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    178 •ytfJTIQN OB TO ABB ? ^ -*

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    As Cate This The Emp Journal Loyment Is ...

    purposeless are at last _compelled to exert themselves . This is one obvious cause ; but many others could be brought forward were

    it necessary , which in this place it is not , as we are dealing * at present with , facts , and not _tracing backwards the sources whence these

    facts _coine . In connection with those who seels : higher forms of employment

    , where it is granted that new openings should be attempted , the author justly observes that " improved education is the first

    requisite / and adds the much needed advice that " women must cultivate more steady practical sensemental perseverance in acquiring

    know-, ledge , cool judgment , more accuracy and method , to fit them for paths leading to higher honor and emolument . " It is useless for

    those who desire the improvement of their sex to deny that not only a part , but the majority of those who seek employment of any

    kind , whether manual or mental , are painfully deficient in the requisites demanded , and without which no progress can be made .

    And yet , it may be said , how can this be otherwise , seeing that coolness and judgment , method and accuracy in reasoning or in

    anything else , have neither been asked for , nor expected from women . Feeling and emotion only have been in demand , and to such extent

    that the former not unfrequently becomes maudlin , while the latter inns riot , hence the number of nervous invalids . In this as in

    common things , the supply , if possible , must keep pace with the demand ; the life-bloodthe marrow and the muscleas well as the

    sacrificed reason , wasted , and lost in these vain efforts , to be all feeling , is frightful to think of . Give women the same wholesome

    training for acquiring practical knowledge as men , and they will prove Practical themselves acquaintance fit . with details of business is one thing

    care-, ful mental culture by reading and thought another : habits of attention and order as well as a certain amount of thought are no

    doubt necessary in business ; but if much reading , or what may be legitimately termed " mental cultivation" is also necessarythis

    ,, has not generally been insisted on in the case of men of business . To go farther , how many men do we find pursuing knowledge for

    its own sake , without the career in view to which it is a steppingstone , without the emolument in prospect which it is to bring

    , without the fame it is expected to shower upon them ? Few indeed . Yet the objector to women being employed in trade urges

    this duty upon them , and insists that in such elevating exertions and brain work they will find their true position in society , as the

    refiners of morals and the recipients of knowledge . "Would that it were the vocation meant for women , to float thus midway between

    heaven and earth ; imbibing science , art , and philosophy as their natural food , and receiving from on high spiritual intuitions for

    the benefit of the other sex . The picture is charming could it only be realised . But are there not even greater objections raised

    against our efforts to be wise and learned , than there are against

    178 •Ytfjtiqn Ob To Abb ? ^ -*

    178 _ytfJTIQN OB TO ABB ? _^ - *

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 178, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/34/