Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1824-02-05
From Delights Tra-els.
FASHIONABLE EDUCATION.

dard of reading for this is set too low that
for girls will be proportionably lowered.
Where boys investigate books of
sound philosophy, and labour in mathe
NAUTICAL and logical pursuits; girls read
history, the poetry, and iudicious dis
courses in morality and religion. When
Ihe utmost labour of boys is bounded by
history, biography, aid the pamphlets
of the day; girls sink down to Songs,
novels and plays.
. Ofthis reading, what, let me ask, are
the consequences BY the first novel
which she reads, she is introduced into
a world literally new a middle region
between this spot, which men call EARTH
and that which is found in Arabian tales.
Instead Of houses, inhabited by mere
men, women and children, she is pre-
seRted, with succession of splendid pc
laces and gloomy castles, inhabited by
tenants, halt human and half angelic, Or
haunted BY downright fends. Every
thing In The character and circumstances
of these Beings comes at the wish or tina
call of the enchanter. Whatever can
supply their wants, suit their wishes, or
forward o., Illustrate their designs, is re-
gularly at hand.-The heroes are as
handsome, as digni6ed, as brave, as ge-
nerous, as affectionate, as faithful, and
as accomplished as the author supposes
will satisfy the dem ands of his readers.
At the same time, they have Away a
|quantum sufficient of money-or if not,
some relation dies at proper time, and
leaves them an ample supply. Every
heroine is also compound of all that
is graceful and lovely. Her person is
fashioned eby the hand Of harmony"
Her complexion outrtes &c snow, and
shames the rose. Her features are such
as Millions Eve might envy; and her
mind is Of the same class with those re-
fined beings to when this great poet, in
his list Of the celestial order, gives the
elegant name of Virtues. With these
delightful Inhabitants of Utopia are con-
trasted ironhanded misers, proiligate
guardians, traitorous servants, and hays
not exce!led by those of Lapland itself.
1t ought nst to be omitted, that in this
sequestered region the fields and gar
dens are all secondhand copies of pa
radise. On them, whenever it is conve-
nient, the morning beams with every
tint of elegance, and every ray of glory,
and when Aurora has no further use
for these fine things, her sister Evening
pats them onherself, s. appears scarce.
ly less splendid or less delightful.
With this ideal world the unfortunate
girl corresponds SO much, and so long,
that she ultimately considers it as her
own proper residence. With its inhabi-
tants she converses so frequently and
SO habitually, that they become almost
her only familiar acquaintance.
But she must one day act in the real
world What can she expect, after hav-
ing resided so long in novels, but that
fortunes, and villas, and Edens, will
spring up every where in her progress
through life, to promote her enjoyment.
She has read herselfl INTO heroine, and
is fairly entitled to all the appendages of
this character. If her Imagination may
be trusted, she is to be romantically rich
and Economically happy. The mornings
which dawn upon her are ever to be
bright, the day serene, and the evenings
fragrant and delightful. In word the
course pronounced upon mankind, is, to
her, to lose its gloomy influence; and
sorrow and toll are to fly from the path
in which she chooses to walk through
lie.
With these views, how disappointed
must she be by the rugged course of
nature How untoward must be the
progress of facts How coarsely must
the voice of truth CRATE upon her car,
How disguised must she be, to find her
self surrounded, not by trusty Johns and
faithful Chloes, but BY ordinary domes-
ties, chilling her with rusticity, provoking
her by their negligence, insulting her
with their impudence, and leaving her
services without even giving her war
ming Must she not feel. that it is
kind OF impertinence in the days to be
cloudy and wet; in the nights TO be
dark and chilly; in the streets to encum-
Der her wi mud, or to choke her with
dust; and n. thd prospects to present
nothing but the Mere vulgar scenes Of
the vulgar world
The very food which she eats, (for
eat she must viii disgust her by its 1n-
likeness to the viands on which her I'M
agination has often Toasted. Her friends
even those most intimately connected