The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1847-09-21
FEMALE EDUCATION-MR. ROCK
WELLS ADDRESS

"A ooautuui arrangement OF buildings has been
provided we believe by private enterprise, for the
| Young Ladies Institute at Pittsfeld. Mass. A
chapel, in tasteful style of architecture was ad-
ded TO these conveniences the present season, and
opened on the Fourth ofJuly A friend has hand
ed us the Address ofthe Hon. julius ROCKWELL.
delivered on the occasion, in which the able rep
resentative of Berkshire in Congress adopts and
defends the very highest views in regard to Female
education. such as can only prevail in ii commu-
nifty, which believes the educators of the race to
occupy the most responsible positions in it, Docs
this not seem to be so, when we regard the health
and material vgor, the affections ard morals. the
intelligence and ambition of childhood and youth
almost rs what the generation of mothers choose
and are qualified to form theml A great trust is
this for which it may be said that all other laLour
is contrved or executed the moral care ofthe per-
petuation of the race. We do not wish to under
value the Fathers responsibility in the same i'm
portant relation. His wisdom tempered by expe-
rience, is the guiding power which directs the
youthful mind, when furnished and trained in its
connections with the world and urges and sustains
it in its efforts and failures. This is his out-of-
doors office, as it was to supply the protection and
| sustenance of childhood in its youth. But the re-
sponsibity of the inner home has fallen naturally
to one whose affections exercised within it. and
this includes the mental, moral and physical nur-
ture, on which depends all the subsequent devel-
opmens of refined and affectionate, but energet-
&c and intelligent, christian and patriotic FAMILY
of free men and women in the land As an iudi
cation of the point to which pubick opinion is
rapidly bringing this great question in our coun-
| try we annex n selection Of views from Mr. Rock
wells Address from which we have no disposition
to nterpose any expressions Of dissent. Here Mt
Middlebury, the views Of Mrs. Willard, first Civ
ing to the subject this high character were orgi-
inaly conceived, and views like hers are still ex-
emplifed in institution where the highest sci
entifc attainments and the most faithful sy stem of
discipline arc in requisiton, TO give an education
as enlightened and complete as the absence ofper-
manent funds, still, in the comparative infancy of
that institution, will admit. Here also we hope
an advance i'll publick opinion may be witnessed,
to rect the discrimination hitherto made against
the pecunary interests of schools designed for the
female sex, compelling them to be variable in their
resources and nearly selfsupporting Institutions.
Says the Address;
The standard of education, which by the
principles of our free institutions is setu
to be sought after, in behalf of American
women, is sufficiently high: too high ever
to be reached, in its political aspects All
effort must end only in an approximation
towards it, and there can be no proper
limit 10 that effort, but the exhaustion of
the utmost power and means that can be |
be brought to sustain and carry it forward. |
The exact sciences as means of intel |
lectual discipline : the natural sciences,
opening the Earth and the Heavens his
tory, the only substitute in our short lived 1
existence for experience; the practical
arts, and the arts OF design as well as solid
and polite literature, are all within. the
proper scope of female education. The
American women stand within the "circIe
of tie Sciences" and there is no direction
in which they are forbidden to look
Their first mother plucked the lrut of the
only forbidden tree.
If the mother knows nothing of the uses
of mathematical studies how can she cheer
on and sympathize with her son. as his
distracted mind is Iaboring with the prob
lens of Euclid and the higher mathemat-
les, without which training his mind can
never reason with perfect correctness. If
she knows nothing of ancient literature, i,
now does she know that while he is read
ng its pages, the dead languages may not
De satura,ing his soul with the poison of
moral deathl II she knows nothing of
he books of history and biography, how 6
ICES she know but the elegantly bound
olume which with love and hope she pre-
ents him, may not have been written with
he studied purpose Of holding out to his Q
imitation the seducing examples of vice {
nd infdelity? d
If she knows nothing of the current lit u
nature of the day. she might as well en- p
rust his cake with the sugar of lead or L
rug his coffee with prusslc acid, as to II
i've him indiscriminately the beautifully o.
xecuted and captivating pages of modern II
ovels and romances Her own yirtuous Ell
efficacy would guard her from the peru "
Il of the first poisonous page, but the un- &c
sciplined mind of the youth hath no "
Ich guardian angel to shake the stain tn
ON her silver wing. There are no wa la
RS of the Styx in which like the mother W
Achilles, she can plunge her son to u
nder him invulnerable, she can only az
Iucate his spirit to be its own guardian. oil
She must be educated in the divine
fence of the sacred Scriptures, or how h.,
n she know that the fountain in which re-
8 has baptized her son flows East by the an