The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-10-02
NUMBER =.
Learned Ladies.

II women should grow irritable, it
would be no wonder, so eternally are /
they discussed in the newspapers of
these latter days. Isn't it time definitely
to admit that woman has right TO
study that which she wishes to study,
! the honest wish being accepted as evil
dence of the propriety of the pursuit
| Yet there is 10 end of cheap dialectics
upon this point. Here we have, in fifty
/ Journals, complaints of the severe course
of study pursued at the Packer Institute
or at Rutgers School, at Nassar or other
colleges for girls-of too much Latin and
| Greek, or of two much attention to phi
] losophy and sciences. On the other
hand, if Il girl gives her golden youth to
the delicacies and elegancies of acquisi-
! tion-to music, drawing, dancing, the
modern lauguages-she is denounced as
! frivolous, or laughed at as light-headed.
/ So she hesitates whether to be a Muse
or a Grace, and frequently the doubt
disastrOusly results in her being neither.
Another trouble of the young ladies is
that they can never clOthe themselves
/ to suit all sorts of philosophers. If they
neglect dress they are dowdy. If they
make an elaborate and brilliant toilet,
studied to conform TO their own personal
style, they are too fond of display;
so that between old-fashioned notions
of what becomes young woman and
new-fashiOned notions of what does not
! become her, they are left at a loss
whether to be strong-minded or frivO-
I lOus, forgetting sometimes that they
need only to be earnest and honest and
natural \ good knowledge of the
Greek and Latin literature may be val
liable to a woman just as to a man;
this we say without stopping to fix its
precise value to either. One would
think from the pOther made about them
that learned ladies were absolute novel
ties, whereas they have been common
enough every since the revival of learn
ing. There are a few stock students Of
the feminine kind, celebrated as i'm
mensely classical in their pursuits; and
are not these always paraded in the
/ Commencement speeches IN the ladies'
Colleges? The list, even in English
history, is a long one, from Queen Cath
arine of Aragon to Mrs. Browning
from Margaret Roper, sir Thomas
More's daughter, down to the sweet
irl-graduates of the present season.
Haven't we been told often enough that
poor Lady Jane Gray was well versed IN
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic,
French and Italian? Indeed, these
/ English ladies of classical requirements
were very numerous in the sixteenth
century, even before Queen Elizabeth
set the fashion which perhaps she did
not so much set as follow. Damsel:
who wish to read Homer or Horace il
: the original need not lack for a pTece-
dent. Only when a girl has gone reso-
; lutely to work, and has proved the abil'
ity of her sex to acquire Greek, it mus
be rather discouraging to her to read in
! the newspapers that she has wasted hel
time and has been crammed to little
: purpose. Why do they not say these
things about pale-faced boys who have
fed themselves upon Greek roots into I
dyspepsia? We are for all manner o
! experiments. After such a pOther, We
trust that all these problems are not tC
be left unsOlved and uncertain.
In the second place, while fOolishly
! extravagant dressing is TO be censureC
and satirized, it ought to be understood
and admitted that dress is of vastly
: more Importance to woman than tC
! man, who likes to see his sister, his
. wife, or his sweetheart arrayed like unto
Solomon i'm all his glory. Is it for moth
ing that, as Mr.. Herbert Spencer OBJ
, serves, "the decorative element has con-
tinued to predominant in a greater de-
! gree among women than among men ?''
, Suppose that this does arise from "the
desire of approbatiOn"-ls appreciation
then thing TO be condemned and care
! fully avoided? Is she-cynic any more
tolerable than he-cynic? ? If the love
, of art be a desirable quality, is there
any reason why it should not be shown
in a statuesqUe arrangement of drapery
: or in brilliant combination Of color
We men like women sumptuOusly
: clothed, and why should we pretend
! ! that we do not like this harmless dis
play ?-this show not merely harmless
but sometimes positively useful and in
I structive.
Upon the whole, we are beginning to
be half of the opinion that women have
, not much occasion to be grateful for
masculine advice. Opportunity, liberty,
encouragement, the chance to be true to
! her best iutentions-these are what
! woman wants, and not endless advice
: and dogmatical interference. If there
: be any petty restraints, away with them.
! If there be conventional and mistaken
= dogmas, let them be discarded II
! there be tyrannical laws, the sooner We
Z repeal them the better! Woman must
h work out her own salvation. If we can
: not help, in the name of justice let us
not hinder her IN. y. Tribune
I.