The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1875-07-09
BURG, PA, FRIDAY, JULY 9. 1875.

to weaken the body's energies, or crippl
any of its powers, should be just a
scrupulously avoided, would have the girl
of five years and upwards taught the alb
surdity of going to school or elsewhere, il
cold weather, and often through snow
several inches deep, with thin cotton stock
ings and mot seldom) cloth gajterS, whlt
their hardy brothers must have warm wool
en- socks, and stout leather boots. In short
| would have coming generations unlike the
present generation of invalids.
That cruel tyraut fashion will meet the
| young lady, rs she leaves the school or home
circle, and steps out into the world. She
will read to her homiles upon female
ctiqRct'e and politeness. She will bid her
walk thus and so, use this or that cosmetic,
attend that or the other midnight assembly.
Yea, she may be despotic enough not simply
to indicate, but to dictate the length of the
skirt, and has been known so far to exceed
the bounds of reason, as to contradict that
better but more oldtashioned dame common
sense, and insist that if you do not wish to
be considered countriiicd, and behind the
times, and if you wish to be considered
"stoylish," or if you expect the fashionable
Miss A, or the elegant Miss b. to call upon
you, you must have, among other glaring
absurdities, the skirt of your dress drug
from three inches to three-quarters of yard,
no matter how mnddy Or wet the walks, or
how costly the material of which the dress
is made, no matter, even, if what the worse
than useless extra length cost would have
bought some poor cold little girl warm
flannel suit.
This tyrant fashion not unfrequently
enters the social circle, where all is purity
and peace, and, deaf to all remonstrances of
the enlightened judgment, works ruin to her
votaries, like some evil spirit, who knows no
pity, and feels no relenting.
| would have our daughters so educated as
to be proof against her wiles, to be true to
their own best interests, to rise above the
edicts of flimsy fashion, and obey the laws
of their higher nature, treating their bodies
as the shrines of their immortal spirits.
But, to be complete, woman's education
should be intellectual, such as relates to the
better part of our nature, which survives
the burden and bondage of its lower life.
a few brief years, and the living tide sweep
ing along these streets, chafed and vexed,
shall be but as spent wave along the shores
of the everlasting future. But the in
tellectual life is not thus transient, passing
and perishable, and it is this that demands
especial culture. How much more noble
to strive after intellectual attainments than
to tritter away tho blessed spring-time of
life in attentions confined to outward ad-
important that the immortal dweller within
should be noble, majestic, polished, and re-
fined, fitted to become the companion Of the
heavenly hosts, than that the dwelling should
be decorated with pearls from the ocean, or
gems from the mine. 1t need not be said
here that youth is the proper time to dis
cipline and elevate the powers of the mind,
to correct the Judgment, to inyigorate the
memory, to rein in the discursive fancy; so
that beauty and strength, ease and energy,
may become the real characteristics of the
inner life.
Our whole life is n school, if we are
taught to be hearness; every object and
event may be made II teacher. Earth with
its tecming wonders the heavens with their
shining orbs, silent, sublime, and sweeping
through the vast abyss of space the ocean,
dcep-solmding and awe-inspiring in calm or
storm the varied scenes of joy and sorrow,
of trial and transport all these have q
voice and meaning, and all are life's stern
teachers. Nor is this all: the accumulated
stores of ancient sages, the miracles of
modern science, the philosophy Of the hui
man mind, its constant workings among the
materials of thought carried in through the
medium of the senses these all speak from
their high seats and, when heard and
needed, the mind is developed thereby, and
fitted for right action and right life.
The means of improvement and high
mental culture are accessible to all. None
are trowned away from the temple Of science,
from the great temple Of open nature. The
path to female eminencc may be trOdden by
nearly every plebeian foot. Hannah More
enjoyed in early life no extraordinary ad-
vantages of birth, education, or fortune;
but industry and application gave her an
intellectual elevation and grandeur, which
have secured to her an honorable and
cnyiable immortality.
But female education, to be perfect, must
be moral and spiritual. The mind, the
intellect, creates 4 stimulus for its own cul-
ture. The body has tongue to plead its
own cause and any violation Of its laws is
usually followed by immediate punishment,
But the moral nature is perverted and
deaf to its truest interests. 1t is the culture
of the moral nature that demands the most
unslumbering vigilance for it is this which
gives to woman her godliko sublimity, and
allies her to all that is beautiful, truthful,
and unchanging, in this or any other world.
1t is this that renders her an object of in
terest to all the pure on earth or in heaven.
This, too, is the nature that can be per-
manently perverted or abused, Injuries in
iiicted on the body are confined to the body's
narrow sphere. But any abuse of the
moral nature is followed with pains and
penalties Of the most permanent character.
The thoughts, passions, affections, and
emotions, make up the moral or spiritual
nature, the mysterious and chequered web
which every pulse of life is weaving. such
is the nature of the moral constitution, that
every thought, feeling, and emotion is re-
Elected on the soul as by an invisible mirror,
and that too forever. OF how much impor-
tance is it, then, that the thoughts, feelings,
and emotions should be right, sincere and
proper; and, above all, that the affections, in
all their warmth and freshness, should be
trained to the love of truth and virtue.
Is not that education fundamentally de-