New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-04-21
WOMAN, !, HER EDUCATION AND HER DUTIES.
I BY3 OF EscENTA.l

i j#5sf55st5 Id BY8 OF EscEFTA.l LII
Do laugh, Crescent OF the herculean task have
set myself. well know how arduousI shall find II,
but my motto is " therefore thought havebut
little hope Of doing my subject half Justice shall
try " I %
Weahear, daily, d variety of opinions upon woman
and her mission. Some men seem to think women
are necessary, nay, On indispensable yetasomewhat
troublesome ingredient in nature Others, again grow
quite transcendental upon the matter and declare she
was Gods last best gift to man; goddesses fit only
for worship and alteration; whose path should be
strewn with roses from which every thorn had been
plucked.
INWomaus manners, habits and customs are varieds
according to her country you apt to find her Nor
will we in referring to history find any greater change
in the human race than what has occurred to the fe-
male part Of it. The Queen Of the Tournament, or
the slave in the field, we find women in olden times
housed petted and caressed by their rough, liege
lords, Or " orked abreast with the oxen there was
but slight medium between the extremes. To look
after the wounded nurse the sick overlook the house
hold, and work her interminabe tapestry, was the
Of the female Of rank during the time Of
the Crlsades Now to fit from pleasure to pleasure,
from folly to folly, like gddy butterfly, completely
ignoring all domestic knowledge, we find the usual
by mental or manual labor II
! The education of women lis lanentably deficient;
80 they have a few superficial accomplishments and
their heads crammcd with highsounding names Of
scientific pursuits, there istle attention paid to their
being grounded in a knowledge Of anything useful.
Turn one-half Of our botanical graduates into field
or forest, and their knowledge Of herbs would not
suffice to prevent them poisoning themselves with
via ny,I+ l,ar n+hn
with nne-tenths of our educated young ladies and
they will rattle off string Of rhodomontade calcula
ted to astonish those who are quite as ignorant as
themselves but question them closely and the cloven
foot of superficial knowledge will thrust forth.
Teachers who teach for pay aone not from love or
desire of benefttng YOUTH care little save that their
pupils may make a shor. They have no further in
terest in the matter than putting them rapidly as
possible through their hands, and receiving their re-
muneration from their employers. One half of our
boarding-schoos pay more attention to the turning
out of toes graceful courteses, soping shoulders and
taper waists of their pupils than they do the contents
of their heads.
Girls return from school and their parents, satisfied
If they can thumb the piano, sketch, and smatter
French make few inquiries to the solidity of their
education, and their capacity, If necessity should
urge, to earn livelihood by it. Men, in great de-
gree, are the cause of this. With puerile fear of
female superiority, they sneer at women who educate
their mind, and dubb with the nickname "buestock-
ing" all who train their intellect instead of their
beauty. Men need not fear rightly educated females;
there is little danger Of whose heart as well
as mind has received proper culture trespasng
upon the rights Of man or oersepping the bounds of
5woman's duty ~ sy@s& Of.
Mind should not be cultivated at the expense Of
heart yet heart at the expense of BRAIN either ex
IRENE will produce unnatural beings IT'S the former
course that has produced those hybrid nonstrostes
which now attract attention to country, and we
certainly do nothing by halves in Jonathan's land.
The wife, the mother who calmly moves on the
even tenor Of her way, keeping her duty steadily be-
fore her. rearing her children in principles Of truth
and integrity creating ahappy, peaceful home around
her, love nest Of quietsupporting her husband by
kind glances and cheering words in the hour Of adj
versity-and whose whole life seems a desire SO to
live that her husband and children may see and feel
that there is truthin what she processes; reality
in her belief in the commands and promises of God
insuch5wolnen we have close picture of woman's
duty .e.
I Woman's duty does not consist in DOMINIC mans
garb usurping his duty, nor in unsexing themselves
in striving to assert the equality of sexes There is
no denial on the part Of sensible, well educated men,
as to the equality then why strive to triumph over
the ignorant boor? IT'S time lost. God neither took
Eve from Adams feet yet from his head but from
his side to be his companion and friend-and if man
is fitted for the sterner duties of ife equally 50
are women for the quieter obligations that rest upon
the human race for woman can alone rear her chill
dren to fill the gaps left by the loss Of great and good
men. mothers influence, whether for good or evil,
is never lost upon her child little word of kindly
counsel from tender mother will in after years haunt
his heart, and great deeds may spring therefrom as
we the tiny fall and lie hidden through win
ters fosts, then spring up to become the farspead
ing oak. A mother has lessons Of purity truth and
charitycharity of thoughtas well as charity Of aims
to incucate; she has vascillating dispositions to
strengthen rough points to smooth down. and despond
ent heads to raise up.
We need not search far for very extended course
of duty; it will readily fall in our way, do we but
wish it. Then let cast to the "roaring winds
as so many waits their idle fancies to their rights
and find their rights in the duties clearly laid be-
fore them by their Creator-let them cease
''To murder impossibilities; to make
What cannot be- slight work"
| Mr.. EvERETTs GRAFTON IN BRooKLYN.-We had
the pleasure of hearing the Hon. Edward Everett de-
liver bis Grafton lecture on the character of Wash
| ington, in the Plymouth Church BROOKLYN. last