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    THE GENERAL EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 75;

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    A Y By Way Of Fixing 1 The Whereabouts O...

    liberal _eultiire on all sides , —still more to allow tlie " natural silence and repose in which alone the individual force can ever manifest

    itself even to its possessor . But , again , woman generally has no profession . Even the professional training * is , then , for her useless :

    and unnecessary . The death of parents , or a reverse of fortune ? _, may stimulate to the acquirement of some marketable faculty ; and

    in some cases of unusual foresight , provision may be timely made in anticipation of such contingency . But , generally speaking " , it will

    be admitted that there is no mere professional training for women . How , th . en , is the deficiency supplied ? How are filled up the time

    and faculty thus left blank ? Is wliat is saved from the special , partial , and narrow , transferred to the general , comprehensive , and

    universal ? What man is there of ordinary thought who has not at times said to himself * ' Oh ! if I were but free from these business

    cares , if I could even , make a smaller number of hours suffice for these labors , what would I not learn or strive to know ! " In the

    case , then , of a large proportion of the human race , we have this Utopia realised , for , at least , that long , happy , and precious period

    of life which precedes the entrance on domestic cares and duties . Again , we askhow is it filled up ? I am not blind to , or forgetful

    , of , the many cases of exception in our day , and in our own country ; but can it be said that in anything like even a respectable minority

    of cases , the education of the future woman , be she high or low of birth or fortune , is efficientlyor even professedly , directed to the

    , development of her mind and heart , to the attainment of knowledge for its own sake , to the cultivation of her powers of thought , and

    feeling , and taste , and aspiration , for their own sake ? Of the poorer classes it is not needful here to speak . In these , the condition

    of the sexes in tMs respect is more nearly equalised ; both suffer alike from the res angusta domithe narrow circumstances , truly so

    of called reading , from , ' their riting , power and _A rithmetic to cabin , , crib is doled , confine out ; to the both same , and modicum there is

    no glaring disparity to fix attention . But , as we ascend the scale , tlie contrastnotwithstanding all that I have said of the defective

    , training of boys , becomes marked . And here let me say that I am not the champion of one sex only . I advocate not merely an

    equalisation , but an enlargement , of the educational rights of both sexes . Let both be taught alike , I say ; but not less loudly , let both be

    better taught . A mere equalisation "with , what is not truly good is a questionable gain . Time has wrought modifications and changes

    in two ways , both by extending to girls what was once confined to boys , and vice versd ; but still we have an inequality to deplore , and , I

    trust , to remove . If we might trace a principle in the unsystematic practices in this res _} : > ectthe idea at one time seemed to be , even

    where the education of , either sex was most extended , that a complete division of the departments of thought and study should be

    made between the sexes . Dead languages , Latin and Greek , for boys ; living languages , French and Italian , and more recently ;

    vol . t . ' y 2

    The General Education Of Woman. 75;

    THE GENERAL EDUCATION OF WOMAN . 75 ;

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1860, page 75, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041860/page/3/