The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-01-18

battle. Anu they nave HOC only 10 DTace CnGlr
nerves to encounter this danger for thehH
selves, but ills their grand moment Of respon-
sibility, when they must vindicate the trust re-
posed in them by God and the world. Can
there be any doubt that this essential element
of her life at once and forever disabcs woman
from oil trial of strength and rude equality
with man? Nobody but fool, we believe,
will assert that the burden of this great trust
stamps her as inferior. 1t would be just as
reasonable to say that it gave her superior
place in the economy of nature as the pos
SCISSOR OF faculty more utterly essential to the
continuance of the race. Bnt there can be no
doubt about the fact that 1t separates her and
her work and her office from the office and
work of man. The two are not made to con-
tend and compete and run races for the same
prize. There is no natural opposition, but on
the contrary harmony unbounded In their
differences Of nature-harmony which can
never be attained by two creatures framed on
the self-same plan.
TIE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
But when we turn to the consideration OF
professional education for girls, we feel that
we have returned to the general fundamental
conditions of women, and can only argue the
one question by an appeal to the other. Pro-
fessiOnal education In man occupies oil the sea-
son of youth. He has reached his majority at
least before he is qualified to put his powers to
the test and exercise the knowledge he has
gained. Unless he steps into an exceptional
position, reaping the benefit of some one else's
labors, the first ten or fifteen years Of mau-
hood are spent in struggle for position, more
or Less hard in proportion to his talents and
his character, and his power of awaiting slow
result. Under favorable circumstances, OF
course, this struggle is not mortal; but 1t al-
ways requires the mans full force, his clearest
Judgment, and most careful labor. If ne Is pros
perOllsy established in the exercise of his pro-
fession at 35, with clear prospect of gain and
social honor, he has done as we'll rs he could
possibly hope, and can look forward with
tolerablc confidence on the career before him.
During this early struggle he has to exert all
his powers; if he pauses for moment he
knows that 1t is at the hazard. not Of losing
that moment alone, but of sacrificing ten times
Its value. The road is so uphill that he slides
down one step for every three he makes, and
is aware that to stop short or to turn aside on
the way is destruction. temporary illness
sometimes neutralizes years Of labor; he must
be always at his post, pushing on with speed
unbrokcc: Should he fall, some one else Is
ready to jostc him out Of the already too
crowded way. Such is very ordinary state
meni of the usual difficulties which beset the
path, say, of the young physician; and the
other professions arc not less toilsOme. Let
us see what effect these obstacles would have
on the career 0fthe candidate were 1t woman
and not q man.
MARRIAGE AGAIN.
The first thing we have to imagine Is that the
girls entire youth, its bloom, and softcst years
should be passed like that of the young man
in the eteady pursuit of knowledge. At one
and-twenty. by the devotion of oil her youth,
she is qualified to enter upon the practice OF
her profession; when 10 there appears at the
threshold Of life the most natural of all inter-
ruptions to young woman's career, @ young
husband ready to take upon himself the charge
of her fortunes. She is married, let us sup
pose, her education being no bar to the exer-
else of the primitive duties of her sex; and
let us also imagine that she is 10th to sacrifice
at stroke the labors Of so many years, and
that she attempts to combine professional ex-
ertions with the duties of wife. She works
for year, let us say, with inter-
missions, finding 1t more and more diff
cult to maintain her place against the
lively competition of men who have no diyi-
dcd duty. Then she is stopped short by the in
evtable discharge of the primary function OF
woman This business over, she resumes
again with heart and attention sorely divided
between the claims OF the infant she leaves at
home and the duties she finds outside. Dur
ing the interval of her seclusiOn, however
restricted In point OF time, every one OF her
male competitors has made stride before her.
Faltering and discouraged, she resumes her
half dozen men in her single person, If her
courage Is ndomitable and her determination
sublime. she perhaps manages, by o train OF
mind and body which 1t would be impossible
to continue long, to make up half OF the
ground she has lost, when 10 another inter-
ruplion comes, and she has to step aside again
and bear her feminine BURDEN and see her
competitors, light and unladen, stride past once
more. This Is the inevitable course, known
only too well to every woman who has cndea-
vored TO combine professional cXertions with
the ordinary duties Of q mans wife. Other
complications, such as we shrink from men
tioning, probably come in to take all the
elasticity out of mind so burdened.
Her children born amid these cares, and In
jurcd before their birth by the undue activity
of brain which weakcns their mothers physi-
cal powers, come into the world feeble VI die
In her arms. ql,cnchlng out her courage In the
bittercst waves of personal suffering. This
Is no fancy picture. At every step in her
careerit becomes less possible TO maintain the
unequal conflict Her competitors have march
ed far before her, while she tolls and strives
midway on the steep ascent. They have gone
OH without intermssion; she has had to
stop short again and again in her course.
With what sickness of heart, with what o
weary, hopeless sense of the unattanable,
and desperate consciousness OF the mistake,
she maintains the struggle, only they can tell
who have done 1t, and happily the number Is
not great Such is all that woman has to eX-
pect who attempts to combine the work Of a
man t. which she has been trained with the
common duties Of female life.
ANOTHER VIEW
On the ntker hand. let lis suppose that she !
puts aside the profession she has acquired and
gives herself up to domesLicity and wilehood
until the period of Collaborating Is over, and |
her special responsibilities so far accomplished.
This period cannot be estimated ut less than
twenty years. 1t may be considerably shorter
it is sometimes longer; but We are not under
standing the possibilities If we grant tflat at
forty she may consider herself enlanc!pated
from woman's natural disabilities, and may
stretch ont her hands towards the tools when
She nut from her, all new aud shining at one
and-twcnty Will these tools nave improved
or will they have deterioratcd In the mean
time? Will her training OF twenty years ago
come back all fresh ~ her memory rs II It
had been but twenty days? Will the world
he so GOOD as to stand still In the mean
lime. and keep everything just as 1t gas
IN he DAYS of her apprenticeship That
sna ,nay begin again with some chance
of success? Alas, no this Is precisely what
the world will not do. She will find her fellow,
students hundred miles ahead Of her, and
their Sons ready to tread on her heels ard gibc
at her old-world principles. She will be OF the
old school, before she has even begun to put
in practice her rusty knowledge. She will feel
in herself the painful consciousness OF facul-
ties blunted by want of Use, and powers
numbed By long inaction. If she Is a wonder
fii! woman, with the energy OF hall dozen