The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-02-20
Concluded from last week.
FEMALE EDUCATION.

feature Oh SOclll HE. EuucatlO
gives affiucnce of ideas, fitness O
imagery, and copiousness of illustra
ton. Fractional ideas always brcal
down. Thought must be untitled.
For woman to converse well
she must be trained to habits of &C
curate, persistent, and close thought
She must be educated to give thes,
thoughts currency in forcible, ia Ill,
and concise forms of expression
Thus taught, woman is, par excel
lence. the star of the social circle
If this be true, how feeble are many
of the methods of female education.
Things have been stuck on for show
like the chignon on the head. This
conglomeration called an education
resembles Il confectioner's cake,
which, though elegantly frosted, its
figured enclosing covers up good
deal of badly mixed and badly bak-
cd dough.
The modern belle has been taught
to paint, and her figures bear about
the same relation to true art that
the pictures on the sign board of a
village tavern do TO Raphmrs Trans
figuration. She has been taught
French, but a native Partisan could
better understand the dialect
of frog than her few memorizcd
sentences from Telemaque. She
claims to have been taught music,
but her attempts to play would give
a piano the tooth-ache, and make
the listener feel that the drum of his
ear, with muffied tones, was beating
tie dead march of music.
We live in al age in which thorc
are but few children. We have in
fants, "puling in their nurses arms"
but the next we see of them is, they
are little men, dressed with the most
snowy skill, whose chief occupation
seems to be to demonstrate how
well they can twirl cane from the
little finger to the thumb, and then
back again from the thumb TO the
little finger And our little women,
eat up fans and chew
spruce gum a. if ruminata, and talk
to our little men, early out, accord
ing to the ideas of modern society,
and who are but trifling mistlctocs
that can never grow 10 be the grand
old oaks of past generation How
common a scene like the following
where little young old man leans
up against a piano, to hear little
young old roman tossing her head as
she pipes out,
. 1 know not, care not, if quilts in thy
heart
know that love thee whatever thou
art.''
We educate our girls poorly, but
our boys will not find it out.
Think you that Wordsworth had
such an one in view when he wrote
: The reason firm, the tempe rate will,
foresight. strength and skill;
\ perfect woman. nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command?
There are systems of edu cation
which make women false-fashion-
.bIe schools where parlor ornaments
ire made, as taxidermists stuff birds
or museums. Here she is surround
ID by foreign professors, who, with
10 conception of American life, are
to give the finishing touches;
,ut who, in reality are social lotus
.aters, who narcotize their pupils
With mental opiates and send
bought and feeling to a Utopia
more unreal than that of Moore's.
,ignors, Messieurs, Madames are the
:atchwords of their catalogues.
When you can build palaces out Of
tones quaried from the rainbow,
hen you may expect symmetrical
,ducation from the hands of such as
hesc.
If we would have our daughters
IS corner stones, polished after the
multitude of palace" send them to
IN institution where such produc-
ions as Longfellow's "Psalm of
life" have a wide and noble read
ng; where the teacher sees Gods
mage in the soul of the pupil, and
measures his work in balances squar-
ID by the hand of God. In the
for female education, let
lothing be LETT out under the mis-
aiken idea that woman's mind is
to the conquest of the
lbstruse. Why cheat our girls ?
f the broad fields of mathematical,
linguistic, scientific or aesthetic cul
ure lie open to our boys, to be ex-
,lored without tramel, should not
'ur girls with minds as strong and
With aspirations as high, be allow
I'd the same privilegesy But we are
old that they should be educated
olely with a view to their future
phere in life. For what practical
luty then, does a crock tragedy, or {
N abstruse work on metaphysics
prepare the boy? Is the boys
mind to receive all the culture, and ,
he closest discipline of which 1t is 5
apabIe without any direct reference ;
o its utility in practical life, and
ur girls, by their education, reduc-
d to the level of n plaything, or a {
Machine q? No; let their brains be re- |
ognized as a living organ, capable of
Indefinite development; and not as t
congerie of cells to be filled with I:
he distilled waters of flowers. f
Man had just as well admit the Z
act that woman is his intellectual
quail, though her life has not afford .
d her an opportunity to put it on
uch gairish exhibition. The Somer-
lilies, De Staels, Mitfords, Sigour-