Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1859-11-28
PnoGREss1vE AsCENDENCY OF wouEy.

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PROGRESSIVE AsCENDENCY OF WOMEN.
There is, of course, Jealous readiness
in the human mind to question always the
legitimacy of new paid llonors; and, it is
as well to anticipate, just now, the obiec-
tlons that may be lnadeNto the naturaIncss
OF wOman's newly asserted "eqality with
man" An able writer in the Church Jour
nal says:
"A woman, like a poet, nascitur, non fit.
She comes into the world, intellectually
tull-Hcdgcd, full-voiccL, and ATincrva-like.
full-armed. Crowned with Pindar's blcs-
sing, she lis born knowing much-' And
in token of this her voice never changes
Like Anacreon's cicada, she comes into
the world piping, and pipes unto the end.
with her there is less need to teach the
young idea how to sIoot' However Young
awoman:s idea may be, it shoots naturally
and spontaneously, and generally shoots
Alright. Hence, ut Il time of life, when
boys, as general rule, know nothing
except how to make themselves rs uncom-
tcrtable as possible to themselves and
other people, little girl is morally n
cheruhim as Prosroro Says infused
with a fnrtitudc from heaven and men.
tally creature tall compact of that vcri-
table fntetlcctus, that picking and choosing
faculty. as we have once before defined it,
that exquisite capacity for threading ones
way clcvcrly through the rough-cdgcd in-
tricacics of life, the lack of which makes a
| boy sort of centre of gravitation to all
tlIc burs in the fields and all the mud az d
dust in the highways, and the due dcycInr-
hcnt ofwhich, at least in its higher forms,
is one ofthc main objects of good educa-
tion. Possessed Of this divine faculty.
how wise the little creatures are! How
graVely and swGetly they discourse about
things known and unknown. How in
stnctively their brothers, big or little,
come to them for counsel and direction.
How invariably it turns out-as Socrates
testifics in reference to his genius or
guardian spirit--that things gowell with
the boys, as long as they hcarken to this
counsel, but disrcgarding it, they get into
all kinds of ugly scrapes. low true it is,
in short that even in early childhood We
man SLOWS l'crself to be of finer mnulG
than man. not made of clay, but an extract
rs it were, of tl,at choice rib, which, en-
comprising the heart and cropping out
from the brain and spinal marrow, con-
tail,s still within itself the best qualities
of both, and is rs pre-eminent in good
sense, rs in pure affection and right feel
ing. u
An English writer declares the fact
that the women of orr day do not 'scon-
verse"-and then attributes it to the 1aul-
tiplicity ofstudics aud the evening confine-
mcnt to books and school companions
He says
alt should be rs much matter of duty
aid of conscience to insist on sOut door cr-
crcisc, and 'iR-doOr social recreation, as upon
any Ofthe regular exercises of the school
room. School studies should be confined
absolutely to school hours. To allow
them to cncroach upon the later hours of
tile day, and uport the graceful household
duties, and rHcrcations, which either arc,
or ought to be provided for every girl at
homei in other words, to subordinate home
training to school-training, or TO intermit
tile former in favor of the latter, is n most
palpable and ruinous mistake. 1t is bad
even in an intellectual point of view To
say nothing of other disadvantages, it
deprives girls of the best opportunities
thcy can ever have of learning that most
feminine, most beautiful, most tuseful ofall
accanplislnments-th noble art of CONVEX
sation. For conversation is an drt as well
as gift. tits learned best by thcfamiliar
intercourse between young and old, in the
leisure and uureserve of the evening social
circle. But When young girls arc banish-
ed from this circle by the pressure of
school tasks, talking only with school
mates till they come out into society, and
then inonopOlized entirely by young per-
sons oftheir own age, they easily learn to
mistake chatter for conversation, and
'small-talk' becomes for life their only
medium of exchange Hence, 1vitA alI'tEe
'HtetEeeEadk training of the day, there neDer
'oas a greater de0rth Of intellectual cohUer-
SGtion. p"