The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-23
THE WOMAN OF THE FUTURE.
From the Pail Mall Gazette |

Women are not so universally beautiful, so
wise and so good as they might be, and 1t Is to
the interest Of humanity that they should be
beautiful, wise and good. Consider, in the
first place, the question of beauty. The more
hopeful look forward to &c time when some
thing of the old Greek feeling for physical per-
| fection shall have revived, and simple and
more healthful lie shall have fitted women to
become mothers Of a noble race. In this re-
spect we are wiser than Of old, but, though
| hygiene and common sense have done much
| for ourselves, they have done much more for
our children. We of the present generation
are the offspring Of tight-lacing mothers; but
small waists, tight shoes and other abomina-
tiOns are no longer universal. Dress Is much
better adapted TO out of door life than former
ly. Etiquette has been relaxed, and our young
women. enjoy freedom from physi-
cal restraint undreamed of by their
grandmothers. Health has ceased to be the
monopoly of the other sex. Still the majority
of women lead far from wholesome lives; and
| as beauty is more or less matter OF health,
too much can never be said against such
abuses Of it as are yet in fashion. The worst
] of these abuses is that they lead to perver-
sion of taste. Quite naturally the fragile type
| of beauty has become the standard of the pres
ent day, and men admire in real life the lily
cheek, smallwaisted, diaphanous-looking crea-
| ture idealized by living artists. When We be-
come accustomed to nobler kind OF beauty
we shall attain to loftier ideal. Men will
seek nobility rather than prettiness, strength
rather than weakness, physical perfection
rather than physical degeneracy, in the women
they select as mothers of their children. Ar
fists will rejoice and sculptors will cease to de-
spair when this happy c0nsummation Is reach
| ed. Let none regard it as chimerical or Ut0-
pian A very little rationalism brought to
bear upon daily life would place physical we'll
being within reach Of women of all ranks; and
where health leads the way, beauty is seldom
slow to follow.
Few will deny that wisdom, whose essence
is common sense, has large share in deter
mining the happiness of social and domestic
life. Is 1t not reasonable to suppose that the
various reforms in female education will have
proportionate effect upon the female charac-
| ter, and that the woman Of the future will diff
fer from the woman of the present, intellec-
tually, as well as physically? Steady culture,
increased habits of selfreliancc, wider views
of life, and keener appreciation OF the truth
for truths sake, can but enlarge and elevate
the whole sex. The obvious inference is that
ir,st as O moro healthfll mode of existence will
lnvgorate and beautify the bodies OF women,
so q rational mode Of existence will strengthen
and improve their minds. Friv0lity, pettiness
inactivity, and other faults of which men most
complain, will make room for opposite qualities;
and who shall aver this to be against the in
terests of humanity? Perhaps nothing causes
more domestic unhappiness than downright
Stiffness. A foolish wife will oilen bring about
as much mischief in her husbands home as a
persistently evil-tempered one could do, and
with the best intentions in the world, is sure
to hinder and hamper him upon every occa-
sion. Now Stiffness is the first stronghold of
evil that good system of education will storm.
Just 80 long as girls are trained to frivolity and
irresponsible habits from childhood upwards
will they become frivolous and irresponsible
wives and mothers. In granting, then, that
inherit large share of physical and intel
iectual excellence, we are led to extend
the same happy prophecy of the moral fac