Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1850-09-13
FEMALE

/
We have recently had something to say con-
corning the mental cultivation of man, we would
now say a word relative to the education of
WOMAN. An Address before us, delivered to
the Young Ladies of the Alabama Female In
%stitute, has the remark The minds offemales
ought TO be educated to give them a personal
responsibility, whatever may be their situation
in life. An educated person is always more
respected than one uneducated, other things be-
ing equal" The experience of all will demon
strate the truth of this assertion. For her own
sake, then, woman ought to receive a finished
literary and scientific education. 1t is the evil
dent design of the Creator that every human
being should be educated since while all 9th
er sensitive beings come into existence almost
in the maturity of their faculties, the human
mind is feeble at first, and vastly progressive
and capable of improvement. A human being
without mental culture, is more helpless and
worthless than the meanest of the insect tribes !;
for they possess the instincts that are necessary
to guide to the supply of their wants, and the
iulIiihlcut vi 'bhSi1 uoSthg' rIOth INC CndIdc-
ter of woman's mind, then, we conclude that its
powers oughttO be evolved and disciplined by
study and the attainment of knowledge.
Woman ought to receive mental education,
in view of the enjoyment which such education
may impartt to her. We are bound to promote
the happinests Of others it is our duty to seek
our own. The %enjoyments of cultivated in
%teIlect are superior to those of sense, and inferi-
or only to those of high moral affections. There
is pleasure derived from the play of heathful
bodily powers, and there is a superior pleasure
received from the exercise Of a well disciplined
mind. No natural objects afford such pleas
ure TO the eye-no rich and varied landscape
as is afforded to the mind by the attainment Of
knowledge. tits a popularity Of intellectual
pleasures, that they rarely cloy, but are eve
fresh, and may be almost infinitely diversified
They may be employed toe at all seasons, ant
almost in all circumstances. When winte
! RACES and confines US to our dwellings-wheI
the heat of the midsummer sun debars us from
social intercouse-when the weather is dull
and external nature looks dismal, the cultiva
ted mind has still in possession rich resource
of enjoyment; and no adverse fortune can de
prive it Of its wealth and pleasures. A mind
taught to reflect, and inspired with a taste fo
% literature, always may find society. It woul
find society, though wrecked and cast on
solitary island, if it could find there a we
furnished library for its entertainment Th
n mind Of cultivated woman continually CARR.
its possessor amid scenes of novelty and graz
as deur and beauty, enabling her to converse,
he she chooses, with the wisest Of men, and Il
most amiable and gifted of her own sex-m
d. king such as Plato or Bacon, or Lady jar
Grey, or Madam De Stael, or Josephine,
Harriet Newell, her companions, by means
ed their writings or their biographies. Such
mind may transport itself to remote and bea
tiful lands-to those countries of the Eai
ar such as poetry speaks Of, where the fowe
n ever blossom, and the beams ever shine,"
e. such valleys as that of Cashmere, to the elias
If ic land of Greece to gaze on the beauties ofn
m ture, or the splendid ruins Of human art,
w Olympus, OF the Parthenon or to the love
|" land of Italy-to behold its blue skies, or its We