Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life — John Shaqi
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of LifeWollstonecraft, Mary
Philosophy
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life
Wollstonecraft, Mary
Women -- Conduct of life; Women -- Social and moral questions; Young women
A benevolent person must ever wish to see those around them comfortable,
and try to be the cause of that comfort. The wide difference which
education makes, I should suppose, would prevent familiarity in the way
of equality; yet kindness must be shewn, if we are desirous that our
domestics should be attached to our interest and persons. How pleasing
it is to be attended with a smile of willingness, to be consulted when
they are at a loss, and looked up to as a friend and benefactor when
they are in distress. It is true we may often meet with ingratitude, but
it ought not to discourage us; the refreshing showers of heaven
fertilize the fields of the unworthy, as well as the just. We should
nurse them in illness, and our superior judgment in those matters would
often alleviate their pains.
Above all, we owe them a good example. The ceremonials of religion, on
their account, should be attended to; as they always reverence them to a
superstitious degree, or else neglect them. We should not shock the
faith of the meanest fellow-creature; nay more, we should comply with
their prejudices; for their religious notions are so over-run with them,
that they are not easily separated; and by trying to pluck up the tares,
we may root up the wheat with them.
The woman who gives way to caprice and ill-humour in the kitchen, cannot
easily smooth her brow when her husband returns to his fire-side; nay,
he may not only see the wrinkles of anger, but hear the disputes at
second-hand. I heard a Gentleman say, it would break any man’s heart to
hear his wife argue such a case. Men who are employed about things of
consequence, think these affairs more insignificant than they really
are; for the warmth with which we engage in any business increases its
importance, and our not entering into them has the contrary effect.
The behaviour of girls to servants is generally in extremes; too
familiar or haughty. Indeed the one often produces the other, as a
check, when the freedoms are troublesome.
We cannot make our servants wise or good, but we may teach them to be
decent and orderly; and order leads to some degree of morality.
THE OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY.
The institution of keeping the seventh day holy was wisely ordered by
Providence for two purposes. To rest the body, and call off the mind
from the too eager pursuit of the shadows of this life, which, I am
afraid, often obscure the prospect of futurity, and fix our thoughts on
earth. A respect for this ordinance is, I am persuaded, of the utmost
consequence to national religion. The vulgar have such a notion of it,
that with them, going to church, and being religious, are almost
synonymous terms. They are so lost in their senses, that if this day did
not continually remind them, they would soon forget that there was a God
in the world. Some forms are necessary to support vital religion, and
without them it would soon languish, and at last expire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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