Women -- Biography; Women -- Social and moral questions
In comparing the achievements of the sexes, we must not forget that the
mind which has most dazzled or benefited the nations has received its
first instructions from a mother’s, and probably its last from a wife’s
lips. “Though the sinewy sex achieves enterprises on public theatres,
it is the nerve and sensibility of the other that arm the mind and
inflame the soul in secret. Everywhere man executes the performance,
but woman trains the man.” Mrs. Taylor exercised not only the influence
of a wife and a mother, but also that of a very efficient professional
teacher of male pupils. The conduct of a large academy for sailors may
seem to many an unsuitable employment for a woman; likely to injure,
and to a great extent destroy her beautiful nature. But it is certain
that Mrs. Taylor’s mind lost none of its refinement by the rude
associations with which it was brought into contact, while her great
administrative power enabled her to manage the establishment in an
admirable manner. There is a certain chivalry amongst the most
uncultivated men, when they know that they cannot be compelled to do a
thing by force, which will often make them yield. We have known a class
of unruly lads in a ragged school, utterly unamenable to the discipline
of a man, yield implicit obedience to a young woman, as a bad-tempered
horse is sometimes most easily guided by a female hand that is both
skilful and light.
Mrs. Taylor’s Nautical and Mathematical Academy, was under the
patronage of the Admiralty, Trinity House, East India House, and Kings
of Holland and Prussia. The upper schoolrooms were under the direction
of a highly qualified master, and devoted to the preparation of masters
and mates in the navy and merchant service; and the lower schoolrooms
were superintended by a mathematical master, and every care was taken
that the junior pupils should be progressively fitted for the highest
grade of examinations. She also undertook to place those pupils who had
no relations in town, under the care and superintendence of families,
where they received every domestic comfort and attention, when not
engaged in the academy. Terms, to be paid on entrance. A complete
course of navigation, including trigonometry, and its application to
navigation, £6 6_s._; a general course of navigation, £4 4_s._;
algebra, £2 2_s._; geometry, £2 2_s._; a course of algebra and
geometry, £3 3_s._; a practical course of astronomy, specially in
relation to navigation, £2 2_s._; physical geography, etc., £2 2_s._;
mechanics, etc., £2 2_s._ Also a general course, including the whole of
the above, on moderate terms. Nor was this all. Lectures illustrative
of these subjects were delivered in the upper schoolroom to those
studying in the academy, each of whom was at liberty to introduce a
friend.
_CHARACTER OF MRS. TAYLOR._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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