St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-08-09

up woman Ito borrow very expressive
phrase,) not the really well-dIessed wo-
man, who receives by far the largest
share of homage.
DIR. Bridges once gave an admirable
lecture at the Royal Institution, concern
ing the laboring and pauper class of Eng
ishmen. He made the remark (which
was received with emotion by the audi
ence) that it was not enough to supply
a human being with food and shelter.
"Man," he said, "does not live by bread
alone, he must have hope" May we
not say likewise, "WOman does not live
by bread alOne-nay, nor by the richest
cake" She, too, must have hope--some-
thing to live for, something which she
may look to accomplish for herself or
Others in Gods work, ere her night shall
fall. A HindOO lady, lately speaking at
a meeting in India, compared Mary Car
penter's benefcent existence to a river
bearing fertility to many lands, while
the life of woman i'll the zenana, she
said, Iesembled rather pond. Surely
every woman worthy of the name would
desire to be something more than the
pool, were it only little trickling rill
But IN endless cases, she is damned up
Ou ali SiUtS, duu uOiG Gllc lcSS cHcCtudl-
ly that the soft mud of affectionate pref
udice forms the dam. If her friends be
rich, she is sickened with excess of lux
ury, but prohibited from STOPPING down
out of the empyrean of her drawing
room to lend finger to lift the burdens
of a grOaning world. If the family in
come be small, and the family pride
prOpOrtiOnately great, she is required to
spend her lite-nOt in inspiriting, hon
orable money earning, but in depressing,
heart-narrOwing money -Sauing. When
thepO soul has borne this sort of pecun-
iary stay-lacing for dozen years, and
her forehead has grown narrow, and her
lips pinched, and her eyes have acquired
a certain anxious look (which | often
fancy l recognize) as if of concern about
sixpences, then, forsooth, the world
laughs at her and says, women are so
stingy !" How gladly, in hundred cases,
would that poor lady have toiled to earn
and not to SdUe-and have been nObly
generous with the proceeds of her indus
try
We have heard great deal of late of
the danger to wOmen's health of over
mental strain or intellectual labor. |
do not say there is never danger in this
direction. But of one thing am sure,
and that is, that for one woman whose
health is injured by excessive study,
(that is, by study itself, not the baneful
anxiety of examinations superadded to
study,) there are hundreds whose health
is deteriorated by aUant of wholesome
mental exercise. Sometimes the vacuity
i'll the brains of girls simply leaves them
A1rn ,,NA -
those swept and empty chambers of
their skulls enter many small imps of
evil omen. "The exercise of the intel
lectual powers" says an able lady NJ. D.,
sis the best means of preventing and
cOunteracting an undue development of
the emotional nature. The extrava-
gances of ofimaginatiOu and feeling eugen-
dered in an idle brain have much to do
with the ill-health of girls" Another oh
sever, an eminent teacher, says, Il am
persuaded, and my experience has been
confirmed by experienced physicians,
that the want of wholesome occupation
lies at the root of the languid debility,
of which we hear so much, after girls
have left school," And another, the
principal of one of the largest colleges
for women in England, adds: ''There is
no doubt whatever that sound study is au
eminent advantage to young wOmen's
health provided, of course, that the
general laws of health be attended to al
the same time"
Let women have larger interests and
nObler pursuits, and their affections will
become, not less strong and deep, but
less sickly, less craving for demOnstra-
tive Tenderness in raturn less Varia hle
in their manifestations. Let women have
sOunder mental culture, and their emo
tions-so long exclusively fostered -
will return to the calmness of health
and we shall hear no more of the inter-
mittent, feverish spirits, the causeless
depressions, and all the long train OF
symptoms which belong to Proteau-
formed hysteria, and open the way to
madness on one side, and to SIN on the
other.