New-York tribune., 1874-07-21
LEARNED LADIES.

I5lS!OD Berkeley tildJ w coLNdIu IuC eOuAo'
"Of Empire takes It's way I"
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LEARNED LADIES.
If women should grow irritable, it would be
no wonder, so eternally are they discussed in
the newspapers of these latter days. Isn't II
time definitely 10 admit that woman mas
right to study that which she wishes to study
the honest wish being accepted as evidence OF
the propriety OF the pursuit. Yet Is there no
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 college for girls-complaint OF too much
Latin and Greek, or of too much attention To
philosophy and the sciences. On the other
hand, if girl gives her golden youth to the
delicaces and elegancies OF acquisiuon-tc
music, drawing, dancing, the modern Ian
guages-she is denounced as frivolous, or
laughed at as lght-headed. SO she hesitates
whether to be Muse or a Grace, and fre-
ouently the doubt disastrously results in her
being neither. Another trouble of the young
ladies is that they can never clOthe them
selves to suit all sorts OF philosophers. Ii they
neglect dress they are dowdy. If they make
conform to their own personal style, then they
are too fond of display so that between old
fashioned notions of what becomes young
woman and fashioned notions of what
does not become her, they are lett at a loss
whether to be ng-minded or frivolous,
forgetting sometimes that they have need
only to be earnest and honest and natural.
good knowledge Of the Greek and Latin lit
erature may be valuable 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 pOthcr made about them that learned
ladies were absolute novelties, whereas they
have been common enough ever since the
revival of learning There are few stock
students of the feminine kind, celebrated
as immensely classical in their pursuits;
and are not these always paraded III
the Commencement speeches at Ladies'
Colleges9 The list, even in English history,
is long one, from Queen Catherine OF
Aragon to Mrs. Browning-from Margaret
Roper, Sir Thomas More's daughter, down to
the sweet girl graduates of the present season.
Have MT we been told often enough that poor
Lady Jane Grey was well versed in Latin,
Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, French, and
Italan2 Indeed, these English ladies OF clas-
steal requirements were very numerous in the
sixteenth century, even before Queen Eliza
beth set the fashions which, perhaps, she did
not so much set as follow. Damsels who
wish to read Homer or Horace in the original
need not lack for precedent. Only when a
girl has gone resolutely to work, and has
proved the ability of her sex to acquire
Greek, it must be rather discouraging to her
TO read in the newspapers that she has wasted
her time and has been crammed to little pur-
pose. Why do they not say these things about
pale-faced boys who have fed themselves
upon Greek roots into a dyspepsiaq We are
for all manner of experiments. After such a
pother, we trust that all these problems are
not to be left unsolved and uncertain.
In the second place, while foohshly extrav-
agant dressing is to be censured and satirized,
it ought to be understood and admitted that
dress is of vastly more Importance to woman
than to man, who likes to see his sister, his
wife, or his sweetheart arrayed like unto
Solomon in all his glory. Is it for nothing
that, as Mr.. Herbert Spencer observes, " the
decorative element has continued to pre-
dominate in greater degree among women
- tldU among lllCu = OuppOSC lhdV WIS uo'o
arise from the desire of approbatlon'-is
appreciation then thing to be contemned and
carefully avoidedi Is she-cynic any more
toerable than a hc-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 OF in a brilliant COM
bnatlon of color? We men like women sump-
tuously clothed, and why should we pretend
that we do not like this harmless display p
this show not merely harmless but sometimes
positively useful and instructivei
Upon the whole we are beginning 10 be half
of the opinion that women have not much oc-
cason to be grateful for masculine advice.
Opportunity, liberty, encouragement the chance
to be true to her best intentions-these are what
woman wants, and not endless advice and dog
matica interference. If there be petty restraints,
| away with them If there be conventional and
mistaken dogmas, let them he discarded IL
| there be tyrannical laws, the sooner we repeal
! them the better Woman must work out her
own salvation. If we cannot help. IN the name
of Justice let us not hinder her
"Tve got 'em againw shouted Mississippi boat