The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1837-12-25

Nal We 1IDuSAitON AMI OClENCE, FOX NO
vEMBER.-Proceedings Of the College Of
Teachers.-This is the ninth number Of Mr.
Pickett's valuable publication Its contents
are Pathological Gleanings, CONTINUED J the
Past and the Present; Female Education -
and Proceedings Of the College Of Profess
sional Teachers, tits seventh annual meet
ing j with three of the most important Ad-
dresses delivered before that body during its
last session. The following remarks are
found in the ably written articles on Female
Education
" One of the most agreeable consequences
OF knowledge, is the respect and importance
which it communicates to old age. Men rise
in character often as they increase in years
they are venerable from what they have ac-
quired, and pleasing from what they can i'm
part. If they outlive their faculties, the mere
frame itself is respected for what it once con-
tanned but women (such is their unfortunate
style of education) hazard every thing upon
one cast of the die; when youth is gone, all
is gone. No human creature gives his adm-
ration for nothing: either the eye must be
charmed, or the understanding gratifed. A
woman must talk wisely or look we'll Ev-
cry human being must put up with the cold
est civility, who has neither the charms Of
youth nor the wisdom OF age Neither is
there the slightest commiseration for decayed
accomplishments man nlourns over the
fragments Of dancer, or drops tear on the
relics Of masical skill. They are flowers des-
tined to perish; but the decay Of great tai
ents is always the subject Of solemn pity
and, even when their last memorial is over,
these ruins and vestiges are regarded with
pious affection.
"There is no connection between the igno-
rance in which women are kept, and the
preservation Of moral and religious princi-
pie; and yet certainly there is, in the minds
of some timid and respectable persons,
vague, indefinite dread Of knowledge, as if
it were capable Of producing these effects.
1t might almost be supposed, from the dread
which the propagation Of knowledge has ex-
cited that there was some great secret which
wac TO be kept in impenetrable obscurity-
that all moral rules We're species of delu-
sion and imposture, the detection Of which,
by the improvement of the understanding,
would be attended with the most fatal con-
sequences to all, and particularly towoman.
If we could possibly understand what these
great secrets were, we might perhaps be
disposed to concur in their preservation but
believing that all the salutary rules which
are imposed on women are the result Of
true wisdom, and productive Of the greatest
happiness, we cannot understand how they
are to become less sensible Of this truth in
proportion as their power Of discovering
truth in general is increased, and the habit
of viewing questions with accuracy and
comprehension established by education.
There are men, indeed, who are always ex-
claiming against every species Of power, be-
cause it is connected with danger; their
dread Of new abuses is so much stronger
than their admiration of uses, that they
would cheerfully give up the use Of fire,
gunpowder, and printing, to be freed from
robbers, incendiaries, and ibels. 1t is true,
that every increase of knowledge may pos
sibly render depravity more depraved, as
well as it may increase the strength Of virtue.
II is in itself only powes; and its value de-
ponds on its application. But trust to the ma
tural love of good where there is no tempsa-
ton to be bad-it operates no where more
forcibly than in education. No man, whe-
Their he be tutor, guardian, or friend, con-
tents himself with infusing the mere ability
to acquire but giving the power he gives
with it taste for the wise and rational exer-
else Of that power; SO that an educated per-
son is not only one with stronger and better
faculties than others, but with more useful
propensity-a disposition better cultivated
and associations of higher and more impor-
tant class"