
 worship him she must know him. She must 
 serve him, and this service demands a knowl- 
 edge of his law. It will require just as much 
 knowledge for her to perform these duties as 
 it would if she belonged to the male part of 
 our species. A being that must be religious, 
 a being whose days should be spent in intelli- 
 gent piety, and whose eternity will be devo- 
 tional, cannot be too well instructed. Her 
 wants as a religious being are as great as the 
 wants of human nature can be. Morality is 
 not to be less refined or less exclusive with wo- 
 men than with men. Indeed, society seems 
 to require even a higher standard of them, and 
 this of itself presupposes that they are to have 
 a proportionately better knowledge of ethics. 
 Now, if females have a religious and moral 
 nature to provide for — if, with the rest of hu- 
 manity, they stand related to G-od as proba- 
 tioners for eternity, and if to them, as to others, 
 knowledge is power, it is sufficiently clear that 
 they have an equal claim to education. Here 
 
12 Y-OUNG lady's book. 
 
 we see not only the degree, bi^t the kind of 
 education which is requisite. As human be- 
 ings, women should have such knowledge as 
 will fit them for immortality. They are not 
 to be restricted, without the same imminent 
 hazard as others — that of being " alienated 
 from the life of God through the ignorance 
 that is in themP It, is the necessity for this 
 cultivation that pleices female education on 
 higher ground ; it is the human nature which 
 they possess that gives them a christian des- 
 tiny and christian immunities. Having as 
 great duties to perform and as great interests 
 at stake as others, there can be no reason why 
 they should not have as great advantages. 
 
 The intellectual nature of woman calls for 
 its full share of cultivation. Hers must be an 
 intellectual part. She will have through life 
 the same occasion for mental vigor as if she 
 had been born to other duties. The statesman 
 and the warrior have not more need of knowl- 
 edge than the mother of a family. She must 
 live among the intelligent, and contribute to 
 their happiness ; she must share in all the vi- 
 cissitudes of life, and meet all its dangers with 
 
WOMAN AS A HUMAN BEING. 13 
 
 fortitude, or she cannot perform her mission as 
 woman. It is hers to live, and it is hers to 
 die ; and in what greater events can mankind 
 be concerned ? Both the ills of life and the 
 terrors of death she has to endure, with only 
 such supports as are common to the race ; and 
 if it would be cruel to deny to man the solace 
 of knowledge, it is even more cruel to with- 
 hold it from woman. But admitting — what 
 can never be admitted — that the earthly ca- 
 reer of woman does not demand the most ex- 
 tensive cultivation of her mind, the identity of 
 her situation with that of man, in the world to 
 come, proves conclusively that her education 
 should be similar in this life. If the two sexes 
 are to have one common employment in eter- 
 nity, then the great essentials of their educa- 
 tion should be identical, as a preparation for 
 that eternity. 
 
 Physical nature in women requires to be 
 cultivated for the very same reason that it 
 does in men. They cannot live or enjoy health 
 regardless of physical laws, and it is utterly 
 absurd to suppose that their knowledge of 
 these laws can safely be restricted. So long 
 
14 YOUN« LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 as they are equally aifeoted by all physical 
 causes, so long must they have an equal need 
 of that knowledge by which these causes are 
 controlled. 
 
 Here is the basis of woman's privileges ; a 
 foundation not laid by Christianity, but by the 
 Creator, and only restored by Christianity as 
 an exposition of the works of God. Christi- 
 anity has corrected an injustice which had 
 grown out of man's ignorance and depravity, 
 and has replaced woman in her original sphere. 
 It has taught man that whatever may be af- 
 firmed of the dignity of his nature, the same 
 may also be affirmed of woman. She partakes 
 the same nature, and consequently sustains 
 the same relation to Grod and to all things of 
 temporal or spiritual importance. This fact is 
 a fuU answer to all those who would deny to 
 females any of those advantages which they 
 deem essential to the other sex. Her wants 
 are as great as the wants of man, because her 
 responsibilities are the same as his. That her 
 duties in this life are not altogether identical 
 with his, must be admitted ; but this variation 
 
WOMAN A3 A HUMAN BEING. 15 
 
 of practical affairs is attended with no diminu- 
 tion of responsibility. The more secluded and 
 domestic life which nature points out to her, 
 must form her character to the same high 
 standard that is demanded of men; as a Chris- 
 tian, she cannot rest in an inferior excellence, 
 because she has no hope of a mitigated judg- 
 ment. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Wmm m a Intial 56dEg. 
 
 The social relations of woman are peculiar, 
 and cannot be perverted without the most se- 
 rious evils. These relations are different, but 
 not inferior ; she cannot have the same posi- 
 tion as the other sex, but she must have one 
 equally honorable. 
 
 As a social being, she needs to be' educated 
 with special reference to that sexual distinc- 
 tion which nature has established. Upon the 
 maintenance of her sexual character untar- 
 nished through life, will depend her honor and 
 her happiness ; and that she may have every 
 advantage for so desirable an object, she should 
 be furnished with the most ample instructions 
 on all points tending to her preservation from 
 errors of this kind. To leave her to be regu- 
 lated by her own instincts and by that measure 
 
WOMAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. 17 
 
 of judgment whioh characterizes the unedu- 
 cated, might be safe, provided the other sex 
 was also to remain uneducated ; but this can- 
 not be in civilized society, and there is no 
 security for female virtue, in such society, but 
 the possession of equal knowledge. The dis- 
 tinction of sex, though not fundamental to hu- 
 man nature in its higher elements, is yet fun- 
 damental to society ; it enters into the frame- 
 work of the social constitution, and can never 
 be disregarded without the utter prostration 
 of morals. While a high and refined sense of 
 her position as woman characterizes the fe- 
 male, she is fitted to discharge the duties of 
 life ; but the loss of this feeling plunges her 
 into the deepest degradation, and society into 
 the greatest confusion. In order that her per- 
 son and character may in this respect be in- 
 violate, she ought to be raised by knowledge 
 above the need of appealing to the other sex 
 for such assistance as cannot be rendered with- 
 out a sacrifice of delicacy. And especially 
 ought she to be able to judge for herself of the 
 bearing of all those things which may arise in 
 the course of life to affect her morals. It is 
 
18 ybuNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 here that the greatest evils have arisen in fe- 
 male education. The superficial and restricted 
 knowledge which women have possessed on 
 subjects connected with their own peculiar re- 
 lation to the social system, has too often made 
 them an easy prey to the better informed. 
 Never will females be secure until by an in- 
 crease of knowledge they are rendered capable 
 of acting, under all circumstances, an inde- 
 pendent part. 
 
 Again, she ought to know that the state of 
 comparative subordination which falls to her 
 lot by the appointment of nature and the cus- 
 toms of society, is not one of real humiliation, 
 but only of temporary and honorable variety, 
 originating necessarily in the present constitu- 
 tion of human nature. This fact, well under- 
 stood, will prevent all improper desire to rise 
 above her condition, and all those apings of 
 masculine characteristics which she was never 
 intended to possess, and never can exhibit 
 without destroying the loveliness of her appro- 
 priate character. Her station, though differ- 
 ent from that of man, is no less important to 
 the social system. With just ideas of her dig- 
 
WOMAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. 19 
 
 nity, she can never wish to change the allot- 
 ments of Providence. Uneasiness and a wish 
 to be what she is not, proclaim how little she 
 understands the wisdom that has made her so 
 important a part of the human family. Igno- 
 rance alone is the cause of her discontent 
 Let her see as clearly as she might the hand 
 of Grod in the arrangement of the social sys- 
 tem, and she cannot fail to be thankful for 
 her part in that system, — burdened though 
 that part be with some peculiar trials. 
 
 The next consideration affecting her im- 
 provement, is a knowledge of the various du- 
 ties which grow out of her position in society. 
 Not to be thoroughly trained in these, is to be 
 unqualified for the station she must occupy. 
 As the greater share of domestic management 
 falls to her lot, it would be an almost irrepara- 
 ble misfortune to have her unacquainted with 
 this department. A woman who has only a 
 superficial knowledge of household affairs, and 
 who views all labors of this kind as mere 
 drudgery, beneath the dignity of her character, 
 will be regarded by all discerning men as un- 
 worthy of the name of woman. She may be 
 
20 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 fitted to parade in a drawing-room, but she is 
 not fitted for the more important scenes of life. 
 Those branches of female education which are 
 commonly deemed ornamental, and for which 
 so much eagerness is manifested by many, 
 have no essential relation to the great events 
 of woman's life ; she is neither a better house- 
 keeper, nor a better mother, nor a better mem- 
 ber of society, for these accomplishments. Skill 
 in the appropriate duties of her station, and the 
 general excellences of human nature, will al- 
 ways constitute her worth. Superficial accom- 
 plishments, and an air of disdain for humbler 
 pursuits, may give her some consequence in 
 certain circles ; yet among better judges such 
 acquisitions will only expose her to deserved 
 contempt. 
 
 Such are the outlines of what we conceive 
 to be a true system of education for woman. 
 
 1. It should be commensurate with the 
 wants of human nature, both in the higher 
 and in the lower elements of that nature. 
 
 2. It should provide for maintaining invio- 
 late her sexual character, which cannot bo 
 
WOMAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. 21 
 
 overlooked without endangering her morality, 
 and consequently the stability of the social 
 system. 
 
 3. It should thoroughly qualify her for the 
 discharge of the appropriate duties of her 
 sphere in life. 
 
 In the further elucidation of the principles 
 here laid down, I shall not endeavor to include 
 every topic that might be discussed in connec- 
 tion with female education. There are many 
 things belonging to general education as ap- 
 plicable to one sex as to the other ; and these 
 general features of the subject, alike adapted 
 to either sex, and treated at large in most 
 works on education, have been purposely omit- 
 ted, except where some reference to them was 
 needed to illustrate the matter in hand. It 
 was not my intention to write a volume on 
 education in the abstract, but on the educa- 
 tion of woman in particular. This will ac- 
 count for the absence of some things which 
 would have been desirable in a treatise less 
 restricted in its range. Peculiarities alone are 
 discussed. What is common to the sexes has 
 
22 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 been left to be gleaned from other sources, as 
 its introduction here would only have increased 
 the size of the volume, without adding mate- 
 rially to its value. It is for this reason that, 
 in treating of the morals of woman, the dis- 
 cussion has been confined entirely to the virtue 
 of chastity. In all other things she needs the 
 same moral excellence as man, and can obtain 
 it in the same manner ; but in this she differs 
 from him, and demands at least a different line 
 of conduct, if not a higher degree of virtue. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Mud i>hu\m. 
 
 SECTION I. — PEINCIPLE. 
 
 That woman should possess an elevated mor- 
 al character, is admitted by all, and therefore 
 needs no proof. But there can be) no perma- 
 nent virtue — no real morality, without a fixed 
 moral principle. Policy, expediency, and arti- 
 fice are quite too low ; they may serve to keep 
 up appearances for the time, but in the end the 
 true character will be revealed, and be revealed, 
 too, amid irredeemable disgrace and ruin. A 
 woman must not only avoid vice, but detest 
 it ; she must abominate it in her heart, or she 
 will manifest it in her life. This is indeed 
 true of all who act a responsible part, and no 
 more true of woman than of man, except ^s 
 the peculiarities of her nature render it impor- 
 tant that she should bear a stainless reputa- 
 
24 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 tion. By marriage she becomes a companion 
 for life, and a joint agent in the reproduction 
 of the species. On her fidelity the husband 
 must depend for the transmission of his name 
 to posterity. Without the most uncompro- 
 mising integrity on the part of his wife, a man 
 might as well be unmarried as married. He 
 has no security but her honor that the children 
 which bear his name are his. Judge, then, 
 how unimpeachable should be a woman's rep- 
 utation ! Not the slightest taint, not even the 
 least obscurity, should ever be allowed to rest 
 upon her conduct. That which is not beyond 
 all question right, is not right enough for a 
 woman to practise. There are- nameless varia- 
 tions from strict rectitude which involve the 
 character in suspicion, and constitute a suf- 
 ficient foundation for that most distressing of 
 all passions — ^jealousy. Jealousy may some- 
 times exist without just cause, but in most 
 cases it is produced by conduct at least excep- 
 tionable — not exceptionable, perhaps, in a sin- 
 gle lady, but certainly exceptionable in a wife. 
 The single woman is under no vows of perpet- 
 ual fidelity to any one man, and if she falls, 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 25 
 
 she will bring down to the dust no husband 
 nor children — the disgrace will centre in her- 
 self and in her connections. There is, more- 
 over, in the relation of an unmarried female to 
 society, an important reason for more freedom 
 with the other sex. She is always a candidate 
 for marriage, and this presupposes a degree of 
 intercourse with men which can never be tole- 
 rated in a married woman. The latter has no 
 matrimonial alliances to form, and can have 
 no occasion for such an intercourse with other 
 men, as might by any possibility give rise to un- 
 favorable imputations ; she is sacredly pledged 
 to one, and may not in the slightest degree be- 
 long to another ; she has no common interest 
 in the other sex — no prospective alliance — no 
 reserved favors to bestow. As her husband 
 forsook all other women for her, so she forsook 
 all other men for him. This mutual forsaking 
 is the basis of the marriage compact, and upon 
 its faithful observance depends the stability of 
 domestic relations, and all the endearing ties 
 of social life. 
 
 But while the married woman is thus under 
 obligation to maintain an unequivocal deport- 
 
26 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 ment, in view of her conjugal relations, it by 
 no means follows that the unmarried woman 
 can take any considerable degree of liberty. 
 Discretion restricts her to narrow bounds ; her 
 intercourse with all men should be calculated 
 to inspire a conviction of her incorruptible in- 
 tegrity; — ^not, indeed, by an affected display 
 of virtuous pretensions, but by careful atten- 
 tion to the essentials of true morality. The 
 unmarried woman is the future wife, and she 
 ought to possess an honorable character in the 
 estimation of every marriageable man of her 
 acquaintance. This- she cannot do without 
 the utmost propriety of conduct. But little 
 can be pardoned to the indiscretion or inex- 
 perience of youth, for the unchaste girl will be 
 very likely to make an unchaste wife. The 
 pilfering boy generally proves a dishonest man ; 
 unprincipled youth is the too sure precursor of 
 criminal manhood. This is a condition of hu- 
 man nature equally common to both sexes. 
 Besides the necessity arising from the sanctity 
 of conjugal vows, and from the relation of 
 females to the other sex, there is a demand for 
 principle founded on the general obligation of 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 27 
 
 virtue. It is not simply as male or female 
 that human beings are required to be virtuous. 
 Moral excellence is not based upon sexual dis- 
 tinctions, though it imperatively demands that 
 such distinctions be regarded. The sexual 
 character is modified and controlled by moral 
 principle, but not originated by it. Hence, 
 women need principle, not only to carry them 
 blamelessly through the duties peculiar to 
 their sex, but to give moral excellence to their 
 character. A deficiency of principle in the 
 virtue of chastity, implies a similar deficiency 
 in every other virtue. The virtues are con- 
 nected and interwoven in such a manner that 
 they cannot be affected singly. They are but 
 the multiplied fruits of the same tree ; or, to 
 vary the figure, they are different streams issu- 
 ing from the same fountain. 
 
 It is from woman that our race is to receive 
 its first lessons in virtue ; she is destined by 
 nature to culture the infant intellect; her 
 plastic agency has almost exclusive control at 
 the most susceptible period of life. Now the 
 idea that the infant mind and heart, with all 
 their tender susceptibilities, are to be subjected 
 
28 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 to the tuition of a being devoid of principle, is 
 too shocking to be endured. Nowhere else 
 ought there to be more uncompromising firm- 
 ness. A virtue founded upon policy or artifice 
 is no virtue ; it utterly misleads. The young 
 mind cannot revolve such a thought without 
 corruption. But how fatally corrupting will 
 such an idea be, when infused into the mind 
 by maternal tenderness ! — when the mother's 
 precepts and example teach the pernicious doc- 
 trine that virtue is only expediency ! It should 
 be fixed upon every mother's tongue, engraven 
 upon her heart, and expressed in her whole 
 life, that virtue is a principle — that right and 
 wrong are eternal opposites. She ought early 
 to inspire a cordial hatred to the one, and as 
 cordial a love for the other. Then may the 
 mother transmit her charge to the world with 
 some hope that temptation will be powerless, 
 and that character will not yield to the seduc- 
 tions of vice. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 29 
 
 SECTION II. 
 PURITY OF DESIRE. 
 
 One of the most common traits of a lax .vir- 
 tue, is that of evincing desires for improper 
 society. Where the heart is not resolutely set 
 against everything vicious, there v^ill be fre- 
 quent yearnings for something injudicious, un- 
 becoming, or unlawful ; and even where the 
 heart is right, if the judgment is not well in- 
 formed, this fault is liable to occur. It fol- 
 lows, therefore, that a woman should not only 
 avoid improper society, but also avoid all indi- 
 cations of desire for such society. But mere 
 abstinence is not enough, she ought to detest 
 everything of the kind. Indeed, this will be 
 almost necessarily the effect of banishing such 
 desires. If she retains in ever so concealed a 
 manner the least desire for improper company, 
 she is sure to manifest it in some form ; where- 
 as, if the desire were spurned as pernicious, 
 and all mention of such associations deemed 
 an offence to virtue, her character could not be 
 misapprehended, nor her morals endangered. 
 
30 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 To the pure there is something positively loath- 
 some in every vicious association — something 
 unendurable in doubtful circumstances. Could 
 an honest man bear to be connected with 
 thieves ? Would he not abominate everything 
 that could justly cast suspicion upon him ? 
 The same considerations press upon the female 
 in the choice of her society. Every departure 
 from strict propriety compromises her virtue. 
 She may not actually have fallen, but if she 
 can endure to be suspected — if she is careless 
 of rigid self-control, and cannot appreciate the 
 minuter shades of conduct, she must inevitably 
 fall. Her virtue can only run parallel with the 
 absence of temptation. It is not necessary 
 that words should be employed to evince de- 
 sire. The state of the heart is often better 
 known by the countenance than it could be 
 by any form of words. A lascivious thought, 
 or an improper wish, will gleam from the eye, 
 or reveal itself by some particular act, when, 
 perhaps, it would not have been heeded if com- 
 municated in words. There is the sin of posi- 
 tion — ^the vicious expression of time, attitude, 
 and place, against which every pure mind 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 31 
 
 should unhesitatingly revolt. Some may be 
 less keenly sensible than others to faults of 
 this kind, yet all must see the absolute neces- 
 sity of avoiding even the appearance of evil. 
 The standard of female virtue should be as 
 high as purity itself. Nothing less than posi- 
 tive, stainless, unquestionable virtue is worthy 
 of their ambition or consistent with respecta- 
 bility. The want of this has led to general 
 reproach, and the sex that most needs the pro- 
 tection of invincible morality, has been deemed 
 too fickle to have any character. Pope's re- 
 marks in the following lines, though a slander 
 upon the sex wherever their moral powers 
 have been duly cultivated, yet must ever be 
 true where these powers have been neglected : 
 
 " Nothing BO true as what you once let fall, 
 ' Most -women have no characters at all.' 
 Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear, 
 And best distinguished by black, brown, or fair."* 
 
 A lady who is sufficiently circumspect in her 
 deportment, will never be liable to injurious 
 imputations, except from thf malicious — a 
 
 * Epistle to a Lady (Moral Essays, No. 2.) 
 
32 YOUNG lady's book. 
 
 class whose reproach is the highest praise. 
 Their reviling shows that the prey has escaped 
 them. 
 
 It may not always be easy to determine the 
 character of individu als, but if there is an un- 
 compromising hostility to vice, the doubtful 
 will be shunned equally with the openly vile. 
 It is contrary to all rules of prudence to incur 
 needless hazard. The woman who can put 
 herself in positions of exposure, unless com-! 
 peUed by some uncommon necessity, shows at 
 least that her moral sense is neither very, acute 
 nor very strong. With her, virtue is a habit^ 
 and not a principle, and she sins not, only be- 
 cause she is not tempted. These remarks axe 
 intended to apply to all the numberles,^ occa- 
 sions in the course of life, •'vvhether private or 
 public, in which there might be some tempi^?: 
 tion to improper association. Such ocoasioi^S 
 cannot be specified beforehand j they are of 
 constant occurrence, and require the presence 
 of an ever watchful virtue to resist them. 
 There should be no communion or sympathy 
 with lax notioli and practices ; a refine*d and' 
 elevated morality is to govern every act, and 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 33 
 
 base must be the heart of that man who ex- 
 pects or ^esires less of woman. His motives 
 cannot be pure, or he would not only concede 
 to her the right to be extremely careful, but 
 insist upon being so himself. This is indeed 
 the course of all honorable men in their inter- 
 course with females, and even bad men are 
 often modest at first, not daring to take liber- 
 ties till they have allayed suspicion by appa- 
 rent respect for their intended victim. Wo- 
 men are supposed to be always on their guard 
 — always vigilant of their honor, and I need 
 not say that the least indiscretion on their 
 part is sure to receive an injurious interpreta- 
 tion. This being the case, it becomes evident 
 what must be the effect of any intentional re- 
 missness, be it ever so small. All trifling with 
 so priceless a gem as her reputation, all ob- 
 liquity, however slight, where the sanctity of 
 character is involved, is a tacit expression of 
 unchaste desires, and implies that reciprocal, 
 or even greater liberties will not be unwel- 
 come. 
 
34 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 AVOIDANCE OF TEMPTATION. 
 
 That the most discreet virtue will some- 
 times meet with temptations, I shall not deny. 
 But although we cannot in all cases avoid the 
 evil, we have great reason to pray continually 
 for deliverance from it. The dread of tempta- 
 tion indicates a mind well prepared for resist- 
 ance ; those are most easily overcome who 
 have no consciousness of danger, and whose 
 minds are not disturbed by any apprehensions 
 of insecurity. A very large proportion of in- 
 ducements to crime are such as may readily 
 be avoided by the conscientious and observing. 
 The thoughtless will continue to be ensnared, 
 simply because they are thoughtless. The 
 ship that might safely have made the voyage, 
 for want of good pilotage strikes the rook and 
 founders ; thus the simple and the careless 
 are, constantly falling around us, for no other 
 reason than their own want of prudence. I 
 need hardly specify the occasions of danger, as 
 female virtue is always in danger, and can 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 35 
 
 only be maintained by unceasing vigilance, 
 joined with uncompromising principle. Still 
 it may be well not to rely too much upon gen- 
 eral statements. Let it be observed, then, 
 that no unmarried female should ever trust 
 herself unnecessarily alone in the company of 
 the other sex. She might be safe, but is in- 
 finitely more likely not to be so. The fact of 
 her being where advantage might be taken of 
 her, shows that she has no proper care of her- 
 self, and nothing further is needed to provoke 
 an assault upon her virtue, for with many men 
 the power to do wrong is the only incentive 
 required. This precaution is equally neces- 
 sary to the married woman in reference to all 
 men but the one with whom her fortunes have 
 been publicly united by the most solemn of 
 earthly engagements. In the latter o&.se, both 
 the danger and the guilt arp enhanced by sev- 
 eral considerations named in a previous sec- 
 tion. Her honor, already pledged, her sacred 
 domestic relations, her ineligibility to matri- 
 monial connections, her known, legalized, and 
 privileged intercourse with one man, are all so 
 many circumstances increasing, in her case, 
 
86 
 
 YOUNG lady's book. 
 
 the guilt of exposure to temptations of this 
 kind. The principle here laid down is of uni- 
 versal application. Courtship, parties, pleas- 
 ure excursions, ordinary social intercourse, and 
 the interchange of civilities, have their occa- 
 sions for the indulgence of improper passions 
 and practices. Indeed, where the heart is cor- 
 rupt, an occasion is seldom wanting. 
 
 Again, strict regard should be had to mod- 
 esty of demeanor, and to the conventional 
 rules of life, where these rules are consistent 
 with delicacy. A bold air and a fearless de- 
 portment, . are misplaced if intended, as a pre- 
 ventive, unless in extreme cases. Where a 
 position not needing these is optional, the true 
 state of the heart is at" once detected in spite 
 of such a disguise. Her courage should be 
 reserved»for unavoidable dangers, and in such 
 emergencies its exercise is lawful— nay, indis- 
 pensable, But female innocence is not to be 
 maintained by conflict voluntarily sought ; to 
 seek such a conflict, is sufiicient evidence' of • 
 corruption. Safety demands that all hazard 
 should be avoided except that incurred in the 
 discharge of imperative duty. Social life has 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 37 
 
 its forms, and these, though not always the 
 best, are considered lawful ; where they are 
 obviously defective, there ought not to be the 
 least hesitation in laying them aside, but there 
 should be no trifling with established oi-^lities. 
 The rules of decency, of good behavior, of po- 
 liteness, are not- to be trifled with, and an un- 
 necessary deviation from them shows either 
 bad breeding, or bad morals — perhaps both. 
 
 It is a practice with some women to pursue 
 a course of flirting, no matter with whom nor 
 for what reason. Dignity of character they 
 do not understand, or will not maintain. Such 
 are for jaunts with whoever will take them, at 
 any or all hours, and under all circumstances. 
 It is possible they may pass through the or- 
 deal without ruin, but where is their pru- 
 dence ? "Where is the meekness, sagacity, 
 and modesty that will commend them for fu- 
 ture wives — or if wives already, that will 
 soothe the husband's feelings and insure fidel- 
 ity to the marriage compact? There may be 
 no overt act of licentiousness, and yet the 
 sanctity of feeling must inevitably be im- 
 paired, if indeed it ever existed, in such a 
 
38 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 heart. The bulwarks of morality are not 
 often prostrated at once ; the work of destruc- 
 tion goes on insidiously and imperceptibly, 
 but not the less certainly. The hateful, as- 
 tounding maturity is reached by degrees, and 
 not, as most suppose, by one sudden, unpre- 
 meditated step. The begirmings of vice, the 
 smallest, faintest workings of an evil passion, 
 are to be repressed, or there can be no security 
 to virtue. 
 
 No precise rule can be given for conduct in 
 this particular, nor is any necessary. The 
 general rule is this : — avoid all temptations. 
 And where there is an honest purpose, the prac- 
 tical application of this rule will not be diffi- 
 cult. One principle settled, others must fol- 
 low in their order. Purity must be preserved, 
 whatever else is lost. This excludes the doubt- 
 ful even, and forbids everything known as in- 
 judicious. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 39 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 UNDUE FAMILIARITY. 
 
 In the ordinary course of life, and among 
 persons related by natural ties, or the pur- 
 suit of business, there must be associations 
 more intimate than could be justified under 
 other circumstances. Yet even here there are 
 limits to be observed, and limits, too, quite 
 within the range of morality and decency. 
 Safety is to be set above every other conside- 
 ration, and no domestic or business arrange- 
 ment should ever be tolerated, unless it guards 
 effectually the purity of female character. 
 Where virtue is not preferred to money, v^here 
 rigid order is not observed, and the force of 
 principle constantly felt ; where male and fe- 
 male are hustled into the same sleeping apart- 
 ment, or where they are suffered to herd to- 
 gether without proper supervision and without 
 an evident necessity, nothing but the ruin of 
 character should be expected. It would be 
 the grossest folly to hope for any other result. 
 Parents, guardians, entertainers, and employ- 
 
40 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 ers are responsible for all regulations of this 
 kind, and for any neglect, should be deemed 
 guilty beyond the possibility of reparation, 
 though not beyond that of reformation. They 
 may reform themselves, but the injuries which 
 they have occasioned to others cannot be re- 
 called. 
 
 This familiarity may arise from other asso- 
 ciations less immediately corrupting than those 
 now referred to, and originating not in care- 
 lessness, but in a desire to do good. The ef- 
 fect of such associations may not be so justly 
 appreciated, because it is longer delayed ; the 
 slow poison, however, kills in due time. What- 
 ever impairs the delicacy of female manners 
 and sentiment, must in the end be fatal to 
 reputation. I shall avail myself of some re- 
 marks on this subject, from the pen of one of 
 the most distinguished ministers of the present 
 day. Speaking of female agency in the collec- 
 tion of money for benevolent purposes, he says : 
 " I confess, that while I do not wish to dispense 
 with it altogether, for this is not possible, and 
 if it were, would not be right, I feel jealous 
 lest it should in any measure impair that re- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 41 
 
 tiringness of manner, that unaffected reserve, 
 that modesty of demeanor, and that delight in 
 home, which are woman's chief loveliness, and 
 the fascination of her charms. Should the 
 modern practice of employing females so ex- 
 tensively in our religious institutions, make 
 them bold, obtrusive, and fond of publicity, it 
 would be corrupting society at its source, by 
 spoiling them for wives and mothers, hcrWever 
 it might fit them to be the instruments of be- 
 nevolent organizations. Whatever impairs the 
 beauty or diminishes the strength of the home 
 virtues, though it may aid the operations of 
 public institutions, is radically mischievous, 
 and cannot be compensated by any benefit 
 which could be procured, of any kind, or for 
 any object. It is always revolting to my sense 
 of propriety to see a young girl of sixteen -or 
 eighteen, pacing a street, knocking at door 
 after door, entering shops, offices, and count- 
 ing-houses, and addressing herself in the char- 
 acter of a beggar, to any one, and to every one, 
 not excepting young men. Such things are 
 not unknown, perhaps not uncommon. Min 
 isters should be very careful how they employ 
 
42 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 young females, and take especial care, when 
 it cannot be avoided, to exert all their influ- 
 ence to repress a spirit of levity and folly, and 
 the least approach to impropriety; and diff"use 
 an air of seriousness and gravity over all that 
 is done in this way, and by such agents. Ju- 
 dicious mothers will be much upon the alert 
 in exercising a salutary vigilance over their 
 daughters, and resist every attempt to engage 
 them in services which may have the least 
 tendency to despoil them of their modesty, 
 simplicity, and love of home."* 
 
 But there is a more deleterious familiarity, 
 because more devoid of principle, than that 
 arising from any of the causes here mentioned. 
 We not unfrequently see young women, and 
 even married women, allowing themselves to 
 acquire, if not purposely cultivating, an inti- 
 macy with some one or more of the other sex, 
 for which there neither is nor can be any jus- 
 tifiable pretext. I need not allude to the man- 
 ner of all this — to the welcome opportunity, 
 the studied occasion, the unnecessary cordi- 
 
 * The Church in Earnest, by Key. John Angell James.—- 
 (Chap. 6,) 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 43 
 
 ality, the prolonged interview, frequency, fond- 
 ness, proximity, liberties, and all the hateful 
 indications of a suspicious morality. No one 
 who has bestowed the least attention upon the 
 workings of the human heart, or who is not 
 wholly indifferent to conduct, can fail to notice 
 such things, however disguised they may be. 
 The woman who is thus assaulted, may be in- 
 nocent, unless something apparently excep- 
 tionable in her conduct heretofore, has excited 
 a suspicion of her integrity. But if she recip- 
 rocates the treatment, nay, if she does not stu- 
 diously and rigidly stand aloof from it, the 
 guilt becomes her own. A special coolness 
 and reserve is due towards all who would 
 claim too much ; they forfeit all con|idenoe to 
 ordinary civilities, who presume to take ex- 
 traordinary liberty. Such liberty is from the 
 outset an impeachment of virtue, and the wo- 
 man who does not resent it, shows that she is 
 lacking either in sense or principle. I am far 
 from wishing to reduce everything to a dead 
 level ; there are some extra occasions, and 
 some buoyant natures, which come not within 
 established rules. They are exceptions to the 
 
44 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 precision demanded under all other circum- 
 stances. Yet even here, nothing impure, un- 
 chaste, or imprudent can ever be admitted. 
 Virtue must have entireness. If it be not 
 complete, it is not at all. Ladies of upright 
 character have a nice discrimination, and it is 
 not presumable that grossness would be tolera- 
 ted, but they are equally in danger from in- 
 cipient approaches. No honorable man will 
 make them, no honorable woman should en- 
 dure them. Fondling, toying, unnecessary 
 visiting, with everything unmanly, are to be 
 abominated. 
 
 " It is an unspeakable privilege," says Mrs. 
 Ellis, " enjoyed by the women of England, 
 that in the middle ranks of life^ a married wo- 
 man, however youthful or attractive, if her 
 own manners are unexceptionable, is seldom, 
 or never, exposed to the attentions of men, so 
 as to lead her affections out of their proper 
 channel. How much is gained in domestic 
 and social happiness by this exemption from 
 customs which prevail on the continent, it is 
 here unnecessary to attempt to describe ; for I 
 cannot imagine there is any right-minded wo- 
 
MOEAL EDUCATION. 45 
 
 man, still less any Christian wife, who does 
 not number it among the peculiar blessings of 
 her country and her sex. Yet even in our 
 privileged land, where the established rules oJ 
 society are so much more favorable than in 
 others, to the purity of social morals, and the 
 sanctity of home-enjoyments, there may ac- 
 casionally occur an attempted deviation from 
 these rules, on the part of ignorant or unprin- 
 cipled men. In all sach cases, however, the 
 slightest approach to undue familiarity is 
 easily repelled by such a look and manner as 
 all women know how to make use of in dis- 
 countenancing what is not acceptable. And 
 even in more trifling cases, or when the temp- 
 tation to be agreeable overcomes the inclina- 
 tion to be otherwise, I believe that a frank 
 and easy manner of speaking of a husband 
 with respect and evident affection, would an- 
 swer every purpose of putting a stop to such 
 advances; while, on the other hand, nothing 
 can be more likely to invite them, than speak- 
 ing in complaining terms either of a husband 
 or of his behavior towards yourself."* These 
 * The Wives of England, chap. 6. 
 
46 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 remarks of this excellent writer are doubtless 
 correct, where gentlemen of honorable inten- 
 tions are concerned, for in their case nothing 
 more is necessary than to remind them of what 
 is proper ; they never will designedly trespass 
 upon the sanctity of virtue, and if careless or 
 forgetful, a hint would be sufficient to recall 
 them to propriety. But women as well as 
 men have to meet occasionally a very different 
 description of character, with whom vice is 
 premeditated, and the treatment due to such 
 will be the subject of another section. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 REBUKE OF CRIMIITAL OR SUSPICIOUS CONDUCT. 
 
 Firmness and purity of character are never 
 better exhibited than in that utterly hostile 
 feeling which is instinctively manifested by all 
 upright women against those who would tam- 
 per with their virtue. It is not enough coldly 
 to decline all such overtures, it is not enough 
 secretly to resent them; there should be a 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 47 
 
 loathing that cannot and will not be restrained 
 — an involuntary indignation bursting forth 
 against the wretch who dares to make, by 
 word or deed, dishonorable insinuations. I 
 need not say that he who can make dishonor- 
 able proposals, or whose conduct might lead to 
 such a construction, has assumed the attitude 
 of an enemy, whatever his protestations may 
 be. It is impossible he should be a friend. A 
 friend is always the protector, and never the 
 destroyer of virtue. The gentleman scorns 
 impoliteness even, and by no possibility can 
 he be induced to revolve the murderous idea 
 of seduction. He abhors a doubtful character ; 
 he abominates unchasteness, whether in him- 
 self or others, and could ask for nothing less 
 than rebuke if he were guilty of unbecoming 
 deportment. This consideration should re- 
 move all fear that resentment will be over- 
 acted. The loss of virtue is an irreparable 
 loss. The woman whose character is ruined, 
 might, in almost every instance, thank her 
 seducer to take her life also. Her virtue gone, 
 — and a single misstep is suf&oient to destroy 
 it forever,— she thenceforth floats as a useless 
 
48 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 wreck in society ; a disgrace to her friends, a 
 curse and pest to the world. Against this 
 irreparable ruin, in comparison to which death 
 is always a blessing, a moderate resentment is 
 neither safe nor becoming. It is not an inter- 
 est to be contemplated with indifference, as 
 though something would still be left if virtue 
 were gone. The total desolation which must 
 ensue upon the loss of character, makes the 
 temptation to unohastity more to be dreaded 
 than the steel which is aimed at the heart. 
 The course here recommended must not be 
 mistaken for prudery. Prudery is to virtue 
 what the vaunting of the poltroon is to cour- 
 age — its counterfeit. A genuine virtue will 
 have no occasion to summon up unnatural 
 and revengeful feelings to meet such an emer- 
 gency. An attack upon virtue, like an attack 
 upon life, is repelled instantly. To discover 
 the danger is to meet it in the best manner 
 possible. Hesitation is ruin. A moderate re- 
 sistance would only invite aggression, for she 
 who is not in haste to escape from vice, shows 
 conclusively that she places a light estimate 
 upon virtue. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 49 
 
 I have no disposition to dwell upon a point 
 which it is hoped comparatively few women 
 are not prepared to meet without these sug- 
 gestions. Still, the numerous cases of defec- 
 tion from virtue constantly occurring in all 
 parts of the country, are proof that there is a 
 fault somewhere. From observation I am in- 
 clined to believe the evil arises in no small de- 
 gree from the causes now under consideration. 
 The standard of virtue is too low ; there is not 
 enough of resentment in the female heart 
 against seductive approaches. Instead of 
 meeting the seducer with withering rebuke 
 and burning indignation, he is, if not actually 
 caressed, dismissed with only such marks of 
 displeasure, as serve to invite a repetition of 
 his attempts. Complacency is expressed by 
 the absence of displacency ; the virtue that 
 does not feel itself affronted at insult, is justly 
 regarded as inviting aggression. 
 
 That many, whose resentments are evidently 
 too weak, sin more from ignorance than from 
 any unchaste desires, is probably true. Such 
 are naturally unsuspecting, and have been ed- 
 ucated to implicit reliance ; they have been 
 
50 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 taught to follow, and to follow in all things. 
 Persons of this class easily become the victims 
 of the designing ; above wrong designs them- 
 selves, they presume that others are actuated 
 by honorable motives. Often as they may 
 have been deceived, still the fatal lure is not 
 spurned, if only disguised with seeming hon- 
 esty. "Were it not that women of this descrip- 
 tion are apt to move in a contracted sphere, 
 their ruin would be inevitable. Intercourse 
 with the world produces wariness, but this 
 may be far too late for the safety of opening 
 womanhood ; and nothing but early education 
 can timely instil the lesson. * 
 
 As for those females who slide into an easy 
 manner where questions of virtue are at issue, 
 and who indulge themselves or others in liber- 
 ties inconsistent with unsullied purity, they 
 should know that their character is already 
 suspicious. Little more than temptation can 
 be Wanting to complete their overthrow. 
 Whether temptation comes to destroy even 
 the form of virtue or not, the guilt is theirs ; 
 the occasion which would have completed their 
 ruin may be wanting, but they are essentially 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 51 
 
 polluted. If spared, it is an ignominious ex- 
 emption. The noble indignity that ought to 
 have repelled vice, the conscious purity and 
 inflexible purpose that should have provoked 
 admiration and given unmistakable assurance 
 of integrity, form no part of the character of 
 such women. They are virtuous, only because 
 the poor remains of character have not chanced 
 to be swept away ; no invincible might envi- 
 rons them, no indomitable element of self-pro- 
 tection speaks for their future continence. 
 "Women of this stamp are not wanted for 
 wives, or if they chance to be married, a pain- 
 ful sense of insecurity lingers about their 
 household. The husband is not sure that 
 prompt resistance will be offered to insult — 
 that artifice cannot succeed — that prudent, 
 utter resolution wilj. adopt every precaution 
 against surprise, and urge to extremes every 
 measure of escape, lest the whole. of his do- 
 mestic happiness should be sacrificed. In 
 early years, and prior to the formation of con- 
 nubial relations, this delicate sensibility and 
 vigorous resistance to things unfriendly to 
 virtue, may not seem of so much consequence. 
 
52 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 But let the lot be cast for life, let it be the 
 choice of the heart, sanctioned by the intellect 
 and cemented by children, and the value of 
 uncompromising virtue may then be appre- 
 ciated. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 REFINEMENT OP FEELINa. 
 
 The high sense of propriety alluded to in 
 the preceding section, has its foundation, partly 
 in the instinctive delicacy of the female mind, 
 and partly in the judicious culture of the 
 moral feelings. All men are born with con- 
 science, but a neglected or perverted educa- 
 tion is sufficient to impair, if not entirely de- 
 stroy this moral faculty. In like manner the 
 natural virtue of woman may be greatly im- 
 proved by a right education, or it may be as 
 effectually dissipated by a bad one. An un- 
 cultivated condition of the moral powers is, 
 therefore, to be viewed as a great misfortune. 
 It leaves the individual exposed to injury from 
 influences that would have been rendered harm- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 53 
 
 less by a superior sagacity. One who makes 
 virtue a study, who not only avoids the gross 
 offences which immediately blight a good name, 
 but the slightest deviations from rectitude, will 
 possess a loveliness of character that cannot 
 otherwise be attained. The end of culture is 
 not merely to avoid ruin, though for this pur- 
 pose it is eminently necessary; yet a higher 
 object is always in view — a positive advan- 
 tage, which is not to be lost without materi- 
 ally subtracting from the sura of human hap- 
 piness. Moral refinement enhances the enjoy- 
 ments of life. It increases the capacity for all 
 goodness ; it gilds with perpetual sunshine the 
 circle of domestic and social existence ; it is as 
 peace to war, as the open country to the armed 
 fortress, as health to sickness. In the one case 
 we are preserved by successful warfare ; in 
 the other by an acknowledged prowess which 
 nothing dare engage. Healthful indeed is the 
 effect of questionless virtue. It has all the 
 merit of courage, without the danger of con- 
 flict; it passes unchallenged, because in name- 
 less ways its true character is known beyond 
 dispute. 
 
54 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 But this cultivated condition of the moral 
 feelings is especially important in view of the 
 imperceptible progress — the gradualism — of 
 vice. The bulwarks of morality are seldom 
 swept away at once : there is an incipient 
 ruin — a commencement of the work of degra- 
 dation, which may easily be intercepted by 
 one who knows the consequences to which 
 such incipient evils lead. Discernment is ne- 
 cessary to detect the earliest traces of corrup- 
 tion. Blunt sensibilities will not answer here. 
 Not to note the premonitory symptoms of this 
 moral malady, nay, more, not to remove every 
 predisposing cause, is, in point of guilt, equiv- 
 alent to the premeditated destruction — not of 
 life, but of character, which is dearer than 
 life. Never is the delicacy of cultivated feel- 
 ing and sentiment more imperatively de- 
 manded, than in searching out and removing 
 the causes that lead to immorality. The 
 progress of corruption is marked by scarcely 
 distinguishable degrees, and nothing short of 
 a high sense of propriety can adequately judge 
 of the stages which the individual has passed, 
 or prescribe directions for a return to virtue. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 55 
 
 "We cannot too carefully note, nor too sternly 
 resist those lesser deviations from rectitude, 
 ■which, if not counteracted, must ripen into 
 overt wickedness. " It is but rarely," says 
 Dr. Brown, " that we are assailed with temp- 
 tations to great evil ; and when we are so as- 
 sailed, the evil itself, and the seductive cir- 
 cumstances that would tempt us to it, are too 
 prominent and powerful not to absorb the 
 whole attention of the mind, — distracting it in 
 a sort of conflict, or hurrying it along, accord- 
 ing to the force of the moral hatred of guilt 
 that overcomes it or is overcome. In such 
 cases, then, we think of the present, and 
 scarcely of more than of the present. But 
 how few are the cases of this kind, — and how 
 much more frequently are we called to the 
 performance of actions, in which, if the cir- 
 cumstances of the particular moment alone be 
 considered, the virtue has little merit, or the 
 vice little delinquency. It is of many such 
 little delinquencies, however, that the guilt is 
 ultimately formed, which is afterwards to ex- 
 cite the indignant wrath of every breast, ex- 
 cept of that one, in which the horrors of re- 
 
56 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 morse, stilled, perhaps, in the dreadful mo- 
 ments of active iniquity, are all that is to be 
 felt in the still more dreadful intervals from 
 crime to crime. It is not of base perfidy, then, 
 nor of atrocious cruelty, that it is necessary to 
 bid the ingenuous mind beware, — but of of- 
 fence in w^hich that ingenuous mind, untaught 
 as yet to discern the future in the present, 
 sees only the little frailties that, as proofs of a 
 common nature, are pitied by those who con- 
 template them, rather than condemned ; and 
 attract, perhaps in this very pity, an interest 
 which is more akin to love than to hate. It 
 is, in these circumstances only, or at least 
 chiefly in these circumstances, that the moral 
 character is in peril. There is not a guilty 
 passion from which the heart would not shrink, 
 if that passion were to present itself instantly 
 with its own dreadful aspect. But while the 
 pleasures and the less-hideous forms of vice 
 mingle together, in what may almost be termed 
 the sport or pastime of human life, we pass 
 readily and heedlessly from one to the other, 
 till we learn at last to look on the passion, 
 when it introduces itself among the playful 
 
MOKAL EDUCATION. 57 
 
 band, only as we gaze on some fierce masquer 
 in a pageant, that assumes an aspect of darker 
 ferocity only to delight us the more, — or which 
 we approach at least with as little apprehen- 
 sion, as if it were the gentle form of Virtue 
 herself that was smiling on us. It is from the 
 beginnings of vice that we are to be saved, 
 then, if we are to be saved from vice itself." 
 " The knowledge of this fatal progression from 
 less to greater vice, far more than doubles the 
 obligation of abstaining from those slight im- 
 moralities which might seem trifling if it were 
 not for this progressive tendency. No evil is 
 slight which prepares the heart for greater 
 evil. The highest duty which we owe to our- 
 selves is to strengthen, as much as it is in our 
 power to strengthen, every disposition which 
 constitutes or forms a part of moral excellence ; 
 and we err against this high duty, and prepare 
 ourselves for erring against every other duty, 
 as often as we yield to a single seduction, 
 whether it be to do what is positively unwor- 
 thy, or to abstain from the humblest act of 
 virtue which our duty calls us to perform."* 
 
 * Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, by 
 Thomas Brown. — Lect. xcviii. 
 
58 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 Such considerations as are referred to in this 
 extract, are not likely to be appreciated by any 
 with whom virtue is an incident. "With them 
 nothing is material but the completed trans- 
 gression, and that rather in its troublesome 
 consequences than from the subversion of 
 moral principles by which those consequences 
 are always preceded. 
 
 Modesty has ever been regarded as a princi- 
 pal accomplishment of female character. But 
 true modesty and refinement are essentially 
 one. They equally imply a chaste and dis- 
 cerning mind — a mind in which the knowl- 
 edge of virtue is united with the love of it, 
 and immorality is detested as a violation of 
 nature. This modesty, so lovely in itself, and 
 so necessary to all that is lovely in woman or 
 valuable in social life, implies not merely per- 
 ception enough to escape from insult when 
 offered, but critical sagacity in morals. It is 
 that delicacy which gives beauty and grace- 
 fulness to conduct, — the wise, just, symmetri- 
 cal deportment which cannot be seen without 
 being admired. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 59 
 
 • When I approach 
 
 Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, 
 And in herself complete, so weU to know 
 Her Q-wTi, that what she wills to do or say 
 Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best ; 
 All higher knowledge in her presence falls 
 Degraded ; wisdom in discourse with her 
 Loses discountenanced, and like folly shows ; 
 Authority and reason on her wait, 
 As one intended first, not after made 
 Occasionally ; and, to consummate all. 
 Greatness of mind, and nobleness, their seat 
 Build in her loveliest, and create an awe 
 About her, as a guard angelic placed."* 
 
 Milton's imaginary Eve is but a faithful 
 portrait of every truly virtuous woman. There 
 is nothing of the coarseness of a merely me- 
 chanical virtue. Refinement blends softness 
 with firmness, timidity with courage, and 
 freedom with restraint. 
 
 * Paradise Lost. — Book viii 
 
60 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 VIRTUE SHOULD BE ABOVE SUSPIOIOIT. 
 
 It is necessary that virtue should be beyond 
 suspicion. A woman may not have stooped to 
 crime, nor even to gross imprudence, and yet she 
 may fall very far short of an unblemished re- 
 putation. Where there is not confidence, there 
 is nothing of domestic happiness. A positively 
 good character is always free, not only from 
 just accusation, but from that dubiousness 
 which can excite unpleasant feelings in those 
 who are interested. The husband must be 
 miserable, unless he has every assurance that 
 can be had that his wife will repel promptly 
 the slightest as well as the greatest immoral- 
 ity. His house may not be deserted, his chil- 
 dren may not be scattered by simple impru- 
 dence, yet the fierce, uncontrollable passion 
 of jealousy will be waked up, and connubial 
 felicity is at an end. The fact is too obvious 
 that those who will be imprudent, will be 
 more. "He that despiseth' little things shall 
 fall by little and little." Besides, were there 
 
MORAI. EDUCATION. 61 
 
 no danger connected with imprudence, it is 
 not a light thing to disturb the peace of others 
 by leaving upon their minds an impression that 
 virtue will be slightly guarded. With woman 
 in her several relations of wife, mother, sister, 
 and daughter, are bound up the holiest feelings 
 of our nature, and the sum total of all domes- 
 tic bliss ; it is, therefore, impossible fof her to 
 put in jeopardy her reputation, and not create 
 the keenest distress among all those to whom 
 she is related by these tender ties. No virtu- 
 ous woman would willingly be the occasion of 
 such exquisite torment as must always be pro- 
 duced by apprehensions of this kind. Such a 
 woman could not endure to be suspected, and 
 she would be far from giving the slightest oc- 
 casion for suspicion. The least wantonness 
 ' here betokens a mortal fault — the absence of 
 principle, or of discernment, which is scarcely 
 less fatal. 
 
 That it is possible or necessary to carry pre- 
 caution so far as to avoid the suspicion and 
 jealousy of unreasonable minds, I will not as- 
 sert. There are those who, to maintain chas- 
 tity, would become tyrants. Such are gov- 
 
62 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 erned by caprice, and not by reason. But 
 even these should never have any just cause 
 to complain. A woman who is properly sensi- 
 ble of the importance to her family of that honor 
 on which the permanence of the family com- 
 pact depends, will always show a deep solici- 
 tude to be pure. With her, modesty and pro- 
 priety are no secondary considerations ; she sees 
 in them a sovereign necessity — a vast and con- 
 trolling consequence, never to be overlooked in 
 the history of her life. She must be remem- 
 bered as the faithful wife, the excellent mother, 
 the discreet counsellor, the ornament of her 
 family ; or as the curse and scourge, the be- 
 trayer and corrupter of all her relations. I will 
 not deny that unforeseen exposures may occur, 
 and that these may subject female reputation 
 to injury without blame. Yet even here, the 
 circumstances ought to be a full apology. It 
 should be so evident from the past history of 
 such a person's life, and from all the facts in 
 the case, that she was an involuntary partici- 
 pator in the danger, as to remove every un- 
 favorable impression. Perhaps more might be 
 required. There should be no concealment of 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 63 
 
 facts, nor any lack of prompt, fearless resist- 
 ance to the evil. The wife's integrity is the 
 husband's interest ; it is his title to her, to his 
 home, to his fireside with its every pleasure. 
 He has a right to know with what care such an 
 interest is guarded. Indifference here is infi- 
 delity ; either the man cares not for his wife 
 and children, or he must feel a deep and con- 
 stant solicitude for their preservation. The 
 reasonable man will be satisfied with such con- 
 duct as gives assurance of the safety of his do- 
 mestic treasures, and with nothing less. The 
 least suspicion will not fail to mar his peace, 
 and with the least guilt his hopes are ended. 
 To re-establish confidence is impossible. The 
 guilty may indeed refrain from vice and lead a 
 wary, virtuous life, but there is still left the 
 scar upon character, and the ineradicable dan- 
 ger of a relapse. Were it understood as it 
 should be that the loss of character is irretriev- 
 ably: — that the husband cannot receive the adul- 
 ttess back to her place as the mistress of his 
 family, nor the father restore a fallen daughter 
 to her former standing, however penitent or re- 
 formed either may be — the necessity for great 
 
64 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 precaution would not seem exaggerated, nor 
 the least degree of trifling with interests so 
 sacred be ranked as a venial fault. All con- 
 duct which can excite suspicion ought to be 
 reprobated among the married, because of its 
 flagrant violation of justice. Vows have been 
 interchanged — hearts pledged for life — the af- 
 fections reciprocally withdrawn from other ob- 
 jects to be confined to the limits of the sacred 
 compact — and with this joint relation have grown 
 up other interests, solemn, weighty, inestima- 
 ble. Now it need not be said that it is the 
 height of injustice to invade the rights of either 
 of these contracting parties. For these rights 
 each has paid the full — the only equivalent, by 
 making the surrender and assuming the obliga- 
 tions of the marriage contract. No woman has 
 a right to seem to do what she has not a right 
 to do. In a word, every woman is as much, 
 bound to avoid the appearance of evil, as to avoid 
 evil itself Mrs. Ellis expressed the feeling of 
 every man who justly esteems his wife, when 
 she said : " The more you are dissociated from 
 every other being of his own sex, the more will 
 the mind of your husband dwell upon you with 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 65 
 
 nnalloyed satisfaction."* This feeling is not 
 peculiar to men ; it belongs of necessity to all 
 in the married relation. It may be more acute 
 in man, but it is not confined to him, for the 
 rights are not all on his side. Where there is 
 a treasure to lose, there must be solicitude, and 
 the solicitude arises only from the fear of the 
 loss. But the full development of this subject 
 must be reserved for the next section. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 THE IlSrjtrSTICE OF XJNCHASTITT. 
 
 The enormous injustice of matrimonial infi- 
 delity has seldom been considered as it deserves. 
 I shaU endeavor to place it in its proper light, 
 though at the hazard of prolixity. The fol- 
 lowing remarks from Dr. Brown are both just 
 and forcible : 
 
 " Affection, I have said, may be considered 
 almost as a form of wealth possessed ; and the 
 
 * Wires of England, chap. i. 
 
66 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 most delightful affection which can be given to 
 us, is truly, if I may apply the cold terms of 
 merchandise to the pure commerce of the heart, 
 a species of property, for which the price of 
 similar affection has been paid, and to which 
 the laws of wedlock have given a legal and holy 
 title. If the guilt of the robber were to be es- 
 timated in proportion to the quantity of evil 
 which he knowingly produces, where is it that 
 our most indignant hatred of the crime should 
 be fixed ? Not surely on him whom alone we 
 are accustomed to denominate a robber. The 
 wretch who perishes on the scaffold for his sor- 
 did thefts, unpitied, perhaps, by a single indi- 
 vidual in the whole crowd of gazers, that mark 
 the last faint convulsion of his limbs, only to 
 wonder when the quiverings are to cease, — 
 may deserve the horrors of that ignominious 
 punishment under which he sinks. But does 
 he truly rank in villany with the robber of an- 
 other class — with him, who would be aston- 
 -''^tished, perhaps, to have a place assigned to him 
 among common pilferers, but who is in guilt 
 •the basest of them all, however noble he may 
 be in titles, and splendid with all that pomp, 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 67 
 
 ■which can be alike the covering of vice and of 
 virtue ? There may pass, in some stately car- 
 riage, while the crowd are still gazing on the 
 body that hangs lifeless before them, some crim- 
 inal of far deeper iniquity, whose eye too may 
 turn, where all other eyes are fixed, and who 
 may wonder at the increase of crimes, and mor- 
 alize on their causes, and rejoice in their pun- 
 ishment, — while the carriage in which he re- 
 clines, and moralizes at his ease, is bearing him 
 to the house of his friend, by a secret appoint- 
 ment of her who is the mistress of it, — whom 
 months of incessant falsehoods and treacheries 
 were unable to subdue, but whom, by the in- 
 fluence of some finer simulation, he is at last 
 to carry off, as a noble booty, from the virtue 
 and happiness to which she is never to return. 
 The common thief, who steals or forces his way 
 into the house at midnight, has never been 
 treated with kindness and confidence by him 
 whose property he invades ; and all which he 
 carries off may, usually, be repaired, without 
 very much difhculty, or may, perhaps, be of a 
 kind which is scarcely of sufficient importance 
 to our convenience, to be replaced by the easy 
 
68 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 efforts that might replace it. But what is to 
 repair the plunder of him, whose robbing is of 
 that description which exists only in the heart, 
 — who steals not the object of regard only, but 
 the very capacity of feeling affection and con- 
 fidence again, — and who, by a single crime, 
 converts, in the eyes of the sufferer, that world 
 of social harmony, which God has made so 
 beautiful, into a world of deceivers and the de- 
 ceived ! of pleasures that are but illusion, and 
 of misery that is reality ! 
 
 " Let us imagine one of those domestic groups 
 which form, to the lover of happiness, one of 
 the loveliest spectacles with which the earth is 
 embellished — a family, in the small circle of 
 which, there is no need of distracting and noisy 
 gaieties without, because there are constant 
 tranquillity and enjoyment within, — in which 
 the pleasure of loving is, in the bosom of the 
 wedded pair, a delight, that, as blending in one 
 uniform emotion with the pleasure of being 
 'oved, is scarcely to be distinguished from that 
 affection which is ever flowing around it, — a 
 delight that grows not weaker, but more in- 
 tense, by diffusion to the little froliokers around, 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 69 
 
 who, as yet, know little more than the affection 
 which they feel, and the affection of which they 
 are the objects, — but who are rising into virtue, 
 amid the happiness which virtue sheds. 
 
 " In considering such a scene, would it require 
 any very long and subtle effort of reflection to 
 determine, what would be the greatest injury 
 which human malice could devise against it, if 
 it were in the power of malice to execute every 
 atrocity which it might conceive 1 It would 
 be that very injury which the adulterer perpe- 
 trates, — the crime of him who can see all this 
 happiness, and can say in his heart, this happi- 
 ness shall no longer exist. A time may indeed 
 come when, if his artifices be successful, this 
 happiness will exist no more, — when she, who 
 was once as innocent as she was happy, shall 
 have been consigned to that remorse, which is 
 to hurry her, too slowly for her own wishes, to 
 the grave, — and when the home which she has 
 deserted, shall be a place of wretchedness and 
 desolation, — where there is one miserable being, 
 who knows his misery, and others who still 
 smile, while they inquire anxiously, with a sort 
 of fearful wonder, for the presence of her, whose 
 
70 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 caresses they no longer enjoy, — and are as yet 
 ignorant that a time is to arrive, when they are 
 to blush at the very name of her, to whose knee 
 and embrace of fondness they are longing to 
 return."* 
 
 No pen can possibly delineate all the de- 
 pravity and misery of this great crime. Or- 
 phanage is bliss compared with the state of 
 those children who are deprived of a mother's 
 care in consequence of adultery. It would be 
 a relief to know that their mother was dead, 
 for her name and remembrance would not then 
 be coupled with everlasting infamy. To the 
 husband the blow is almost equally severe. The 
 children forever disgraced, are his own — his life 
 is bound up in theirs, and in them he suffers 
 the full measure of degradation. His confi- 
 dence, worth more to him than gold, is shaken, 
 and perhaps may never be restored. At all 
 events his early love — his first, most sacred, and 
 every way inestimable domestic joys, are gone, 
 to return no more. 
 
 To the unmarried the mischiefs of illicit in- 
 tercourse are scarcely less. The young woman 
 * Philosophy of the Human Mind, Lect. Ixxxiv. 
 
,MORAL EDUCATION. 71 
 
 becomes at once an outcast from respectable 
 society, nor is there the shghtest possible chance 
 for her to return to her former position. History 
 will be history to the latest hour of her life, and 
 the recollection of one sad, irretrievable fall will 
 be ever present to embitter the cup of worldly 
 felicity. "Woman's character is her all, and he 
 who deprives her of virtue, would, so far as 
 temporal happiness is concerned, be merciful if 
 at the same time he also deprived her of life. 
 He dooms her to wander a blighted, hopeless, 
 rejected being, beyond the power of relief, and 
 solaced only by the prospect of the grave. In. 
 one moment her interest on earth perishes. The 
 tender offices of friendship may soothe, but they 
 cannot restore — the hope of reinstatement ceases 
 when the work of seduction is accomplished. 
 Dishonored — ruined, she can find no place for 
 repentance — even her destroyer has no power 
 to remove the evil, were he so disposed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the infinite loss and misery 
 occasioned by adultery and seduction, the laws 
 of our country make no provision for the pun- 
 ishment of such offences. If a man's horse is 
 stolen, the thief may be sent to the peniten- 
 
72 YOUNG lady's book. 
 
 tiary, but if his wife or daughter is stolen and 
 debauched, there is no redress, — none at least 
 that does not add insult to injury. Families 
 may be broken up, their hopes blasted, their 
 names covered with infamy, and the very possi- 
 bility of happiness cut off from them, yet the 
 law takes no cognizance of the oiFence, and 
 allows the destroyer to go at large as an honora- 
 ble citizen. Adultery is not even actionable at 
 law, neither is seduction, unless it results in 
 pregnancy, and then a paltry fine is the only 
 penalty. In England female virtue is equally 
 unprotected by any statutory enactments. "The 
 law," says Dr. Paley, " has provided no pun- 
 ishment for this offence, [seduction] beyond a 
 pecuniary satisfaction to the injured family ; and 
 this can only be come at by one of the quaintest 
 fictions in the world : by the father's bringing 
 his action against the seducer, for the loss of 
 his daughter's service, during her pregnancy and 
 nurturing."* In one view of the subject, this 
 extraordinary omission of legal restraint, may 
 be regarded as a compliment to the sex. We 
 may say their virtue is too unquestionable to 
 * Moral Philosophy. — Book iii. part iii. chap. iii. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 73 
 
 need such protection, and that those who fall 
 are seduced only because they are not virtu- 
 ous. This however, is by no means the case, 
 as there is every reason to believe that many 
 who have fallen victims to the vile arts of the 
 seducer, were originally as virtuous as others 
 who have escaped destruction. The authors of 
 their ruin, knowing that they could proceed with 
 impunity, have used every means to accom- 
 plish their infernal work. But conceding, as 
 we must, that the virtue of some women is too 
 easy, and that consequently they might with 
 little or no persuasion be corrupted — is this a 
 sufficient reason for allowing it to be done ? is 
 the thief left unpunished because he steals prop- 
 erty not under lock and key ? The fact that 
 some females are improperly accessible, scarcely 
 palliates the offence, as they ought to be consid- 
 ered as objects of compassion, and to be de- 
 fended, rather than surrendered a prey to lust. 
 The individuals themselves may be worthless, 
 but they cannot be injured alone ; they have 
 family connections which must suffer with them 
 in the dishonor, and on whom the disgrace and 
 
74 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 expense of such crimes must necessarily be in- 
 flicted. 
 
 It is unjust to leave virtue unnecessarily ex- 
 posed. The purest may fall, and nothing short 
 of constant vigilance can preserve any ; shall 
 .we, then, leave woman to struggle against 
 every besetment, and to bear up against every 
 temptation — shall we, in fact, let loose upon 
 her the whole herd of the licentious and the un- 
 principled, and give them full permission to 
 ruin her if they can by any means short of ab- 
 solute violence ? Shall we leave the peace and 
 the honor of families to the ravages of liber- 
 tinism? Shall prattling babes, confiding hus- 
 bands, and affectionate parents be stript of 
 their choicest blessings without let or hindrance? 
 Those who make laws, and who fail to protect 
 society from the vices in question, give the 
 strongest assurance that such laws would stand 
 in the way of their own gratification. We 
 cannot expect the vicious to legislate against 
 vice. To plead ignorance would be absurd, 
 though our laws bear marks of having been 
 fashioned in an age when woman was consid- 
 ered only an appendage to society, having no 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 75 
 
 00-equal honor or consequence with the male 
 part of our species. But no intelligent legisla- 
 tor of the present day would wish us to find an 
 apology for him in this old relic of barbarism. 
 The true key to the legal relations of licen- 
 tiousness, is the immorality of public men. In 
 general, they are not Christians, nor have they 
 any regard for that high standard of purity 
 which the gospel requires. 
 
 It will be seen from the above that for gross 
 injustice, unchastity is hardly to be paralleled 
 in the annals of guilt. The intercourse of the 
 sexes is not prohibited, but confined to limits 
 which the Author of our being has fixed, and 
 which cannot be disregarded without immedi- 
 ate and overwhelming ruin. The woman who 
 stoops to such wickedness, has done the great- 
 est evil in her power, both to herself and to 
 others, and may not complain of the abandon 
 ment which inevitably awaits her. 
 
76 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 CHASTITY ESSENTIAL TO THE EXISTENCE 
 OP FAMILIES. 
 
 Whatever advantage might arise to the 
 community or to individuals from the family 
 relation, is utterly defeated by immorality. In- 
 deed such relations cannot be formed ^except 
 on the supposition of virtue in the contracting 
 parties. No honorable man will knowingly 
 connect hinaself with a dishonorable woman. 
 The want of virtue precludes the possibility of 
 matrimonial alliances, unless among the mutu- 
 ally dissolute. But even these could not enter 
 into the marriage relation without assuming 
 vows of fidelity. Such a contract is a pledge 
 of virtue. The parties voluntarily bind them- 
 selves to forsake all others, save the one with 
 whom the union is formed, and this vow is not 
 of force for a time only, but until " death." It 
 is on this ground that some females who have 
 been guilty of immorality, have subsequently 
 married. As reformation is not impossible, 
 and as entrance upon married life necessarily 
 
MOKAL EBUCATION. 77 
 
 involves a pledge of future integrity, those who 
 can inspire sufficient confidence to induce offers 
 of this kind, may marry, notwithstanding their 
 former vices. Still the chances of a respecta- 
 ble marriage are greatly diminished, and there 
 must always be a painful sense of insecurity, 
 as well as various other unpleasant considera- 
 tions, connected with such marriages. 
 
 The value of unblemished reputation, consid- 
 ered as the basis of domestic happiness, cannot 
 be estimated. Hope is entertained even in the 
 darkest hour, that those who have never been 
 known to yield to temptation, will yet be found 
 true ; but where a knowledge of past betrayals 
 is added to present danger, there can be no 
 ground for confidence. Reminiscences of this 
 kind, — if such faults can ever be so far absent 
 from the mind as to entitle them to the appel- 
 lation, — are the most bitter ingredients in the 
 cup of misery. And the prudent will hesitate 
 to connect their destiny where historical asso- 
 ciations, instead of relieving, shall only enhance 
 the worst of apprehensions. 
 
 It is not, however, among the unmarried that 
 the greatest necessity for virtue is seen. Much 
 
78 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 as chastity is needed as a passport to connubial 
 life, its chief importance relates to a more ad- 
 vanced period — to that life to which it is the 
 most essential prerequisite. In the last section 
 I have shown the great injustice of invading 
 connubial rights, and it now only remains to 
 point out more fully than was necessary at that 
 time, the total incompatibility of this vice with 
 the family relation — or, in other words, to show 
 that the relation is founded in virtue, and natu- 
 rally ceases when virtue is extinct. Priceless as 
 is the wealth which every man has in his wife, 
 that wealth is his no longer than she is pure. 
 Her corruption is her loss ; the bond, otherwise 
 indissoluble except by death, is broken; the 
 hearts that were one " for better or for worse," are 
 separated , never again to be united. No fondness 
 of children for a parent, -no pleadings of help- 
 less infancy, no sacred offices of maternal care, 
 no hallowed and long-standing friendship, no 
 holy love can prevent the impending blow. The 
 adulteress must be driven from the bed she has 
 defiled, and become an alien to those of whose 
 love she is no longer worthy. Hope there can- 
 not be, at least in this world. Other oflFences 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 79 
 
 may be atoned for by reformation and repen- 
 tance, but here they can avail nothing towards 
 averting the doom of the transgressor. How- 
 ever gladly the heart would relent, and forgive 
 the past, for the sake of the future, such com- 
 passion is wholly impossible ; the offence has 
 dissolved the relation, and she that was a wife is a 
 wife no more. While her vows were kept, noth- 
 ing could deprive her of that sacred character, 
 but now that they are broken, nothing can 
 restore it to her. The family falls to pieces on 
 the occurrence of licentiousness, as naturally as 
 any other contract expires when its conditions 
 are violated. Mutual, and total, and perpetual 
 chastity was the only condition on which such 
 a relation could be instituted, and when there 
 is a departure from this in either party, the re- 
 lation is inevitably dissolved. The legal cere- 
 mony of decreeing a divorce, is nothing more 
 than an adjustment of the law to the facts of 
 the case ; it is simply a recognition of the state 
 of the parties. No element of separation is con- 
 tained in the act of divorce, and the divorced 
 would still be one, were it not for the crime 
 which has separated them. 
 
80 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 Let it then be understood that virtue is essen- 
 tial to all the cherished blessings of social life ; 
 that without its presence the family is a wreck 
 beyond recovery, and all its members ■ cursed 
 with woes lasting as life and heavier than 
 death. Indeed without virtue, society is im- 
 possible except in that low and bestial form, — 
 a form lower infinitely than savage life, — which 
 marks the brothel. Between the sanctity of 
 marriage, and the profanation of unrestrained de- 
 bauchery, there is no middle ground. If we reject 
 the one, the other must follow. The woman who 
 is not familiar with this conclusion, and on whose 
 heart does not press the immense responsibility 
 of maintaining inviolate this trait of character, 
 should be alarmed at her position, and pray for 
 a solicitude which both nature and society have 
 made so necessary to her preservation. Not to 
 fear is not to know. Danger besets the- path of 
 every female ; and nothing but constant vigi- 
 lance can secure to her the honor and innocence 
 on which, more than on everything else, her 
 future happiness depends. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 81 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 JUST VIEWS OF THE SOCIAL RELATIONS. 
 
 It must be obvious to all, that the preserva- 
 tion of that strict and unblemished morality 
 which alone can give permanence to the family 
 relation, requires a full knowledge of the inter- 
 ests involved. A treasure will not be guarded 
 unless it is known to be a treasure. The 
 female who values these relations slightly, is 
 too ignorant or too perverse to be a suitable 
 guardian of the trusts reposed in her ; she has 
 made a contract which she has neither the dis- 
 position nor the power to fulfil. Not but that 
 she might have both ; for, if she entered upon 
 the married state with honest intentions, there 
 is nothing in the way, but her own want of 
 reflection. The sacrifice she made was volun- 
 tary, and laid another under equally imperative 
 obligations. Nor was there anything peculiarly 
 onerous exacted of her — she made only such 
 pledges as every upright woman gladly makes 
 before entering into the conjugal relation, and 
 such as are absolutely indispensable to the exist- 
 
82 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 ence of that relation. It may be that her choice 
 was not the wisest nor her lot the happiest, but 
 these are things which mortals cannot control. 
 Nothing more was required than the exercise 
 of common sense and common prudence ; for if 
 superior talents and sagacity were necessary to 
 a matrimonial choice, then by far the greater 
 part of mankind could never marry, as they 
 have not these qualities. But infallibility is 
 not required of human beings, and those who 
 do the best they can, have reason to be satisfied 
 with what they have done, and expect the bless- 
 ing of God upon their lot in life. Murmurings 
 and repinings are out of the question ; they are 
 an insult to Providence, and evince, not only 
 dissatisfaction with some particular social evils, 
 but with the laws of virtue itself. Above all, 
 such a spirit, manifested by one sustaining the 
 sacred relation of a wife, is unbecoming and 
 dangerous. If the sphere which ought to be 
 filled by her proves insufiicient or uncongenial 
 to her taste, we may rest assured that no very 
 urgent temptation will be necessary to draw 
 her from the path of duty. To guard against 
 this unseemly and wicked state of feeling should 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 83 
 
 be the endeavor of every virtuous woman. The 
 man of her choice may have faults, — for all men 
 as well as all women, have faults, — but this 
 ought not to cool the ardor of affection, nor pre- 
 vent it from being as exclusive at any subse- 
 quent time as it was when she first became affi- 
 anced to him. He is still a man — still hers by 
 the ordinance of heaven, and though not with- 
 out faults, deserving of confidence and esteem. 
 It is the deepest ingratitude to let the heart be- 
 come estranged from one who has sacrificed so 
 much to give a proof of affection, and who asks 
 nothing unreasonable as the condition of his love. 
 It is no secret that the whole treasure of do- 
 mestic happiness may be squandered at any 
 moment by a ruthless spirit of indulgence — kin- 
 dred, self, and family may be hurried into wretch- 
 edness from which nothing shall ever be able to 
 recover them. To be a wife is to be intrusted 
 with this amazing responsibility. Interests 
 valued more than life centre in her, and must 
 perish if her virtue fails. On her hangs the 
 peace of her house, the stability of its hopes, 
 and the home of those to whom she has given 
 birth. We can easily imagine how important 
 
84 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 it must be for one so situated to command every 
 wayward propensity, and allow of no improper 
 desires. The limits that have been fixed to the 
 range of her affections, are no trifling regulation, 
 that caprice may set aside at pleasure. She 
 has bound herself, and the chain should ever be 
 welcome — welcome as the institution of nature, 
 and the price of all her connubial joys. Many 
 things which seem harmless to superficial obser- 
 vers, and which would be really so, were there 
 no corruption in human nature to lead us astray, 
 are to be shunned because they peril the weighty 
 obligations of marriage. They who have as- 
 sumed these obligations are thereby placed un- 
 der new circumstances, and the liberty which 
 once was admissible is so no longer. Some- 
 thing is due to this extraordinary position. The 
 character that bears with it the fate of others 
 is privileged, and may exercise uncommon pru- 
 dence without the charge of fastidiousness or 
 idle display. 
 
 Courage here is worse than poltroonery ; it 
 is criminal indifference to virtue — nay more, 
 it is wantonness seelcing an opportunity for 
 gratification. Far otherwise will it be with the 
 
MORAL EDUCATION. 85 
 
 discreet and the virtuous. They hazard noth- 
 ing that can be avoided. Satisfied with their 
 condition, replete with just views of the vital 
 importance of their station, they consult only 
 how to maintain that position reputably to the 
 end . In short, no woman is fitted to be the head 
 of a family who has not a lively sense of the 
 new and interesting consequence imparted to 
 her as a wife. She cannot henceforth live or 
 die unto herself. Another has claims upon her 
 that must never depreciate. She is sacred to 
 one, and must take all pains to remain forever 
 sacred to him. It may demand thought, and 
 care, and self-denial, to maintain and make mani- 
 fest this appropriated character — this sacred ex- 
 clusiveness, which elevated her to such an 
 alliance. But of this she will not complain; it 
 is only the natural result of living exposed to 
 temptations. The recompense for such pains 
 is sure, in the felicity inspired in the hearts of 
 others and in her own consciousness of virtue. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SntBllntititl (iiittatinii. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 DEMANDS OF THE AGE. 
 
 The education of woraan should fit her for 
 the age in which she lives. In a period of dark- 
 ness, when intellectual cultivation was unknown 
 and unregarded, the mind of woman might be 
 neglected without specially enhancing her dan- 
 ger or disgrace. She might live with the igno- 
 rant in comparative safety, for the general igno- 
 rance would give equal security to all. But 
 circumstances greatly change when we- place 
 her under the keen surveillance of the educated 
 — of men too who are always too much inclined 
 to take advantage of her ignorance. She can- 
 not live in ignorance among educated men, un- 
 less at the hazard of virtue and the certain loss 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 87 
 
 of respectability. This alone is a sufficient 
 reason for at all times conforming female edu- 
 cation to the actual state of education in the 
 country. Yet there are other reasons equally 
 urgent for this course. 
 
 1. In an enlightened country the entire busi- 
 ness of the people partakes of a scientific char- 
 acter, and if women are not educated they must 
 inevitably be excluded from all responsible and 
 profitable stations in society. They cannot 
 teach because they have never learned ; of the 
 several professions they know nothing ; with the 
 arts and sciences as applied to mechanics and 
 practical affairs they are unacquainted ; and con- 
 sequently all posts of supervision — all duties in- 
 volving a knowledge of science, find them with- 
 " out preparation, and are therefore assigned to 
 men as alone competent to their discharge. 
 Thus woman sinks to drudgery. Her igno- 
 rance disqualifies her for any higher part than 
 that which is allotted to brute force. A caste 
 is formed, — by degrees it is true, but not the 
 less certainly, — and in due time fashion or cus- 
 tom excludes her as promptly as ignorance be- 
 fore had done. At first she was simply inca- 
 
88 YOUNGS LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 paoitated by ignorance, but now her very inju- 
 ries are made a chain to bind her in perpetual 
 servitude. If females have, as they surely 
 ought to have, intellectual attainments fitting 
 them for any employments to which they may 
 be otherwise adapted, they will be able to secure 
 their share of honorable and lucrative stations, 
 instead of becoming menials — the lowest drudges 
 in kitchens and shops. Education comprehends 
 the method of business, and the uneducated 
 must be mere hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water, while the educated enjoy both the re- 
 sponsibility and the emolument. It is because 
 woman has not the requisite education that we 
 see so many reduced to the extremest poverty in 
 all our cities ; they sew for a pittance that just 
 sustains life, and even have to beg for employ- 
 ment on these hard terms, where, under other 
 circumstances, they might easily earn a com- 
 fortable Jiving. Nor is this to be viewed as 
 happening only in particular instances ; it is 
 the degradation and inconvenience of woman — 
 of half our species, and not barely of a few in- 
 dividuals. Her opportunities are cut down, and 
 whatever may be the necessity, she can only 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 89 
 
 provide for herself and others at a vast disad- 
 vantage. This helplessness becomes hereditary 
 — it is transmitted from one generation to an- 
 other, till the whole female race is degraded 
 and made miserable. 
 
 2. Such is the connection of science with 
 mind that some degree of education is essential 
 to the knowledge of our wants. The ignorant 
 know not what they need. Like savages, they 
 remain stationary, because science has not dis- 
 closed to them the higher degrees of improve- 
 ment and of happiness which are possible to 
 mankind. A full perception of what we need 
 is one of the strongest motives that can be 
 brought to bear upon human conduct. It is 
 indeed irresistible. In order to this, however, 
 there must be more than a faint impression of 
 want ; the facts must be brought home to the 
 mind with the clearness of demonstration. Let 
 females perceive thus plainly their real needs ; 
 let them come under the influence of a positive 
 knowledge of their interests, and they will do 
 for themselves. Policy cannot cashier them, 
 usage will not reconcile them, nor weakness 
 render them unsuccessful. But until they 
 
90 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 know their privileges, and know them so well 
 as to feel keenly their own degradation while 
 deprived of them, no improvement is to be ex- 
 pected. Learning has created a new state of 
 society, and the wants of the human race are 
 not only multiplied, but better understood. 
 Woman should know her necessities as a 
 member of civilized and refined society ; she 
 should feel the constant stimulus of convictions 
 founded on her actual relations to the world 
 around her. Where all are thoughtless, and 
 where none have the advantages of science, of 
 course such an obligation would not be pecu- 
 liarly hers, but in this country the other sex 
 have education and will continue to have it, 
 whether females are educated or not. 
 
 3. Next to the considerations already men- 
 tioned, is the fact that efficiency is very much 
 dependent on a knowledge of capacity. Educa- 
 tion reveals the capacity of those who possess 
 it. They know what they can do, as well as 
 what ought to be done. It is this conscious- 
 ness of ability that makes the civilized every- 
 where so much superior to savages. An igno- 
 rant woman is not prepared to assert her rights, 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 91 
 
 because she neither knows them nor the ability 
 which she has to defend them. Did she realize 
 her true- position, she would feel that equal 
 strength had been given her, though not always 
 in the same form, as to the other portion of the 
 human race. Everything necessary would be 
 as much within her reach as within the reach, 
 of those who, presuming upon the weakness of 
 ignorance, have arrogated to themselves such 
 an undue proportion of privileges and of conse- 
 quence. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 EQUALITY WITH MAN". 
 
 Woman, as the partner of man, was in many 
 respects designed to be his equal, but an almost 
 totally perverted course of training has made 
 her condition one of inferiority in everything. 
 She is degraded, rather than subordinated ; her 
 situation is not barely peculiar, it is menial. 
 Justice demands an improvement founded on 
 the true dignity of woman's nature. 
 
92 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 Every scheme of education contemplates the 
 character of its subjects, and no scheme can be 
 tolerable which does not adjust itself to pecu- 
 liarities of character. Females may be nat- 
 urally more volatile than men, they may be 
 less inclined to the drudgery of scientific deduc- 
 tion or the revery of metaphysical speculation, 
 but all this militates nothing against genuine 
 strength of intellect. Viewing them as we do, 
 under the disadvantages of mal education, or 
 of no education at all, it is hardly to be expected 
 that they should escape the imputation of weak- 
 ness. The derogatory assumption that mental 
 imbecility is an essential characteristic of 
 women, deserves no serious refutatiMi. Their 
 comparative intellectual ability is to be admitted 
 withput the formality of argument. Indeed an 
 attempt to defend their peerage in this respect 
 is scarcely pardonable. It is enough that we 
 observe, for the sake of those who may have 
 overlooked the fact, that wherever females have 
 had equal opportunities with the other sex, 
 either on the throne, in the halls of science, or 
 in the management of domestic affairs, they 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 93 
 
 have never been wanting, they have exhibited 
 equal talents and made as great attainments. 
 
 How absurd to introduce the fooleries of 
 modern gaiety to the notice of such a being ; 
 and how vicious to make exact conformity to 
 them a matter of grave importance! The 
 secret should be disclosed, and juvenile females 
 should know that this punctilious atterition to 
 fashion is a broad impeachment of mental in- 
 tegrity. Here is the great fault of our course. 
 We trifle with powers that cannot be neglected 
 or perverted without subsequent and measure- 
 less € vils. We can easily appreciate the extreme 
 degradation when men become venal and effem- 
 inate in mind. But the frequency of the thing, 
 or, rather, the settled conviction that nothing 
 higher is to be expected of them, has rendered 
 us callous to this species of vice in females. 
 Among men, merit makes the man ; but no 
 such magnanimous sentiment gilds the pros- 
 pect of woman. She is made to feel from the 
 first that she is a mere creature of circumstance, 
 and is put upon a course of external parade, for 
 the sole purpose of attraction. In short, she is 
 taught that something besides herself must com- 
 
94 YOUNG liADY'S BOOK. 
 
 mend her to others, and that on some other besides 
 herself depends her happiness. All this is false 
 in fact, and should be discarded both in theory 
 and in practice. It is true that women as well 
 as men are intended for marriage ; but that 
 this destination should be deemed a paramount 
 consideration is very ridiculous. Matrimonial 
 connections are a part of the present constitu- 
 tion of things — a matter of course, and no un- 
 common qualifications are demanded in view 
 of such connections, that would not be necessary 
 without them. Relations vastly more impor- 
 tant than those which connect a single individ- 
 ual with another for a few years, are sustained 
 by every human being. A desire for the social 
 virtues is laudable, and it is not to be supposed 
 that such desire, or the qualifications which it 
 seeks, is foreign to that higher character which 
 belongs to our nature. Temporal institutions 
 in many cases are subordinate, and particularly 
 so in this, and it is therefore incompatible with 
 human dignity to be greatly influenced by what 
 upon the whole is so evidently unimportant. 
 The rage of parents is to make their daugh- 
 ters interesting, and the schools try to bestow 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 95 
 
 engaging accomplishments, as if the great ob- 
 ject was to insure a marriage, rather than im- 
 part the qualifications requisite for a woman in 
 life. It is the degradation of mind — the suppo- 
 sition that females may properly be so treated— 
 against which we enter our protest. No depen- 
 dence or physical inferiority can either justify 
 or palliate such negligence in the development 
 of character. Females thus educated are un- 
 fit for either married or single life. If the arts 
 of fascination prove successful, they become the 
 scourge of families ; if not, they are the reproach 
 of every circle. They want what it is the busi- 
 ness of education to impart — a loftiness of con- 
 ception, a consciousness of ability, and an in- 
 flexibility of virtue equal to every exigence of 
 life. We hear much of " amiable weaknesses," 
 and the world is ready to excuse ignorance in 
 a woman. But the charity is not needed. Let 
 justice be done ; let knowledge which is power, 
 be given, and the female mind will gloriously 
 redeem itself from the aspersion of such insult- 
 ing kindness. 
 
 With an education equal to that afforded to 
 men, we have not the slightest reason to sup- 
 
96 YOU\G LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 pose that women would continue to exhibit 
 those traits which have so often made them sub- 
 jects of unenviable remark. These very fail- 
 ings are the characteristics, not only of their con- 
 dition, but of the condition of all those of our 
 race whose education has been neglected ; they 
 belong not to woman as woman, but to woman 
 as the victim of ignorance — they mark only her 
 state and not her sex. This fact, well under- 
 stood, would banish those supercilious airs and 
 that unjustifiable contempt which men are ac- 
 customed to indulge towards the infirmities of 
 woman, and awaken possibly a wholesome re- 
 gret for the great injustice done to her in keep- 
 ing her so long degraded. Woman also in this, 
 her true intellectual position, would exert a 
 vastly greater influence in elevating man. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 ABILITY TO ADVANCE SCIENCE AND THE ARTS. 
 
 At present, very few females participate in 
 the intellectual movements of the age. Some 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 97 
 
 of the more fortunate have acquired honorable 
 distinction for their talents and attainments, 
 but the great mass is still unaffected by popu- 
 lar strife for improvement, and will remain so, 
 not for want of abilities, but for lack of oppor- 
 tunities. Their education contemplates noth- 
 ing of the kind. They are taught submission, 
 not barely to the authority of a husband, but 
 to the maxims and customs of the world around 
 them. Acquiescence and passivity are the 
 characteristics of the policy which has wielded 
 their destiny. An instance of greater tyranny 
 cannot be found, than is this effort to circum- 
 scribe the mental operations of a whole race of 
 beings. Are there no improvements to be made 
 in anything that falls under the supervision of 
 woman ? Is everything as it should be in her 
 conduct, in her relations, and in the prospects 
 of the future ? If not, the eye of philosophy, 
 the purest religious and scientific intelligence, 
 must scan the field of observation and dictate 
 the requisite changes. 
 
 It ought to be conceded by every one that 
 the whole range of improvement is as fully 
 open to woman as to man. There is not a 
 
98 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK, i 
 
 possible truth nor a possible virtue, but what 
 she may acquire. Those discoveries which be- 
 long to her particular sphere should by all 
 means be made by her, for in that sphere she is 
 the natural explorer, and ought by all means to 
 have precedence. It would appear very absurd 
 for men to be taught the art of agriculture by 
 women, and absurd it would be, yet not more 
 so than for men to teach women how to super- 
 vise the nursery or to guard their own health or 
 morals. The proprieties of female life and 
 labor are to be determined by females ; they 
 should be held responsible for advancing these 
 entirely beyond the observation of the other 
 sex, so that if a man should offer his advice, 
 the offer would be looked upon as absurd. If 
 woman has a particular sphere, she must in the 
 nature of things be able to accumulate experi- 
 ence and. extend inquiry in that sphere farther 
 than those who do not and cannot share this 
 position with her. At present her right to de- 
 termine is not fairly admitted, and much less 
 is any such determination expected. Woman, 
 according to the popular notion, is an appendage 
 to society for which man graciously provides, 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 99 
 
 ■without troubling her to assume a positive exist- 
 ence. She may well disdain the kindness, how- 
 ever honestly offered, since its acceptance could 
 not but involve her degradation. Let females 
 know that they have a position that cannot be 
 invaded, and let them by the vigorous applica- 
 tion of their own minds give evidence that the 
 principles of that position or sphere are already 
 too well understood to require foreign interfer- 
 ence. Then shall virtue in every department 
 be as unquestionable as it is now in some of 
 the more obvious; or in other words, women 
 will so adjust the customs of social life particu- 
 larly affecting them, that no one shall have 
 cause to complain. As things now are she is 
 betrayed, and finds out too late the insult ; she 
 is duped by the pretension of superior skill, and 
 is hurried off the stage without an opportunity 
 to retrieve her character. 
 
 For centuries the education and circum- 
 stances of woman have been neglected. In 
 soma countries and those professing to be civil- 
 ized, she is even at the present time almost on 
 a level with the brutes. The lowest labor, such 
 as in our own country is always assigned to 
 
100 YOUNG lady's book. 
 
 brutes, is imposed upon her, and not the slight- 
 est provision made for any improvement in her 
 future condition. She is to all intents and pur- 
 poses an inferior being, on whcJse elevation no 
 pains or expense need to be bestowed. From 
 this long oppression the sex is emerging slowly, 
 thpu'gh at the rate of progress which now marks 
 the work of emancipation, ages must elapse be- 
 fore, womaij, regains her proper place in the 
 social system. ^ Her «own mind is required to 
 grapple with the injustice^ which she suffers, 
 and to develop the truths on which permanent 
 diSenthraJlment depends. Usurpation is rarely 
 self-relinquished. Man may not be greatly .op- 
 posed to her restoration, but it should not bo 
 exjJected that he will efficiently labor for it ; he 
 cannot know all that she might know, or do all 
 that she might do«. Women have power both 
 to assert and to maintain all the rights which 
 helong to their nature, and it is a power which 
 their oppressors have not, even were tl^ey in- 
 clined to use it. 
 
 That muoh requires to be done which is 
 possible only to the female mind, especially ii^ 
 its own behalf and in its own department, we 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 101 
 
 fully believe ; but the career of female enter- 
 prise is not necessarily thus restricted. Woman 
 is entitled to act a part on the general theatre 
 of life, in all those pursuits from which the 
 peculiarities of her constitution do not exclude 
 her. She has mind, and may therefore take 
 part in everything mental... The whole domain 
 of science belongs as much to her as to her 
 brother. When she feels herself equal-to the 
 wopk, whej^ at last the public expects it of her, 
 she will answer for herself in this matter, but 
 not before. It is with her now a^ with the 
 down-trodden of every age and of every race. 
 The slave invents nothing — improves nothing, 
 because he is laboring under the incubus of in- 
 equality. Depression seizes upon him 'and 
 paralyzes the powers of high achievement. Igno- 
 rance itself is inferiority, and, apart from all 
 other considerations, is productive of the same 
 depressing eifects. The poor, illiterate peasant 
 is devoid of improvement, because he is uncon- 
 scious of his capacity for such a work. We see 
 under every barbarous and tyrannical govern- 
 ment this stagnated condition of the public 
 mind. After the people have become ignorant 
 
102 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 to a certain extent, all idea of liberty is for- 
 gotten, and the arts and sciences cease to have 
 any existence in the popular mind. This un- 
 happy state of things characterizes the ignorant 
 everywhere, and if females are destitute of in- 
 vention and enterprise, if they waste their 
 powers on frivolities or pervert them to vice, it 
 is solely for want of education. Give them 
 their true position as intellectual beings, and we 
 shall have no occasion to reproach the sex with 
 faults which were never yet separated from a 
 degraded and illiterate condition. It is a matter 
 of great importance to woman that this change 
 be made, though it is almost equally important 
 to the other sex, for man needs the stimulus 
 of competition and the force of example. If 
 woman leads the way in science, as she is well 
 able to do, ignorance will find no shelter in her 
 society. He who is too little cultivated to pass 
 with credit among gentlemen, will not attempt to 
 palm himself off upon th§ ladies. And when 
 the ladies have pushed forward their inquiries 
 so as to excite emulation, we may hope that 
 their competitors will feel a nobler ambition, 
 and that the work of improvement will not, as 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 103 
 
 now, be confined to a few. Thankful are we 
 that female education is beginning to attract 
 attention in proportion to its merits. We have, 
 in some parts of the country, not only semi- 
 naries in which a few superficial accomplish- 
 ments are taught, but female colleges embra- 
 cing all the sciences. This is as it should be, 
 and reflects credit on the age. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 SOURCES OF PLEASURE. 
 
 The pleasures of science must of course be 
 unknown to the uneducated, and the history of 
 mankind shows conclusively that where this 
 elevated class of enjoyments is wanting, the 
 loss will be supplied as far as possible, by such 
 pleasures as are still within reach — namely, the 
 sensual, and the puerile. That excessive fond- 
 ness for dress, and for mere external display, 
 so characteristic of a certain description of 
 females, has its origin chiefly in their intellectual 
 habits. Familiarity with things of greater con- 
 
104 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 sequence would have the same effect in correct- 
 ing a perverted, we might rather say neglected 
 taste, in the one sex, that it has in the other. 
 Give to woman such general knowledge of all 
 the departments of science as shall make her 
 perceive the relative importance of things, and 
 she will not hesitate to put away " childish 
 things." Her mind has hitherto been forced 
 to rest in what is superficial, because it knew 
 no better. She has contracted no taste for 
 nobler pleasures, because she has had no oppor- 
 tunity to contract such a taste. Her education 
 is frivolous, and therefore frivolity distinguishes 
 her through life, — or, at least, that part of life 
 in which she can well have a choice of pursuits 
 or pleasures. Few women would perhaps be 
 under the necessity of resorting to literature 
 for constant entertainment, but every woman 
 might make it an auxiliary pleasure ; it would 
 form an agreeable relaxation in the intervals 
 of toil, and save the necessity for some kinds 
 of gratification which now seem to prevail only 
 from a desire to avoid absolute dullness. It is 
 quite clear that gossipping and tattling arise, 
 not so much from actual malevolence, as from 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 105 
 
 a peculiar restlessness common to uncultivated 
 minds. Enlarge the stock of knowledge, and 
 we remove all desire for communicating such 
 trifles as are retailed by the gossip. As a man 
 who is really rich, and has thousands at his 
 command, would not wish to exhibit a few 
 shillings, so a truly wise woman would feel no 
 pleasure in dwelling upon, or in communicating 
 matters of no importance. " Out of the abun- 
 dance of the heart the mouth speaketh," and 
 will continue to speak ; hence, till we replenish 
 the heart with other and higher knowledge, we 
 can expect nothing but the worthless or vicious 
 details of the common tattler or gossip-monger. 
 The female mind is unquestionably compe- 
 tent to the highest walks of science, and even 
 if ignorance were not accompanied with the 
 vice of petty scandal, it would be exceedingly 
 unjust to out off one half of the. species from 
 all the pleasures and advantages connected 
 with mental pursuits. We often see the hu- 
 man mind miserably straitened in its resources, 
 especially the mind of woman, who is necessa- 
 rily excluded from a direct participation in 
 many of the more athletic exercises. Yet in 
 
106 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 science she may participate with the profound- 
 est ; there is nothing here too great for her 
 strength, or too rough and repulsive for her del- 
 icacy. She can ponder the sublimest truths 
 without endangering her morals or meeting 
 the rude gaze of the multitude. And when 
 beset with trials. — such as fall to the lot of all 
 human beings, and particularly to her, — she 
 can retreat to the unfailing pleasures of study. 
 Thus, in communion with the great and good 
 of the past and the present, with the actual and 
 the possible, she will be able to bear up with 
 dignity under all the circumstances of life, and 
 to roll back upon her oppressors every reproach- 
 ful epithet. There is a numerous class of 
 current phrases derogatory to the female mind, 
 which are thrown out on every occasion by men 
 who see woman only as she is, and not as she 
 ought to be. 
 
 But were there no special propriety in open- 
 ing to her this resource, it is surely enough 
 that she is on a level with man. We have 
 never doubted the advantages of science to 
 men, and, as a partaker of human nature, wo- 
 man certainly has an equal claim to an 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 107 
 
 equal chance for any advantages of this kind. 
 Her condition will thereby be greatly improved, 
 inasmuch as the narrow and unintellectual 
 character of her pleasures has too frequently 
 been the sole cause of her degradation in the 
 public estimation, and of the ruin of her morals. 
 In youth the natural buoyancy of spirits 
 may sustain the individual, but as age advances 
 something more will be necessary ; and if no 
 stock of knowledge is acquired during this pe- 
 riod, the mind is doomed to a monotony that 
 disqualifies it for lofty aspirings, and prolongs 
 through life a desire for the puerile gratifica- 
 tions of dress and amusement. 
 
 " A soul without reflection, like a pile 
 Without inhabitant, to ruin runs." 
 
 Incapable of intellectual happiness, resort is 
 had to the worthless and often vicious pleasures 
 of sense. The intellect, divorced from the 
 senses, is stupefied, and the unhappy being is 
 borne by the latter, like Phaeton in the chariot 
 of Jupiter. 
 
 Give to woman noble pursuits, and she will 
 act a noble part. Virtue in her requires as 
 
108 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 sublime motives as it does in the other sex. 
 She must be equally intelligent; the nature 
 and the relative importance of things, with full 
 liberty of pursuit, must be hers, or she cannot 
 feel the inspiration of high achievement, nor 
 the happiness of high and honorable motives. 
 The mind, if confined to low endeavors, drivels 
 in hopeless inferiority. It is cut off at once 
 from elevated virtue, because denied elevated 
 opportunities ; and the consequent feebleness 
 of virtue must ever be attended with dimin- 
 ished felicity — virtue and happiness are to each 
 other as cause and effect. The happiness of 
 woman, therefore, can only be increased by 
 increasing the means of her virtue. And 
 towards this we know that education contrib- 
 utes in an eminent degree. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 SELF-PRESERVATION. 
 
 One prominent advantage of mental culture, 
 is the security which it brings. A woman 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 109 
 
 should be able to guard herself. Her physical 
 weakness subjects her to danger from which 
 nothing but keen discrimination can protect 
 her. But while it is necessary that she should 
 be enlightened in order to avoid physical coer- 
 cion, we readily admit that her chief danger 
 lies in another direction. It is the mastery of 
 mind — the acknowledged pre-eminence in op- 
 portunities and attainments, that she has most 
 reason to fear. These place her in a position 
 of inferiority ; she may take advice, but may 
 not presume upon equality of judgment. How 
 much such a state of intellectual subordination 
 would subserve the purpose of the seducer may 
 easily be imagined. Upon a well-cultivated 
 mind, and especially upon one of equal attain- 
 ments, his blandishments would probably be 
 lost. In such cases, art meets art, and science 
 meets science, so that there is no chance for 
 imposture. But aside from the overreaching 
 and inveiglement to which a deficient female 
 education gives so many temptations, there is 
 no small danger arising from imperfect views 
 of virtue. The uneducated female has only 
 confused ideas on the subject of morals. She 
 10 
 
110 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 has no well-balanced principles — no just and 
 extended views of propriety in reference to hu- 
 man conduct. Education refines the sensi- 
 bilities, and improves the judgment, so that 
 we can " approve things that are excellent," 
 and flee from such as are bad. Infatuation 
 always treads upon the heels of ignorance. 
 None need mistake here. Could we search the 
 records of delinquency, we should find the 
 number of uneducated culprits disproportion- 
 ately great. But mere exemption from open or 
 secret vice, is not all we should desire. There 
 is a virtue practicable by means of knowledge, 
 which allays the intensity of fear, and purifies 
 the moral atmosphere from those evils which 
 endanger social happiness. The worlcs of dark- 
 ness lose all their effect when not confined to 
 their own obscurity. Intelligence is the mighty 
 defence of our nature ; and females are pecu- 
 liarly obnoxious to injury while attempting to 
 make their way through the world without its 
 protection. " Evil communications corrupt 
 good manners ;" but where the " manners" are 
 bad, as is now too often the case, and the sub- 
 ject of them is embarrassed by general igno- 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. Ill 
 
 ranee, it is no wonder that the progress of ruin 
 is speedy, and the consummation perfect. 
 These days of proud discovery and unrivaled 
 charity are likely to do something for the social 
 circle. " Things which have long passed as 
 allowable, are beginning to be called in ques- 
 tion, and several enormities are already in 
 course of detection and exposure. 
 
 It would not be difficult to prove that many 
 principles, now prevalent in female education, 
 are diametrically opposed to good morals. 
 " The light that is in them has become dark- 
 ness." Nothing can be conceived more efficient 
 for the purpose of degradation, than the idea of 
 inferiority which is so constantly kept before 
 their minds. This illusion is a spell upon the 
 active powers ; it leaves the person, as we have 
 before remarked, accessible to the counsels and 
 intrigues of unprincipled advisers — persons 
 whose very presence is contamination. 
 
 We will not say that escape from dangers 
 of this kind is impossible, but we affirm that it 
 is wrong, in the highest degree, to tolerate such 
 exposure. A shield should be afforded for the 
 protection of woman from all such assaults, and 
 
112 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK, 
 
 then if she falls, " like«stars that set to rise uo 
 more," it will be no Jault of those who were 
 the guardians of her character. The means 
 of preservation were in her own hands, and she 
 must abide the ruin which she brings upon 
 herself. Towards those who are ensnared by 
 ignorance, much more compassion is due, al- 
 though such compassion can never replace 
 either virtue or respectability. Let females be 
 properly educated — that is, educated as much 
 as the other sex — and the imminent peril of 
 social life is removed. They will''see most 
 clearly what is essential to irreproachable vir- 
 tue, and can at all times avoid even a suspicion 
 of impurity. The integrity of their character 
 will not need to be taken as a fact, assumed 
 without evidence, for the proofs of integrity 
 will be both abundant and unquestionable. The 
 proper place, the proper time, and the proper 
 manner of all actions, will proclaim innocence 
 much better than formal testimony could sub- 
 stantiate it, if ignorance had so far mistaken 
 propriety as to awaken suspicion. 
 
INTELLECTITAL EDUCATION. 113 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 DEFENCE OF HER RIGHTS. 
 
 That women have their rights in the social 
 system cannot be denied. Various estimates 
 have been formed as to the extent and charac- 
 ter of these rights. Some, not satisfied with 
 depriving the female of all political privileges 
 and duties, would place her under the same cir- 
 cumstances, socially and intellectually. This 
 spirit has Bng characterized the course of popu- 
 lar education. It was not enough that woman 
 should be divested of almost every civil right 
 except that of mere protection, a right which is 
 extended even to brutes ; but she must be made 
 to feel her degradation in mind as well as in 
 body. The frivolous and restricted education 
 allotted to her could only awaken regret for 
 what she had not, without at all satisfying the 
 demands of her intellectual capacity. This evil 
 is now universally felt, and there are indica- 
 tions of a return to juster principles. But re- 
 turn will not take place, to any sufficient ex- 
 tent, unless the female mind is aroused to its 
 
114 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 own interests. Woman must assert her own 
 rights, or they will not be asserted ;, she must 
 vindicate herself, - or fail of receiving justice. 
 Her rights are as palpable and unquestionable 
 as those of men, but she has not known them, 
 and therefore not demanded them. They would 
 long since have been accorded to her in all their 
 fulness, if she had made her appeal to the tri- 
 bunal of public opinion, and enforced that ap- 
 peal by the irresistible weight of argument at 
 her command. By what means has she been 
 defrauded ? certainly not from any intentional 
 injustice. Man has wronged woman through 
 ignorance, and not through malice. She has 
 suffered because her guardian was ignorant of 
 the measure of her claims. To remove this 
 error is the first thing necessary towards a re- 
 form in female education ; and for this purpose 
 large dependence must be placed upon the in- 
 telligent cooperation of females. 
 
 They are the first, if not the principal, suf- 
 ferers by this unjust treatment. They are 
 therefore the best and most authoritative advo- 
 cates of reform. From them the voice of com- 
 plaint will be heard with respectful, attention, 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 115 
 
 and even indignant upbfaidings for such great 
 injustice would not be deemed out of place. 
 What right has man to arrogate to himself all 
 the higher institutions of learning? Woman 
 shares with him the common school and the 
 academy, but why is she excluded from college 
 — from every college in the land ? The State 
 bestows its largest benefactions on these institu- 
 tions, and the most able instructors that can be 
 procured are employed to give the highest prac- 
 ticable finish to education ; yet woman may not 
 approach these halls of science, her step would 
 profane them, she must be reserved for a -lower 
 destiny. Occasionally, without such advan- 
 tages, she will rise above her caste ; the force 
 of genius is sufficient to ensure eminence in 
 spite of all obstacles : but this does not at all 
 palliate the outrage upon her rights. The fact 
 that some women become distinguished under 
 their peculiar privations, only shows the enor- 
 mous wrong done to the sex by withholding the 
 proper facilities for distinction. In reserving to 
 our sex all these advantages — in monopolizing 
 opportunities, we have thrown almost the entire 
 mass of literary and professional eminence into 
 
116 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK, 
 
 one side of the scale. Hence toe social system 
 is not equally balanced, and cannot be, till the 
 cause of this disparaging inequality is removed. 
 But the eflFeots of the evil are not confined to 
 woman. As the " mother of all living " she 
 transmits her infirmities to her offspring, and 
 they must feel, to the latest hour of life, the dis- 
 advantages of having had an ignorant mother. 
 The domestic circle — that place so filled with 
 hallowed recollections — will become the source 
 of bitter regrets to the discriminating mind, in 
 after life. It need not be argued that women 
 have by far the greater share in forming the 
 youthful character, as no one denies the fact ; 
 and yet we, withhold education from those who, 
 as teachers, fill the most responsible station. 
 That woman, in view of her maternal duties, 
 should insist upon literary equality, is perfectly 
 reasonable, although such a co^deration is by 
 no means the first motive that should induce us 
 to do her justice. She has personal, inalienable 
 rights which must be restored, and the restora- 
 tion of these is a sufficient motive for the con- 
 templated change of policy. If her own mind 
 sees clearly the degradation which it is now 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 117 
 
 suffering, she will need very little assistance in 
 gaining a true position : a consoiousness of the 
 necessity involved in her plea, will give to that 
 plea irresistible force. 
 
 Ignorance cannot defend itself. Woman 
 must be elevated before she will realize the 
 wrongs inflicted upon her. At every point she 
 needs the impenetrable segis of knowledge. 
 Put her in possession of the means of defence, 
 and she will not be wanting in ability to use 
 them. Give her science, and she will not re- 
 linquish the gift. 
 
 It is principally through ignorance on her 
 part that her morals have been so recklessly 
 assailed by the customs of the day. An ed- 
 ucated class of females would never have ac- ' 
 quiesced in these abuses. Too ignorant to lead, 
 she has submitted to be led, and the conse- 
 quences to domestic happiness have been incal- 
 culably ruinous. Christianity itself has not 
 been able to arrest the tide of licentiousness and 
 folly. Society has moulded her charaotep ; she 
 has given herself up to a succession of corrupt, 
 debasing compliances, as though. God had not 
 made her with independence enough to be vir- 
 
118 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK, 
 
 tuous, or with mind enoijgh to be rational 
 Without literature, woman must ever be the 
 sport of this tyranny. She may have religious 
 principle, but that principle will be sacrificed 
 for want of knowledge to give' it expression. 
 As a subordinate in the intellectual world, 
 others must give direction to her life, nor will 
 she feel competent to sit in judgment on the 
 character of their doings. Nothing less than 
 equality of mental culture can either effect her 
 disenthralment or secure the possession of her 
 rights, if by any foreign agency they could be 
 restored to her. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 REFINEMENT OF MANNERS. 
 
 I HAVE intimated, in a former chapter, how 
 much female virtue depends upon refined moral 
 feelings. That coarseness which amounts to 
 the slightest indelicacy is hazardous, because it 
 proclaims to others a deficiency of virtue, and 
 also because it originates in a depraved or de- 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 119 
 
 fective condition of the moral principle. I shall 
 not repeat what has already been advanced un- 
 der this head, but endeavor to show the con- 
 nection between inteUeotual cultivation and the 
 refinement in question. 
 
 The cultivation of the mind has ever been 
 the chief source of social improvement. And 
 in this respect, What has been, must ever be, 
 for it is impossible to wisely observe laws of 
 which we are entirely ignorant. Education is 
 but an increase of knowledge, and this knowl- 
 edge, so far as it relates to character, is directly 
 calculated to enforce obedience to the rules of 
 virtue. There is something ennobling and 
 purifying in knowledge ; its effect in this par- 
 ticular has always been remarked by the dis- 
 cerning, but the secret of its influence is un- 
 known to many. With them it is a matter of 
 astonishment that the ignorant should be so 
 reckless. And yet, what else ought we to ex- 
 pect ? It is even wonderful that unenlight- 
 ened minds are not more reckless and guilty 
 than they are. A man who walks in the dark 
 can scarcely avoid stumbling; it would be al- 
 most a miracle if he should meet with no ob- 
 
120 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 struction. The same is true of the benighted 
 mind : — its preservation from vice can scarcely 
 be expected. As knowledge is thus important 
 to the very rudiments of virtue, so also is it in- 
 dispensable to that higher degree of moral ex- 
 cellence which I designate by the term refine- 
 ment. 
 
 Manners are the index of character, and 
 where we see no propriety in the one, we are 
 authorized to conclude there is no virtue in the 
 other. By educating woman, we impart to her 
 a full knowledge of her own relations to the 
 world. She is thenceforth able to adapt her- 
 self to whatever circumstances may surround 
 her. And if she is honest at heart, her course 
 will be one of suspioionless virtue. Knowing 
 precisely what responsibilities she bears, and to 
 what temptations she is exposed, all ensnare- 
 ment is prevented, except by her own full con- 
 sent. It is not given to mortals to have a 
 virtue that needs no guarding, and a knowl- 
 edge of this fact will inspire her with unceasing 
 vigilance. 
 
 The vast influence of knowledge upon char- 
 acter, is seldom fully estimated. It not only 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 121 
 
 imparts the essential elements of virtue, but 
 those heightened and finished forms which we 
 are accustomed to admire in the most celebrated 
 worthies. If they excelled in deeds of renown, 
 it was through a more perfect comprehension 
 of things — some deeper insight, some weightier 
 reason determined their course, and made their 
 conduct conspicuous. Had it not been for this 
 revealing of what is unperceived by the masses, 
 they would have remained undistinguished, 
 however blessed with capacity. Now it is this 
 clear perception that elevates woman above 
 the vices to which she is exposed, and blends in 
 her life all the charms of modesty and prudence. 
 The virtues and graces belong to her naturally, 
 to a certain extent, but in civilized, and espe- 
 cially in christianized society, they require to be 
 greatly improved. Science and religion have 
 displayed the reason of things more fully than 
 is known by merely following the impulses of 
 nature. By the light thus reflected upon hei 
 mind, the female comprehends at a glance all 
 the proprieties of life ; she sees her place so 
 clearly as never innocently to mistake. 
 
 As the culture of the mind goes on, the 
 
122 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 roughness and the carelessness peculiar to the 
 uneducated disappear amid the growing evi- 
 dences of intelligent perception. The character 
 soon acquires such abundant materials of self- 
 respect, and of honorable gratification, as to lose 
 all relish for the low pleasures of vice. Con- 
 science also asserts its authority, and what the 
 senses might not have withstood, the moral 
 faculty unhesitatingly rejects. In a word, if 
 Woman is eminently pure, it will be the eifeot 
 of an equal and a skillful cultivation of all her 
 powers ; the various elements of her being must 
 be profoundly stirred, in order to distinguished 
 excellence. The use of education is to give 
 this intensity and compass to human powers, 
 and still preserve their characteristic delicacy^ 
 In place of vague desire, and gloomy uncer- 
 tainty, is substituted a true knowledge of 
 things. Hence, mere instinctive yearnings are 
 veiled with salutary manners, as the form of 
 the body is with clothes. Neither the ravings 
 of fanaticism, nor the stupidity of ignorance, are 
 compatible with the harmonious and vigorous 
 action of intelligent beings. It has always 
 been observed that learning abates disordered 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 123 
 
 action, and it is equally true that it removes 
 inaction — it stimulates the active powers, while 
 at the same time it controls them. 
 
 Female indelicacy is a thing not to be en- 
 dured. We expect in woman a tenderness and 
 a susceptibility of feeling which, require no 
 special prompting. If she is not discreet and 
 inflexible, we turn from her with disgust. But 
 it is asking too much, when we exact of her 
 so severely, without first having given her 
 ample opportunities for correctly appreciating 
 her obligations. An enlightened mind would 
 enable her very naturally to meet every reason- 
 able expectation ; she would comprehend more 
 clearly than others, the limits and the reasons 
 of at least her own virtue. I do not mean to 
 assert that there can be no virtue whera there 
 is no education, taking this latter term in its 
 ordinary acceptation. Strictly considered, all 
 persons have education, and in many respects 
 the education obtained out of the schools is by 
 far the most valuable. For instance, the early 
 training of a daughter by a mother may do 
 more to form her character than can be done 
 by literature ; and yet, in the now generally ed- 
 
124 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 uoated condition of society, the woman who 
 has no other than this domestic instruction, is 
 in danger of ruin. The first and most impor- 
 tant lessons have been imparted, but for want 
 of the rest she must appear to great disadvan- 
 tage, and may finally be circumvented by the 
 destroyer. Nor do we advocate literary educa- 
 tion as a substitute for different attainments, 
 whether made at an earlier or a later period. 
 It cannot supply the body of morality, though 
 it can give to that body greater efficiency, as 
 well as greater security. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 DOCILITY. 
 
 None are so ready to learn as the most 
 learned. This arises, both from the habit of 
 learning which has been formed by long study, 
 and from a knowledge of the possibility of im- 
 provement. As we advance from truth to truth, 
 there arises a love of knowledge, and to such 
 persons further advancement is always gratify- 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 125 
 
 ing. The acquisition of knowledge thus be- 
 comes a passion, and the indulgence of this 
 passion has led to all those extended collections 
 of truths, which we denominate science. This 
 love of knowledge is a sure indication, as well as 
 an essential condition, of mental proficiency. 
 No woman is capable of effecting the highest 
 purposes of her being, unless deeply imbued 
 with the love of science. Under its inspiration 
 she is prepared fearlessly to grapple with every 
 difficulty in the way of improvement, and wil- 
 lingly offers herself a sacrifice for the general 
 good. No principles, no truths necessary to 
 human happiness, can be overlooked by her phil- 
 anthropic zeal. She is fitted to be the cham- 
 pion of her own sex, instead of being the meek 
 protege of her lord — man. Woman would be 
 equal to the renovation of her character and cir- 
 cumstances, if the spell which has hitherto been 
 upon her powers could only be broken. 
 
 Not to insist upon possible advantages that 
 might arise were females to take a stand in 
 proportion to their capacity, I proceed to notice 
 a painful, but scarcely blamable trait of un- 
 educated mind. Ignorant people, to use an ex- 
 
126 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 pressive colloquial phrase, are very much set in 
 their way. They exhibit, on many occasions, a 
 want of docility not easily accounted for, and 
 very troublesome to such as have been blessed 
 with better opportunities. No degree of learning 
 will be likely wholly to extirpate this reluctance 
 to the admission of facts contrary to received 
 opinions; nor is it desirable, for, like the fear 
 of death, it exerts a restraining influence which 
 keeps the mind in its proper sphere, and thus 
 prevents the waste of its powers. If ladies 
 never had to do with persons and things requir- 
 ing deep knowledge, this backwardness to be 
 taught would be less detrimental to themselves 
 and to others. But when in the course of life 
 they are connected with those who Ifnow more 
 than themselves, and whose best interests are 
 identified with strict attention to the principles 
 of science, then it is that this reluctance dis- 
 qualifies them for their station. It is then that 
 the husband pities his wife, and laments for 
 himself. To correct the evil is perhaps beyond 
 his power, and there remains to him only the 
 endurance, for the balance of life, of the evils 
 of ignorance inflicted on him by one who, least 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 127 
 
 of all, could consciously injure him. " What 
 communion has light with darkness ?" Where 
 the husband has been equally negle-cted, no such 
 inconvenience will be felt, and mutual igno- 
 rance may be regarded as a blessing. A little 
 foresight would enable the flaunting belle to 
 see the awkwardness of her position. Let her 
 be placed in alliance with a man of science, and 
 she must either submit to be catechized on dis- 
 puted points, or endure the mortification of an 
 obstinate attachment to principles which she is 
 not able to defend. Were it possible for her to 
 feel the need of such instruction, she is too con- 
 scious that the most suitable time for its ac- 
 quisition is past, and a paroxysm of ill-nature 
 usually follows convictions of ignorance after 
 marriage. 
 
 Never can the domestic circle be what it 
 should be, never can females share in the high 
 intellectual aspirations for which their minds, 
 no less than those of the other sex, are fitted, 
 till by actual cultivation the desire of improve- 
 ment becomes paramount. When this change 
 occurs — and occur it must, whenever the 
 powers of the mind are fully brought into exer- 
 
128 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 cise — they will be as ready to receive instruc- 
 tion as others'; nor will they fail to glean from 
 every "available source thosfe lessons of wisdom 
 which are so eagerly sought by all those who 
 have once tasted the sweets of knowledge. 
 
 ^ SECTION IX. 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Much depends upon the estimate people form 
 of themselves,, and where there is an admitted 
 incapacity of a consciousness of inferiority in 
 att4inments, we shall look in vain for indepen- 
 dence of character. Such persons live by suf- 
 ferance, and having long been suffered to live, 
 they at last come to bow obsequiously to every 
 degree of oppression ; thankful for what they re- 
 .ceive, and shamefully regardless of their origiiial 
 rights. This has long been the condition of 
 ■w^man. Scanted in her education till even the 
 love of science is obliterated, she has entered 
 upon the active stage? of life as a passive thing, 
 to 'be dealt with as ciueumstances might deter- 
 
INTELLECTUAL* EDUCATION. 129 
 
 mine, and not as propriety might require. With 
 no felt abiUty to shape her own destiny, and too 
 reverent towards established usages to think of 
 calling irf question their correctness, she has 
 been outraged at every point, and yet without' 
 complaint. It was what she expected, if she 
 expected anything, for it was what had been 
 sedulously inculcated. She was not to think 
 of possessing and exercising the attribute of 
 an independent, mind. Submission has thus 
 far been the highest principle of female educa- 
 tion. And it is the only principle which can 
 consist with that half-enslaved condition to 
 which the customs of society have reduced the 
 sex. 
 
 Educated beings cannot be moulded at will ; 
 every right would not be tamely relinquished 
 if 'a large amount of passivity did not preclude, 
 all resistance. The spoiler is supplied with 
 material, the nature of which he well under- 
 stands. Woman is delivered to his clutches,, 
 not with the least ejcpectation that she will 
 assert a positive existence and stand aloof from 
 ruin ; to her; acquiescence is the acme of attain- 
 ments. True, there is an utter prostration of 
 
130 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 moral character to which she could not submit 
 with public approbation ; but this last step is 
 often the least criminal. The barriers of virtue 
 are broken down, long antecedent to»the final 
 destruction of character.* Here is the secret of 
 her repeated and irrevocable misfortunes. She 
 resists, but not till resistance can do no good. 
 The previous acts of compliance had all been 
 performed under the direction of authority, and 
 their performance had secured perhaps applause ; 
 the last sad step, however, is only one more in 
 the same direction, and should by no means be 
 considered more guilty than those which pre- 
 ceded it. 
 
 By duly educating ladies we give them at 
 least an equal chance of virtue. They are not 
 blinded and left to be the prey of such as have 
 eyes. Added to this, is the enhanced pleasure 
 flowing from intelligent companionship. The 
 lacquey, the parasite, and the imbecile, are al- 
 ways disgusting. It is impossible to make 
 woman such a helpmeet as she ought to be, un- 
 less we raise her above the necessity of mean 
 compliance. Her amiability depends in no 
 small degree on the idea of unsullied purity, 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 131 
 
 but unsullied purity cannot be allied to abject 
 dependence. It becomes necessary, therefore, to^ 
 educate the female mind, if we would shield it 
 from contempt. 
 
 How important independence is to the pur- 
 suits of life, all know who have any acquaint- 
 ance with the degraded classes of society. We 
 have already shown (Section I. of this chapter,) 
 the advantage which the educated have over 
 the uneducated. Illustrative cases are numer- 
 ous enough if they were needed. I will adduce 
 but one : the mechanic who understands his 
 trade can certainly excel one who either has no 
 knowledge of the business or is only super- 
 ficially acquainted with it. Such is the condi- 
 tion of woman, destitute of education. Others 
 have a knowledge that she has not, and there- 
 fore excel her — she falls into the class of ser- 
 vants, simply for the want of knowledge to 
 qualify her for a higher station. Had she the 
 independence arising from intellectual equality, 
 her degradation would be voluntary, if at all, 
 and not, as now, constrained. 
 
132 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 NEW SQ,URCES OF EMPLOTMEKT. 
 
 At the present day, the sphere of female in- 
 dustry is so contracted that many are reduced 
 to helptess indigtenee, and all are subjected to 
 mortifying dependence. This precariousness 
 of livelihood is common to a certain class of in- 
 dividuals, whether male or female, in every state 
 of society ; there are always some who cannot 
 live, not because there is no chance to live, but 
 simply and solely because they are devoid of 
 economy. But the misfortune, if such it be, in 
 relation to these persons, is not attributable to a 
 bad system of domestic policy ; it is the result 
 of their own defective habits, for which society 
 at large is not to blame, and which it has no 
 means of preventing. No one need confound 
 the poverty now mentioned with that which re- 
 sults purely from inadequate opportunities to 
 acquire a living. In the one instance, the fault 
 is natural; in the other, it is to be ascribed to 
 conventional usage. It has not been the custom 
 to allow women any of the lucrative employ- 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 133 
 
 ments of life. A menial office and a menial 
 compensation have circumscribed her activities. 
 Wealth is therefore out of the question, so far 
 as female industry is concerned. Such a thing 
 as a lady becoming rich by her own toil and 
 skill is unprecedented ; it is what no one ex- 
 pects, or ought to expect, under present circum- 
 stances. It is quite sufficient if a woman avoid 
 abject poverty. With no wages, in most in- 
 stances, beyond a few s1:illings per week, it is 
 scarcely possible for her to do more than Jive, 
 and too often she cannot do even that. 
 
 This oppression extends to all the race — it is 
 not the degraded and the uneducated akne 
 who are thus cut off from the means of sup- 
 port. A caste has been formed, and no female 
 may exceed the limits prescribed, but under 
 penalty of the public's high displeasure. To 
 submit is ruin ; not to submit is greater ruin. 
 Now the unjust relations of social life, which, 
 in this and other instances, bear so dispropor- 
 tionate]^ heavy upon the weaker sex, are not 
 to be corrected without education. If we en- 
 lighten the mind till it appreciates its own 
 powers and discovers its relation to surrounding 
 
134 YOUNG LADV'S BOOK. 
 
 objects, we need do little more to ensure the 
 desired emancipation. 
 
 By equal education, woman will be fitted for 
 equal pecuniary efforts. The professions, the 
 arts, the business of the world, will, in a very 
 considerable degree, open themselves to her, and 
 she may share, with her brother, the opportuni- 
 ties for gain which have hitherto been monopo- 
 lized by him, but which, from the weakness of 
 her physical system, she otilght at least to be 
 permitted to share, It is necessary that she 
 should have the usual jnotives to activity, or 
 in other words, that her learning, when once 
 acquired, should--meet a pre-existing demand. 
 We never can euuoate woman till something is 
 to be gained by education. There must be 
 places open to her, for which she can only be 
 fitted by education, or one of the strongest in- 
 ducements to stady is taken away. If in igno- 
 rance she can answer all the purposes of her 
 being, and all the demands of society, it is not 
 probable tfiat she will ordinarily take pains to 
 cultivate her mind. This fuller and more gen- 
 erous participation in the business of life is ab- 
 solutely essential to proficiency, except in those 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 135 
 
 rare oases where genius supersedes? both the 
 usual motives and the usual means. 
 
 I may further say that the slightest respect 
 for females would dictate the propriety of ac- 
 cording to them a full proportion of oppor- 
 tunities for gaining a support.^ Our social 
 manners must be very superficial indeed, if 
 they can carry us no farther than merely com- 
 plimentary politeness. "We give precedence to 
 ladies on all occasions of ceremony, and this is 
 well, for they are entitled to such distinction, 
 because they are less able to endure hardships. 
 Were they physically equal to man, his kind 
 offices would be superfluous. But as we take 
 them under our supervision, and make them 
 the object of ceremonial condescension, it is 
 strangely absurd in us to oppress them in mat- 
 ters of more consequence. It is right to give 
 the ladies the first place where nothing but 
 form is concerned, and yet how dastardly to 
 do this, and at the same time reduce them to 
 virtual slavery, by excluding them from all the 
 lucrative positions in society ! We give them 
 the best seats at church on Sunday, but bru- 
 tally turn them off to starve at some thriftless 
 
136 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 employment during the week. Magnanimity 
 would suggest that they should be allowed at 
 least to compete for a living — if courtesy must 
 end in empty form, let there be no essential 
 unlcindness. 
 
 In the mean time education will enable them 
 to do for themselves. Whatever advantages 
 learning gives to one sex, it will give to the 
 other also. Make the intellectual condition of 
 women such as it ought to be, and this of 
 itself will restore an equilibrium to the prac- 
 tical movement, now so greatly deranged. In 
 what, or how far they would be affected by 
 such a change, we are unable to say ; and there 
 is little need of determining, since the matter 
 may be safely left to its own direction. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 CONTENTMES'T, 
 
 Education not only regulates the desires, and 
 represses fondness for display, but it reconciles 
 those who have it to their lot in life. As the 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 137 
 
 station of females in society is subordinate in 
 some respects, they are under peculiar tempta- 
 tions to a species of murmuring. When the 
 cares of a family or reverses of fortune give in- 
 creased weight to their trials, this spirit of com- 
 plaining is often seriously troublesome. Nothing 
 short of improving both the mind and the heart 
 can remedy the evil. Let the female see things 
 as they are, let her survey the world somewhat 
 at large, instead of revolving the contracted 
 notions of a mind chained down by ignorance, 
 and she will support herself under trials with 
 all the dignity of intelligence and virtue. It is 
 the province of woman to soothe afflictions, but 
 how can she be a minister of consolation to 
 others, if the equanimity of her own mind is 
 disturbed ? Knowledge gives importance to 
 things that ignorance sees, if it sees them at 
 all, as unimportant. The reason of much of 
 the dissatisfaction which people manifest with 
 their respective positions or employments, is no 
 other than an idea that they are living below 
 their privileges. They seem to think -their 
 present station not the one for which they 
 were made. But a correct knowledge of the 
 
138 YOUNG IiADY'3 BOOK. 
 
 relations of life dissipates all uneasiness, by 
 showing that what we deemed as inferior is just 
 as essential as what we called great. All dis- 
 content must vanish in the presence of light, 
 or stand convicted of impiety. Our places have 
 been assigned by an unerring hand, and to 
 leave them, were it possible, would be no less 
 ruinous than foolish. 
 
 " What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, 
 Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head 2 
 What if the head, the eye, or ear, repined 
 To serve mere engines to tlie ruling mind ! 
 Just as absurd for any part to claim 
 To be another in this general frame ; 
 Just as ahsm-d to mourn the task or pains 
 The great directing Mind of all ordains." * 
 
 We shall never find woman contented with 
 her lot in life till she takes this comprehensive 
 view of her position, and of the wisdom that 
 ordained it. She will think the duties of her 
 sphere are not the duties most useful, because 
 they are not the most striking. She will sigh 
 for romantic labors, and pine for more ennobling 
 and chivalrous enterprises. Life's dull monot- 
 * Essay on Man, b. iv. 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 139 
 
 ony will be an insupportable burden to such 
 ignorant sentimentalism. If she does not ut- 
 terly refuse all participation in the plain, unvar- 
 nished toils of ordinary life, her submission to 
 such duties will be marked by reluctance, as 
 if there was something unnecessarily oppres- 
 sive in them. Here is undeniably the cause 
 of numerous evils inflicted on society. The 
 rage for dissipation, the reckless extravagance, 
 the eagerness for change, and the aspiration for 
 superficial acquirements and distinctions, so 
 characteristic of many, are but indications of 
 an impatience peculiar to ignorance. An ac- 
 quaintance with profounder truths would allay 
 this solicitude, without subtracting anything 
 from the delicacy of the female character, or 
 diminishing in the least what is necessary by 
 way of accomplishments. It would induce a 
 graceful submission to the order of nature and 
 of Providence, it would remove the idea of 
 vassalage, and make duties, hitherto deemed 
 insignificant, appear in all their intrinsic great- 
 ness. Instead of longings for an unnatural and 
 impracticable career, there would be a cheerful 
 
140 tOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 acquiescence in the course evidently assigned 
 by the Creator. 
 
 This deep, philosophical, and truly religious 
 estimate of her condition cannot be made by 
 the female mind in an uncultivated state. Ed- 
 ucation must shed its light upon the facts which 
 concern her, before she can appreciate them. 
 Every human heart has its promptings to 
 greatness ; there is a latent, if not a visible, 
 passion for the heroic. The mind of woman is 
 no exception here. She has, and ought to have, 
 a holy ambition to rise. We cannot deprive 
 her of this all-important element of mind — aspire 
 she will, as long as her nature is human. Our 
 object is, then, to regulate, without in any meas- 
 ure repressing, this legitimate desire of im- 
 provement. Few are so ignorant as not to 
 know how vital this desire is to the best hopes 
 of the race. But for a restless and often unde- 
 finable anxiety to be what we are not, we 
 should soon relinquish all attempts to better 
 our condition. Religion does but control this 
 native impulse ; it acts with even greater force 
 under the guidance of religious truth. To the 
 female must be furnished the means of consist- 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 141 
 
 ent gratification ; the passion for excellence is 
 a part of her being which cannot be eradicated, 
 nor can its demands be safely disregarded. Mis- 
 guidance produces that prostitution of the facul- 
 ties — that waste of noble powers upon triviali- 
 ties, vices, or fancies — to which we have just 
 referred. By neglect, we compel the instinctive 
 movements of the soul to take a wrong direction, 
 and thus become a curse instead of a blessing. 
 The duties of woman may and ought to ap- 
 pear noble to her, and though shut out from 
 what constitutes the most attractive and exci- 
 ting pursuits of the other sex, she need have no 
 cause to regret her fate. In moral and intel- 
 lectual enterprises — the grandest possible to 
 mankind — she has equal privileges, and may 
 compete freely with the most gifted. She is 
 reserved to higher honors and to more impor- 
 tant conflicts than those of " the ensanguined 
 plain." On this subject, the following lines 
 from Dr. Young are quite to the point. They 
 occur in " Resignation," a poem addressed to 
 the widow of Admiral Boscawen : — 
 
 " Nor, Madam 1 be surprised to hear, 
 That laurels may be due 
 
142 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 Not more to heroes of the field 
 (Proud boasters !) than to you. 
 
 Tender as is the female frame, 
 
 Like that brave man you mourn, 
 Ton are a soldier, and to fight 
 
 Superior battles bora 
 
 Beneath a banner nobler fax 
 
 Than ever was unfurled 
 In fields of blood ; a banner bright 1 
 
 High-waved o'er aU the world ; 
 
 It, like a streaming meteor, casts 
 
 An «iniversal light ; 
 Sheds day, sheds more, eternal day, 
 
 On nations whelmed in night. 
 
 The billows stained by slaughtered foea 
 
 Inferior praise afford ; 
 Eeason 's a bloodless conqueror 
 
 More glorious than the sword. 
 
 ITor can the thunder of huzzas 
 
 From shouting nations, cause 
 Such sweet delight, as from your heart 
 
 Soft whispers of applause." 
 
 Woman may freely engage in all the truly 
 glorious conflicts of the age. The gospel de- 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 143 
 
 volves upon her a full share in the highest re- 
 formatory movement that ever invited human 
 exertion. Here is ample scope for the employ- 
 ment of her powers, whatever may be their rel- 
 ative grade or peculiarities. And it is not 
 possible that she should feel herself degraded by 
 the part assigned in this holiest and noblest of 
 works. 
 
 As for those who suppose that marriage is to 
 introduce them to an earthly paradise, in which 
 there shall be unalloyed bliss, or who look down 
 contemptuously upon the duties of their station, 
 they are the victims of an imbecility induced 
 by much more than common ignorance. Na- 
 ture, without literary education, should suffice 
 to correct so gross an error. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 INSTITUTIONS FOR FEMALE EDUCATION 
 
 It must be set down as a fact, much to the 
 discredit of our age, that female education has 
 hitherto been conducted in a very unequal 
 
144 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 manner. It has not been commensurate with 
 the wants of the female mind, nor with that 
 standard of cultivation deemed necessary for 
 males. We need be at no loss for the cause 
 of this strange discrimination. On woman has 
 fallen the reproach of inferiority, and she is 
 fated to struggle with an almost predestinated 
 degrada^n. Even christian men seem scarcely 
 to admit that she can ever rise to equality. 
 They too often forget that in the world to come, 
 human beings are to be " as the angels of God," 
 and that all sexual distinctions are to end with 
 this life. Hence, in the institutions to which 
 Christianity has given rise, there is as yet no suf- 
 ficient effort to raise the female character. We 
 have done something — the genius of the gospel is 
 too powerfully equalizing to allow of woman's 
 remaining in the abject condition peculiar to 
 paganism ; but we have not extended to her 
 the care which her high destiny, as indicated by 
 Christianity, demands. 
 
 Our colleges are exclusive. We have latterly, 
 it is true, originated female colleges ; but this, 
 besides being no adequate provision, is pain- 
 fully significant of the general sentiment — that 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 145 
 
 females are unfitted to share the usual collegiate 
 advantages. If there is a common want and a 
 common fitness for education, why exclude them 
 from the common opportunities ? Nothing of 
 the kind occurs in our primary schools or acade- 
 mies, and it is therefore fair to infer that their 
 exclusion from colleges has its origin in an im- 
 pression that such advantages are unsuitable. 
 That the mingling of male and female in these 
 higher institutions would be more unsafe than 
 it is in schools of a lower grade, no one will pre- 
 tend, unless influenced by preconceived opinion. 
 Prejudice would no doubt say that such an ar- 
 rangement must be disastrous ; but let it be re- 
 collected that this same prejudice, not long since, 
 thought all education dangerous to the masses. 
 Experience has shown the folly of such narrow 
 views, and experience will ultimately show the 
 folly of our present course. 
 
 At least it is absurd to pursue this monastic 
 system of education ; and where the advantages 
 are all reserved for one sex, the evil is worse 
 than popish superstition ; for that erred only in 
 separating the sexes, and not in an unequal dis- 
 tribution of privileges. If we do not wish to 
 
146 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 refine upon popish cruelty, we shall immedi- 
 ately throw open our colleges to females. From 
 the common school to the University, there must 
 be the same unrestricted freedom of access, and 
 the same cordial endeavor to facilitate the high- 
 est possible improvement. At present, no female 
 school has any state patronage. All efforts for 
 their collegiate edacation have been sustained 
 by private munificence, while colleges for men 
 have always been, to greater or less extent, en- 
 dowed by the state. This is mentioned, not as 
 a matter of complaint — for private liberality is 
 able to effect whatever is deemed indispensable 
 — but to show the exceedingly lax principles 
 which have prevailed on this subject. The 
 applications for aid to literary institutions have 
 been numerous and urgent; yet not a dollar 
 have the representatives of the people voted to 
 sustain any female institution. Thousands, and 
 even millions, have been generously bestowed 
 for the benefit of our sons, but nothing for our 
 daughters. Such is the treatment inflicted 
 by chivalrous men on the beings whose best in- 
 terests are confided to their generosity. The 
 man who would stand up all day to afford a 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 147 
 
 lady a seat, or who would hazard his life in a 
 moment to afford her protection, is thus un- 
 wittingly made the instrument of her ruin. It 
 is time for legislation to assume a different 
 aspect. This old, one-sided, exclusive method 
 of providing for humanity, should give place to 
 a more enlightened policy. The rights of woman 
 are not a theme for derision. Those who sneer 
 at this subject, or who introduce parsimonious 
 advantages as the full measure of woman's 
 claims, are themselves most derisively em- 
 ployed. They are vainly endeavoring to cir- 
 cumscribe the ample designs of Heaven within 
 the contracted precincts of their own benighted 
 prejudices. They might as well spend their 
 strength in reviving the subtle dialectics of the 
 schoolmen, or weary themselves with the wild 
 schemes of the alchemists. An age of light has 
 arrived, and our educational movements must 
 be amended by the light, or deservedly sink into 
 contempt. A blind, infatuated adherence to the 
 past, can only produce disgust, and end in the 
 loss of all confidence in our social institutions. 
 Should our colleges be made accessible to 
 ladies, this single arrangement would at once 
 
 10 
 
148 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 bring things to their true position. The balance, 
 now destroyed, would be restored, and all other 
 intellectual privileges follow as a matter of 
 course. That odious caste, which has blighted 
 every attempt at development, would vanish in the 
 absence of frowning, disproportionate legislation. 
 Take away the barriers which custom, rather 
 than law, has thrown before the progress of 
 reform, and woman will no more be reproached 
 as an imbecile, nor as one that chooses to waste 
 her powers in frivolous pursuits. 
 
 A new period has arrived, in which the rights 
 of mankind are no longer viewed as a matter . 
 of speculation. The element of -humanity gives 
 other privileges as well as the right to life. We 
 have in former years made scarcely any other 
 difference between some portions of the human 
 race and the brutes, than this, of barely protect- 
 ing their lives in some degree. Brutes are left 
 to be slaughtered at the owner's option, but even 
 among slaveholders, man, though a mere chattel 
 — as much so as an ox or a horse — is not to be 
 killed with impunity. The right to life is 
 recognized. The claim which thus survives 
 amid the lowest degradation, is founded in the 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 149 
 
 nature of man, and must, in a well-regulated 
 community, draw after it every other privilege 
 belonging to the race. The advance of female 
 education is, therefore, only an eifeot of that 
 general intellectual progress which characterizes 
 the present age. Were we more ignorant, the 
 rights of woman would be thrown back in pro- 
 portion to that ignorance, as physical force al- 
 ways preponderates in the absence of knowl- 
 edge. Among barbarians, women are treated 
 as human, because they are indispensable ; but 
 among the enlightened, they are treated as 
 equals, because they are human. Humanity 
 gives an indefeasible title to all the blessings 
 of humanity. It is arrogant, it is unjust, to 
 claim more than an equal share of these bless- 
 ings, especially so, to monopolize them until 
 one class — and that the weaker one physically 
 — ^is reduced to the single common privilege of 
 dying a natural death. Education, however 
 extensive, is the right of all, and of one as much 
 as of another. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 This part of our subject is comprised in two 
 general divisions : first, the development of the 
 physical system and the preservation of health ; 
 secondly, the restoration of health or the cure of 
 disease. But the two departments are so inter- 
 woven with each other, that we shall not at- 
 tempt to discuss them separately. The pur- 
 pose which we have in view will be best served 
 by surveying some of the relations of- woman, 
 and the demand created by those relations for 
 the comprehensive physical education now 
 specified. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 ■WOMAN A PHYSICAL BEING. 
 Woman has a physical nature, and it would 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 151 
 
 be strange if the laws of physical nature did 
 not prevail over her. She is not the sylph-like 
 thing so commonly imagined, but a veritable 
 creature of flesh and blood, having all the wants 
 and all the weaknesses peculiar to the male 
 part of our species. Fancy may paint her as 
 an angel, partaking more of the spiritual than 
 of the material ; education may treat her as a 
 plaything destined to no share in the sober re- 
 alities of life ; and her own inexperienced imagin- 
 ation — rendered half delirious by flattery — ^may 
 confirm the delusion for a time, yet must the 
 course of things very soon dispel all such false 
 notions. Provision should therefore be made for 
 the actual necessities of one who cannot, in obe- 
 dience to the perverted notions of brainless ad- 
 mirers, or mistaken educators, quite change the 
 condition of her existence. 
 
 One of the first duties of every human being 
 is, to secure, as far as practicable, the health of 
 the body. Disease is next door to death. With- 
 out health, almost every avenue to happiness is 
 closed ; life is rendered a scene of inactivity 
 and suffering, without the power to do good or 
 to enjoy the gifts of providence. We do not 
 
 '■^# 
 
152 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK, 
 
 pretend that a knowledge of the physical system 
 would invariably banish all bodily ailments. 
 There is no need of extravagance in our ex- 
 pectations at this point, as the real, though 
 limited advantages of such knowledge are not 
 only too well known to admit of dispute, but 
 too obvious to be misapprehended. 
 
 By the study of physiology, females will se- 
 cure to themselves the ability to judge correctly 
 of their own wants. Instead of pursuing a 
 course destructive to health, they will be aware 
 of the tendency of what is injurious, and aban- 
 don it without the need of instruction or en- 
 treaty. It may be thought by some that fashion 
 prevails over the better judgment, in cases where 
 health is sacrificed by an obvious neglect of the 
 laws of our physical existence ; but I am of the 
 opinion that fashion has comparatively little to 
 do with this alarming waste of life, and that it 
 is an evil arising from an unfurnished state of 
 mind, or from ignorance of natural science. 
 One custom which prevails among females de- 
 monstrates their ignorance of physiology. Al- 
 lusion is had, of course, to tight-lacing. The 
 small waists of America, and the small feet of 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 153 
 
 China, have one common origin, in the profound 
 depths of ignorance. The difference is merely 
 a matter of taste. My remarks are excusatory 
 rather than criminative ; hence no attempt 
 will be made to declaim against the absurdities 
 of this practice. The reference is one of illus- 
 tration solely ; for I am convinced that mention 
 of this vice for any other purpose tends to make 
 matters worse, instead of better. Physicians 
 and philanthropists may expatiate on the mad- 
 ness of this suicidal custom — may demonstrate 
 that its inseparable attendants are pain and 
 death ; but all to no purpose. Ignorance for- 
 bids that they should know these things. And 
 until the laws of the human mind are changed, 
 it must be so ; for the bare ipse dixit, even of 
 love and knowledge, cannot be received. The 
 wisdom of medical and other advisers may not 
 be doubted ; their kind intentions certainly not ; 
 but the subjects of this advice fail to trace the 
 concatenation of facts on which such conclusions 
 rest. Hence they have only the force of ab- 
 stractions, supported merely by authority, and 
 are deservedly rejected from among the num- 
 ber of governing principles. But let the sub- 
 
154 roUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 jeot of an unnatural compression of the chest, 
 come up free from this embarrassment, and we 
 shall find the female intellect, in all ordinary- 
 instances, yielding a hearty and prompt obedi- 
 ence to the dictates of science. To the cul- 
 tured mind the facts appear in their own de- 
 monstrative character, and all persuasion is ren- 
 dered unnecessary by the irresistible force of 
 truth itself. Providence has happily made the 
 instinct of self-preservation strong enough to 
 repel a danger so obvious and inexcusable. 
 
 It is with some regret that we find Mrs. 
 Phelps, from whom we have quoted with ap- 
 probation in a former chapter, endeavoring to 
 extenuate the guilt of this abominable practice. 
 " It is popular," says she, " to rail against cor- 
 sets ; all the evils which arise from neglect of 
 physical education and too great excitement of 
 the brain, and from the prevailing bad habits 
 which fashion and refinement have introduced, 
 all are attributed to that dreadful instrument 
 of torture, the corset. It is true that many 
 have suffered from the improper use of corsets ; 
 it is also true that many houses have been 
 burnt through the use of fire ; but in the first 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 155 
 
 case, the evil must be voluntary and self-in- 
 flicted, — in the second, it may occur wrholly by 
 accident; therefore all the arguments, with 
 additional ones, may be urged against the use 
 of fire in our dwellings, which may be brought 
 to bear against corsets."* 
 
 Such reasoning is too fallacious to require an 
 answer. The very terms of the argument are 
 an absurdity ; we cannot talk of the abuse of 
 abuse. Lacing, whether tight or otherwise, 
 is a palpable violation of the laws of health, 
 and must so be regarded by all who are ac- 
 quainted with the structure of the human body. 
 As a physiological fact, it is none too strongly 
 characterized in the following extract from a 
 distinguished physician of the present day : 
 " Will the reader believe that the barbarous 
 corset, that instrument of cruelty and ignorance 
 that would put a flathead Indian to the blush, 
 is sometimes applied to children of eight years, 
 by American mothers ? Alas ! it is too true, 
 and the law for preventing cruelty to animals 
 is not enforced." t 
 
 » The Female Student, p. 89. 
 
 f Dr. E. H. Dixon, Diseasea of Sexual System, p. 239. 
 
156 , YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 Under the head of domestic management, a 
 long list of grievances might be enumerated. 
 The lady who has been brought up to compress 
 her waist, and who thinks it right to do so, 
 cannot be supposed to have a knowledge of 
 what is requisite for the clothes of the rest of 
 the family. The young and flexible child must 
 be shaped to its clothes. Stubborn, indeed, are 
 the laws of nature. But an expanded chest is 
 quite too vulgar : its ossifying frame- work 
 must therefore be taught to grow, not as God 
 would have it, but as capricious ignorance will 
 permit. Here, too, we usually blame the 
 woman, when she does but as she was taught. 
 She may be entitled to our pity, but scarcely 
 to our censure. What does she know of the 
 structure of the being she is modeling, or of the 
 operation of the vital functions of its body ? 
 Has she ever been schooled in facts of this 
 kind ? If not, the counsels of prudence will 
 have the appearance of dogmatism ; and folly 
 and cruelty will characterize the attempt to 
 induce practical attention to what, under other 
 circumstances, would have been cheerfully 
 obeyed for its own sake. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 157 
 
 The true remedy for evils of this kind lies in 
 a clear perception of the injuries necessarily in- 
 flicted on the physical system by such treat- 
 ment. The gentle and humane disposition of 
 •woman is wholly incapable of committing these 
 atrocities, unless under the delusion of igno- 
 rance. It behooves us, therefore, to insist upon 
 her being early and thoroughly imbued with 
 the principles of physiology, thus ensuring a 
 cheerful and voluntary rejection of practices 
 which custom has hitherto kept in vogue among 
 the ignorant, and among them only. 
 
 How far that moral obliquity common to our 
 nature may be chargeable, in particular cases, 
 with the guilt of corset- wearing, we do not pre- 
 sume to say ; but the almost total ignorance 
 of physiology, which so generally prevails among 
 females, sufficiently exculpates them, as a class, 
 from the imputation of intentional wrong. The 
 drunkard, having broken down his moral nature 
 and lost control of himself, may continue to 
 drink in spite of obvious ruin ; in such a case 
 appetite assumes the mastery, and the individ- 
 ual falls a prey to helplessness, superinduced 
 by his own folly. But people generally*^re 
 
158 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 not thus under the dominion of appetite, and 
 consequently cannot be induced to destroy them- 
 selves when the danger of a given course is 
 fully apparent. For the same reason, what- 
 ever a devotee of fashion may do by way of 
 conscious self-immolation on the altar of fashion, 
 or in other words, of physiological abuse, the 
 sober and uncorrupted portion of society will 
 take a better course. 
 
 These remarks relate mostly to a single evil ; 
 but woman, as a physical being, demands much 
 more than the limited knowledge which would 
 correct a solitary error. She wants that en- 
 larged acquaintance with the human system 
 which is necessary to its judicious manage- 
 ment under all the varied circumstances of 
 life. We might remove the corsets, without 
 enlightening the mind touching the other 
 claims of our physical nature, and we should 
 but lop off one of a thousand branches of this 
 Upas — ignorance ; so also, we might teach the 
 art of preserving health, and yet leave the in- 
 dividual to perish, for want of some knowledge 
 of the means of curing disease. Hence it is 
 most evident that females require nothing 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 159 
 
 short of an ample and extended knowledge of 
 the human system, whether that knowledge 
 relates to the preservation or the restoration 
 of health. They need physical education, and 
 that, too, in the most comprehensive meaning 
 of these terms. 
 
 It is not proposed to extend, to all females, 
 any more than to all males, a full knowledge 
 of medical science ; for however desirable such 
 attainments might be, if they had leisure to 
 secure them, it is certain that the majority of 
 both sexes must always be too much occupied 
 with other pursuits to afford time for those 
 minute details which belong properly to pro- 
 fessional life. All women may not be profes- 
 sional physicians, yet all should have at least 
 a general knowledge of medicine. " Females," 
 says Mrs. Phelps, " have much need of some 
 medical knowledge, both with reference to their 
 individual maladies, and the diseases of those 
 around them ; and though accustomed, as most 
 of you are, to be watched over and adminis- 
 tered unto, you can now have little conception 
 of the changes which will take place, yet the 
 time may soon arrive when it will become your 
 
160 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 turn to watoh and minister to others. Every 
 woman ought to understand the elements and 
 composition of the remedies provided for her, 
 or by her administered to others. Without a 
 knowledge of Chemistry she cannot be made 
 to comprehend this, but, with it, she holds a 
 Ijey that will unlock the mysteries with which 
 ignorant physicians have sought to envelope 
 the healing art."* 
 
 Dr. Alcott, well known as one of the ablest 
 and most useful writers of the age, treats this 
 subject very happily in his last work — " Let- 
 ters to a Sister," — just now from the press, 
 " In any event, I hope you will no longer hesi- 
 tate to make yourself acquainted with the 
 laws of your physical frame. By this I do 
 not mean, of course, that it is needful for you 
 to study Anatomy and Physiology with the 
 same earnestness, and to the same extent, 
 which is necessary for the physician and sur- 
 geon. All young women are not called to 
 practice medicine, like Miss Blackwell. But 
 a general knowledge of the subject is certainly 
 useful, and if you would fulfill your mission 
 * Lecturea to Young Ladies. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 161 
 
 in the best possible manner, quite indispensa- 
 ble. There is, however, a range of study 
 which comes short of this ; and yet answers, 
 very well, the purposes of young women. It 
 is what the French call Hygiene — and for 
 which we have no English name, in any one 
 word. It is a proper consideration of the 
 laws of relation. Anatomy teaches structure. 
 Physiology, laws ; but Hygiene, relations. 
 Thus man is related to air, temperature, food, 
 drink, and clothing ; and, by means of bones and 
 muscles, to the earth we tread on, &c. ; and 
 this relation involves certain conditions or laws 
 of relation. In pursuing this study, it will in- 
 deed be necessary to appeal to the laws of 
 Anatomy and Physiology, and consequently to 
 explain them occasionally. But it is not ne- 
 cessary, in the study of Hygiene, by young 
 women, to begin with Anatomy and Physiol- 
 ogy, any more than it is necessary to commit 
 to memory a long catalogue of dry grammar 
 or arithmetic rules, before we proceed to pars- 
 ing or ciphering. This study of Hygiene, I 
 recommend to you most, earnestly, not so much 
 because it is becoming fashionable, as because 
 
162 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 it is for your life — the life of the body and 
 the life of the soul."* 
 
 There are a great many considerations which 
 render the study of rriedioine by every indi- 
 vidual, and by females particularly, essential 
 to the happiness of society. Some of these 
 "we shall name : — 
 
 1. Medicine is just as much within the 
 reach of people generally as any other science 
 whatever. There is not a science taught in 
 our common schools that requires less intellec- 
 tual power. We do not mean by this that 
 medicine is inferior to other sciences, but 
 simply that it is not superior to them — on the 
 same level. Hence it is quite as available as 
 the common acquisitions of knowledge. 
 
 2. An almost total ignorance on this subject 
 having long pervaded the public mind, physi- 
 cians have had too much power over the lives 
 and morals of community. People have been 
 helpless, in consequence of their ignorance, and 
 in this helplessness, they have suffered greatly 
 by the encroachments of the medical profes- 
 sion. 
 
 * Letters to a Sister, p. 60. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 163 
 
 3. To the physician, medicine is only a 
 means of livelihood ; he has no interest in the 
 profession beyond its pecuniary advantages. 
 But the community have a vastly higher con- 
 cern in the results of medical practice. To 
 the physician, the practice of his art is a fee, 
 but to his patient, it is life or death. This dif- 
 ference is of itself quite sufficient to show how 
 greatly each person is interested in the science 
 of medicine, and how comparatively trifling 
 are mere professional interests. And yet 
 physicians have not unfrequently discouraged 
 the study of medicine by the populace ; they 
 have wrung many changes on the dangers of 
 quackery, and of tampering with medicine. 
 The true reason of such caution is, the craft 
 is in danger ; if medical knowledge were to 
 become common, the profits of practitioners 
 would cease, and certain pernicious, immoral 
 abuses would be corrected. The fear of ex- 
 posure has led to the cry of danger ; a wish 
 to perpetuate the helplessness of ignorance, in 
 order to secure an easier prey, has mainly if 
 not wholly induced the desire for darkness. 
 
 Doubtless many evils accrue from an injudi- 
 
 11 
 
164 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 oious use of medical knowledge, and those 
 who are superficial in such knowledge may be 
 peculiarly liable to inflict evils of this kind, 
 but there is not the slightest necessity for such 
 abuses. In every other branch of knowledge 
 there is the same liabihty to injury from 
 limited acquirements, and yet we are far from 
 discouraging partial study because the indi- 
 vidual has not an opportunity to push his in- 
 quiries to perfection. Although in some in- 
 stances 
 
 '' A little learning is a dangerous thing ;" 
 
 yet the evil is easily avoided, and the good is 
 very great. 
 
 We have no idea that all physicians would 
 wish to keep the public ignorant for the sake 
 of protecting the profession, but the fact that 
 they so generally disapprove of all attempts to 
 study medicine, except by the profession, shows 
 that they greatly overrate the mischiefs of 
 popular instruction. It is idle to fear the 
 eflfects of knowledge. Popular intelligence has 
 never been otherwise than a blessing, and in 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 165 
 
 vain do we plead for ignorance as the conserva- 
 tive element of public health. 
 
 4. That all have an equal right to this 
 knowledge, as well as an equal capacity for its 
 acquirement, no one can dispute. Mankind 
 are always exposed to disease and death, and 
 the knowledge which tends to avert or to miti- 
 gate these evils, is their inalienable birthright. 
 It cannot belong to a profession — it can never 
 be monopolized. Physicians may practice 
 medicine, and may excel in medical knowl- 
 edge ; but the proprietorship of such science 
 must always be with the people, 
 
 5. The preservation of health, being a duty 
 enjoined by the Creator, cannot be transferred 
 to others. 
 
 For this reason alone, if all other motives 
 were wanting, we should be compelled to in- 
 vestigate the laws of our physical nature. 
 We must guard the life entrusted to our care, 
 or incur the guilt of self-destruction. 
 
 6. Without medical knowledge, we lose all 
 confidence in physicians. We have not the 
 ability to appreciate their skill, or to second 
 their exertions. Those who know most of the 
 
166 yOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 science, will have most willingness to avail 
 themselves of its advantages. Dr. Rush sup- 
 posed the preference so generally evinced by 
 ignorant people for quacks and qaack nostrums, 
 originated in a disease of the mind. In this, 
 however, he was rnistaken, for the preference 
 given to the worthless pretender is only the 
 natural effect of ignorance. The good and 
 the bad are confounded, and solely for want of 
 discrimination the latter is preferred to the 
 former. 
 
 7. If knowledge is power, ignorance must 
 be weakness. The truth of this is seen when- 
 ever disease attacks the ignorant. They may 
 have knowledge of other subjects, but being 
 unacquainted with the. physical system, they 
 lie at the mercy of the veriest pretender of 
 medical science. When all is at stake, and 
 nothing but the grave and its dreary associa- 
 tions appear before them, they find themselves 
 reduced to the helplessness of infancy. When 
 the very citadel of life is assailed, they find all 
 at once that they have no means of defence. 
 This fearful exposure can only be met by call- 
 ing in the aid of physicians, and that it is often 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 167 
 
 met successfully in this way we admit, but is 
 it creditable or safe for rational beings to allow 
 themselves to be reduced to such extremities ? 
 Sickness we cannot avoid, yet the imbecility 
 which grows out of this ignorance of therapeu- 
 tics may easily be avoided. And so great is the 
 hazard, that no argument is necessary to show 
 the propriety of at least ordinary prudential 
 considerations in the shape of medical educa- 
 tion. Let those who are invulnerable to dis- 
 ease despise such precaution ; but to all others 
 it will prove a priceless acquisition. 
 
 8. The ability to co-operate with physicians 
 in their remedial efforts, is almost entirely de- 
 pendent upon some knowledge of the healing 
 art. In every other pursuit where we are 
 obliged to have professional assistance, the ad- 
 vantage of some previous knowledge of what 
 we need, is quite apparent ; and the critical 
 operations of surgery and medicine are no ex- 
 ception to this rule. ^ 
 
 9. A general knowledge of medicine is often 
 of the highest importance in meeting certain 
 exigencies of disease which do not allow of 
 time to procure the services of a physician. 
 
168 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 In case of a sudden attack or of an accident, 
 the individual who is thus furnished, may per- 
 haps save his own life or the life of his friend. 
 
 10. Morals are in no inconsiderable degree 
 dependent on the state of health. Many 
 crimes evidently have their origin in a de- 
 praved condition of the physical system, and 
 all reformatory processes have more or less rela- 
 tion to the body as well as to the mind. Piety 
 and virtue, therefore, no less than safety, de- 
 mand the diffusion of medical knowledge. 
 
 Such are some of the. principal motives to 
 this branch of education, and they are equally 
 applicable to either sex. Although females 
 have a train of ailments peculiar to themselves, 
 yet are they not exempted from such as are 
 common to human nature. They come in for 
 their share of all the nameless catalogue of 
 diseases which, regardless of sex, prey upon 
 flesh and blood. Hence the study of medicine, 
 and of all the cognate branches of science, has 
 to them not only as much importance as it 
 has to men, but an importance greatly aug- 
 mented by special liabilities to disease. 
 
 The uncertainty of medical practice, even in 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 169 
 
 the best of hands, might be urged as an objec- 
 tion to any attempts on the part of those who 
 do not thoroughly master the profession. But 
 the very terms of the objection contain its own 
 refutation. For if professional slcill cannot at- 
 tain to much exactness, those whose lives are 
 at stake are not to be repelled from medical 
 inquiries on the ground of imperfection. The 
 profession, which have only a fee as an induce- 
 ment, may more nearly approximate the point 
 of success, but others whose very existence is 
 periled, certainly may be excused both for ac- 
 quiring and employing such knowledge--tS-^iuC" 
 extent of their ability. Females lack not for 
 adaptation to studies of this kind ; they have 
 the mental vigor, of which, however, no un- 
 usual degree is required, and, beyond all dis- 
 pute, a preeminent measure of that soothing 
 tenderness, and that suggestive, sympathetic 
 kindness, so beneficial in the sick-room. It 
 seems a refinement in cruelty to incapacitate 
 through ignorance, a nature so devoted to suf- 
 fering humanity as is that of woman ; she is 
 naturally an angel of mercy, and is compelled 
 to indulge her intense benevolence of feeling 
 
170 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 ■without the power to employ the customary 
 means of relief. This torture is wholly inex- 
 cusable, for no more time is requisite to a tol- 
 erable acquaintance with medicine, than is de- 
 manded for the acquisition of any pther science. 
 Physicians study, but not more than lawyers 
 or ministers. In all sciences, the rudiments — 
 by far the most important part — are few and 
 easily acquired. Those recondite and techni- 
 cal applications, which astonish the uniniti- 
 ated, are in reality superficial, when compared 
 with the elementary principles on which they 
 
 Instead of committing the care of our health 
 exclusively to physicians, it is to be hoped the 
 day is not remote, in which every individual 
 will have the key of life in his own hand. Men 
 are as able to take care of their health as they 
 are of their property ; and when lost, if restora- 
 tion be possible, they should feel that the possi- 
 bility is lodged with themselves, and not with a 
 profession. The law of self-preservation de- 
 mands that the public should enter far more 
 extensively into the work of supervising their 
 physical condition. We are not to shrink back 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 171 
 
 appalled at mysteries, or magnitudes, or respon- 
 sibilities connected with sucii efforts. No hon- 
 est man will ever hint, much less openly affirm, 
 that it is better to remain in ignorance of cura- 
 tive processesif and transfer our interests to the 
 keeping of others. We cannot discharge this 
 duty by proxy. People must either learn how 
 to preserve their lives, or else incur the guilt of 
 suicide. It is in vain to admonish them of 
 impertinence, presumption, imbecility, or any 
 other consideration which the desire for profes- 
 sional monopoly might suggest. They who 
 have lives to lose are the ones to take care of 
 life ; no hireling influences can be substituted 
 for the intelligent and interested conservatism 
 of self-regulation. The love of life, the fear of 
 death, the knowledge of his own symptoms and 
 ciicumstances, as well as the not unftequent 
 pressure of momentous consequences incident 
 to the loss of health, are motives capable of 
 prompting the invalid to much greater exer- 
 tions than can possibly be put forth by those 
 who only resort to medicine for a livelihood. 
 
 These observations are not designed to dis- 
 parage the medical profession. It is a noble 
 
172 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 profession, but it cannot supersede the necessity 
 for individual oversight of health. The physi- 
 cian is only a helper — not a proprietor. He is 
 convenient, rather than indispensable. Each 
 person should be able to manage his own health, 
 and promote his own happiness, in matters of 
 vital importance, without this miserable depen- 
 dence upon professional assistance. Man should 
 not, by his ignorance, render himself a mere 
 tenant at will of the medical faculty. He has 
 too much interest at stake in the question of 
 health, thus to pass it by. Were it some article 
 of property or of convenience merely, the super- 
 vision might be left to others ; but an individ- 
 ual's health, which is his life, belongs to him- 
 self as it can belong to no other, and has an 
 importance to him which makes him its fittest 
 guardian. 
 
 We need not say that the obligation to take 
 care of our health, involves curative as well as 
 merely preservative measures. Perhaps few 
 will deny that part of the duty which relates 
 simply to avoiding occasions of injury, but the 
 correlative part of the obligation — that of restor- 
 ing health when once impaired — is by most 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 173 
 
 persons entirely neglected, from a conviction 
 that it belongs exclusively to physicians. All 
 classes have participated in this unlawful trans- 
 fer of responsibility ; but woman, from her sub- 
 ordinate position, and from a disposition natu- 
 rally more confiding, has been the greatest suf- 
 ferer. To regain the vantage-ground which 
 has thus been lost to the sex and to humanity ; 
 to restore both male and female to their true 
 position, or, what is the same, to introduce a 
 system of physical education — is an achieve- 
 ment worthy of the age, and indispensable to 
 human happiness. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 THE HEAD OP A FAMILY. 
 
 In her relations as head of a family, the 
 physical education for which we have contended 
 in the preceding section, is more especially 
 necessary to woman. Her individual errors 
 must, in this case, be a source of ruin to many. 
 If others are injured through her ignorance, she 
 cannot suffer and die for them. Their blighted 
 
174 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 hopes must be borne by themselves, and her 
 own sorrows will in the mean time be not a little 
 enhanced by the assurance that she was the 
 direct, though unconscious agent of their mis- 
 eries. Such bitter pangs have "been reserved 
 for many tender maternal hearts — mothers have 
 wept with inexpressible anguish at the remem- 
 brance of real cruelties which their ignorance 
 had mistaken for kindnesses. The air we 
 breathe, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, 
 and rooms we occupy, may carry death to the 
 physical system, unless under the watchful and 
 intelligent regulation of the mistress of the 
 house. Woman, as the superintendent of do- 
 mestic affairs, has the guardianship of our lives 
 and our health. She is bound to study not 
 only neatness, economy, and virtue, but hu- 
 manity. To do this effectually will require 
 considerable knowledge of science. Chemistry, 
 Philosophy, both natural and intellectual, Physi- 
 ology, and Hygiene, are of great consequence to 
 her in the performance of this work. Many a 
 housekeeper has sapped the foundation of her 
 own health and that of her household, for want 
 of a little knowledge of the constitution of the 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 175 
 
 atmosphere and of the laws of respiration. 
 How often are rooms left without ventilation, 
 and the inmates compelled to breathe over and 
 over again, the same poisonous gases and 
 putrid, loathsome exhalations ! No intelligent 
 female would, for a moment, be guilty of such 
 gross neglect ; but one who knows nothing 
 either of the chemical changes which air un- 
 dergoes in the lungs, or of the relation which 
 it sustains to the animal economy, might very 
 easily commit the error in question. Some 
 knowledge of the laws of nature is indispensa- 
 ble to a proper care of the body. We stand 
 related to matter in all its diversified forms 
 and movements ; and the changes which are 
 going on around us, — changes from the effects 
 of which we cannot escape, — ought to be un- 
 derstood in order to our own preservation. 
 Morally, it is no worse to poison with arsenic 
 than with mephitic gases ; life is just as in- 
 nocently taken with any deadly weapon formed 
 expressly for that purpose, as by allowing 
 natural causes to become fatal through our 
 own willful neglect. It would be abhorrent to 
 the feelings of any but a murderer, to assail 
 
176 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 the life of a human being, and yet it is done 
 constantly by those who sacrifice comfort to 
 display, and health to fashion. We know 
 there is a difference of intention between the 
 two classes of offences, but a good intention 
 does not avert the consequence of violating a 
 law of nature. We may strike unwittingly, 
 but the blow will have the same effect as if it 
 had been directed by malice. Therefore, the 
 lady who has no design against the life of her 
 friends — who would abhor to mingle poison 
 with the food of her guests or of her family — 
 should be intelligent enough not to do igno- 
 rantly what nothing on earth could induce her 
 to do designedly. She ought not to be the 
 blind, unconscious instrument of deeds from 
 which the female heart, when properly en- 
 lightened, always instinctively shrinks with 
 horror. 
 
 How often, for want of a little knowledge 
 of Physiology, have ladies broken down the 
 constitutions of their children, and thrown 
 them as invalids upon the world, to drag" out a 
 wretched existence, or sink into a premature 
 grave ! The instances in which life has been 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 177 
 
 embittered by errors of this kind, are too 
 numerous to need proof, and too obvious to 
 require illustration. Indeed, so prevalent have 
 they been, and so universal the ignorance that 
 caused them, that health has become the ex- 
 ception and disease the rule of society. The 
 possession of a good constitution and a well- 
 developed physical system, must be regarded 
 as an escape from the effects of established 
 usage, and not by any means as the result of 
 such usage. The following, taken from the 
 "Personal Recollections" of the late Mrs. 
 Tonna (Charlotte Elizabeth), is an instance 
 of this kind of escape, and shows that under 
 the worst possible system of training there 
 will be an occasional gleam of common sense : 
 
 " One morning, when his daughter was 
 about eight years old, my father came in, and 
 found sundry preparations going on, the chief 
 materials for which were buckram, whalebone, 
 and other stiff articles ; while the young lady 
 was under measurement by the hands of a 
 female friend. ' Pray, what are you going to 
 do to the child V 
 
 ■" ' Going to fit her with a pair of stays.' 
 
178 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 " ' For what purpose ?' 
 
 " ' To improve her figure ; no young lady can 
 grow up properly without them.' 
 
 " ' I beg pardon ; yoi;ng gentlemen grow up 
 very well without them, and so may young 
 ladies.' 
 
 " ' Oh, you are mistaken. See what a stoop 
 ■she has already ; depend upon it, this girl will 
 be both a dwarf and a cripple if we don't put 
 her into stays.' 
 
 " ' My child may be a cripple, ma'am, if such 
 is God's will ; but she shall be one of His 
 making, not ours.' 
 
 " All remonstrance was in vain ; stays and 
 every species of tight dress were strictly pro- 
 hibited by the authority of one whose will was, 
 as every man's ought to be, absolute in his 
 own household. He also carefully watched 
 against any invasion of the rule; a ribbon 
 drawn tightly around my waist would have 
 been cut without hesitation by his determined 
 hand ; while the little girl of the anxious 
 friend whose operations he had interrupted, 
 enjoyed all the advantages of that system from 
 which I was preserved. She grew up a wand- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 179 
 
 like figure, graceful and interesting, and died 
 of decline at nineteen, while I, though not 
 able to compare shapes with a wasp or an 
 hour-glass, yet passed muster very fairly 
 among mere human forms of God's moulding, 
 and I have enjoyed to this hour a rare exemp- 
 tion from headaches and other lady-like mala- 
 dies, that appear the almost exclusive privilege 
 of women in the higher classes. 
 
 " This is no trivial matter, believe me ; it 
 has frequently been the subject of conversa- 
 tion with professional men of high attainment, 
 and I never met with one among them who 
 did not, on hearing that I never but once, and 
 then only for a few hours, submitted to the 
 restraint of these unnatural machines, refer to 
 that exemption, as a means, the free respira- 
 tion, circulation, and powers both of exertion 
 and endurance with which the Lord has most 
 mercifully gifted me. There can be no doubt 
 that the hand which first encloses the waist of 
 a girl in these cruel contrivances, supplying 
 her with a fictitious support, where the hand 
 of God has placed bones and muscles that 
 ought to be brought into vigorous action, — that 
 
 )2 
 
180 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 hand lays the foundation, of bitter sufferings ; 
 at the price of which, and probably of a prema- 
 ture death, the advantage must be purchased 
 of rendering her figure as unlike as possible to 
 all the models of female beauty, universally 
 admitted to be such, because they are chiseled 
 after nature itself. I have seen pictures, and 
 I have read harrowing descriptions of the mur- 
 derous consequences of thus flying in the face 
 of the Creator's skill, and presuVning to mend 
 — to improve — his perfect work ; but my own 
 experience is worth a thousand treatises and 
 ten thousand illustrations, in bringing convic- 
 tion to my mind." 
 
 The above is but one of a class of abuses to 
 which every female is exposed. In general, 
 the fashions and customs of society have no 
 regard to health ; the whole system of modern 
 society overlooks with contempt the cardinal 
 duty of self-preservation. "We do not wish to 
 intimate that there is any preconceived suici- 
 dal purpose, but we must insist that the pal- 
 pable neglect of physical cultivation is scarcely 
 less criminal. The care everywhere demanded 
 is nowhere bestowed. Not only nursery ar- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 181 
 
 rangements, but the whole routine of domestic 
 life and the scenes of amusement as well as 
 the toils of industry, are characterized by a 
 disastrous ignorance. Life is embittered and 
 broken down by an almost total inattention to 
 the laws of physical existence. When disease 
 has actually commenced its work we take the 
 alarm and fly to physicians for relief, and this 
 is the best that can be done under the circum- 
 stances ; but how much better to anticipate 
 such dangers, and prevent them by cultivating 
 the science of Hygiene ! To woman, whose 
 gentle and humane dispositions prompt her to 
 such willing and devoted service of the sick, 
 this knowledge is eminently congenial, and of 
 inestimable value. Thus fortified, she need 
 not confine her benevolence to the mere act of 
 soothing affliction — she need not be restricted 
 to the last stages of human misery, as though 
 it were her peculiar province to tread the mar- 
 gin of the grave and to comfort only those 
 who go down to its repose ; but she might 
 boldly dispute the progress of evil at its com- 
 mencement, and set her foot authoritatively 
 upon the germ of that wretchedness which, if 
 
182 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 allowed to mature, would set at naught her 
 tender assiduity. 
 
 To one so ignorant and so helpless, even a 
 few simple rules like the following — which, 
 with many others of similar character, may 
 be gleaned from any work on Physiology — 
 would be of no small value. 
 
 1. Let the hours of rising and of retiring be 
 uniform and early. Late hours, either for 
 getting up or going to bed, are not only injuri- 
 ous in themselves, but introductory to many 
 other bad habits. 
 
 2. Every sleeping apartment, and every 
 other room of any kind, should be thoroughly 
 ventilated. Pure air is the pabulum of life. 
 
 3. All extremes are to be avoided. No room 
 should be extremely hot or extremely cold. 
 The clothes should neither be too few nor too 
 many. Exercise ought to be regular and 
 lively, but not violent nor long continued. 
 The human system has the power of accom- 
 modating itself to almost any circumstances, 
 but it must do so by degrees. The chain that 
 will draw tons if the power is moderately ap- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 183 
 
 plied, is snapped in an instant by a sudden 
 jerk. 
 
 4. Nowhere about the premises, from cellar 
 to garret, in lanes or yards, or gutters, is any 
 filth to be allowed if it can be avoided. All 
 decaying vegetable matter, all putrescent sub- 
 stances of every kind, are dangerous to health. 
 
 5. No article of dress should be allowed to 
 impair or impede any of the functions of the 
 physical system. It is nothing short of mur- 
 der to interfere with the circulation of the 
 blood, or with the action of the lungs ; neither 
 may we interrupt the secretory, or excretory, 
 or digestive functions. 
 
 6. Unnatural excitements should be dreaded 
 as especially pernicious. Equable tempers are 
 less exhausting and less dangerous. The car- 
 riage which moves too fast may not break nor 
 be capsized, but it is much more liable to such 
 accidents than if the rate of movement were 
 slower. 
 
 7. But few medicines are to be given at any 
 time, but such as are necessary will be plainly 
 indicated by the condition of the person who 
 needs them. What is obviously wanted ought 
 
184 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 to be supplied by common sense. Indeed, 
 physicians have no other means of caring than 
 such as have been suggested in this manner. 
 The habit of drugging the sick on all occa- 
 sions is ruinous, whether practiced by the 
 faculty or by an ignorant nurse. 
 
 8. All clothing worn next to the skin should 
 be kept clean ; change at least once each week. 
 Some suppose that it is of no consequence 
 whether articles not exposed to view are 
 washed or not. Such betray great ignorance 
 of the physical constitution. 
 
 9. See that all have clothing enough to keep 
 them warm. Health and comfort, if not in- 
 separable, are not to be sought in different 
 directions. The girl who complains of a thick 
 shawl or a thick shoe in cold or damp weather, 
 should make up her mind to die with con- 
 sumption. And the parent who allows such 
 recklessness, is guilty of sanctioning the sui- 
 cide. 
 
 10. Let it be remembered that children and 
 youth of both sexes have equal health, if 
 brought up with due regard to health. That 
 delicacy of constitution so often witnessed in 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 185 
 
 young ladies is, in most cases, wholly artificial, 
 having been superinduced by long-continued 
 neglect of physical cultivation. A system of 
 development would, if applied at a proper 
 time, have given them the robust health which 
 we admire in their brothers who have had a 
 more rational training. 
 
 In matters pertaining to the body, as well as 
 to the mind and morals, reason, and not 
 fashion, is to have the predominance. With 
 many, fashion is all. They cannot endure that 
 their families should do or be what is not ac- 
 cording to popular taste. In this foolish aping 
 of a blind and brainless aristocracy, the first 
 article of whose creed is that all below them 
 are to be despised, many unsuspecting parents 
 sacrifice the happiness of children. To such, 
 gentility is everything, and health nothing. 
 
 All domestic regulations should be controlled 
 by science. Tact is only productive of de- 
 spatch. Science is the true basis of physical 
 safety. The laws of our corporeal nature are 
 revealed, and the natural sciences are but a 
 collection of those laws, written by the finger 
 of God on his works — they are the Bible for 
 
186 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 our physical, as the Old and New Testaments 
 are for our spiritual health. 
 
 In everything there should be diligent in- 
 quiry to know what is and what is not 
 adapted to health. The charge of a family 
 is no light charge ; it is a vast responsibility, 
 and falls with fearful definiteness on those in 
 such a position. We may be content to do as 
 others do, but this obsequiousness to estab- 
 lished usage is the bane of all that is good. 
 " Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do 
 evil," is a voice that thunders in the ears of 
 all who are inclined to waive a searching in- 
 vestigation into the character of domestic 
 habits. Women are peculiarly liable to follow 
 the customs of society which prevail around 
 them, without inquiring fully into the tend- 
 ency of things. Occupying as they do, in 
 some respects, a subordinate position, modesty 
 may perhaps lead to this unjustifiable pliancy ; 
 but science would be an effectual correction of 
 this evil. However the ignorant woman may 
 continue to violate the laws of health, yet 
 such unnatural cruelty could not be practiced 
 by one who was truly intelligent. The rea- 
 
PHYSICAL EDOCATION. 187 
 
 sons which are to control the female mind are 
 embodied in science, and we cannot expect 
 these reasons to have force till they become 
 known. When society has performed its duty 
 and given to science a diffusion coextensive 
 with the demands of our nature, then, and not' 
 before, shall we find woman acting a part 
 worthy of herself 
 
 SECTION III. 
 PRESERVATIOlSr OF MORALS. 
 
 By far the most important consideration 
 connected with the medical education of 
 females, is the protection which it affords to 
 their moral character. The distinction of sex, 
 so immutable in the constitution of society, 
 is entirely overlooked by the modern practice 
 of medicine. The regular practice is exclu- 
 sively in the hands of men, and no attention 
 whatever is paid to the fact that female deli- 
 cacy and virtue must suffer by such an un- 
 natural arrangement. Physicians are a priv- 
 
188 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 ileged class — a class whose privileges are the 
 ruin of society. There is something indescrib- 
 ably horrible in this abuse. Under the name 
 of humanity, and shielded by professional 
 usage, the sacred barriers of morality have 
 been broken down. A profession that might 
 have been useful, had it confined its labors 
 within proper limits, has, by overstepping 
 those limits and thereby profaning the sanc- 
 tity of female character and of conjugal vows, 
 rendered itself one of the severest scourges 
 that ever afflicted mankind. 
 
 If these remarks require any justifioation, 
 let it be remembered that the practice of ob- 
 stetrics — which involves everything in female 
 delicacy — is left wholly to physicians. Never 
 was there such a mistake as this, since man 
 began his career of infatuation and folly. 
 Here is a "violation of the instincts of na- 
 ture," a ruthless and effectual subversion of 
 modesty, without even the shadow of an ex- 
 cuse. What would be thought of a man who 
 in any other sphere should assume the fearful 
 and diabolical office of depredation ? Under 
 other circumstances the same conduct would 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 189 
 
 cost a man his life, and is it worse to invade 
 matrimonial rights in health than in sickness ? 
 Does the mere incident of illness furnish any- 
 sufficient reason for a disregard of modesty 
 and virtue ? The distinction of sex is laid in 
 human nature — fixed by the creating hand, 
 and on it are founded many of the most inter- 
 esting relations and duties of life ; it must 
 therefore be preserved inviolate or the social 
 fabric will be overthrown. God has decreed 
 that every man shall have his own wife free 
 from mercenary or other pollution, and no 
 tampering of the medical faculty can for a 
 moment be permitted without destruction to 
 the marriage compact. Nor is the unmarried 
 woman less dependent on her immaculate 
 sanctity for a passport to connubial life. Let 
 it be known that she is accessible to the phy- 
 sician, and who that pays the least regard to 
 virtue would notice her? Nature groans 
 under the infamous innovation. The female 
 shrinks from the polluting touch of hireling 
 corrupters, and scarcely knows which most to 
 dread, the primal curse or the modern practice. 
 She shrinks — but at last submits, overpowered 
 
190 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 by ignorance — made the victim of the faculty 
 through a base denial of necessary knowledge. 
 She is compelled in the hour of need to dis- 
 pense with all medical assistance, or to sacri- 
 fice her modesty in receiving aid from men. 
 
 Society has unequivocally condemned all 
 virtual disregard of sexual distinctions. Its 
 laws require an absolute non-interference with 
 personal sanctity. But medicine has over- 
 leaped these barriers, and has found means to 
 achieve all that the most villanous and de- 
 bauched could desire ; and what is the price ? 
 — verily, secrecy. Physicians are permitted 
 to lay unholy hands upon forbidden objects 
 with one simple restriction, namely, secrecy ; 
 and that it is well known they do not always 
 respect, as indeed they are under no obligation 
 to do. Why might not any or all other men 
 be elevated to the same familiarity with 
 women ? Will not they readily agree to the 
 easy terras of secrecy ? And will not other 
 men be as likely to neglect further abuse and 
 defilement, as is the physician ? Do the laws 
 of morality know any difference between a 
 physician and any other man ? Does the fact 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 191 
 
 that a man practices medicine give him any 
 right to invade his neighbor's wife, or make 
 his polluting intercourse with her either more 
 decent, or moral, or safe ? When the faculty 
 have answered these questions to the satisfac- 
 tion of intelligent and candid men, we will 
 acknowledge them as public benefactors, and 
 confess to the injustice of these remarks. But 
 answer they cannot ; and in default thereof, 
 the present practice of medicine, especially 
 obstetrics, must be set down, not only as 
 having an immoral tendency, but as in itself a 
 gross, abusive, and shameless immorality. 
 
 The capacity and fitness of women to prac- 
 tice in diseases peculiar to their sex, can never 
 be doubted by those who reflect on the facts in 
 the case. Female education hitherto has been 
 little more than an insult offered to the human 
 understanding. Every branch of knowledge 
 that is of any real utility to the sex, has been 
 industriously withheld from them, and they 
 have been ushered into the world in mental 
 and physical bondage, and doomed to the op- 
 pressive, unnatural, and inhuman supervision 
 of physicians in particular, and of intellectual 
 
192 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK, 
 
 men in general. It can no longer be ques- 
 tioned whether women have powers . of mind 
 equal to any intellectual efforts. Had former 
 times left the fact doubtful, whjch they have 
 not, the present age has established it forever. 
 The names of More, Hemans, Sigourney, 
 Baillie, Sedgwick, Edgeworth, Somerville, El- 
 lis, Sherwood, Gould, Child, Willard, Charlotte 
 Elizabeth, are more than sufficient to attest 
 the capacity of woman. I shall therefore 
 conclude, that as to mental qualifications there 
 can be no question, and it only remains to in- 
 quire into their physical ability for the requi- 
 site medical and surgical operations. Ob- 
 stetrics is the only branch in which a want of 
 physical vigor can assume even the appearance 
 of an objection. And what part of this per- 
 formance requires any considerable strength is 
 more than the faculty have been able to tell. 
 The expulsion of the fcetus is, on all hands, 
 allowed to be the work of nature, and hence 
 it is no gigantic effort of the physician. It 
 may be said that females have not nerves suf- 
 ficiently strong to perform such assistance in 
 the presence of so much pain. And this I 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 193 
 
 suppose is the reason why we are cursed with 
 men on these occasions. But this is a most 
 base and groundless assumption. What, 
 women lack firmness of nerve for these occa- 
 sions ? and are they not always present ? nay 
 more, does not a woman bear all the pain and 
 incur all the danger ? If this be the case, can- 
 not a well woman look on ? cannot she bear to 
 afford any assistance ? Indeed this contradicts 
 the entire history of the case as it now stands, 
 for women are always present and perform the 
 most difficult parts of the required assistance, 
 as things are now managed. The employ- 
 ment of men is the innovation ; the burden of 
 proof, therefore, lies on the opposite side. Till 
 very modern times women alone pretended to 
 officiate, and although men have to a great 
 extent usurped tlieir office, they have not been 
 more successful. For more than fifty cen- 
 turies females have conducted such affairs 
 with undisputed ability. Any invasion of 
 their prerogatives in an enlightened age and 
 among virtuous females would not have been 
 tolerated. But darkness invites to crime, and 
 prevents the apprehension of the criminal. 
 
194 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 The faculty found women ignorant of medical 
 science, and took the fearful responsibility of 
 annihilating the sanctity of their persons. Man- 
 midwifery began in France under the reign 
 of Louis XIV., and began, as all such enormi- 
 ties must, with one of the vilest of characters 
 — a public prostitute. 
 
 Such is the origin of a practice now fol- 
 lowed by chaste American women. But will 
 woman longer submit to such an outrage? 
 Will she consent to this hireling prostitution 
 under the name of medicine ? Will she seal 
 her infamy by acquiescence in a wrong of this 
 horrid character ? If so, we shall find relief 
 in her degeneracy. She is no longer deserving 
 of affection. As the beasts that perish, let her 
 be disregarded. To make sure of their prey, 
 physicians have conspired to keep up the do- 
 minion of ignorance. Women have been shut 
 out from medical institutions, and all intima- 
 tions of their rights have been withheld. 
 
 There are physicians of noble mind, to whom 
 the injustice and indecency of man-midwifery 
 are apparent ; and such men abominate the 
 practice as much as other people can do. There 
 
PHYarCAL EDUCATION. 195 
 
 are a few magnanimous individuals who yet 
 retain some sense of right and wrong, and by 
 whom the moral is still preferred to the im- 
 moral. We could with pleasure refer to many 
 living names among the medical faculty, whose 
 views we know to be in accordance with the 
 sentiments here expressed. But we will not 
 trouble the reader with authorities on a ques- 
 tion like this ; the supposition that he might 
 need them would be a virtual impeachment 
 of his understanding. The following remarks 
 of an eminent physician are, however, such a 
 judicious summary of the whole argument, 
 that we shall not withhold them : 
 
 " The serious object of my present solici- 
 tude," says Dr. Ewell,* " is to wrest the 
 practice of midwifery from the hands of men 
 and transfer it to women, as it was in the be-, 
 ginning and ever should be. I have seldom 
 felt a more ardent desire to succeed in any 
 undertaking, because I view the practice of 
 calling on men in ordinary births as a source 
 of serious evils to childbearing ; as an imposi- 
 
 * Letters to Ladies. Quoted by Dr. Beach, Preface to 
 Midwifery. 
 
 13 
 
196 YOUNG i.ADY'S BOOK. 
 
 tion upon the credulity of women, and upon 
 the fears of their husbands ; as a means of 
 sacrificing delicacy, and consequently virtue ; 
 and as a robbery of many good women of their 
 proper employnient and support. Truly, it 
 shows as extraordinary a revolution in prac- 
 tice as any afforded by a survey of all the 
 arts. That all females bring forth their young 
 without assistance, except the human in a 
 state of civilization ; and that women should 
 call for the assistance of men, while the 
 human species is the only one tormented by 
 jealousy, is a fact that will scarcely be credited 
 in a Turkish harem, or by the Christians of 
 some future and purer age. Should the 
 strangers to the practice inquire if our men 
 have large, unwieldy hands, great curiosity 
 about women ; should they ask if our females 
 had the requisites for useful services — small 
 hands, nica sense of touch, and patience in at- 
 tendance — they will absoltitely deny this mon- 
 strous perversion of nature. 
 
 " From the peaceful and retired occupations 
 of women, they are generally more numerous 
 in the community than men. .Nevertheless, 
 
PHTSrCAL EDUCATION. 197 
 
 the men have assumed several offices belonging 
 to the weaker sex. The consequence is, that 
 many women, as men in similar circum- 
 stances, wanting proper occupation, seek the 
 employments of the vicious. Inasmuch, there- 
 fore, as these men-midwives have meddled with 
 this proper business of women, they have been 
 instrumental in the depravity of many. In- 
 deed, it is owing to their acting where they 
 are not required, that female practitioners are 
 often so ignorant — not having the opportunity 
 or means to qualify themselves for attendance 
 on ladies. 
 
 " Several observing moralists have remarked 
 that the practice of employing men-midwi-^es 
 has increased the corruption among married 
 women. Even among the French, so prone to 
 set aside the ceremonies between the sexes, 
 the immorality of such exposures has been 
 noticed. In an anecdote of Voltaire," it is re- 
 lated that when a gentleman boasted tff him 
 of the birth of a son, he asked who assisted at 
 the delivery ; to the answer, ' A man-midwife,' 
 he replied, ' Then you are traveling the road 
 to ouokoldom.' The acutely observing his- 
 17* 
 
198 YOUNG LADV'S BOOK. 
 
 torian of nature, Count BufFon (on puberty), 
 observes, ' Virginity is a moral quality, a vir- 
 tue which cannot exist but v^ith purity of 
 heart. In the submission of women to the 
 unnecessary examinations of physicians, ex- 
 posing the secrets of nature, it is forgotten 
 that every indecency of this kind is a violent 
 attack against chastity ; that every situation 
 which causes an internal blush is a real pros- 
 titution.' 
 
 " It is very certain, where these exposures 
 have been most numerous, as in large cities, 
 there adultery has been most frequent. 
 
 "Be it folly or prejudice, or not, there is a 
 value in the belief, that the. husband's hands 
 alone are to have access to his sacred wife. 
 Break through the prejudice, if you please to 
 call it so, but for once, unless powerful reasons 
 command it, the Rubicon is passed ; and rely 
 upon it, the barriers, on future emergencies, 
 will not be so insuperable. Time and oppor- 
 tunity to press on a grateful heart, for a favor 
 in regions where magnified favors have been 
 conferred, have been used and more frequently 
 desired. To convince you of this, you will 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 199 
 
 not require me to enter into the secret history 
 of adultery. 
 
 " Many of those raodest-looking doctors, in- 
 flamed with the thoughts of the well-shaped 
 bodies of the women they have delivered, 
 handled, hung over for hours, secretly glorying 
 in the privilege, have to their patients, as 
 priests to their penitents, pressed for accom- 
 modation, and driven to adultery and madness 
 where they were thought most innocently oc- 
 cupied. In one case, I was well assured that 
 a physician in Charleston, infuriated with the 
 sight of the woman he had just delivered, 
 leaped into her bed before she was restored to 
 a state of nature. The melancholy tale of the 
 seduction of the wife of a member of congress 
 from Carolina, by her accoucheur, is a warning 
 that ought not to be disregarded. The beau- 
 tiful organization of the lady preyed upon his 
 mind for years ; he-rsought her from one to the 
 other extremity of the country, regardless of 
 all dangers; and on acquiring his game re- 
 ceived a premature death — leaving horror and 
 ruin in the family he had been hired to serve. 
 
 " Whatever you may think on this subject, 
 
200 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 there are many husbands to whom the idea of 
 their wives' exposure is horribly distressing. 
 I have heard of cases affording singular mix- 
 tures of the distressing with the ludicrous. In 
 one case in my neighborhood, the husband sent 
 for his physician to his wife in labor, yet, was 
 so strongly excited at the idea of her exposure, 
 that he very solemnly declared to the doctor, 
 that if he touched his wife, or looked at her, 
 he would demolish him ! No man possessed 
 of a correct and delica,te regard for his wife, 
 would subject her to any exposure to a ddbtor, 
 that could be avoided without danger. 
 
 " But the opposition, the detestation of this 
 practice cannot be so great in any husband as 
 among some women. The idea of it has 
 driven some to convulsions and derangement ; 
 and every one of the least delicacy feels deeply 
 humiliated at the exposure. Many of them, 
 while in labor, have been so shocked by the 
 entrance of a man into their apartment, as to 
 have all their pains banished. Others, to the 
 very last of their senses suffering the severest 
 torments, have rejected the assistance of men. 
 To be instrumental in relieving one of this 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 201 
 
 truly interesting cast, will he a heavenly con- 
 solation to all who can be alive to the pleasures 
 of serving the virtuous." 
 
 Here, it will be seen, we have the testi- 
 mony of two distinguished physicians, the one 
 having written, and the other adopted the 
 language of this extract. By no one can the 
 practice be more severely censured than it is 
 by these members of the profession. And as 
 human nature and common sense are every- 
 where the same, it is presumable that all the 
 upright portion of the faculty cherish a similar 
 aversion to what they, as well as other men, 
 must perceive to be a manifest invasion of 
 natural right and moral purity. 
 
 How such a debasing and utterly shameless 
 custom ever obtained in society, or why, now 
 that it is established, the universal indigna- 
 tion of virtuous people does not banish it at 
 once, is somewhat difficult to determine. Mr. 
 Gregory, who has written an able work on the 
 subject, ascribes it to ignorance, and to the 
 kind offices of certain medical procuresses — a 
 description of elderly women who seem to de- 
 light in prostrating the bulwarks of virtue. 
 
202 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 " Physicians," says he, " are not without their 
 active assistants in this business. There are 
 multitudes of shameless old hags, who have 
 themselves been handled by the doctors till 
 they have lost all sense of modesty, and they 
 then act as 'procuresses' for the obstetric gen- 
 . jfelemen, going about and stirring up the fears 
 of wives, especially young ones, making them 
 believe the only alternative is death or the 
 dQctor, thus frightening the poor trembling, 
 reluctant females into the hands of these men. 
 Such creatures should not be allowed around 
 among modest women. They admire to make 
 themselves useful as accoucheurs' assistants, 
 principally for the satisfaction of being present 
 at these exhibitions. They take particular 
 pains to exclude the husband, that their so- 
 ciability and freedom may not be abridged. 
 One of them said ' she always felt ashamed to 
 see a young husband hanging round !' " 
 
 Thus the husband is, as it were, driven from 
 his wife on these occasions, and she is put into 
 the hands of another man ! Such a practice 
 is enough to make the cheek of vice itself 
 crimson with shame. It were far better to 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 203 
 
 have no wife than to have one under circum- 
 stances of this kind — ^better to be childless and 
 homeless than to become the victim of mer- 
 cenary pollution. 
 
 Before I dismiss this part of the subject, it 
 is necessary to consider more fully the enor- 
 mity of subjecting young women to the present 
 medical usage. The unlimited power of phy- 
 sicians over them, and the consequent danger 
 to their reputation and virtue, are sufficiently 
 evident to all who are in the least acquainted 
 with medical practice. Now it is a first prin- 
 ciple in civilized society, that young women 
 are to be treated with respect ; their persons 
 are ever considered perfectly inviolable.- But 
 they are human beings, and as such, subject 
 to many diseases peculiar to their sex, and 
 also to other ailments, the treatment of which 
 requires a greater familiarity with their per- 
 sons than can safely or justifiably be com- 
 mitted to any man. I am aware that the 
 ■ mother or some older woman that may happen 
 to be present, often serves as a channel of 
 communication, and the doctor makes his 
 shameless disclosures to those who are already 
 
204 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 nardened through repeated violations of nature 
 and modesty. Yet this alters not the case, for 
 all young women have not a mother nor an 
 older female friend to shield them from the 
 direct approach of the faculty. There is, how- 
 ever, a more revolting aspect of this affair. 
 Many of the faculty are not married men, and 
 the young female has to come under the treat- 
 ment and into the power of one to whom most 
 of all she dreads to reveal the peculiarities of 
 her situation and nature. She knows with 
 what pleasure he will approach and avail him- 
 self of observations to which he is in no degree 
 entitled, and to which she cannot submit with- 
 out a conscious self-degradation. Is there any 
 mercy or humanity in thus contemning all the 
 virtuous and delicate sensibilities of woman- 
 hood ? And if we add now, what must often 
 be added, that the physician is of licentious 
 character, and will not fail to seize upon any 
 advantages of this kind which his profession may 
 throw in his way, what hopes can wo cherish 
 that the virtue of the female will survive ? Be- 
 trayed through parental neglect and the debas- 
 ing customs of society, to a premature and 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 205 
 
 unnatural intercourse with men, is anything 
 but the ruin of morals to be expected ? Nay, 
 rather, is not the moral character ruined by 
 this very act ? Is there not made a fatal in- 
 road upon that modesty which should never 
 be invaded ? 
 
 The instances here mentioned comprehend 
 but few of the horrors of this shameful prac- 
 tice. Through all the varied relations of so- 
 cial life the dangers and the corruptions of this 
 pernicious usage diffuse their influence, and 
 weaken, to an alarming degree, the foundations 
 of society. While the faculty maintain in- 
 tegrity enough to support external decency, 
 the extent of their encroachments is not per- 
 ceived, and all is supposed to be safe and right. 
 Did they improve every opportunity their prac- 
 tice affords, for the actual and gross pollution 
 of women, public hostility would intercept 
 their progress. Prudence forbids this, even 
 if they desired freedom from all restraint. But 
 in this crisis, what becomes of precision in 
 morals ? Is a citadel guarded no better than 
 this, judged to be worthy of defence? We 
 leave the measnro of prostitution to be deter- 
 
206 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 mined by the faculty, subject only to their own 
 judgment of what is consistent with public 
 forbearance. Surely we need not, under such 
 circumstances, inquire what is likely to become 
 the standard of morals. Delicacy and moral 
 sensitiveness are out of the question. If the 
 least approximation to immorality is the com- 
 mencement of ruin — if a single iota of ground 
 ceded here is necessarily fatal, we need not 
 inquire into the sequel of premeditated ex- 
 posure. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 SECURITY OP THE FAMILY COMPACT. 
 
 From the preceding section, as well from 
 every other view of human interests, it is 
 evident that there should be in every com- 
 munity enough well-educated women to prac- 
 tice obstetrics, and thus give security to the 
 family compact, by allaying all uneasiness and 
 removing temptations to immorality. 
 
 No one in the least acquainted with human 
 nature will need to be told that an occurrence 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 207 
 
 which, in all but its legal bearings, is more 
 than sufficient to produce a divorce, cannot 
 fail to shake the foundation of connubial hap- 
 piness. The wife is sacred to her husband. 
 She can belong to no other except her God. 
 Be it that this tie is broken — this sanctity re- 
 moved, and whatever may be the cause, the 
 effect will be very nearly the same. The hus- 
 band's feelings must endure the shock ; he will 
 know that his rights have been invaded, and 
 that the wife of his bosom is no longer sacred 
 to himself Whether the evil springs from 
 lustful appetence on her part, or on the part 
 of those by whom she is surrounded, or is oc- 
 casioned by some depraved social custom, is of 
 no great consequence, since the fact is the same, 
 whatever may have been its cause. There is 
 a difference of motive which may go, and does 
 go far, to reduce the guilt in one case below 
 what it is in the other, but the physical fact 
 remains unchanged. A man's property may 
 perish by the torch of the incendiary or by the 
 ordinary casualties of Providence ; yet the loss 
 is not varied by the manner of its occurrence. 
 If females are left in such a state of ignorance 
 
208 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 as not to be able to provide for their own 
 health without an improper exposure of their 
 persons to the other sex, those to whom they 
 are united in marriage must feel the weight 
 of this exposure, and estimate their matrimo- 
 nial connections at what they may be worth 
 under the circumstances. Such an item of in- 
 security and injustice would, to many a sensi- 
 tive nature, more than balance the advantages 
 of a marriage contract. If the man must plight 
 his faith and receive his bride only to have her 
 despoiled under the protection of law, he would 
 choose to refrain from the alliance. What ag- 
 gravates the evil is, that marriage generally 
 takes place before the parties know anything 
 of the debasing circumstances to which they 
 are afterwards to be subjected. Did they know 
 at the outset that sanctity was to be but a 
 name, and that the medical profession was to 
 set at naught all the decencies of life and 
 plunge into the excess of abuse, then there 
 would at least be no advantage taken of their 
 (honest intentions. But at present the impo- 
 sition comes up unexpectedly, and diffuses a 
 blight on sanctities that had been cherished 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 209 
 
 as the foundation of domestic life. Before 
 there is opportunity to resist, or time to re- 
 flect, all is swept away in the tide of fashion- 
 able depravity. The wife is sick — the physi- 
 cian is called — thenceforth a family physician 
 — scarcely less intimate in any respect, and 
 in some more intimate with her than the hus- 
 band himself She is to be with the physician 
 when her husband cannot be, and is made his 
 confidant in matters never broken to the ears 
 of the man whose name she bears. I am sure 
 every reflecting woman will see the eifeot which 
 this state of things must have upon a man. 
 He may not impute to his wife any overt in- 
 tention, but he will deeply realize how far she 
 is from being his own. The hold which she 
 had upon his affections will grow less every 
 hour, and though he may live with her because 
 the law does not, under the circumstances, 
 recognize his right to a divorce, yet it will be 
 with a saddened, impoverished heart, doomed 
 to bear a weight of inconceivable anguish. 
 The husband must know that he is an injured 
 man, and that it is not in human power to re- 
 dress the wrong wb'ch he suffers. Lost sano- 
 
210 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 tity cannot be restored. Though crime may 
 not be imputed, though, his wife has only suf- 
 fered the common measure of degradation, yet 
 he deplores, and must forever deplore, the ruth- 
 less invasion of his rights by the medical fac- 
 ulty. Many a wife might date at this early 
 period of her married life, the commencement 
 of future troubles. Vigorous affections were 
 nipped in the bud ; ere the birth of the first 
 child perhaps the fatal blow was given to do- 
 mestic peace. Relief is found in paying less 
 attention to those whom we discover to be less 
 ours. A highly excited and injured state of 
 feeling, from which there is no possibility of 
 deliverance by ordinary methods, breaks down 
 the most sacred barriers of the heart, and the 
 man who loved his wife next to his God, and 
 preferred her to all others of her sex, must 
 soothe himself by reflecting how little impor- 
 tant she is to his happiness. Women should 
 tremble at the price they pay for the attentions 
 of medical gentlemen on such occasions. This 
 world is not so constituted that the sacred prin- 
 ciples of purity and justice can be trifled with ; 
 and if women will employ men on occasions 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 211 
 
 of confinement, they must lay their account 
 with the probable sacrifice of affection. It 
 would be asking too much of the human heart 
 not to allow it to reject indignantly assaults 
 upon its rights, nor can we always very accu- 
 rately distinguish between a merely passive 
 and a voluntary acquiescence in what is wrong. 
 Still the husband is inclined to make apologies 
 and regard his wife as the victim of social, 
 rather than of personal corruption. But it is 
 impossible to keep down suspicion, and prevent 
 an impression that these unjust and demoralizing 
 exposures are not the choice of women. Some 
 women are so tenacious of adhering to the 
 practice of man-midwifery, that we must neces- 
 sarily conclude they would have no objections 
 to it if their husbands had none ; and as the 
 case now is, they are ready to hazard respect 
 at home, rather than relinquisjj. a practice rec- 
 ommended to them by general usage. 
 
 The effects of this exposure on the heart and 
 mind of woman, are not the less real or the 
 less pernicious for being incidental. She is 
 brought into contact with the other sex in a 
 manner affecting character, and it is not op- 
 
 ) 1 
 
212 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 tional with her whether the exposure of her 
 person shall or shaU not be attended with evil 
 effects upon her own mind. To be sure, she 
 does not seek the occasion — for if she did, a di- 
 vorce would be inevitable — but she is overtaken 
 by the assailant of her virtue, and may not in- 
 nocently remain in such a situation. Her per- 
 son being sacred to another, should make it ex- 
 ceedingly displeasing to her to be, or appear to 
 be, unfaithful to her marriage covenant. As a 
 wife she is already appropriated, and there is 
 none upon earth to whom she may commit 
 herself. The propriety and extent of this con- 
 secration are likely to be felt by the husband ; 
 they are to him the pledge of domestic bliss, 
 and the bond which binds him to a similar re- 
 striction. Any negligence on her part, if it 
 does not provoke a corresponding depravity in 
 him, will most surely weaken his attachment 
 to her. He may not become vicious, but he 
 will cease to love. Esteem is for the virtuous, 
 and confidence for the incorruptible ; but a wo- 
 man passive enough to yield obsequiously to 
 a debasing practice, is neither virtuous nor in- 
 corruptible, and therefore cannot retain her 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 213 
 
 place in the affections of an upright man. Fe- 
 males may think the universality of the cus- 
 tom in question will give it sufficient authority, 
 and render it innoxious upon their social rela- 
 tions ; but let them beware of deception — the 
 instincts of nature are not to lie dormant at 
 the bidding of popular abuses. Every man 
 who has a wife must resent all improper treat- 
 ment of her, however such treatment may be 
 viewed by the public. The heart and the con- 
 science are not regulated by a profession, nor 
 can they ever become so worthless as to ac- 
 knowledge no higher control than the artifi- 
 cial distinctions of society. Our faculties can- 
 not be bribed. Man must ever hate the wrong, 
 while he loves the right. It is in vain, there- 
 fore, to rely upon the conformity of our powers 
 to a radical corruption of this kind. Nature 
 will revolt. Woman must be free, not only 
 from all suspicion of too ready an acquiescence 
 in a corrupt practice, but from all actual taint, 
 whether intentional or unintentional, or she 
 cannot possess the affection and respect essen- 
 tial to the conjugal state. 
 
 When we consider how peculiar, and in 
 
214 YO0NG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 several respects, how slight is the tie which 
 binds the husband and wife together, we see 
 at once the necessity of maintaining it unim- 
 paired. The attractive influence by which 
 such associations are formed is only sufficient 
 for the object designed ; " God who setteth the 
 solitary in families," has not created a surplus 
 of these hallowed drawings, and if we trifle 
 with attachments so vital to the social system, 
 we shall find the course of life seriously inter- 
 rupted. The family may not in every instance 
 be broken up, but there will be a partial alien- 
 ation — a diminished regard, which is wholly 
 unnecessary, and which domestic interests can- 
 not well sustain. The wife and mother need 
 never depreciate ; the freshness of youthful 
 love and the entire devotion of early married 
 life may remain, and will remain, if the sancti- 
 ties of the relation are not ruthlessly invaded. 
 No husband's affections — if he be a virtuous 
 man — will become less toward the partner of 
 his life till it is evident to his mind that she 
 is wanting in purity of character. In the esti- 
 mation of the husband the wife's character is 
 her all. Her sex alone made her an object of 
 
. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 215 
 
 choioe, or, rather, alone made it possible for her 
 to be a wife ; and she can only enter into or 
 sustain that important relation by iramaculate- 
 ness of sexual virtue. As woman she has 
 power that will not decline. This is the talis- 
 manic influence which binds her to the other 
 sex, and which she must preserve at all haz- 
 ards. 
 
 I have extended these remarks quite far 
 enough, perhaps, but it may be well to remind 
 the reader, that obstetric practice is only one 
 of many disgusting immoralities introduced by 
 physicians. They have access to women on 
 other occasions, and take liberties witjj them in 
 other things quite as fatal to modesty and 
 virtue. On this point we must refer to medi- 
 cal works, and in view of the facts there to 
 be found in abundance, we think no intelligent 
 person will hesitate to say that female physi- 
 cians are necessary among their own sex. 
 
216 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 SECTION yi. 
 
 THE REMEDY.— PROGRESS OF MEDICAL EDXJOA- 
 TIOW AMONG FEMALES. 
 
 For the evils which we have set forth there 
 is but one remedy, namely, the thorough phys- 
 ical education of women. We must have not 
 only such, a knowledge of Hygiene^ as will 
 secure a proper development and careful pres- 
 ervation of the physical system among women 
 generally, but a due proportion of them should 
 be thoroughly educated physicians — capable of 
 treating all diseases, and especially all peculiar 
 to their sex, in the most- scientific and success- 
 ful manner. Then it will not be necessary to 
 confound distinctions and outrage morality on 
 any occasion — whatever can be done or need 
 to be done, being as fully within the reach of 
 a female medical attendant as it could be of a 
 male practitioner. It is a very grave insult to 
 the mind of woman to say, or even to imply by 
 our arrangements, that she has not sense enough 
 to manage her own affairs. She is capable of 
 suffering with a constancy most admirable, and 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 217 
 
 she ventures heroically to soothe the most 
 wretched through every scene of pain to the 
 very gates of death. Whoever may quail 
 where sickness and death abound, woman does 
 not. She is last at the cross, and first at the 
 sepulchre. Tact, judgment, tenderness, quick- 
 ness of apprehension — each and every quality 
 desirable in the physician, may be found in her 
 as fully as in the other sex. The restoration 
 to females of their share in the medical treat- 
 ment of human maladies, is demanded no less 
 as a matter of respect for their intellectual 
 powers, than as a means for securing their 
 morals from depravation. For this reform the 
 public are now ready, with the exception of a 
 few unprincipled physicians, and perhaps as 
 many ignorant women, who are equally un- 
 principled. Every man not in the medical 
 profession, and every physician of honorable 
 feelings, as well as every woman of virtuous 
 character, must desire the change. Women 
 are beginning nobly to assert their rights, and 
 a few years, if we are not greatly mistaken, 
 will serve to effect a complete revolution in 
 this part of medical practice. The Boston 
 19 
 
218 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 Medical and Surgical Journal lately contained 
 a severe article on the " Empirical School of 
 Midwifery ;" charging, as usual, women with 
 incompetency, and others with improper mo- 
 tives. To this ungentlemanly tirade a fe- 
 male wrote a reply which the editor probably 
 dare not refuse. We give the following extract, 
 which shows that some ladies understand them- 
 selves quite too well to be longer the victims 
 of such base deception : 
 
 "Your correspondent complains that the 
 clergy are favorable to this movement, and 
 calls in question the motives which actuate a 
 ' body of so much intelligence and benevo- 
 lence.' I answer, that it is this very intelli- 
 gence and benevolence that causes them to feel 
 so deep an interest in the matter, and which 
 prompts them to advocate the good of the com- 
 munity at large, rather than the pecuniary ia- 
 terest of a would-be favored few, who would 
 keep females in ignorance of their own organ- 
 »4zation, that they might reap the benefit of 
 their consequent suffering. And in the present 
 state of ' medical literature,' when every book 
 is filled with technicalities which none but the 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 219 
 
 learned and scientific are expected to under- 
 stand, to whom are we to look for a precedence 
 in these things, but to those in whom we place 
 the most confidence and trust. Your corres- 
 pondent thinks that cases of difficult parturi- 
 tion have tended to throw the practice naturally 
 and legitimately into the hands of male prac- 
 titioners. I would ask if medical statistics 
 have ever shown a greater number of deaths 
 of parturient females, even when the practice 
 was entirely in the hands of females, and when 
 it was considered disgraceful for a male to be 
 present. But is it not rather to be attributed 
 to the diffidence and disquietude which a deli- 
 cate female must feel in such presence, (at a 
 time when of all others she needs to be soothed, 
 and made perfectly at ease,) that difficult cases 
 are of such frequent occurrence ? 
 
 ''Your correspondent says that those who 
 practice the profession need the experience de- 
 rived from ordinary cases to qualify them to 
 meet the more difficult. But I do not believe 
 a case of difficult parturition ever occurred, in 
 which it would not have been more consonant 
 with the feelings of the sufferer to have had a 
 
220 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 female practitioner, provided she could have 
 possessed the requisite knowledge ; and it is 
 that knowledge we aim at, and claim that we 
 have a right to possess. It is our lack of 
 means for obtaining such knowledge of which 
 we complain. He also states that he has had 
 cases which no ordinary female could have 
 managed with safety. Most likely ; ordinary 
 females should not be engaged in the business. 
 Ordinary men are not, or should not be. But 
 let females who have a capacity for the busi- 
 ness receive some of the advantages which have 
 been so amply provided for the ' lords of crea- 
 tion;' let them be admitted to your college, 
 receive the benefit of your medical lectures, 
 and have access to your extensive libraries, and 
 when they have studied ' long enough,' let 
 them be critically examined by your professors, 
 and let such only as are competent receive au- 
 thority to practice, and ordinary women would 
 no longer find employment. 
 
 "Your correspondent also asks, wiU the 
 ' well-educated and most sensible women en- 
 gage ?' I would answer that there may not be 
 many whose tastes would lead them into the 
 
PHySICAL EDUCATION. 221 
 
 study. But it has always been considered an 
 honorable employment for a man, and I trust 
 the time is not far distant, when it will no 
 longer be thought a disgrace for looman to be 
 capable of administering to the necessities of 
 her own sex. And. when physiological knowl- 
 edge shall be more generally diffused among 
 females — when they understand more fully the 
 wonderful organization of their own being — 
 they will no longer remain thoughtless or pas- 
 sive upon so important a subject, permitting 
 your sex to monopolize a branch which a proper 
 sense of decorum should proclaim belonged ex- 
 clusively to us." 
 
 ^ Thus efficiently will females plead their own 
 cause when once they come to realize the facts 
 in the case. Already has this reviving moral 
 sentiment begun to embody itself in appropri- 
 ate action ; it is not merely as a private opin- 
 ion or a smothered resentment of soul that ob- 
 jections now exist. A righteous repugnance 
 has originated two female medical colleges 
 within the present year — one in Philadelphia, 
 and the other in Boston. Both of these insti- 
 tutions are regularly chartered by the states 
 
222 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 in which they are located, and the latter has 
 been in successful operation for the two years 
 past. Besides these, the Central Medical Col- 
 lege at Rochester — one of the best institutions 
 in the country — freely admits ladies to its en- 
 tire course of instruction, and has in fact a fe- 
 male professorship. This college has gradua- 
 ted eight females during the present year. The 
 Medical College at Memphis, Tennessee, has 
 also graduated two ladies, and the college at Ge- 
 neva, N. Y., one — Miss Blackwell. These are 
 favorable indications, and furnish most encour- 
 aging evidence that nothing but a deliberate 
 choice of depravity cstn keep the old practice 
 alive. Public instruction will go on, and many 
 females become qualified for the practice of 
 medicine in all its extent. These will all be 
 wanted. But we need not wait till a thoroughly 
 educated generation can arise ; a very little 
 instruction will enable any ordinary woman to 
 be so far useful to her sex on occasions of sick- 
 ness, as to cut off all necessity for employing 
 men. Private reading and practical experience 
 — the great sources of medical knowledge, are 
 open to all females, and by means of these 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. * 223 
 
 they might soon qualify themselves for the most 
 extended practice. Bat in any event it would 
 hardly be possible for them not to become com- 
 petent to those pressing demands which are of 
 daily occurrence. 
 
 Physicians, when they find how this branch 
 of their practice is viewed, may perhaps at- 
 tempt some reform — discarding the grosser 
 features of the thing, they may hope to retain 
 it without offence. But the evil is too great 
 ever to be reformed ; it is an unmixed wrong, 
 and cannot be made right. Nothing short of 
 extirpation will answer. The public mind 
 will continue to be shocked, and all our better 
 feelings outraged, while any vestige of the prac- 
 tice remains. The demand for female practi- 
 tioners must be co-existent with virtuous feel- 
 ing. While woman is prized, her desecration 
 must be felt as a calamity to the social affec- 
 tions. 
 
 It is difficult to speak of a great public 
 abuse in terms sufficiently measured. Sever- 
 ity requires to be tempered by prudence. In 
 the statements which we have made in this 
 and the preceding sections, the intelligent 
 
224 roUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 reader will readily perceive there is no exag- 
 geration ; facts have been given vsrithout the 
 slightest attempt at coloring. Truths which 
 cannot be gainsayed, and whose specific enor- 
 mity is sufficient to harrow up feelings of the 
 deepest indignation in every heart, may safely 
 be left to produce their effect, unembellished by 
 rhetoric and unmagnified by prejudice. Let 
 physicians complain, if they dare, of injustice ; 
 let them defend themselves if they can. We 
 know that some — many of them — are pure- 
 minded men ; but this does not by any means 
 exculpate the profession at large. A good 
 man will always regret occasions of tempta- 
 tion ; he pities the degraded condition of hu- 
 manity, and would fain keep himself from 
 injuring others either wittingly or unwittingly. 
 To him, custom and law are valuable only as 
 they are right ; and however he may yield to 
 pernicious customs, he does it with reluctance 
 and without the slightest tincture of that 
 fiendish pleasure which a corrupt man takes 
 in following the depraved courses of the world. 
 We cannot suppose that an honorable physi- 
 cian would so far forget himself as to describe 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 225 
 
 in public what he had seen in private, or boast 
 of the manner in which he had handled the 
 women whom custom had betrayed into his 
 hands. Yet the profession abounds with men 
 who are mean enough to do it, and who glory 
 in this very thing — nay more, who in all prob- 
 ability entered the medical profession on pur- 
 pose thus to get access to females. But 
 whether they originally entered the profession" 
 for such an object or not, they soon became 
 capable of rioting on the spoils of virtue. 
 Finding themselves admitted to hold inter- 
 course with women — yes, to have privileges 
 with them such as no other class of men have, 
 they have, as a natural consequence, given way 
 to an almost, if not quite, unavoidable licen- 
 tiousness. Little do husbands or wives know 
 the brutal triumph which these professional 
 debauchers exhibit' over their victims, or the 
 ^ardent longings they have to enlarge their 
 practice in this direction. 
 
 "When lecturing," says Mr. Gregory, "in 
 Lynn, last fall, several of the citizens spoke 
 before the audience, approving of my course, 
 and corroborating, my statements with addi- 
 
226 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 tional facts. Among others, a gentleman, 
 known in the literary world, said he thought 
 the business should be in the hands of women ; 
 said a doctor there, on seeing a beautiful lady 
 enciente, passing in the street, elbowed a friend, 
 and said, ' I should like to attend that lady by 
 and by, to see her handsome person.' 
 
 " Mrs. Ruth Stebbins, before spoken of, said 
 the young doctors of SufBeld, Ct., when speak- 
 ing of attending the young wives on the first 
 occasion, called it 'halter-breaking them.' 
 And, rejoicing in their occupation, ' There,' 
 they would say to each other, as they looked 
 out into the street, 'there goes one that I 
 halter-broke a few weeks ago — and there, 
 yonder, comes another that I shall break in 
 soon.' Suppress your indignation, reader, and 
 go earnestly about correcting this libidinous 
 system.— Dr. K., of M., in this state, remarked 
 to the publisher that he had heard young 
 physicians, in their confidential chats, boast of 
 having committed adultery with women, when 
 their husbands were in the house at the time." 
 While such abominations are an inseparable 
 attendant not only of man-midwifery, but of 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 227 
 
 nearly the whole attention which male physi- 
 cians bestow upon their female patients, we 
 can have no hope of virtue but in the establish- 
 ment of medical schools for each of the sexes. 
 So long as human nature is the same in physi- 
 cians that it is in other men, so long must they 
 be corrupted by this unnatural access to wo- 
 men. And on the other hand, while women 
 are susceptible of unchastity, they cannot fail 
 of becoming unchaste under such treatment. 
 
 It only remains, then, to determine whether 
 we will longer submit to an evil which must 
 forever prove uncontrollable. Shall the distinc- 
 tion of sex be regarded, or shall it not, in the 
 departnient of medicine ? If best to abolish 
 it here, it is best to abolish it elsewhere. If 
 our wives and daughters are to be delivered up 
 to doctors, we may as well give all other men 
 the same access to them. A diploma makes 
 no difference either with the law of God, or 
 with the carnal propensities of the heart. De- 
 bauchery and indecency are just as lawful and 
 just as expedient withoul; as with a license to 
 practise medicine. The wrong done to connu- 
 bial rights and sanctities is not mitigated in 
 
228 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 the least because the man who does it holds a 
 parchment. 
 
 These views are not new. I have stead- 
 ily maintained them for the last fifteen years, 
 and the greater part of the last three sections 
 was actually written fourteen years ago. Since 
 that time I have had ample opportunities for 
 experience and observation, but the opinions 
 then forced upon me have only been confirmed 
 by subsequent events. And it is gratifying to 
 know that the country is awaking from its 
 long slumber to a just sense of its danger and 
 degradation. I have written from motives of 
 humanity, and from no more of revengeful 
 feeling than rightly enters into every work of 
 reform. There are miseries growing out of 
 this practice known only to the heart of him 
 who suffers them. I have mercifully been ex- 
 empted from what would be called an abuse 
 of the medical practice, but the evil in its 
 most restrained and mitigated form is too hor- 
 rible for endurance — a mountain weight of 
 wretchedness crushing a sensitive soul to the 
 earth, and blighting the fairest prospects of life. 
 If there is nothing in human hearts responsive 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 229 
 
 to this declaration, then I may easily be con- 
 victed of error, and shall cheerfully suffer 
 whatever punishment is due to my fault. 
 But let the public judge — let the husbands 
 and wives of our country decide the question. 
 It is a matter in which the faculty have no 
 concern beyond a fee, unless it should be in 
 exculpating themselves from the censures of 
 an indignant community. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 According to the arrangements wMeh pre- 
 vail in social life — arrangements founded on 
 the obvious indication of nature, and not on 
 capricious or arbitrary allotment — to woman 
 belongs the supervision of domestic affairs. 
 The care of helpless offspring devolves upon 
 her, and consumes the time and the strength 
 which are demanded in providing for the sub- 
 sistence of the household. The husband's su- 
 perior and less encambered physical powers fit 
 him for a general purveyor, while the wife's 
 greater tenderness and more confined circum- 
 stances equally fit her for the duties of home. 
 She is indeed a helpmeet for man, and he no 
 less a help for her. 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 231 
 
 SECTION I. 
 HOME. 
 
 There is scarce another word in our lan- 
 guage so full of inspiration as home ; it is the 
 place of purest, deepest joy, where the fountains 
 of affection are unsealed, and the stream of 
 Ifkppiness gushes forth continually. But home 
 we owe to woman. She makes the place a 
 sanctuary of joys, and garners there the affec- 
 tions of the heart. Home without the mother, 
 the wife, the sister, and the daughter would 
 be desolate indeed ; it is not the charmed spot 
 where we nestled in our infantine years, nor 
 the rich assemblage of delights in which man- 
 hood glories, nor yet that new world — that re- 
 production of existence — which cheers depart- 
 ing age. The danger is that woman may for- 
 get the importance of home, and of her sphere 
 as the peculiar guardian of its interests. If 
 she despises her lot, and pants for a more 
 extended field of usefulness, the social system 
 becomes at once deranged. Every species of 
 female deformity — from the taper-waisted ex- 
 
232 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 qaisite to the brazen-faced Amazon — which has 
 grown out of deserting the proper sphere of 
 woman, or of assuming in any degree the at- 
 tributes of the other sex, is both hateful and 
 mischievous. God has assigned to woman her 
 sphere, and in that sphere she can have no rival. 
 While she knows her position and keeps it will- 
 ingly and faithfully, she will not fail to ac- 
 complish the highest purpose of her being, ncJf 
 "to receive all the honor due to her nature. 
 
 With woman there is too often a reluctance 
 to be occupied with domestic cares. The chil- 
 dren are of no consequence — ^mere hindrances 
 to certain other pursuits which, but for this 
 encumbrance, would be allowed to engross the 
 whole time. It may be these other pursuits 
 are the culture of flowers, the reception of 
 company, or the management of business — no 
 matter which — for that other occupation, what- 
 ever it may be, if preferred to the constitutional 
 duty of taking care of her children, is a mis- 
 erable perversion of life. That which Provi- 
 dence has so evidently devolved upon the fe- 
 male as. attention to her own offspring, cannot 
 be willingly neglected without transforming 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 233 
 
 the neglecter, herself, into a monster. She 
 who can wish to throw off such cares must be 
 capable of any wickedness, however great. 
 The heart, that could steel itself against infan- 
 tile tenderness, would find no difficulty in 
 shutting out all other claims of humanity. It 
 is therefore to be viewed as an unfavorable 
 indication, when a woman counts this part of 
 her duty drudgery. What, is the being to 
 whom is given in charge the rising generation, 
 to deem her task'an ignoble one ? Is there no 
 honor or importance in replacing the wasted 
 population of the earth ? For what then do 
 we live, and of what consequence is the race 
 of man ? Adam called his wife's name Eve 
 — that is, Life — " because she was to be the 
 mother of all living." This is the predesti- 
 nated honor and distinction of woman. She is 
 the immediate agent of God in giving exist- 
 ence to the successive generations of mankind. 
 To her we are indebted for life, and it is not 
 possible for artificial distinctions, however per- 
 verse, to cut off or in any way cancel the high 
 obligation growing out of this fact. Woman's 
 place, is high, not by courtesy only, but by es- 
 
234 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 sential right. She occupies a relation that we 
 cannot contemn so long as we value life. Now 
 if she could throw off this responsibility and 
 evade the duties of the nursery, then, and not 
 till then, might she sink to actual insignifi- 
 cance. Then she might be a thing 
 
 " Bred only and completed to the taste 
 Of lustful apetence, to sing, to dance, 
 To dress, and troll the tongue, and roU the eye." * 
 
 We grant that other pursuits may appear to 
 the superficial observer more inviting than the 
 sober and often perplexing cares of a family, 
 and so might the duties of the other sex ap- 
 pear repulsive if viewed in the same manner. 
 The earth is cursed, and man can only secure 
 a competence for himself and family by perse- 
 vering toil. No doubt he would gladly shrink 
 from his appointed lot, and gain a subsistence 
 without industry, if it were practicable. But 
 all know that this would not be for his best 
 good — his condition demands the wearying la- 
 bor to which he is assigned. So also is it with 
 woman. She would only be injured by ex- 
 * Paradise Lost, Book XI. 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 235 
 
 emption from the trying concerns of the domes- 
 tic relation. Made to sustain the dignity and 
 to perform the duties of a mother, she cannot 
 attain the excellence of which her nature is 
 susceptible, while .living in open contempt of a 
 manifest law of her being. 
 
 I am not of the opinion that the delights of 
 home are dependent on woman alone. Map 
 has his share in the formation of this domestic 
 paradise. For, 
 
 " Though nothing lovelier can be found 
 
 In ■woman, than to study household good," 
 
 yet, it is throwing by far too much upon her 
 to insist that she shall make home happy with- 
 out the concurrence of man. Her presence 
 and her agency are indispensable, but the part 
 which man is to act must neither be forgotten 
 nor neglected. Let the female be held re- 
 sponsible for her part, but let her not be bur- 
 dened with duties which belong to the other 
 sex. She is joint partner, and not sole proprie- 
 tor, of home. 
 
236 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 
 
 As ladies are designed by nature for the 
 supervision of home, they ought early and 
 strenuously to cultivate the love of home- 
 pleasures and home-duties. This would cut 
 off that disposition to murmur which springs 
 from disappointment. Much of the disquie- 
 tude of married life originates in thoughtless- 
 ness, or more strictly, perhaps, in the idle 
 rovings of an unchastened imagination. The 
 mind had been suffered to dwell upon fhe nup- 
 tial state as a release from the monotonous 
 drilling of plain everyday life. Over the whole 
 scene was spread an air of romance which ex- 
 perience could not fail to dissipate. Of course 
 nothing but regret could follow the discovery 
 of such a hallucination. But in this, as in 
 every other thing where the imagination has 
 been suffered to mislead, the real is better than 
 the imaginary. Woman's sphere is more noble 
 than the fanciful, voluptuous career which her 
 untutored powers had sketched. The spell is 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 237 
 
 broken to be sure, but it ought to give no pain, 
 inasmuch as the destiny opened before her has 
 all the dignity of true greatness, and all the 
 happiness possible to humanity. She is not to 
 float along in abject dependence, happy only in 
 servility, and conforming readily to all the 
 modes of fashionable folly. Under the influ- 
 ence of truth she takes her place among the 
 prime agents of the world's renovation. No 
 longer inferior in her own or others' estimation 
 — except as every Christian may esteem him- 
 self inferior to others — she enters upon the 
 task of life with the conscious responsibility 
 appropriate to one who acts a part assigned 
 by Providence. 
 
 It is easy, by the help of a little reflection, 
 to perceive the importance of household duties. 
 There is an intimate connection between these 
 duties and civilized life. The homes of a peo- 
 ple are the true index of their civilization. 
 Almost the first step in improvement is to 
 make the comfortless cabin give place to the 
 stately mansion. In like manner the style of 
 dress and of furniture, of living and of labor- 
 ing, all change from utter rudeness to those 
 
238 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 several degrees of elegance and propriety which 
 distinguish cultivated society. These changes 
 not only affect home, but they constitute, in 
 some degree, its very substance — they are the 
 fit embodiment of a principle which, though it 
 may exist in a savage state, yet never finds in 
 that state an adequate expression. As certain 
 fruits and vegetables growing wild are found 
 to be unpalatable, but improve into luxurious 
 richness by domestication ; so the social condi- 
 tion of our race — the hearts and homes of 
 mankind — improve as they advance from the 
 savage to the civilized state. This assemblage 
 of cohaforts which we denominate home, is not 
 an incident, nor is the effect produced upon it 
 by cultivation incidental ; home is an estate, 
 and changes in it for the better are the truest 
 riches of earth. Commerce and art not only 
 unite to enrich domestic stores, but seem to 
 have scarcely any other design ; all embellish- 
 ments, all luxuries, all acquisitions, whether 
 of wealth- or science, appear to centre here. 
 And over the magnificent collection thus gath- 
 ered from a world's activities, woman is called 
 to preside. She sits as queen amid conoentra- 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 239 
 
 ted blessings. To her, as mistress of the 
 house, all domestic happiness is committed. 
 
 If, in addition to this, we consider that the 
 family is the place of early instruction and 
 training — where moral, intellectual and physi- 
 cal education is chiefly acquired — we surely 
 shall need no further argument to show that 
 woman's position is not an ignoble one. She 
 has indeed a station of immense responsibility ; 
 she is the immediate guardian of the most 
 cherished interests, and man is but the collec- 
 tor of stores which await her disposal. More 
 confined, more frail, and more exposed than 
 man, it is fit that she should be sheltered by 
 home, and furnished with employments less 
 oppressive to the physical system. 
 
 It is strange that a position of so much con- 
 sequence should ever have been deemed either 
 dishonorable or unimportant ; and yet it is not 
 more strange than true. Nor is woman alone 
 responsible for this mistake. Man has too 
 often pointed to her occupation as insignificant, 
 and she has felt the unmerited scorn. In this, 
 however, as in other things, ignorance rather 
 than malice, has prompted the sneer, and equal 
 
240 yCUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 ignorance on the part of her for whom the 
 sneer was intended, has produced a deplorable 
 alienation from one of the noblest pursuits. 
 The following remarks of Dr. Alcott place the 
 subject in its true light : 
 
 " I am sometimes astonished to find the em- 
 ployment of housekeeping rated so low. The 
 cultivator of the soil and the Iteeper of the 
 house, are considered as mere drudges, nigh 
 akin to the domestic animals of which they 
 have charge ; while the useless or almost use- 
 less being, that struts about doing nothing and 
 producing nothing, either by the labor of body 
 or mind — he is the true man, the man of value. 
 He may, perhaps, have a soul. 
 
 " These things ought not so to be. Young 
 housekeeper, you must resolve, that so far as 
 in you lies, they shall not be so. But in order 
 to this, learn to reverence yourself and respect 
 your profession. Make no unworthy conces- 
 sions of inferiority. Just so surely as the soul 
 takes its hues — yea, its character too — from 
 the condition of the clay tenement in which it 
 dwells, just so surely is your profession that of 
 determining what the condition of this clay 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 241 
 
 tenement shall be ; and it is one of the noblest 
 that can adorn or exalt humanity. 
 
 " Away, then, from your mind, every un- 
 worthy idea concerning domestic life. Away 
 the feeling, that your occupation is an inferior 
 one. Fools may call it so ; fools have called it 
 so."* 
 
 I do not by any means affirm that woman's 
 sphere is exclusively domestic. Her sphere is 
 wherever good can be done. She does but 
 share domestic duties with man. In like 
 manner she ought to participate with him in 
 every department of enterprise ; though na- 
 ture we think, obviously indicates by the su- 
 perior strength which she gives to man, that 
 to him belong the more rugged, and to woman, 
 the lighter parts of human labor. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 DUTY TO HERSELF. 
 
 Among the first of these duties is the pres- 
 ervation of her own health. One of the 
 * The Young Housekeeper, p. 51. 
 
242 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 most common and most fatal evils of our social 
 system is that of overtasking the physical pow- 
 ers. Women, instead of regulating their labor 
 by some judicious method, and carefully re- 
 stricting their efforts to their actual ability, 
 not unfrequently sacrifice both health and hap- 
 piness to excessive toil. Continued delving 
 soon breaks dovyn the best constitution and 
 leaves the individual a wreck. Such a waste 
 of health is totally unjustifiable. It is not de- 
 manded by any law of God or man. The 
 customs of society may have imposed the task, 
 but in this, society is wrong, and ought to be 
 reformed. If the complicated housewifery of 
 modern times has devolved upon woman cares 
 and toils beyond her strength, she must resist 
 the demand, and throw herself upon the princi- 
 ples of morality and common sense for justifi- 
 cation. Reform is needed in the department 
 of housekeeping, quite as much as in the state, 
 or in the public manners generally. Many 
 things now required of females, are of no real 
 importance to domestic enjoyment. They are 
 matters of show, and not of solid comfort. 
 How preposterous for the wife and mother to 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 243 
 
 destroy her life by a drudgery in things of no 
 essential advantage ! 
 
 But even allowing that her labors were all 
 requisite to comfort, would it not be infinitely 
 better that the household should divide with 
 her — should share the inconvenience of not 
 having some things, rather than devolve upon 
 woman a burden to which her strength is inad- 
 equate ? In some cases it is better that one 
 should suffer than many, but not in this ; as 
 every considerate mind would much prefer to 
 dispense- with a portion of its accustomed pro- 
 vision, rather than see a frail woman crushed 
 under a weight of toil. The accommodations 
 we so highly prize, and which are so gratify- 
 ing to refinement, lose all their value when 
 they are known to have been procured at the 
 expense of health, if not of life, on the part of 
 those we love. It was greatly to the honor of 
 David that he would not drink the water which 
 had been procured for him at such hazard by 
 the men of his array. " My God forbid it me 
 that I should do this thing ; shall I drink the 
 blood of these men that have put their lives in 
 jeopardy ? for with the jeopardy of their lives 
 
244 YOUNO LADV'S BOOK. 
 
 they brought it. Therefore he would not drink 
 it."* 
 
 It is to be questioned, too, whether there is 
 any kindness in such devotion. The woman 
 who injures herself to relieve the slight discom- 
 forts of her family is, in fact, inflicting upon 
 them by this very act a much greater evil than 
 she removes. Her life is worth more to them 
 than the advantages arising from her dispro- 
 portioned efforts. A sick wife or mother is 
 such an affliction as cannot be compensated by 
 any amount of domestic comforts. ^ Better 
 would it be for all, that she should remain in 
 health, though something were abridged from 
 the wonted effects of her industry, than that 
 she should sink under disease, and deprive her- 
 self of the power to contribute in any measure 
 to the welfare of those around her. 
 
 But there is another, and if possible, still more 
 important duty which she owes to herself — the 
 cultivation of her mi{^. It so happens that the 
 exacting usages of society consume all the time of 
 women, and leave them not an hour for intel- 
 lectual improvement. To yield to this state of 
 
 * 1 Ohron. xi. 19. 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 245 
 
 things is, of course, to defeat the great work of 
 self-education, whicli should be carried on at all 
 times and under all circumstances in life ; it is to 
 make woman — what she too frequently is — a 
 mere domestic servant, without intelligence, 
 and therefore without fitness for the higher du- 
 ties of her station. Nothing could more effect- 
 ually degrade her calling as a housekeeper, or 
 produce discontent in her own mind with that 
 calling, than thus to connect it inevitably with 
 ignorance. And, we may add, nothing else 
 could more effectually disqualify her for honor 
 and usefulness in that calling. The time is 
 past — or will soon be — in which an ignorant 
 woman can be deemed a competent house- 
 keeper. 
 
 The idea that domestic duties are incom- 
 patible with mental culture is absurd in the 
 highest degree. Every woman should rigidly 
 insist upon abstracting sufficient time from her 
 other avocations, to meet the demands of intel- 
 lectual nature. We are aware of the multi- 
 plicity and peculiar urgency of the calls upon 
 her, but she must not yield to the temptation. 
 As a woman — as a rational and accountable 
 
246 YOUNS LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 being, something more is required of her than 
 simply to spend her physical strength in sub- 
 servience to the family interests. She is as 
 much bound to provide for her own improve- 
 ment, as to labor industriously for the benefit 
 of others. And unless she is strenuous on this 
 point, she will do irreparable injury to herself 
 and to all who are associated with her. 
 
 There is yet another branch of duty, which, 
 for the sake of convenience, I will call the 
 ethics of housekeeping. Our modern house- 
 wifery not only sweeps away health and intel- 
 ligence, but it depreciates character and dead- 
 ens the moral sense. In no other way can we 
 account for the rampancy of fashion, and the 
 almost total distrust of moral excellence as a 
 means of securing respect. Utility and de- 
 cency are not the basis of our customs ; we 
 take the popular course, with little reference 
 to light or wrong. Family arrangements seem 
 to be viewed as lying without the province of 
 morality — a mere succession of trivial aifairs, 
 in which we are to be governed by our own 
 caprices. Now it is very evident that n*. 
 woman with such views is prepared to acquit 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 247 
 
 herself reputably as a housekeeper. Nothing 
 short of divesting herself of all dubiousness at 
 this point, and entering upon the discharge of 
 her duties as a high moral trust, can save her 
 from imbecility and danger. She must regard 
 herself as having a mission from God — -and 
 that mission the care of her family. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 FACILITY AND DESPATCH. 
 
 Much that is onerous in housekeeping arises 
 undoubtedly from an ill-arranged method of 
 business. Ladies are too generally in the 
 habit of following the antiquated routine of 
 affairs, to the neglect of those improvements 
 which shorten the processes of labor. Hence, 
 although the number of things to be done has 
 greatly increased upon the hands of house- 
 keepers, yet the time requisite for each of them 
 is not at all diminished. This state of things 
 is of long continuance, and has become a source 
 of intolerable oppression to the domestic circle. 
 
248 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 Woman, who should find nothing but salutary 
 exercise in the care of her house, is doomed 
 to a service as unremitting as that of the 
 galley-slave. Still the fault is measurably her 
 own, because she ought to have given better 
 heed to the circumstances of her condition, 
 and either resisted the multiplication of de- 
 mands \ipon her time, or readjusted her affairs 
 so . as to have met these increased demands 
 ^■^thout the necessity of converting herself into 
 a mere drudge. There is, indeed, a remedy 
 short of this, but it belongs only to the rich ; 
 money will hire help sufficient to carry out the 
 most complicated arrangements in housekeep- 
 ing. What the rich can do, however, is no 
 rule for the poor, nor does it in any degree 
 settle the question of propriety. It may be 
 that the individuals who thus serve the wealthy 
 are injured by such service ; they have em- 
 ployment, we admit, but it is likely that under 
 a more enlightened domestic economy, they 
 might have both employment and independence. 
 Many of the poor who are kept as servants, 
 ought to be taught the art of living, and be 
 raised by it above that precariousness insepa- 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 249 
 
 rable from their secondary relation to society. 
 The servant usually has no more than a bare 
 subsistence, and if the wants of a family are to 
 be provided for out of the avails of such ser- 
 vice, the most abject poverty, sooner or later, 
 must inevitably follow. It is therefore unmer- 
 ciful to favor a system which detaches large 
 numbers from independent modes of living, and 
 makes them subject to the misfortunes and 
 caprices of individuals. Such a mode of life 
 may answer for one generation, but it will 'en- 
 tail wretchedness upon the next. 
 
 By a proper simplification of business, all 
 the details of housekeeping may be brought 
 within the range of human powers. It is not 
 necessary that the wife should become a slave, 
 or that an enormous expense should be incurred 
 for hired help, in order to exempt her from 
 such a fate. Where machinery of any kind 
 can be employed to facilitate the performance 
 of domestic labor, it should most certainly be 
 brought into requisition. But here things are 
 much as they were fifty or a hundred years 
 ago, although almost every branch of labor out 
 of the house has been greatly expedited by me- 
 
250 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 chanical yiventions. Perhaps the nature of 
 these duties is such as not to admit of an ex- 
 tensive application of artificial assistance ; but 
 the're is every reason to believe that an inven- 
 tive genius would call in the aid of mechanics 
 to cut off a portion of the labor now devolved 
 upon females. In effect, this has been done 
 already in one important particular — the man- 
 ufacture of cloth. This was once wholly a 
 branch of domestic industry, and its transfer to 
 factories, only shows what is possible by way 
 of reducing the aggregate of household toils. 
 
 There are some ladies who evidently fail to 
 meet the demands upon their time, only be- 
 cause they lack the faculty of despatch. They 
 toil ever, but make no progress. This unhappy 
 trait is a constitutional infirmity, and requires 
 pity rather than blame. Such are, like those 
 farmers who seem never to be able to keep up 
 with the seasons ; their work is always crowding 
 and always behind, not from its abundance, but 
 solely from the manner in which it is conducted? 
 Others, possessing a happier practical talent, 
 will both do more and do it in season. For 
 this evil there is, perhaps, no absolute remedy. 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 251 
 
 But something may be done to lessen mate- 
 rially, if not entirely remove, this vexatious 
 slov?ness. Let it be remembered, then, that it 
 is far easier to drive work than to be driven by 
 work. Those who fall behind at all, have to 
 work at a great disadvantage ; it should there- 
 fore be set down as a fixed rule to be always 
 slightly in advance, so as to secure whatever 
 advantage there may be in a constant readi- 
 ness for work. This will give the necessary 
 self-confidenoe, and prevent the disagreeable 
 and disqualifying hurrisdness into which peo- 
 ple fail who do not keep up with their busi- 
 ness. This perpetual lagging is often occa- 
 sioned by too closely folloyving the old maxim, 
 that what is once well done is twice done. It 
 is true that work should be done well, and 
 equally true that it can be done none the bet- 
 ter for excessive painstaking. A faithful ap- 
 plication of our powers is requisite, but nothing 
 more. Thoroughness, carried bey oIi3» the point 
 of propriety, loses its utility and degenerates 
 into a mere waste of time. If ladies would 
 have time for all their duties, they must save 
 
252 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 time by a more equal distribution of their hours 
 on the various objects of toil. 
 
 That is not a genuine love of order and ex- 
 cellence which prompts to disproportionate la- 
 bor. It is well to be precise, but there is no 
 precision in doing one thing to the neglect of 
 another — in bestowing that time and pains on 
 a single department, which are demanded by 
 twenty others of equal importance. This 
 world is not the place for indiscriminate effort. 
 Ploughing is indispensable, as much so as plant- 
 ing and reaping ; but if the farmer ploughs all 
 the time, he can neither plant nor reap. Each 
 employment should have its proper share of 
 attention, and no more. It is on this principle 
 that the judicious housewife disposes of her 
 time so as to attain the greatest general good 
 for her family, although she may not act quite 
 up to her taste or wishes, in the prosecution of 
 any one branch of labor. 
 
 If it is absurd to bestow labor disproportion- 
 ately, even on objects of importance, how much 
 more absurd, not to say criminal, is it where 
 the object itself is of no consequence ! Arid 
 yet this kind of trifling, as I shall show in the 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. ^'253 
 
 next section, is one of the chief hindrances of 
 housekeeping. 
 
 SECTION Y. 
 ABRIDGMEITT OF LABOR. 
 
 That domestic labor might be reduced in 
 several respects, not only without injury to the 
 welfare of the family, but with positive advan- 
 tage, is a palpable truth. Nor is anything 
 wanting to demonstrate this fact, but suitable 
 enterprise and courage on the part of those to 
 whom the oversight of these matters is com- 
 mitted. In this their peculiar province, ladies 
 can introduce whatever changes they please. 
 I do not intend to say, that reform here will 
 cost no effort ; where luxury has corrupted the 
 habits of a people, it is not a small task to re- 
 store a salutary simplicity. Pampered appe- 
 tites will not easily be denied, and she must 
 be a heroine indeed, who can at once overcome 
 all obstacles of the kind. But if the effort were 
 general among the sex — if all women ■'would 
 
254 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 unite in an attempt to make a reasonable 
 abridgment of domestic toils, there cannot be 
 the slightest doubt of their success. It would 
 be difficult to state every particular to which 
 this reform might be extended. Dress, furni- 
 ture, and cookery are evidently open to im- 
 provement. Fewer garments might be worn, 
 and those too made, if it were necessary, in a 
 less complicated and expensive manner. At pres- 
 ent, little or no regard is paid to the time and 
 labor spent in making garments, provided only 
 that they are got up in the most approved 
 fashion. The same is true of furniture. Neither 
 the first cost, nor the durability, nor the utility 
 of articles in this line is much regarded. Nor 
 is the labor of cleaning and keeping in order 
 suites of rooms and superfluous furniture often 
 considered. The grand absorbing object which 
 justifies all expense, and sets at nought all 
 pains, is to appear in style. For this alone 
 education may be scrimped, morals ruined, 
 comfort banished, and healthy exercise con- 
 verted into hopeless drudgery. But more than 
 all others does the culinary department require 
 to be curtailed. Its demands exceed all meas- 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 255 
 
 ure ; they scarce leave a shred of time for other 
 duties. On this subject I must again refer tp 
 Dr. Alcott, whose observations are worthy of 
 being written in letters of gold. 
 
 " I know there are many things which con- 
 sume the time of a housekeeper besides mere 
 cookery ; but I also know, that as things are, 
 the latter comes in for a very large ■ share of 
 her efforts and strength. It is no light task 
 to prepare hot water and make tea or coffee 
 twice or three times a day ; to heat one's self over 
 the fire, the stove, or the oven, two or three 
 times a day ; to prepare several hot dishes for 
 every meal ; and to make ready the sauces, 
 gravies, and other accompaniments for each 
 meal. Nor is it a small matter to wash a host 
 of plates, and platters, and tea-cups, and coffee- 
 bowls, and tumblers, and knives, and forks, 
 and spoons, three or four times a day. 
 
 " I verily believe it is the trimmings of our 
 meals — the non-essentials rather than the essen- 
 tials — that consume the great bulk of the time 
 of our females. Cooking there must indeed 
 be ; boiling, baking, stewing, roasting, &o. ; — 
 but these, processes need not be so conducted 
 
256 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 as to absorb all our time. There is no more 
 need of cooking everything new for each meal, 
 than there is of washing elothgs every day ; not 
 a whit. Nor is there any necessity for having 
 half a dozen courses of food at the same meal. 
 One course is enough, and one coeked dish is 
 enough — for prince or peasant — at one meal. 
 The preparation of jjieat, and potatoes, and 
 turnips, and pudding, and pie, and fruits, to 
 succeed each other as so many different courses, 
 with their accompaniments — pickles, sauces, 
 gravies, &c. — to say nothing of any hot drinks 
 to accompany them, is a species of tyranny 
 imposed by fashion, to which bo housekeeper 
 ought ever to be compelled to submit. It may 
 be difficult for her to oppose the current ; Taut 
 it is for her life, and the life of her husband 
 and children to do so. 
 
 " I tremble when I think how woman's time 
 — one of the most precious gifts of God — ^is frit- 
 tered away in pampering the wants and ad- 
 ministering to the pleasures of the mere physi- 
 cal nature of man. She must toil twelve, 
 fifteen or eighteen hours a day in attending to 
 his apartments, his clothes, his stomach, &c., 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 257 
 
 and wear herself out in this way, and leave the 
 marks of this wear and tear in the constitution 
 of her children ; and to her daughters the same 
 legacy which; she received from her mother — 
 the permission to wear herself out prematurely 
 in the same manner. And the worst of all 
 is — I repeat the sentiment — woman neither 
 knows nor feels her degradation. Nay, she 
 often glories in it. This is, in fact, the worst 
 feature of sla'very ; it obliterates the very relish 
 of liberty, and makes the slave embrace her 
 chains. Especially is this so with the slavery 
 Df our lusts, and passions, and propensities, and 
 appetites. Woman not only toils on, the will- 
 ing slave of an arbitrary fashion, that demands 
 of her to surrender her whole nature — ^bodily, 
 mental, and moral — to the din of plates, and 
 pots, and kettles, but she is often proud of these 
 employments, and seeks her reputation in them. 
 She vainly seems to suppose that to prepare 
 fashionable compounds in the most fashionable 
 style, and to set an immense variety of her 
 fashionable compounds on the same table, is to 
 act up to the highest dignity of her nature. I 
 do not mean that she ever asserts this, in so 
 
258 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 many -words ; but she does so in her actions — 
 and actions, according to the old maxim, speak 
 louder than words."* 
 
 Now, whatever objection there may be to 
 the extreme simplicity of the author's system 
 of dietetics, there certainly can be none to that 
 necessary reduction of labor for which he con- 
 tends. If one third or one half of the labor now 
 bestowed in superfluous cookery, could be re- 
 deemed for other and nobler employments, it 
 would be an incalculable blessing. And if a 
 similar saving could be effected in the other 
 departments of housekeeping, woman might 
 speedily be disenthralled. Her life is now a 
 scene of suffering and oppression, because she 
 is born to labors altogether too much for 
 her strength. Let tlie demands upon her be 
 proportioned to her actual ability, and she will 
 have some chance of rising from the degrada- 
 tion of an over-worked condition. 
 
 We do not say in what, nor to what extent, 
 this abridgment should take placej but we in- 
 sist that it should take place somewhere, and 
 to some extent — far enough at all hazards to 
 
 * The Young Housekeeper, pp. 315, 316. 
 
DOMESTFC EDUCATION. 259 
 
 obviate the difficulties in which our domestic 
 economy is involved by its excessive demand 
 for female labor. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 HOUSEWIFERY AND COMMON SENSE. 
 
 It should be settled in the mind of every 
 woman, that housewifery is under the control 
 of common sense. The great evil of the pres- 
 ent day is, that custom predominates to the 
 exclusion of judgment. Females see and feel 
 their enslaved condition, but for want of a full 
 conviction of the impropriety of following the 
 popular customs, they are unable to reform the 
 department of housekeeping, and introduce 
 those salutary improvements which the slight- 
 est acquaintance with the business shows to be 
 necessary. This slavish subserviency to the ton 
 is .one of the greatest hindrances to human pro- 
 gress ; it crushes both male and female — more 
 especially the latter — and dooms them to dfag 
 on through life under embarrassments which a 
 little independence could not fail to remove. 
 
 17 
 
260 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 That a thing is common, is no sufficient 
 reason for its continuance, if it is at war with 
 our best interests. No one thinks of making 
 the commonness of vice a plea for the practice 
 of vice ; such an argument — if argument it 
 might be called — would justly be considered 
 devoid of all force. And yet, most of the 
 wretchedly annoying customs of domestic life 
 have no other foundation — they have drifted in 
 upon us, because, in such matters, one must 
 blindly follow another. This universal obse- 
 quiousness — this passive, unreflecting submis- 
 sion, has cost many a woman her life, and 
 spread desolation through many a household 
 where nothing was wanting to life or happiness, 
 but a suitable degree of attention to the dic- 
 tates of common-sense. Woman, as a rational 
 being, is bound to exercise perpetual vigilance 
 against all such encroachments upon her rights ; 
 she cannot innocently shut her eyes, and per- 
 mit these infringements to go on, as though the 
 labor of correction were devolved on some one 
 else. It is for her to announce what is practi- 
 cable, and what is not practicable, in her pecu- 
 liar department. And nothing but a foolish 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 261 
 
 renunciation of her own essential independence 
 as a moral agent, can ever make her the vic- 
 tim of prescription. She may indeed be de- 
 ceived, or be off her guard for a time, but it is 
 the prerogative of reason to detect as well as to 
 rectify error ; and in this, as in a thousand 
 other things, her reason must be her protec- 
 tion. 
 
 Doubtless the other sex have much to do by 
 way of co-operation, in making improvements 
 even in household affairs. As woman is but 
 a joint proprietor and manager of the house, 
 she cannot be expected to control its arrange- 
 ments exclusively, though she must of necessity 
 be the chief agent. Men, in spite of the preju- 
 dice against their meddling with such matters, 
 should have far more to do with household reg- 
 ulations, and women should not deem advice 
 and co-operation from this source an unwarrant- 
 able intrusion upon their rights. No sensible 
 woman could deem it an offence for her hus- 
 band to make suggestions touching domestic 
 regulations, if at the same time, her own right 
 to advise in his affairs, were — as it always 
 should be — fully admitted. The united judg- 
 
262 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 ment of both heads of the family will often be 
 necessary in other things, and why not in per- 
 fecting that which, in the main, must be left 
 to the supervision of one alona? Any little 
 jealousy here is indicative of weakness rather 
 than a just sense of what belongs to individual 
 character. 
 
 I do not wish to insinuate that women never 
 apply their intellectual faculties to household- 
 duties, for the reverse is true. They are full 
 of ingenious expedients, but in the wrong di- 
 rection ; they aim with great dexterity to com- 
 ply with the arbitrary and unreasonable de- 
 mands of custom, when, instead of such com- 
 pliance, they ought to devote all their powers 
 to uproot the custom itself. Resistance, rather 
 than laborious conformity, is required of them. 
 Every woman may not have the sagacity to 
 devise improvements, but every woman has the 
 power of resistance, and should use it when- 
 ever her health or happiness is assailed by the 
 tyranny of popular usage. It would be much 
 better to summon her faculties to the work of 
 reform, than to wear out life a willing or un- 
 willing slave to social wrongs. 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 263 
 
 What we object to is, that women should 
 feel the slightest obligation to prosecute their 
 toils without assuming to judge for themselves 
 as to the necessity or propriety of what they 
 do. We would not have them enter upon their 
 tasks as if compelled by destiny. The rules 
 of housekeeping are not to be regarded as 
 changeless. There should be a constant appli- 
 cation of reason to the duties of the household. 
 Nor is there any other means of progress. In 
 this respect one thing is as another — the sim- 
 plest rules of housekeeping, as the profoundest 
 depths of science, or the most weighty affairs 
 of state. Man has no method of improvement 
 but that of applying his mental powers to the 
 objects around him. The progress of the arts 
 and sciences has been effected in this manner, 
 and the continuance of this progress depends 
 entirely upon these intellectual efforts. If there 
 has been little or no advancement in the art of 
 housekeeping, it is because the female mind 
 has been otherwise occupied. Had women be- 
 stowed profound thought on the matters of 
 daily toil — had they brought inventive genius, 
 and philosophic observation, and vigorous enter- 
 
264 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 prise to these things — domestic affairs would 
 have kept pace with other improvements. 
 But their course has been like that of the slave 
 who delves from year to year, and from gener- 
 ation to generation, without ever improving 
 the facilities for labor, or profiting by the re- 
 sults of experience. This unintellectual in- 
 dustry never advances the condition of society. 
 There must be thought — vigorous, persevering 
 thought, on all the complicated details of 
 housewifery, or the business will remain as it 
 is — burdensome and destructive to the physical 
 energies of those who engage in it. Surely we 
 need not perpetuate an evil of this kind. All 
 other departments of human labor are begin- 
 ning to yield to human skill, and females have 
 only to employ the faculties which God has 
 given them, to effect every necessary improve- 
 ment in their particular sphere. 
 
 SECTION yii. 
 
 NEATNESS. 
 Few things are more essential to a house- 
 keeper than thorough cleanliness. This is so 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 265 
 
 well understood and so common, indeed, among 
 all who value their reputation for domestic 
 management, that I scarcely need refer to the 
 subject at all. But however common it may- 
 be, there are still some painful exceptions ; and 
 no work professing to give even a cursory view 
 of the principles of housekeeping, should omit 
 so important a topic. 
 
 Sluttishness, wherever it prevails, is an ef- 
 fectual blight upon all enjoyment. No matter 
 how costly the dwelling, or the furniture, or 
 the apparel, or the cookery, if it must be ac- 
 companied by the loathsome sensation of filth. 
 We have shown that home is a place of sacred 
 delights, and it will ever be regarded as such 
 by all who have known what it is to have a 
 home. 
 
 Nothing should be suffered to impair its 
 sanctity ; especially nothing so easily avoided 
 as carelessness and dirt. Negligence here is 
 the ruin of garnered stores. All want of tidi- 
 ness is an approach to a dissolution of the fam- 
 ily compact — not, perhaps, directly, but ind' 
 rectly, inasmuch as it destroys the mutual 
 respect on which the compact is based. There 
 
266 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 is, moreover, a violation of positive obligation 
 on the part of her who is thus guilty, since she 
 fails to render her household comfortable. The 
 means of their comfort are placed in her hands, 
 and by worse than wasting thein, she defeats 
 the purpose of industry, and makes home un- 
 desirable. It is not probable that careless 
 housekeepers are aware of these sad conse- 
 quences ; they are generally a well-meaning 
 class of females, and sin more from ignorance 
 than from evil intention. We shall notice 
 some of the causes of a want of neatness. 
 
 1. The first, and probably the most difficult 
 to be overcome, is that of improper education. 
 A young lady brought up in habits of negli- 
 gence, is very likely to retain those habits 
 through life ; she has no standard of correct 
 management ^xed in her mind, and conse- 
 quently cannot judge of her own conduct in 
 this particular. One who has been trained to 
 neatness can readily detect every departure, 
 because she is familiar with the true method 
 of performing such things. But it is quite 
 within the power of any woman, by the help 
 of a little observation, and a little firmness, to 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 267 
 
 amend her domestic education in this respect, 
 and become an ornament instead of a reproach 
 to her house. 
 
 2. The next cause is that excessive exertion, 
 or overtasking of the physical powers, vi^hioh is 
 characteristic of many women. They apply 
 themselves with such eagerness and impru- 
 dence as to break down their health, and com- 
 pel a withdrawal from even ordinary duties. 
 Better care of their health and a more judi- 
 cious bestowment of their strength, would have 
 enabled them to reach the point of propriety, 
 which is now far in advance of their enfeebled 
 energies. She who insists upon doing every- 
 thing, will soon find herself incapable of doing 
 anything. 
 
 3. Devotion to what may be considered 
 business — something aside from household af- 
 fairs — is another fruitful source of neglect. 
 "Women, as well as men, too often become ab- 
 sorbed in pursuits of gain ; and their earnings 
 in one direction have the effect to ruin their 
 reputation in another ; hence we find the good 
 housekeeper merged in the successful mechanic, 
 painter, musician, florist, or teacher. These 
 
268 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 oases may be comparatively rare, but who has 
 not seen them ? 
 
 4. With some there seems to be a total mis- 
 apprehension of the real importance of neat- 
 ness and good order to the domestic establish- 
 ment. They look upon such a condition of 
 things as desirable rather than necessary. Now 
 it is not too much to say of these, that they 
 are deficient in the first principles of house- 
 keeping. Industry and integrity they may 
 have, but they can have no just conception of 
 what constitutes the excellence and beauty of 
 home. All advice will be lost upon such, we 
 fear ; they do not thinlc deeply ; at least, they 
 do not think in the right direction, and it is 
 scarcely possible to apprize them of their error. 
 In order to improvement, there must be either 
 implicit submission to the dictates of a master, 
 or careful observation and comparison on our 
 own part, and of our own accord. This pro- 
 cess of self-correction is not congenial with the 
 present style of female education, and however 
 practicable it may be, it is seldom put in re- 
 quisition. 
 
 5. Another cause of the evil in question, is 
 
DOMESTEC EDUCATION. 269 
 
 a disgust for domestic employments. Most 
 females have come to regard the details of 
 housewifery as unworthy of their attention, 
 and it is not wonderful that many pass over in 
 a superficial and careless manner, what all 
 deem as rightfully beneath their notice.' We 
 have already conceded that reform is neces- 
 sary — that the prevailing domestic economy is 
 both onerous and absurd — but this, though a 
 good reason for improving the system, is no 
 reason for suifering it still further to deteri- 
 orate. 
 
 6. The last thing which I shall name in this 
 connection, is a false estimate of neatness con- 
 sidered as a trait of female character. What- 
 ever other virtues and excellencies a woman 
 may have, she can never command much re- 
 spect while justly chargeable with deficiency 
 in point of cleanliness. It will be apparent to 
 all that she lacks one essential qualification for 
 domestic happiness. The home that is com- 
 mitted to her care will not have the attractions 
 which belong to that sacred spot. No man 
 can wish to unite his destiny with a woman 
 whose habits might render his abode unin- 
 23* 
 
270 
 
 YOUNG liADY'S BOOK. 
 
 viting, and thus prove a constant annoyance 
 to his sense of propriety. We admit that this, 
 as well as other faults, may be overcome ; but 
 no prudent man would choose to hazard his 
 peace by incurring the necessity for such a cor- 
 rection, when a companion might be found 
 whose habits were unexceptionable. Ladies 
 should remember that all subsequent improve- 
 ment is doubtful, and if they wish to make a 
 favorable impression on the other sex, they 
 must possess not only a capacity for excellence, 
 but excellence itself. 
 
 SECTION YIII. 
 CARE OP HEALTH. 
 
 Although I have insisted upon neatness as 
 a prominent trait of female character, yet I 
 must not be understood to justify those ex- 
 treme efforts which ladies sometimes put forth 
 to reach this excellence. It is better, if need 
 be, to incur censure for untidiness, than to be 
 guilty -of suicide through over-exertion. All 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 271 
 
 conventional, and even all natural requirements 
 have their limit — and that limit is the strength 
 of the individual on 'whom they are laid. Self- 
 preservation, it is said, is the first law of na- 
 ture, and no woman can, in justice either to 
 herself or others, push the virtue of neatness 
 so far as to infract this law. She ought to 
 possess this virtue, and may, to the fullest ex- 
 tent ; but then, it must often be in principle 
 only. She may be restrained in the practice 
 of this as of other virtues. The spirit may be 
 wiUing when the flesh is weak. Judgment 
 must govern the application of her powers, and 
 opportunity must concur with the disposition 
 for correct practice. 
 
 It is to be feared, however, that the occasion 
 of this over-exertion, so ruinous to health, is 
 too often of a frivolous character. Health is 
 sacrificed to fastidiousness, rather than to the 
 demands of decency. The strength bestowed 
 on matters of taste merely, or what is of no 
 importance beyond the gratification of a vain 
 ambition, should be regarded as every way an 
 unjustifiable outlay, save in those cases where 
 it can be done without prejudice to health. 
 
272 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 No human being is at liberty to trifle with the 
 gift of existence, or to put life in peril, except 
 in the performance of duty. 
 
 Ample time must be allowed for bodily rest, 
 as well as for mental improvement. To forego 
 this, is deliberately to trample on the laws of 
 our being, inasmuch as neither physical nor in- 
 tellectual vigor can be maintained under a 
 slavish and uninterrupted devotion to manual 
 labor. It is not enough that rest is desired, 
 and would be thankfully enjoyed — a very dif- 
 ferent frame of mind is required to meet this 
 contingency — there must be a feeling of abso- 
 lute resistance. Let it be understood that im- 
 proper demands, however urgent in themselves, 
 or clamorously put forth, will be instantly and 
 uncompromisingly rejected — and further, let it 
 be known, that no attempt will be made to do 
 all that might be done, or that might seem de- 
 sirable to be done. Those who aim to do every- 
 thing, are in a fair way to- do nothing ; their 
 dogged efforts only induce premature prostra- 
 tion, thus defeating not merely what they 
 sought to do, but what they might have done 
 had their powers been wisely- directed. 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 273 
 
 Why should women, any nnore than men, 
 resolve to do everything ? Among men labor 
 is regulated by the ability of the laborer, and 
 not at all by the demand for his services. 
 There m.ay be a thousand things which require 
 attention, and either of them may be sufficient 
 to occupy fully the powers of a man, but such 
 a contingency rarely, if ever, calls forth the 
 suicidal purpose, of measuring strength with 
 these accumulated tasks. Women should 
 learn to acquiesce in what is so plainly beyond 
 their control. Fretfulness and impatience, if 
 they take the form of excessive industry, may 
 lead to immolation by early subverting the con- 
 stitution; but that they can ever, of them- 
 selves, be attended with any better result, or 
 contribute in any measure to lessen the num- 
 ber of domestic duties, it would be folly to 
 suppose. Science, at the bidding of moral 
 principle, must devise means for reducing the 
 unwieldy burden of labor now thrown upon 
 females. It would be impossible for men, or 
 even for animals, to do what is now easily 
 done by means of machinery propelled either 
 by steam or water. And we see not but 
 
274 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 women must wait for many things to be done, 
 till the means of doing them shall be increased. 
 
 There is still another instance in which re- 
 straint is needed — it is when the love of indus- 
 try prompts to undue exertion. Many ladies 
 are imprudent, not from any real necessity, but 
 from indulgence in labor, because, through the 
 influence of habit, labor has become agreeable 
 to them. Such contrive to fill up every mo- 
 ment with something that may be called work 
 — no matter how trifling, if it only serves to 
 keep them employed. This perpetual drilling, 
 though it may be pleftsant to the economic 
 feelings of the individual, must inevitably wear 
 upon the constitution, and occasion premature 
 decay. But even if all must be done that is 
 finally done by those who are thus constantly 
 plodding, it is questionable whether some little 
 intermission would not facilitate the task. 
 Suitable rest and relaxation are necessary to 
 keep up the elasticity of the system, and pre- 
 vent that slowness which is peculiar to a jaded 
 condition of the animal powers. 
 
 Ladies should remember that the bare per- 
 formance of so much manual labor is not their 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 275 
 
 only duty. The obligation to labor is at all 
 times modified by collateral obligations of equal 
 authority and importance. I do not regard the 
 temptations to this fault by any means as nu- 
 merous as to some other faults, but still no 
 careful observer can have failed to notice re- 
 peated instances in which life, or health, or 
 both have been sacrificed to inordinate indus- 
 try. Women have not such vigor as will en- 
 able them to delve on, regardless of conse- 
 quences ; labor they may, and should, but they 
 are too frail — as are all of human kind — to en- 
 dure indiscriminate and- uninterrupted toil. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 LABOR PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH. 
 
 Let it not be imagined, however, that we 
 wish to dissuade from labor as a whole. 
 
 Far from it indeed — so far that notwith- 
 standing what is said here, we will repeat the 
 thousand times told truth, that labor is condu- 
 cive to health. But then it miM be such 
 
 )8 
 
976 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 labor, and in such measure, as is consistent 
 with the physical system. Industry — even 
 hard work — is one of the best promoters of 
 health, when not carried to excess. "We might 
 say more — it is an indispensable want of both 
 our material and mental natures. To the 
 former it gives such vigor as should inspire 
 cheerfulness in the performance of duty, and 
 to the latter such a consciousness of useful- 
 ness as greatly enhances self-respect. To the 
 weaker sex, as well as to the stronger, labor is 
 a merciful provision. It not only prevents the. 
 innumerable evils which flow from idleness, or 
 from perverted activity, but ennobles human 
 nature by making it instrumental of good. The 
 industrious are producers — they multiply the 
 gifts of God, and thus, instead of burdening 
 tlie world with their support, and hanging as 
 dead weights upon society, they become effi- 
 cient contributors to the general welfare. We 
 have no sympathy for those who look upon 
 labor with displacency, but we would guard 
 against an abuse of vs^hat all right-minded per- 
 sons deem honorable, and what, whether hon- 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 277 
 
 orable or not, the great majority are com- 
 pelled to practice. 
 
 It is not work that injures, but uninterrupted 
 work — it is not hard work that injures, but too 
 hard work. There is good reason for believ- 
 ing that many ladies would be more healthy 
 if they worked more. Their pernicious views 
 of gentility exclude them from those Icinds of 
 labor which are most beneficial — such as the 
 kitchen or the garden might afford — and hence 
 they rarely have that vigorous exercise on 
 which physical health is mainly dependent. 
 In part, this repugnance to such employments 
 is easily accounted for, and not entirely unjus- 
 tifiable. There was a time — and that time 
 has not wholly passed — when woman was con- 
 sidered as predestinated to the kitchen, and to 
 nothing else. No wonder that she revolts at a 
 train of duties so unreasonably contracted; 
 they become disgusting by being made exclu- 
 sive, and she chooses to assert her dignity by 
 contemning the degrading seryitude. The true 
 remedy is, not a desertion of these duties, but 
 such a reform of household affairs as shall re- 
 24 
 
278 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 store to the occupation of woman the respect 
 which it has lost. 
 
 By resorting to exercises of this kind, with 
 due regard to the laws of health, the physical 
 constitution of ourfemales would readily im- 
 prove. But it is quite possible that the highest 
 degree of improvement would require a better 
 system of exercise than is supplied by the or- 
 dinary labors of housekeeping. It may be that 
 more time should be spent in the open air, and 
 that more vigorous efforts should occasionally 
 be put forth, in order to a full development of 
 the bodily powers. This advantage, however, 
 cannot be fully reached by processes of labor, 
 under existing social regulations. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 ECONOMY. 
 
 Nothing tends more to the peace and pros- 
 perity of the household than judicious economy. 
 Good management is a sort of natural wealth 
 which is often more than equivalent to money. 
 Without this, domestic affairs soon fall into 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 279 
 
 confasion, and such confusion as money alone, 
 however abundant, can seldom remove. I 
 need not say that the exercise of this economy 
 is, in a great measure, devolved upon woman. 
 Her position as the head of the domestic estab- 
 lishment necessarily subjects its pecuniary 
 concerns to her direction. She may not ac- 
 quire the money which is to be expended, 
 but it has to be expended in conformity to 
 her taste and wishes. If she fails to judge 
 correctly in regard to such expenditures, the 
 best interests of the family suffer, nor is there 
 any remedy, except in the greater evil of pass- 
 ing her by as unworthy of being consulted, or 
 as incapable of attending to matters that 
 evidently belong to her department. No affec- 
 tionate man would wish to do this ; no sensi- 
 ble woman would render it necessary to be done. 
 But in order to prevent an evil which may 
 easily arise, females should avoid, not only all 
 extravagance, but all unnecessary outlays. 
 The habit of spending every available dollar 
 is a dangerous one, because it leaves the 
 mind irritable, and too conscious of depend- 
 ence. Those who indulge in this practice are 
 
280 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 often clamorous for more, when more is not 
 honestly within the reach of such as provide 
 for them. Persuasion, still more difficult to 
 be resisted than complaint, is not unfrequently 
 employed to supply the want of money — a 
 want that may truly be said " to grow by 
 what it feeds upon." How many fortunes 
 have been ruined by these tender importuni- 
 ties ? How many men of wealth have lived 
 beyond their means, till the temptations which 
 spring from financial embarrassment, have in- 
 volved them in flagrant crime, and their fami- 
 lies in the deepest disgrace and poverty ? 
 
 Yet the number who have thus fallen from 
 affluence to indigence, will bear no proportion 
 to those who, by the same unhappy means, 
 have been kept from rising. An anxiety to 
 follow too expensive examples of living, has 
 swallowed up the scanty substance of the poor, 
 and made perpetual a poverty that might easily 
 have been removed by a little self-denial. In 
 this way many families are dragging on from 
 year to year, suffering all the inconvenience 
 and distress incident to penury, rather than 
 contract their desires sufficiently to improve 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 281 
 
 their circumstances. With such, future com- 
 petence is no offset to present gratification. 
 
 This general improvidence is mainly caused 
 by that disordered state of things which in so 
 many ways bears heavily upon our females. 
 Our complicated and extravagant modes of liv- 
 ing have increased domestic toils and expenses 
 to such an extent, that both the physical system 
 of women and the financial resources of men 
 are too frequently inadequate to meet the de- 
 mands of housekeeping. And to make the 
 matter still worse, the peculiar condition of 
 woman in the social system, renders her an 
 easy prey to temptations of this kind — her del- 
 icacy, her subordination, her passiveness, and 
 her dependence, all combine to unfit her for a 
 vigorous resistance to the encroachments of 
 fashionable life. She is not alone in fault, but 
 she shares the guilt, and too often contributes 
 to extend the wretched consequences of this 
 perverted style of living. It is with her con- 
 sent, and too often at her solicitation, that we 
 waste in personal decoration, the means of 
 comfortable subsistence. 
 24* 
 
282 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 " We sacrifice to dress, till household joys 
 And comfort cease. Dress drains oar cellar dry 
 And keeps our larder leau ; puts out our firea 
 And introduces hunger, frost and ■woe, 
 Where peace and hospitality might reiga"* 
 
 But it is not in dress only that we encoun- 
 ter this prodigality of means. The age in 
 which we live is remarkable for its manufac- 
 tures, and for its abundance of everything 
 calculated to foster voluptuousness. The snare 
 is, therefore, continually spread for woman — 
 an appeal is made to her taste, and to her love 
 of refinement, which she cannot resist without 
 fixed habits of economy. There is too much 
 evidence that this facility for indulgence has 
 not unfrequently been fatal to virtue as well as 
 to domestic happiness. 
 
 " No-w basket up the family of plagues, 
 That waste our vitals ; peculation, sale 
 Of honor, perjury, corruption, frauds 
 By forgery, by subterfuge of law. 
 By tricks and lies as numerous and as keen 
 As the necessities their authors feel ; 
 Then oast them, closely bundled, every brat 
 At the right door. Profusion is the sire. 
 
 * Task, B. 2. 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 283 
 
 Profusion unrestrained, with all that's base 
 
 In character, has littered all the land, 
 
 And bred, within the memory of no few, 
 
 A priesthood, such as Baal's was of old, 
 
 A people, such as never was till now. 
 
 It is a hungry vice : — it eats up all 
 
 That gives society its beauty,' strength. 
 
 Convenience, and security, and use : 
 
 Makes men mere vermin, worthy to be trapped 
 
 And gibbeted, as fast as catchpole claws 
 
 Can seize their slippery prey. Unties the knot 
 
 Of union, and converts the sacred bond, 
 
 That holds mankind together, to a scourge."* 
 
 When it is considered that any resistance to 
 such unwarrantable expenditures must depend, 
 to a great extent, upon the economical habits 
 of woman, we cannot easily over-estimate the 
 importance of such habits to her domestic char- 
 acter. If she is unwilling to practice self-de- 
 nial, or if her judgment fails, and the means 
 at her command are not well employed, the in- 
 dependence and happiness of the family are 
 almost inevitably ruined. Were it not that a 
 certain degree of elegance — and that too with- 
 out regard to pecuniary circumstances — is 
 deemed essential to respectability, and were it 
 *lbid. 
 
284 
 
 YOUNG LADV'3 BOOK. 
 
 not that this false impression is apt to assume 
 the specious form of virtuous emulation, there 
 would be much less need of the caution here 
 given. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 CO-OPERATION. 
 
 The oneness of the family is a consideration 
 never to be overlooked. When both the civil 
 law and religion have pronounced the parties 
 to the matrimonial compact "one flesh;" and 
 . especially, when from this union children gfow 
 up to claim parental care, it would be worse 
 than idle to dream of separate interests. Least 
 of all should woman, whose circumstances are 
 so changed by this new relation, think of as- 
 serting any improper individuality. I am not 
 prepared to say that the law deals fairly by her 
 in every case, for I think it does not, but she 
 cannot find redress in standing aloof from that 
 identity of interests with which her destiny has 
 become so intimately connected. The pros- 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 285 
 
 perity of the family, and of every member of 
 the family, is her prosperity. She is not a 
 slave, toiling solely for their happiness, irrespec- 
 tive of her own. Yet how frequently do we 
 hear it said by ladies who are not deficient in 
 good sense, but who seem to cherish an undue 
 individuality of feeling, that they are spending 
 their time at a great sacrifice, and wearing 
 themselves out for the promotion of objects for- 
 eign to their own best good. What if the 
 other sex should adopt a similar view ? What 
 if the father of a family should deem his time 
 or means mis-spent when devoted to his house- 
 hold ? Surely no man or woman ought to re- 
 gard such an object as among the inferior pur- 
 poses of life. The time spent in taking care 
 of the family should be considered as spent in 
 one of the noblest duties ever devolved upon a 
 human being. 
 
 Women have more to do directly with the 
 family than men have, and they axe conse- 
 quently in danger of acquiring a dislike to 
 claims which are so monotonous, and which 
 press upon them often with much inconve- 
 nience. The perpetual routine of domestic 
 
886 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 avocations, separated as it is for the most part 
 from the excitements of public life, and from 
 the stirring scenes incident to the employments 
 of men, is but too well calculated to beget in- 
 difference, and to create ideas of essential infe- 
 riority. This disadvantage, coupled with the 
 known estimate so generally, but mistakenly, 
 placed upon such pursuits, may well account 
 for the repinings to which we allude. 
 
 It is not strange that the mind of woman 
 yearns for something higher than the equivocal 
 occupations to which the customs of society 
 have doomed her ; and it is right that she 
 should loathe the senseless driveling by which 
 a great portion of her time is wasted ; but the 
 remedy for the evil must not consist in aliena- 
 tion from domestic duties, or in the partial 
 isolation of herself from the family compact. 
 If she is oppressed, let her insist upon remov- 
 ing the cause of the oppression — that is to say, 
 if her domestic affairs are needlessly exacting, 
 she should simplify and reduce them to the 
 proper standard. 
 
 No house can be in its internal arrangements 
 what every house should be, without the con- 
 
DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 287 
 
 currence of its female members. The wife and 
 daughters have it in their power to subvert or 
 to establish the peace of the family. Stubborn, 
 uncomplying conduct, if persevered in, will 
 break down the best policy and uproot the 
 most devoted affection. Kindness and co-oper- 
 ation, on the other hand, will as effectually 
 maintain good rules and strengthen the bonds 
 of social relationship. Woman is not alone in 
 the great task of providing for the household, 
 nor in the still greater one of keeping it under 
 salutary discipline ; and hence she ought to 
 estimate carefully the rights of others as well 
 as of herself 
 
 The husband may aim high, and pursue his 
 aims with untiring energy, but if the wife 
 proves a hindrance instead of a help to him, 
 his efforts will be in vain. Men can labor with 
 diligence and garner in abundance the fruits 
 of industry, yet that higher point — ^that recip- 
 rocal aid, without which there is an incom- 
 pleteness in everything pertaining to social 
 life — they cannot reach, because Providence 
 has made it woman's privilege to bless the 
 world with this species of assistance. If she 
 
288 
 
 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 does not act her part, the loss is irreparable, for 
 man cannot perform the duties of any nature 
 but his own ; he is, therefore, " alone" — in 
 that state which the Creator at first pronounced 
 " not good," and the evils of which the creation 
 of woman was intended to remove. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 €m\ €lualw. 
 
 As a member of civil society woman has in- 
 defeasible rights. The measure of these rights 
 cannot be determined by prescription. It is, 
 however, subject to limitation. 1. By the 
 authority of Scripture, either expressed or im- 
 plied. 2. By the circumstances of the case. 
 
 The Scriptures have subjected woman to the 
 authority of a husband, but this is all. Her 
 obligation to the state is the same as his. Civil 
 law is made by man, and if woman is excluded 
 from all participation in making it, or from 
 any of the advantages which arise from it, 
 such exclusion rests upon merely human 
 authority. But the law which subjects a wife 
 to the control of her husband, was made by 
 God, and is beyond the reach of human modi- 
 fication or amendment. Hence the political 
 25 
 
290 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 rights of woman are not abridged by Scripture, 
 unless it be indirectly. Her subjection to the 
 authority of a husband might, under certain 
 circumstances, be equivalent to a limitation of 
 these rights. 
 
 Undoubtedly the strongest objection to the 
 full participation of woman in the affairs of 
 civil government, arises from her physical con- 
 dition. She is jxio frail and too delicate for 
 such a service. Her morals, also, would be too 
 much exposed by that indiscriminate mingling 
 with the other sex, which would be necessary 
 in carrying out many of the arrangements of 
 civil law. There seems to be no occasion for 
 devolving upon her a train of duties to which 
 her physical constitution is obviously una- 
 dapted. 
 
 This exemption appears still more reasona- 
 ble, when we consider the nature of civil gov- 
 ernment. It is nothing that pertains to the 
 perfection of human character, but simply a 
 convenience for the better regulation of society. 
 There is no more reason why woman should be 
 burdened with this task, than there is why she 
 should delve in the mine or the field. Man is 
 
CIVIL EDUCATION. 291 
 
 able to afford her protection without this tax 
 upon her powers. 
 
 But that she might properly have more to 
 do with civil affairs than is now entrusted to 
 her, we readily admit. J^would not be ex- 
 travagant to allow her th^Rght to vote, and to 
 hold such offices, and to perform such other 
 political duties as are manifestly consistent 
 with the delicacy of her nature, and the sanc- 
 tity of her character. So far as regards the 
 elective franchise, we are not alone in this con- 
 clusion, as will be seen by the following : " I 
 would even presume to suggest, not the opinion, 
 but the query, that as society is composed of 
 the blended traits of both sexes, in which the 
 
 stern energies of the one are softened and saved 
 
 * 
 
 from barbarism by the softer virtues of the 
 other, so might not our government be i efined 
 and civilized from much of its present ferocity, 
 if the gentler half of the world possessed their 
 share of right, to select their public as well as 
 domestic lords? Our governmental spirit is 
 too masculine; the representative too nearly 
 of what society would be without the softening 
 spirit of womanhood. And I venture to hint 
 
292 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 the query, whether -^e certainty of woman's 
 presence would not- so^ transform the rabble 
 disorder of our political election rooms, to the 
 chaste propriety of a Lyceum, or a Church. 
 I question, whetha^jhe raobocracy would rule 
 in its present umrashed supitemacy ; whether 
 the whisky cellars would vomit up their florid- 
 faced demoQracy to comCj vote and conquer ; 
 and whether those great; cruel abominations, 
 which rear their fierce f^oes, in opposition to 
 all the impulses of humanity, would long stand 
 with her permission, the syfnpathies of whose 
 heart are so often, and especially upon such 
 subjects, far wiser than the hardened calcula- 
 tions of man's head. At any rate, I trust I 
 may have awakened in your minds, the most 
 serious question, whether it is not the worse 
 part of our nature which is best represented in 
 our government."* 
 
 Let no one think this is too great an assump- 
 tion in favor of woman, for it is much less 
 than has been accorded to her in many in- 
 stances, and with entire safety. A woman 
 now sits upon the throne of the most enlight- 
 * Dr. Whedon, Phi Beta Kappa Oration, 1860. 
 
CIVIL EDUCATION. 293 
 
 ened and powerful empire on the globe. And 
 if Victoria may be the civil head of the British 
 nation, there cannot be much temerity in con- 
 ceding to others of her sex the limited politi- 
 cal rights which we hasfe mentioned. The 
 contrast between supreme power and total in- 
 capacity for civil ofHce — ^nay, even for casting 
 a vote — is so great that people seem scarcely 
 able to draw the inference^ that ought to be 
 drawn from conditions thus widely varied.. It 
 is of no consequence that the gueen of England 
 is of the royal line — she is queen by virtue of 
 her humanity, and the same humanity have 
 all the women of her realm. The difference is 
 unjustifiable ; there can be no reason why one 
 should have all power, and«others none. If 
 one woman maj^be.a queen, others may have 
 at least a modicrfm , yf civil authority, without 
 prejudice to them or to the state. ■ 
 
 It must not be forgotten that history presents 
 us with a long list of distinguished female sove- 
 reigns. Among these are some whose talents 
 have rarely been equaled, and never surpassed. 
 Elizabeth established the wavering cause of 
 protestantism in England ; Isabella pledged 
 25* 
 
294 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK, 
 
 her jewels for the discovery of America ; and 
 Maria Theresa successfully defended Hun- 
 gary when it was assailed by enemies more 
 formidable than those which lately crushed the 
 heroic Kossuth. And yet there are those who 
 inquire, what has woman done ? Let history 
 answer. The record of her deeds is no obscure 
 page in the chronicle of the world's doings, and 
 it shows conclusively that wherever she has 
 had the privilege of acting a part in civil 
 affairs, she has acquitted herself quite as well 
 as the. other sex. 
 
 Had females more to do with the fabrication 
 of laws, they would be very likely to guard 
 their own interests somewhat better than they 
 are now guarded.*; Our chivalry does not quite 
 answer as a substitute for their self-interest. 
 .'^l^re are conditions in life in which, the oper- 
 ation of the civil law bears very unequally upon 
 therri — ^the wife has nothing to bequeath, the 
 widow but a fraction to retain, and the victim 
 of seduction scarcely the semblance of justice 
 at her command. 
 
 This total exclusion of women from civil af- 
 fairs, is the effect of that general misapprehen- 
 
CIVIL EDUCATION. 295 
 
 sion which has so long excluded them from the 
 sciences, and almost from the precincts of hu- 
 manity. May we not hope that the subject of 
 " women's rights" will at last meet with some- 
 thing more than a sneer ? Will not man be 
 just — nay, even generous towards his " better 
 half?" We do not ask that the burden of gov- 
 ernment be thrown upon her, but that she be 
 allowed such rights and immunities as are evi- 
 dently compatible with her being. Let the 
 consideration of her claims be no longer a theme 
 for merriment. Let reason and justice, rather 
 than blind custom, determine her civil relations 
 and privileges. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 (tDrnaniEntol iJiurntinn. 
 
 What many have made the most important 
 part of female education, I am compelled to 
 dismiss with great brevity. A few considera- 
 tions will dispose of the subject. 
 
 1. This branch of female education is enorm- 
 ously and unreasonably expensive. The charge 
 for music alone, in most oases, amounts to 
 more than is paid for the entire course of class- 
 ical and scientific , .studies. From eight to 
 twelve dollars per quarter is the usual charge 
 for tuition in this single accomplishment, while 
 from five to seven dollars is the highest charge 
 for instruction in all the substantial branches 
 of edueation. The same is true, to a greater 
 or less extent, of whatever belongs to the de- 
 partment of ornamental education. All is extra 
 in price as well as quality. If such things 
 
ORNAMENTAL EDUCATION. 297 
 
 are to be taught, there is certainly no good 
 reason for teaching them at this expensive rate. 
 2. But the disproportionate expense of such 
 studies is not the only objection to them. They 
 are of no real use. It is admitted that they 
 serve a temporary purpose as embellishments, 
 but it will hardly be contended that they con- 
 tribute anything to the general welfare of the 
 individual, or of society. Life has other ob- 
 jects which imperatively demand the time and 
 powers of most women ; and objects too, for 
 the accomplishment of which these superficial 
 attainments are no adequate preparation. " We 
 cannot but express a wish that ladies' prepara- 
 tory schools could be established, in which the 
 pupils might be fitted for the useful, as well as 
 the ornamental parts of life, and where the fact 
 of there being a kitchen as well as a drawing- 
 room to every house would not be altogether 
 lost sight of. If the world could be got through. 
 in a polka, to the accompaniment of a cornei-a- 
 piston, the boarding-schools of the present day 
 would be well enough ; but as there is a sort 
 of everyday walk to be gone through, we 
 should greatly appreciate any systeni of female 
 
298 YOUNG LADY'S BOOK. 
 
 education that should fit woman to get through 
 the world with us, instead of merely getting 
 through our money:"* Such, we doubt not, 
 are the feelings of all who seriously reflect upon 
 this subject. And yet we continue this sense- 
 less mode of education, and give it countenance 
 in our schools, as though it was in some way 
 befitting the character of woman. 
 
 3. Were there no other objection to these fu- 
 tile acquisitions, the fact that they trench' 
 largely upon the scanty time allowed females 
 to prepare for active life, ought to bring them 
 into discredit. Girls mature earlier than boys, 
 and if the few years which they can at most 
 devote to education, are to be broken in upon 
 by such frivolous pursuits, but little can be 
 done towards real culture. Accomplishments 
 they may have, and if these were in any sense 
 a compensation for the loss occasioned by this 
 pernioious^course, we should have less reason 
 for regret; '. 
 
 4. But there-is another and more formidable 
 objection. The tendency of such studiesis ques- 
 tionable. We do not say that it is decidedly 
 
 Harper's Magazine, Jan. 1851, 
 
ORNAMENTAL EDUCATION. 299 
 
 immoral, but it is at least injurious. If pride 
 and other evil passions are not fostered, women 
 are taught to rely for success in life, upon those 
 traits of character which are most transient and 
 most remote. from virtue — upon beauty, and 
 other personal graces, rather than usefulness 
 and sterling integrity., Such accomplishments 
 have very much the nature of dress, and simi- 
 lar expedients for arresting attention and secu- 
 ring admiration independently of essential ex- 
 cellence. It is well, too, if they do not stir up 
 and give unnatural intensity to passions which 
 have ever been diiEcult to control. Sexual de- 
 sire needs to be repressed. Nothing can be 
 deemed innocent that has a tendency to awaken 
 prematurely, or to stimulate in any degree this 
 element of our nature. No hot-house planting' 
 should bring forth feelings and thoughts which 
 are always dangerous at best, and certainly 
 ruinous when not under due restraint, or when 
 developed to excess. The natural attractions 
 of female beauty are quite enough without 
 these artificial aids. 
 
 " Th' adorning thee -with so much art 
 l8 but a barbarous skill : 
 
300 -4. VOUNG I,ADY'S BOOK. 
 
 'Tis like the poia'ning of a dart 
 Too apt before to kill." 
 
 5. Again, this kind of education misleads 
 both the female and her admirers, as to the 
 true elements of character. If the object be to 
 awaken interest and make'^an impression, the 
 course of instruction must include those 
 sciences which are calculated to improve the 
 mind and the morals. This will give perma- 
 nent beauty," and awaken an interest among 
 sensible irien. This will fit them for useful- 
 ness, and for intelligent companionship ; it will 
 fit them for wives and mothers here, and for 
 the joys of heaven hereafter. 
 
 6. Thus, while we contemn all meretricious 
 ornament as worse than useless for females, 
 we would not have them unmindful of those 
 real attractions which the God of nature has 
 given them, and which the art of education, 
 rightly understood, is so well adapted to pro- 
 mote. They may adorn themselves with all the 
 virtues, and all the sciences, but not with the 
 frippery of fashion, or of the arts. The wis- 
 dom of the Creator in giving elegance to the 
 form of woman and softness to her manners, 
 
ORNAMENTAL EDUCATION. 301 
 
 should not be disregarded ; her education should 
 be at an equal distance from Amazonian ac- 
 complishments on the one hand, and from 
 Paphian on the other. 
 
 THE END,