until his own destruction was occasioned by, the enticement of a woman. The history of Samson proves woman's strength. The Bible tells how the man after God's own heart, the pious David, whose valour was as conspicuous as his magnanimity, enamoured of a woman's charms, debased himself to the dark deeds of a cowardly murderer; and how the man whose wisdom, unprecedented, shall never (according to the changeless decree of wisdom's GoD), be equalled, proved no security against female influence;-how Solomon, the profound worshipper of "the only wise GOD," was led, by women who foolishly bowed the knee to senseless idols, to forget even the beginning of wisdom-the fear of the Lord. We see the purpose of the patriarchal Isaac thwarted by woman,the mandate of the Egyptian tyrant disregarded by woman,women the instruments of preserving from premature destruction Israel's great lawgiver and leader,-Deborah's influence instrumental in securing her country's freedom,-the warlike Sisera inveigled to his destruction by the guile of Jael, and the beautiful Esther the means of averting the contemplated annihilation of her people. These are but a few of the many instances of female influence recorded in holy writ. Heathen mythology everywhere recognises the power of female influence. Homer and Virgil tuned their immortal lays to themes commemorative of the direful ten years' conflict occasioned by the charms of Helen; the history of every age is replete with proofs of female influence, and yet how remarkable it is that nothing worthy of more than a passing notice has been done to promote female education! We need not search the chronicles of antiquity for proofs of the truth of our assertions. Look we to the history of the progress of education in England. Monkish legends and historical records tell us of British females renowned for mental acquirement. We read of a St. Hilda, who, "from her convent decided on state matters, and shared in the councils of kings;" of Osburgha, who prompted her son-the great Alfred-to the pursuit of literature; of the learned, pious, and charitable Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the colleges of Cambridge; of Lady Jane Grey, who, according to Fuller, possessed "the innocency of childhood, the beauty of youth, the solidity of middle, the gravity of old age, and all at eighteen-the birth of a princess, the learning of a clerk, the life of a saint." We read of Queen Elizabeth, Lady Mildred Burleigh, and numerous other noble ladies remarkable for the extent and solidity of their learning, but we read of no endeavours to extend the advantages of education more generally to females. There has ever been a wide difference between the machinery (so to speak) of female education from that of males, even in this country, where popular educational progress has been slower than in other nations, the era of whose civilisation has been nearly synchronical with it. Our noble universities and our numerous endowed grammar schools have been available for the male youth of our country; but what provision was there until very recently for female education, except that made by individual enterprise-or rather, individual necessity? If public policy in our own day were not, in many instances, as anomalous as it is, we should, perhaps, wonder why, when in the time of Henry VIII. the religious houses were suppressed, there were no female schools established in the place of nunneries, as well as male schools in the place of monasteries. Collegians and schoolboys have for ages had an incentive to qualify themselves for the work of tuition-there were endowments, to the enjoyment of which there was at least a possibility of their attaining. It was not so with regard to girls; the result was as might be expected-few females were desirous of acquiring knowledge with a view to imparting it. We repeat that necessity, rather than choice, has occasioned the setting up of many a "Ladies' Establishment." How many, who now with ceaseless anxiety conduct a seminary, were nurtured in the lap of plenty, and were led to believe that they should never have to labour from morn till sunset in order to "keep up appearances' or to pay the baker and the butcher! How many a fond parent who made every effort in his power to give his darling an education that "might be useful to her in after life;" yet who shared with the mother, and fostered in the child, the hope that something might turn up" to save her from "the drudgery of a school;" has lived to see her earning a precarious living by a profession detested by her, and by accomplishments which had contributed to make the home of her youth and of happier days a little earthly paradise! How few, comparatively speaking, of the many thousands of lady professors and teachers of the present day were trained not only to teach but also to love their work, and to educate! And what is the result? Let the aspect of modern society, and of woman as she stands therein, surrounded with its various relationships, declare. Well may a writer on the subject of female education ask, "Has woman yet been trained so as to enable her to fulfil the various relationships with which the peculiarity of her physical, mental, and moral organisation brings her in contact; or, in other words, is she, by the common legerdemain process of modern education, ever educated for a wife or a mother? Is she educated so as to become the companion or assistant of the husband, the father, or the brother; or trained that she may train her children judiciously at the same time that she is their guide and example? Is there a process, among all the processes of boarding-school education, calculated to arouse her sympathies to right motives, and to direct them to right objects? Is she ever taught that the true rights of her sex consist not in a vain endeavour to usurp the power which nature denies her, but in a cheerful performance of the duties devolving upon her, which render her powers of intellect and feeling of the highest value to society? Is she ever taught to understand her own weakness? Is she ever trained in those severe exercises of the heart which will enable her to keep the feelings under subjection? Does she ever enter into the anatomy of her mental and moral constitution; or, in short, is she ever taught that comprehensive self-knowledge which will keep her ever on her guard against her own infirmities of sex, temper, and judgment, and enable her to fulfil the duties of any situation in life in which she may be placed?" Seventeen years have elapsed since the foregoing inquiries were penned, and we rejoice that, with reference to a very large number of ladies' schools, and of schools for elementary female education, they might now be answered in the affirmative. But alas! with reference to female education generally, from that of the mansion down to that of the workhouse, we speak in mild terms when we say that it is limited in extent, meagre in quality, and inadequate to the future necessities of the rising generation. The superficial education given to the vast majority of girls whose friends, although not wealthy, are nevertheless able and willing to give them what is termed a good education, is a subject which cannot fail to arrest attention; it is one of every-day comment, and whether it is to be attributed to the unprecedented cheapness of music, and the advance in musical taste, the attractiveness of modern fancy needlework, &c., or in general terms to the spirit and circumstances of the age, we do not stop to inquire. The evil exists. It were gothic barbarism to deprecate the increased and ncreasing facilities for the cultivation of mind-refining tastes and talents, to deplore the fact that now, in many a cottage home, "The needle plies its busy task, The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower, A wreath that cannot fade, of flowers, that blow Can it be doubted that "The poet's or historian's page, by one Made vocal for the amusement of the rest, * Beguiles the night, and sets a keener edge We cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that whatever may be alleged by way of apology or extenuation, the real cause of defective education lies in the incapacity of the educator. Good scholarship and accomplishments, though essential to, are by no means sufficient for, the training of the young. At the same time, no small amount of blame rests. with the parents and friends, who are more dazzled by accomplishments than satisfied with substantial and useful acquirements. The time spent by young ladies in the school-room is occupied chiefly in the acquisition of accomplishments. Many learn them just for the sake of learning them, and will not in after years turn them to any account; others will make pleasure their business, and employ their accomplishments accordingly; others, again, will, either from choice or necessity, make a profession of their accomplishments; whilst a few, not having occasion to employ their talents for pecuniary gain, nor inclination to misuse them by making pleasure a business, may possibly devote them, no less cheerfully than praiseworthily, to making home and friends happy, and derive pleasure from them from the fact of their affording gratification to others, or because they conduce to relaxation from their own occasional mental rigidity or anxiety, and effectively banish a lassitude to which, generally speaking, females (espe cially at the period of life when accomplishments are most agreeable) are frequently subject. When accomplishments are thus employed, no one possessed of common sense would regard them as merely ornamental acquisitions. In order, then, to counteract as much as possible the evils to which we have briefly alluded, it should be the studious aim of the female educator to render the ornamental useful, and at the same time to render the useful ornamental; for, be it remembered, that in schools where accomplishments are taught to perfection, the useful, or rather the absolutely necessary branches of education are, as a rule, taught in such a dry uninteresting manner as would not be tolerated in any well organised national school. Murray, Magnall, Goldsmith, Guy, and Walkinghame, are names abhorred by school-girls, and no wonder! Nor is it surprising that the boarding-school or private-governess education of young ladies is the subject of so much animadversion and dissatisfaction. ner. A young lady, having finished her education, enters the world, or, we should say, is introduced into society. She is just blooming into womanhood; her manners are agreeable, if not fascinating; she moves with a studied grace, and her whole deportment is according to rule; she has been taught to regard a breach of étiquette, even in trivial matters, as highly censurable, if not positively criminal; and, having a constant dread of appearing plebeian in any particular, she becomes gradually reserved in conversation and frigid in manHer Italian-angular handwriting may be beautiful, her diction unexceptionable, her voice sweet and well cultivated, her accent in foreign languages accurate, her drawing and painting artistic and pleasing; her fancy-work may be faultless; she may dance gracefully, play brilliantly, and sing exquisitely; yet her education may be signally defective; it may be that whilst much labour has been bestowed upon embellishing the casket, the gem has remained unpolished-that the heart has not been cultivated, the reasoning and reflective powers of the mind have not been exercised, and the development of the noblest and tenderest passions of humanity is left to the novelist or to the tragedian! (To be continued.) |