Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1858-05-21
nrnms or AnvERTIsINc.
MISCELLANY.
AMERICAN WOMEN.

AN admirable article, called Our Dts:sssh=
ters. in the December number of Harpers
Maqasine, exp .esses great and momentous
truths in powerful and yet grateful langu-
age, and calls our attention to subject
which, we fear, has as yet received too lit
tie consideration. We refer to the educa-
ton end mission of the American woman.
Ours is country which justly boasts of
its liberal educational institutions, and
of the affectionate reverence bestowed
upon woman; but, on closer examination,
Il will be found that here, as in many other
aspects of our civilization, we have been
too apt to take the show for the substance,
and to pander to fimsy appearances in
stead of aiming at positive results. Our
female education, has, so far, not succeed
ed in supplying society with women trained
to understand and capable of carrying out
the highest moral duties of their being
We do not wish to underrate the intellec-
tual advantages offered by many OF our
female seminares. Even the most con-
yentionaI mental food confers certain
degree Of intellectual benefit. But the
most casual or most heartless observer will
at once perceive that something more Is
REQUIRED than conventional methods OF
imparting instruction to fit our women for
the peculiarly arduous positions imposed
upon them, partly by their sensitive deli
cate organization, and partly by the duties
which they have to fulfil in society. Our
Young ladies come from their seminaries,
their brains stuffed with all sorts of learn
ing. which no doubt is useful for many
beneficial and ornamental purposes-but
ask any Of them what particular aim they
have in life, you viii find that, with the
exception Of the desire to get married.
their ideas and aspirations are singularly
vague and limited The young ladies are
not to be blamed, They go through a
certain amount of English and American
history, perhaps Latin and French, with a
slight infusion of Watts's rules and stereo-
typed philosophy; but as far as the parti-
cular duties are concerned which they have
to discharge in life, they are left in the
most benighted, the most heathenish state
of ignorance. This monstrous mistake !;
and we implore our friends to awaken to a
sense of its enormity, 1t is question
which involves more than any other ques-
ticn, tho stability of our republic, and the
progress of our humanity, We cannot
have higher type of citizens, without
having a higher type of mothers We
many as we'll expect to reap luscious wheat,
when VIC SOW tares, as TO expect noble
generation of men, as long as we blight
the moral growth of our women. The
Eastern woman Of the seragio and harem
may be left to vegetate through life, with
an artificial education, with fnery, and all
sorts of appliances of luxury, and sloth'
and Incidence but woman born in a
Christian country expects 10 fill higher
sphere than Houri, and yearns to become
something more than toy of mans whims
or lusts, or plaything of fashion, or a
thing Of foolish fancy, or childish impulse
We say that a Christian woman is destined
for higher sphere; but as long as we do
not introduce radical change into our
system of female education, all our talk
of reverence for woman is nothing but
miserable Juncombe in disguise, Our
seminaries for girls must have teachers
men or women, of high souls and high
minds, whose special duty it should be-
como to prepare the young minds for the
great moral responsibilities of life. These
nre peculiarly great in republican country
where no governmental yoke restrains bac
passions, and whore, unless smothered In
their very germ by the solicitude Of the
mother, they threaten to assume more
formidable proportions than under arbi
trary institutions, Hence, that very
liberty Of which we boast threatens TO be
como our ruin, unles the greater latitude
of the political institutions is accompanied
by greater stringency of the morl vigil
ance in domestic life. This brings us L
the first horrible anomanly in our fcmal
education Our girls are not trained t
become responsible citizens of republic
and, for anything which they hear in tn
seminary they might as we'll have bcel
borp in Tartary as in America.