The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-11-11
The Woman of the Future.

The Woman of the Future.
Women are not 80 universally bcauti-
full; 80 wise and so good as they might be-,
and it 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 the time when something of
the old Greek feeling for physical perfec-
tion shall have revived, and simple and
more healthful life shall have fitted wo-
men to become mothers of noble race.
In this respect 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 denominations are
no longer universal. Dress is much bet
ter adapted to out of door life than for
merly Etiquette has been relaxed, and
our young women enjoy freedom from
physical restraint undreamed of by their
grandmothors. Health has ceased to be
the monopoly Of the other sex. Still the
majority Of women Iced far from whole
some lives; and as beauty is more or less
q matter of health, too much can never
be said against such abuses of it as are
vet in fashion. The worst of these abuses
is that they lead to perverson of taste.
Quite naturally the fragile type Of beauty
has become the standard of the present
day, and men admire in real life the lily
cheek; small-waisted, diaphanous-lookirig
creature idealized by living artists
When we become 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. Artists will
rejoice and sculptors will cease to despair
when this happy consummation is roach
ed. Let none regard it as chimerical or
Utopian. A very little rationalism
brought to bear upon daily lifo would
place physical we'll being within reach of
women Of all ranks; and where health
leads tho way, beauty is seldom slow to
follow.
Few will deny that wisdom, whose es.
sence is common sense, has large share
in determining the Happiness of social
and domestic life. Is it not reasonable
to suppose that the various reforms in fe-
male education will have propUrtionate
effect upon the female character, and that
the woman of the future will differ from
tho woman of the present, intellectually,
as we'll as physically? +? Steady culture, in
creased habits of selt-reliance. wider
views of life, and a keener appreciation
of the truth for truths sake, can but en-
large and elevate the whole sex. The
obvious inference is that just as a more
healthful mede of existence will invigor-
ate and beautify the bodies of women, SO
rational mode Of existence will strength
en- and improve their minds. Frivolity,
pettiuess, inactivity, and other faults of
which men most complain, will make room
for opposite qualities and who shall aver
this to be against the interests of human
ity? Perhaps nothing causes more domes
tic unhappiness than downright Stiffness.
A foolish wife will often bring about as
much mischief in her husbands home as
persistently evi-tempered one could do,
and with the best intentions in the world,
is sure to hinder and hamper him upon
every occasion. Now Stiffness is the first
stronghold of evil that good system of
education will storm. Jnst so long ass girls
are trained to frivolity and irresponsible
habits from childhood upwards will they
become frivolous and irresponsible wives
and mothers. In granting, then, that the
women of the future must OF necessity
inherit large share of physical and in.
tclleciuaf excellence, we are led to extend
the sans happy prophecy of the moral
faculties Women often commit grave as
we'll as small errors, not because they are
perverse by nature, but because their
reason is at fault, and they fail 10 recog
nize the proportienate relation of things.
Again, habits of subselvience induce a
cowardly attitude of mind. Very few
women have the courage to be individual.
Very few women estimate their own lives
of any value in the fullest sense of the
word. They know we'll enough that they
have somo use as wives, mothers, daugh-
ters F; but that they can have any share in
in the well-being of the world does
not occur to them. Selfdevelopment
conveys to their minds something quite
apart from the duty Of wife, mother or
daughter, while the truth is that self.
development embraces every other duty.
III. therefore, does it become those who
satirize women, to hinder any effort made
in their behalf, whether educational or 3d.
cial I; always remembering this, however,
shat such efforts are likely to do very lit
tie good which tend to make of women
weak limitations of men.-PaH Hall Ga,