The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-06-04
Education for Women.

| 1t is a startling fact that not one of
the famous literary women whose works
are now found in every considerable Ii
| brarv. and whose names are households
| words in our families. had been heard
of when our America declared its indie
| pendence, 1777 France, indeed, had
then few names Of local celebrity, like
Mines De SEvIGNE and DELAFAYETTE,
and APHRA BEHN had in England bad
| odor, which the straight-laeed HANNAH
MoRE was about trying 10 correct; but
ANNA NECKER Nine. De STAEL was
but 10 years old. and MARIA EDGE
WORTH was but 3, and FRANCES Bur
NEY came out with her .Evelina' two
years atterward, 177S;) and what is
NOW the dominant female literature was
not in existence. Certainly, new age
for women has come, and if they have
done such great things in letters, they
can do great things in other depart
ments. Yet We make great mistake
If we take il for granted that women
were insignificant before they took to
authorship. and that they had no way
Of publishing their ideas and purposes
before they went into print. There Is
the strongest reason for believing that
all the girls and boys who came into the
world before were born of women, and
took their character as well as their con-
stitution mainly from their mothers,
and also that society in every age was
in great part the expression of female
tastes and manners. 1t will not do to
overlook what may Justly be called the
higher education Of women, even in the
ages that are called most superstitious,
rs when the old Roman Catholic Church
was in full sway.
Some women were then thoroughly
taught the essentials of religion; they
were brought up under the most care
full discipline, and offices of great trust
and power were within their reach.
Men, Of course, were over them, and no
woman was priest or confessor; at the
same time the sex was made supreme
above all creatures in one celestial type,
and the Virgin Mary was put next to
her Divine Son, and she was regarded
rs the surest way to win His grace
However faulty that kind of education
was, it was surely not without redeem
ing and elevating elements, which are
not wholly thrown into the shade by
the fiashy mode that so often trains and
trims girls for the matrimonial market,
and schools them to be on the lookout
for rich or noted man to feed their
vanity and support their ambition.
The question is now, what is the
higher edutation that belongs to our
time, and how are we to secureit for our
daughters? 1t is, of course, very i'm
portant what books they shall read and
what studies they shall pursue. 1t is
cheering to see a constant enlargement
of the range of stnudies for girls, and al
so rise in the style Of mental discipline
| to which they are called.
We are not alarmed by the fact that
| the full college courses of the great uni
versities are now, under wholesome con
| ditions, open to women, and that en-
| glish Cambridge and American Harvard
offer to teach them by their own choice
| Professors and tutors. Yet the round
| of nominal studies is not the main thing
to be looked to. The great matter is the
spirit ofthe higher education, and women
will not gain much by being crammed
with course E history and language,
metaphysics and mathematics, unless
| they are encouraged to develop their own
womanly nature in these studies, and
| they are led to look at all in womanly
way and with an eye to doing their
proper part in the world of culture
There is no doubt that bright girls can
| do well in both the great departments of
study, the more rhetorical and the more
| logical, orin literature and in science; but
what we want more than new crop ofspe-
cialists in language and in reasoning is Il
new generation of genial and reasonable
women, who can carry out the true phil
osophy of life and thought in their own
sphere and way, and who can reconcile
sentiment with science alike by the charm
Of their presence and the light of their
convictions. Women were an immense
power in maturing and spreading the old
Catholicity, and the Helenas and Paulas,
the Berthas and Isabellas did great
deal to win the world to the Catholic
truth as they understood it.
Now that we are in danger of an out
break of chaos in opinions and policies,
and rabid individualism on the one
| hand and crazy communism on the
other hand threaten society, there is
crying need Of new wisdom and order
alike in household life and in general
society, politics, and religion. Women
must do their part toward this end, and
instead of being outside of this great
world, they are at its very heart, and
the world is sadly out Of joint because
they are not up to the mark, and they
so often insist upon thrusting obsolete
ideas upon the new times or upon shut
ting their eyes to all serious thought
| when serious thoughts is the first neces-
sity Of their souls and their circle
Sound thinking we must have or 90 to
ruin, and this thinking has its feminine
as well as its masculine side Many IA
home owes its downfall to the defects of
the woman's training, and what makes
the weakness of the household has much
to do with the troubles Of the nation.
1t must not be forgotten that the folIies
of women often match the vices of men
in the record of wrong and suffering
The higher education of women must,
of course, include their active powers as
well as their ideas and opinions. What
they are to do as well as to know is
becoming very serious matter It is
cheering to find so many usefui occupa-
tions now open to them, and that sewing
and cooking, nursing and teaching are
not, as once, about the whole round OF
| their usefulness.
| KaoT1 Ciu0inO