Southern Argus. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1834-1842, 1838-12-11

duu Idl6 nOufS prevails IuuSt Dc dFOiQed.
| feel painful sympathy for those mothers,
who expose their young daughters to such
excitements, yet expect them to return un-
impaired and docte, to the restraints of
school discipline. "Those who forsake
useful studies" said an ancient phiIoso.
pher, s.for useless speculations, are like
the Olympic gamesters,wao abstained from
necessary labors. that they might be fit for
such as were not so.
Shall / allude TO the want of expedien.
cy, in exhibiting very young ladies in mix.
ed society? Their faces become familiar
to the public eve. The shrinking deIica.
Icy of their privileged period of life es-
capes. The dews of the morning are too
suddenly exhaled. They get 10 be ac-
counted old, ere they are mature,-more
is expected of them, than their Inform
ed characters can yield, -and if their DIS
erection does not surpass their years, they
may encounter severe criticism, perhaps
calumny. When they should be just e.
merging as fresh opened blossom, they
are hackneyed to the common gaze. as the
last years Souvenir, which by courtesy or
sufferance, maintains place on the cen.
tre-table, though its value has deteriorated.
Is not the alternative either premature
marriage, or an obsolete continuance in
the arena Of fashion, with a somewhat
Notifying adherence to the fortunes of
new candidates, as, grade after grade, they
assert their claims to fleeing admiration,
OF vapid lattery?
low much more faithfully does the
mother perform her duly, who brings forth
to society, no crude or superficial SEM
blance of goodness, but the wel-ripened
fruit of thorough, prayerful culture. Her
daughter, associated with herself, in do.
mestic cares, at the same time that she
gathered the wealth of intellectual knowl.
edge, is now qualified to take an act We
part in the sphere which she embelishes.
Adorned with that simplicity which at
tracts every eye, when combined with good
breeding, and right education, she is ar
rayed in a better panoply than the armor
Of Semitamis, or the wit and beauty of
Cleopatra, for whom the Roman lost a
world,
Simplicity of language, as well as Of
garb and manner, is powerful ingredient
in that art of pleasing, which the young
and lovely of our sex are supposed to
study. The conversation of children. is
rich in this charm. Books intended for
their instruction or amusement, should
consult their idiom. Ought not females
to excel in the composition of elementary
works for the juvenile intellect, associated
as they are with it, in its earliest and least
constrained Developments? The talent.
ed and learned man is prone to find him
self embarrassed by such a labor. The
more profound his researches in science
and the knowledge of the world, the far
Their must he retrace his steps, to reach the
level of infantile simplicity. Possibly, ht
might ascend among the stars, and feel a
home; but to search for honey-dew in th'
bells of flowers, and among the moss-cups
needs the beak of the humming- bird, O.
the wing of the butterfly. He must recall
with painful effort, the far-off days, wher
he " thought as a child, spake as cHild
understood as a child" Fortunate will h,
be, if the "strong meat" on which he ha'
so long fed, have moi wholly indisposet
him to relish the "milk of babes" If b.
is able to arrest the thoughts and feelings
which charmed him when life was new
he will still be obliged to transfuse then
into the dialect Of childhood. He mus
write in a foreign idiom, where, not to b
upgrammahcal is praise, and not uttcrl
to fail, is victory. Perhaps, in the attemp
he may be induced to exclaim, with tn
conscious majesty of Milton" my mott
err bore me, a speaker of that, which Go
made my own, and not translator.
1t has been somewhere asserted, that h
who would agreeably instruct children
!, must become the pupil of children. The
are not, indeed, qualified to act as guide
E among the steep cliffs of Knowledge whic
! they have never traversed /; but they al
most skilful conductors to the green pla
! of turf, and the wild flowers that encirc
its base. They best know where the VII
;, lets and king cups grow, which they hay
J themselves gathered, and where the Gle;
brook makes mirthful music in its pebb
: bed.
/ Have you ever listened TO a little 81
r telling story to younger brother or 81
! terter? What adaptation of subject, CT
cumstance, and eplthet If she repea
. what she has heard, how naturally do
8 she simplify every train of thought.
she enters the region of invention, no
wisely does she keep in view the taste al
: comprehension Of her auditor. All, no
powerful is that simplicity, which SO rea
y ily unlocks and rules the heart, and Whic
J i" seeming to have nothing, Possesseth
7 things,
! Those who are conversant with lit
children,are not always disposed sufhcier
w to estimate them, or to allow them t
9 high rank which they really hold in {
= scale of being. In regarding the acol
= we forget that it comprises within its tt
% round the future oak. It IS this want
IA prospective wisdom, which occasions ign
It rant persons often to despise childhood, a
n renders some portions Of its early trai
1c ing seasons of bitter bondage. Knoa
= edge is an impression 81 pleasure" ST
+ Lord Bacon. They who ifnpart it to |
as Young, ought not 10 interfere with its 0
be oinaI nature, OF divide the to from the
e ward. Educated females ought especi
r. II to keep bright the links between knol
Y, EDGE and happiness. This is one m1
Il 81 eeincing gratitude to the age IN VIII
NJ they live, Cor the gsnsf0sity with which
y. has denounced those pFeindices. which