The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-03-24

I
J ed him open, and having removed til
intestines, crawled into the warm ca
cass. He said he was never certai
whether he slept one or two nights bu
when he awoke the waters had subsidized
the wild beasts and reptiles were gone
and friendly turkey buzzard was peck
ing at his feet in order to let him knov
it was time to turn out.
Hints for Woman's Work.
Christian Union.l
In every community there are intelli
gent women, with considerable leisur
at their command, who have a desire t,
be helpful and in the same communi
| ty there is a class of young women who
need intellectual stimulus and guidance
How shall the two be brought together
so that the supply shall meet the de
mand !? Newspapers, magazines and
public libraries al serve an admirable
purpose in the intellectual life of the
community, but they are not sufficient.
What is needed is personal influence
and power, and this is just the element
which intelligent women are able to
supply. Almost every village, certain
ly every larger town, contains number
of recent graduates from high schools
and seminaries, who are not able, for
one reason or another, to complete their
school education by a full college course.
Now, to girls of this class, woman of
tact and intelligence can render the
greatest possible service by helping
them to preserve the habits of study
they have already formed, to keep alive
the intellectual interest and curiosity
that have been awakened in them, and
by giving them just that impulse which
shall keep them drinking continually at
the running streams of knowledge.
The training of the best schools fails
unless it emphasizes the Importance of
continual and systematic study as the
habit of a lifetime but it is just this
which large numbers of bright and prom
ising graduates from the higher schools
fail to carry away with them. They go
home from their last term with a latent
desire for fuller knowledge, and that de-
sire is not strong enough to carry them
through the interruptions home life
brings to regular course of study, and
what they need is an impulse from with
out and the guidance of some mature
and trained mind
Any intelligent woman can find no
BILE work for herself by her opening her
doors to girls of this glass, and provid-
ing in her home kind of post-graudu-
teaching is so delightful as that which |
is full of the element of personality, in |
which tender teacher and scholars meet |
on a social basis and as friends mutually |
interested in the same work, in which |
the methods are entirely informal
and conventional and the result the |
freest discussion of the subject An |
experiment of this kind need not be |
heavy task ON the teacher either in time |
or effort. A class may be formed which
shall meet for an hour once or twice
week, taking any study that has vital
connection with life.
Nothing could be more stimulating
and interesting, for instance, than a |
study of the age of Pericles in Greek
history, taking Curtis as historical ba-
sis and reading in connection an account |
of the Greek poets of that period in
Symond's "Greek Poets," and of the |
prose writers IN MnhnAy,e saHistory of |
Classical Greek Literature" to which I
may be proftably added discussions on
the Grecian art of the day, and chapters
from such books as Mahaffy's "Social |
Life among the Greeks" Half dozen
other historical epoehs are quite as in
teresting and fruitful. That of Louis
the Fourteenth, for instance, in French
history, the richest and most fascinating
epoch in the development of the English
race. No subject will be more enter
tanning in itself or open up so many
paths of private reading and study as
English Literature.
An excellent plan would be to take
Stopford Brooke's "Primer of English |
as connecting thread of
study, and with it as guide to make |
the grand tour of English literature,
taking each great author in his turn and |
making such study OF his life and work
as would be in the power ofan ordinarily |
intelligent person. Different authors
may be assigned to different members of
the class, who shall specially study up
and give account of them, so that the |
principal facts of their lives, the special |
VI ILlciE WOIk duQ
lar impulse which they impaired to their
age may be made the possession of the
whole class.
Then there is the great field of art,
which by the aid of the admirable text
books now being published, may be in
diligently and proftably traversed by
those who have no opportunities for
technical knowledge, but who desire to
know art in its historical aspects, and to
be able by knowledge of its historical de.
velopment to understand the schools of
the present day.
These hints will suggest multiplicity
of topics that might with the utmost
profit be studied in this way. Every
woman who desires to make the expert
ment can easily settle the question of
what subject she shall take, by consult
ing her own culture, her own tastes,
and the needs of those whom she wishes
to help. The special knowledge to be
impaired is not of so much value as the
habit of study, which is to be strength
ened and made continuous in the life of
the student