The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-03-11
The Romance of Home.

We would not imply that education is
to blame for the threatened fading away
Of the romance of home to our woman
kind, says a writer in the London Queen,
but that therole Of education in women's
lives is often misunderstood. The home.
woman must always be the ideal type Of
woman, not only of the married, but
also of the unmarried. 1t is the fashion
to lament the number Of the latter and
puzzle over their position as over seri
Gus social problem yet the majority OF
our dear old maids must be home-women,
if the world is to continue to care for its
comfort and tending. The teaching of
other women's children, the nursing of
the sick, the are-taking of our beloved
old ones, must still belong to them. 1t
is because the "home- woman" is the
ideal type of woman that all must be
done to develop her nature harm onious-
ly because society is an outside interest
to her, she needs the cultured intellect
that finds delight in reading and study
in her leisure hours; because she has the
SIOMlIlS SCuCi w ihhUShSS, cAiS
should have her sympathies attuned to
noble things and large interests, because
she would be mans companion, and the
source whence is derived the order and
economy of his household, she must have
her Judgment developed, her reasoning
powers trained, her understanding
braced, her imagination chastened, By
the ideas which only liberal education
can supply. We would have women
educated in every detail. 1t has been
we'll said no revolution could compare
in its effects with those produced by ed
ucation and training on our women.
But the womanly element must not be
taken out Of it woman must aim to be
the poet and artist in her life before be-
ing the poet and artist in her works.
Her duties and her enthusiasts must go
hand in hand not duty here and en-
thusiasm there The vulgarest duties
of life may be poetized by the spirit in
which they are interpreted ; and it is in
this account that, of all women, educa-
ton is most necessary to the home
woman. Nothing can seem fiat or in
sipid to one who has grain of poetry
in her heart. The love of goodness and
beauty brings charm to abide in right
doing. If we look about for an exam
pie of what we consider to be the true
home woman, we find it shining forth in
the pages of journal kept by French
woman, Eugene de Guerin, written for
her brother Maurice. Every incident
of the simple, stately, patriarchal life
led by the little family in the
Chateau du Cavla is chronicled
the household perplexities, the
letters received, the visits paid-few to
the rich, many to the poor-the pill
grimages to the church hard by are all
recounted There is excellent sense in
every page that records the discharge OF
Mile. De Guerin's household duties; she
keeps the accounts, she can cook, she
supervises the form people, she nurses
the sick. She throws her heart into
every detail of her life, and invests il
with a charm and interest, and all the
while finds time for thinking and
writing Her literary genius has now
been recognized by her country. Her
diary reveals her inner, as well as her
simple, homely, outer life-her wander
ines on the hilsides and in the woods,
with her thoughts for companions. The
life CT reading, writing and thinking is,
of all others, the one she would prefer
to lead. An extract from hei journal
will paint her poetic, cultured and still
the home woman to the hearts core.
'In the stiffness of a life like this my
spirit is happy, and, as it were, dead to
all that goes on upstairs or downstairs,
in the house or out of the house. But
this does not last long. Come, my
poor spirit, then say to myself, I'VE
must 90 back to the things of this
world and l take my spinning, or a
book, or saucepan, or | play with
Wolfe or Tribly Such life as this |
call heaven upon earth"