The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-07-01

saw, with the intuition Of true genius
this precise want Of woman's nature,
when she represents Aurora Leigh, after
achieving the highest literary lame, as
SArt Is much, but love is more. -,
O! Art, my Art, thou'rt much, but lore is more!
Art symbolizes heaven, but love is God, and
makes heaven"
Or when Aurora thus voices her desire
to write down and keep the words OF
love which had ut last been welcomed
in her soul-as saef3 qFF fj.a (
The hearts sweet scripture to be read at night
When weary, or at morning when afraid,
And lean my heaviest oath on when / swear
That when all's done, all tiled, all counted
here, 500 ftar
All great arts and all good PHILOSOPHERS, IN
This love just puts its hand out in dream O.,
And straight outreaches all things.
Because the developments of woman
are usually more rapid than those OF
men, it is therefore often concluded that
her time for development is limited by
first years OF womanhood. There is no
SON to know that when the girl can be
kept student up to twenty that her
mental grasp and utilization of knowl-
edge is as perceptihly greater as in the
case of boys. have thus refused to &C
knowledge woman's equality with man,
either in what sne has accomplished or
shown power to accomplish: Yet have
refused to allow that she is thus proved
to be mans inferior. This dilemma is
very frequent with travellers on::this road,
and is usually reduced by concluding
that the mental capabilities of men and
women are incapable of comparison,
since they lie in different spheres, and
each is superior in their relative fields.
This is an easy mode of Kidding the mipd
of perplexing question, but, as usual
with easy methods, is apoor subterfuge,
though often uttered with the Oracular
tone Cf philosophic wisdom. This reply
is seen to be irreparably faulty in the
light of the simple fact that mind is uni
versal in its domain, and may not be
mapped off, as the geographer changes
his colors to denote different countries;
or the surveyor plants stones to indicate
the boundaries of plantations. The
question then remains open; the problem
still wants a solution. i fearlessly assert
that the past has neither answered it,
nor furnished material from which it can
be successfully answered. r
Its answer, therefore, is to be gathered
indmct,cely from the historic future, and
should by the civilized nations DO made
a subject of direct experiment. l know
that there are many wiseacres who will
smile at what they will say is giving I'M
necessary importance and dignity to
this question: that the world has moved
on well enough with its solution, and
that the cutlery of few old maids and
Growing hens does not deserve a digni-
fed notice. Owls may sit with large
eyes in their favorite ivy bushes, and
boot at this, as they have a thousand 9th
er questions-butI say.tO you that aques-
ton about which two. generations have
been occasionally engaged in discussion;
and OF the unpopular side of which John
Stuart Mill in England has become q
public champion; and tOwhich SO shrewd
a man as Henry Ward Peecher has Civ
en- his allegiance; and Vanderbilt has
lent the resources of his monied power
can neither be hOOted out of existence
by owls, nor laughed out of countenance
by dull and cumbrOus witticisms
What then are the necessary appliances
i'm order TO a fair experiment? First
the hearty, free and hopeful approval o.
men, not so much in the aggregate as in
the individual. Second. the enlarge
ment of the curriculum of the schools
net of one or two schools, for the test, t.
be fair, must be on an enlarged scale
Only few out of thousands OF educated
men rise to reputation and we do moi
want exceptions produced, but general
test. Thirdly it must OF all hands bt
agreed that it is proper for women to re
main in the Universities length OF time
sufficient to complete the curriculum o.
nd mr. q ia
disgrace to woman, to be found at schOO
at twenty-five. FOurthly, we must have
men agree that the fact of wOman's
being Intellectual does not make her les
desirable as compani0n-and this, not
only in the selection ola wife, but in the
hearty agreement that she is no more
as a mere matter OF course, to be bound
to round of absorbing and minute du.
ties as housewife which, shut out the
possibility of continued mental improve
Inent, than he is to a similar class of Ia
bors which would equally doom him t.
mediocrity. That a woman is none the
less filling her sphere when she enl-
ploys a house keeper, a sempstress, .anC
gOverness when her fortune allows, OF
the reward of her labOrs justify, in ordel
that she may give due portion Of hei
time to continued mental culture. Fifth
ly, it must be recognized as point be
yOnd controversy that it is disgracefu
in a woman, maid or matron, to De 'dt'
or useiessly employed, as it is already
allowed to be outrageously contempt
BILE i'm man, land if 1 had stronger
condemnatory term, it should be employ
ed). l deny that it is necessarily in
herent in mental labor of any sort t.
make the pursuer less elegant or refined
Associations ola coarse and unrefineC
nature may at present surround many o
these fields. But where does man, wheT
left alone not aggregate about himcoarse
ness and obscenity? And as for that
matter, women too, when unSofteneC
by the associations ofman. Refinement is
not inherent in either, but is the result
of mutual contact The attempt to an.
swer the other question proposed is ever
more delicate in its nature than the
work already essayed. What may wo-
man do? l propose here to leave the
field of intellectual effort, and address
myself to ordinary and everyday occu-
pations. A want of physical strength
shuts Ger out by dictum of nature from
many employnlents. The shortest mode
of reaching conclusion as to other fields
of industrial pursuits, is by hunting fol
some general rule rather than by looking
From those occupations for which she
is physically competent, are there other
reasons which Ought to result in her eX-
clusion? 1t has been claimed that con.
slant and laboriOus employment takes
away. from woman her elegance and
softness of, manners. This argument
comes from the wealthy and ease-loving
and is not only sophisin, but is moi
practically before us; for the question In
the phase in which we are considering it
is not as to occupation in the abstract
but this being an accepted fact, the que
nv is-the kind of labor? Work we
must, or be miserable. You had better
be dog and bay the moon than a WON
an with nothing to do. The hope oftht
world is to get rid of labor in order to thu
coming of the millennium. 1 say to you
young ladies, that idleness is far more
repugnant to scriptural millennium
than labor. Before i was a soldier hat
come to believe that one of the chic
vices of humanity was, its pugnacity.
means SO fond of fighting as I supposed
The world has long lamented the neces
sity for labor as the parent of Thousand
woes;-I would, if possible, convince
You that it is the benign matrix from
which is born hearty all our virtues.
Woman was made for labor as we'll a
man; and no labor in itself will derogat
from her proper refinement. Her
again, as before, surroundings and asso
Citations may be unprOpitious, but he
presence as custom, and not AZ, anon
ally, will right these associations. d,
| not deny that while her presence il
| places of business, works, for business,
change i'm the refinement of its surround
ings, there will responsive effect b
produced on her. She will lose certail
glitter, and for want Of better word,
will say affectation of delicacy, whicl
though. we may for time regret, W