Christian literature for children; Women -- Social and moral questions; Young women -- Conduct of life
Female culture should always have reference to the Future. It should
lead to a remembrance of the "latter end" of life's course. How much has
been done, in this work, for the present, for show and effect. Instead
of rearing a thorough edifice, of sound materials, and on a firm
foundation, the endeavor has too often been to build up in a day a
specious structure. So has it been, that, when, the storms of life came
on, the moral building was rocked by the winds, the rain pierced its
thin covering; it rested on the sand; it fell, and great was its fall.
Here is a young school-girl. What is to be her situation on arriving at
womanhood? Must she assume responsible stations? Have we here the germ
of the conjugal tie, and the elements of maternal influence? How then
can we forget these relations, and train a being fit only to bask in the
beams of praise? Let not this be. Address now the same motives as you
must in subsequent years. If there must then be self-denial, toil, and
care, for the love of humanity, leave not the young heart, at this
stage, to become steeped in selfishness. Let the glory of God and the
good of man become now solemn and effective considerations.
We come here to speak naturally of the Place, the theatre, on which the
young female must be educated.
It is to be done partly in public, at the schools instituted for this
purpose. But I do not design to enter the halls of science and
literature. I would rather, adverting here to the conclusion of her
studies, confine myself to the use which a young lady should make of the
education she has received at school. The advantages, now enjoyed by the
youth of our land for mental culture, are rare. Parents are solicitous
that their children should spend much time at the seats of learning. The
daughters are receiving a far higher intellectual training than their
mothers enjoyed. But is this all a sure good? Have the thousand rivulets
of learning that now flow fast by our homes, sprung all from a crystal
fount? Do they, in a word,--for that is the test question,--so penetrate
the life and soul of the young, as to give them solid, practical
excellence? I fear not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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