Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-06-19
A word for the Unmarried.

| MIS- Horace Mann has an appreclatlve and
sensible review of DIR. Clark's ''Sex in Ed
ucation' in the Herald Of Health In the
course OF her paper she has good word for
unmarried women. of whOm there are so
many, and is likely to he great many more.
She says
Il believe it is a fact that the higher the
state Of civilization and refinement the more
unmarried women there are, and vet DR..
Clark could add his voice to the vulgar hue
and cry against them. Such is the prevail
ence of this hue and cry that women who
are not elevated above its influence by early
inculcations Of noble principles of seif-res-
pect, and of n lofty ideal. rush into matri-
mony because they are ashamed to appear to
be unsought.
''The maternal feeling is As intense and
pure in many unmarried women as in their
married sisters. Indeed, if we each take an
observation in our own circle we shall see it
far more developed in many of them than in
many married women, to whom children are
a burden and hindrance, and always con
sidered and treated as if of secondary i'm
portance to their pleasures, and even to their
more rational pursuits. The world cannot
be divided in that way. The maternal senti-
ment Is planted in the heart of every sympa-
thetlc and aiiectionate woman-indeed wo-
man Is abnormal without it-and if not de-
yeloped by maternity itself, this sentiment
may be 50 by right education, and thus saved
from becoming root of bitterness such as
opinions like Dr. Clarke are calculated to
plant. How many an orphan child has found
the very essence of motherly feeling and
lifelong devotion in maiden aunt? The
man is to be pitied who has not seen this in
his acquaintance with society; one almost
wishes to cite names to prove ones words.
Has DR.. Clarke no touchstOne within him
self to prove such characters? for he must
have seen many of them. The maternal
feeling is often more judiciOusly exercised
where the passion of maternity-what some
moralists have called brute maternity-has
not been reused into activity by actual
motherhood. | would further explain this
by a reference to those mothers in whom
every other sentiment, even that of good
wifehOod, Is absorbed by the maternal feel
ing, and where, if they are undisciplined
in mind, this feeling makes it impossible for
them to see the faults Of their children, or to
allow any one else to note them. or give
them any aid in their correction Even the
share in their care, and is treated As their
natural enemy if he criticsises them. The
loving but unimpassioned aunt, or co-opera-
tive educator, whose maternal feeling has
been cultivated by her vocation. can see the
facts more clearly than such mothers, and
can often suggest the remedies. I think it
may safely be asserted that the first proof of
Improvement in the popular feeling about
marriage will be the respect for those I'M
married women whose independent lives
bear the noble fruits Of culture, benevOlence
and devotion to human improvement. DR..
Clark misses the truth greatly also in assert
ing that the advocacy of high education for
women emanates chiefly from unmarried wo-
men. None are more eloquent in its cause
than the mothers-the good mothers, Of
cOurse-who have felt the pain of their own
deficiencies of education when they found
themselves mothers, and too ignorant to full
fl their duties to their own satisfaction.
What can do for my child? | do not
know anything about its needs, or how to
supply them my own education had no Sys-
tenn or definite object, and now | feel it
worthless Such complaints are continual,
md give one the feeling that every woman
should serve her time, be she rich or be she
Door, in practical education, by actually be
ne brought into contact with children, and
)eing taught how to instruct them. | have
,ften ventured the remark that the best
,ducated women knew were those who had
'een practically engaged in education. |
make it more earnestly than ever, for educa-
ion is not merely the knowledge of sciences,
languages, or systems of philosophy, but
onsists in the use of the faculties and their
pplieation to life thus developed by these
nd other studies. The proper study of
na nkind is man is an utterance that has
ften been quoted to prove that the exact sci
nees were inferior objects of pursuit to the
tudy of language and philosophy; hut man
annot be studied Alright without scientific
asis, and this Is the greatest argument for
he complete education Of women, in whose
ands is the moulding of the human race.
they do not hold their normal place
nd function-which they cannot do if un-
condition of fsuch portions Of
he human race shows it palpably.