Huntsville gazette. [volume] (Huntsville, Ala.) 1879-1894, 1890-07-19
HIGHER EDUCATION.
The Effects of Accrued Knowledge Upon
the Life of Woman. II

The Effects of Accrued knowledge Upon
the Life of Woman.
The higher education so freely offered
ito women at the present time, together
= with increased opportunities for voca-
. ton, have led many to ask with no lit
tie seriousness what effect these so-call-
ed advantages will have upon women
and whether, on the whole, the result
will not be to detract from those finer
qualities which are considered essential
a ly feminine. If the necessary result of
a broader intelligence is correspond
sing loss of refinement and delicacy,
writes Caroline X. Sherman, in Chicago
Post, women, as we'll as men, should re-
gard with anxiety this intellectual de-
velopment, for no amount of learning
scan compensate the loss of tenderness
and grace, and qualities Of mind alone
are poor substitute for the warm in
stincts of a gentle heart
But those who are studying the prac-
teal solution of the problem do not as
yet find occasion for alarm. They sea.
no necessary contradiction between the
activities of the head and those of the
heart. On the contrary, they have
reason to believe that wise intelli-
gence adds immensely to the value of
the affections. They are ready, also, to
admit that the grace which comes from
strength is far more graceful than that
which comes from languor; that the ten
derness which comes from efficient SYM
'pathy is no less tender because of it's
efficiency. And that the trust which is
based on full recognition of all that
love and trust and self-surrender imply
is certainly apt to be more permanent
than the trust that is based upon igno-
rance. Il
If the more rational life now offered
to women shall lead them to more RAJ
tional views in regard to the affections
incalculable results for good must inev-
= itably follow; for there is no truth that
men and women need to see more plain
ly than the fact the emotions are to be
kept under wise control; that they are
of yalue only as they are under control,
and that the infallibility of love is not in
proportion to its intensity, but rather in
proportion to its clear sightedness.
which cling to the idea of chivalrous
devotion on the part of man and help
less dependence on the part Of women,
and this might be we'll enough perhaps
If men were always strong and women
were always young and beautiful. Yet
even here it is a question whether a
woman could find lasting happiness
merely as passing recipient Of loving
admiration, however ardent, for as long
as a woman has rational and spiritual
nature, so long she fails of highest hap
piness if these are dwarfed or lost sight
of. Furthermore, the fate of the JUL
cts, the Desdemonas, the Margarets. and
countless hosts of other women, who
were all that is gentle and sweet and
confiding, does not lead to the belief
that the fate Of such women is at all en-
viable. Shakespeare knew this we'll.
While he portrayed every phase of the
: emotions, and with all the allurements
: and attractions which passion and I'M
. disciplined ardor know how to offer, he
has not failed to show tho evil results
where feeling, and not reason, obtains
! control. The Ophelias and Desdemonas
perish, the victims of their own undisci-
plined instincts, but Portia, the woman
of wise intelligence, whose wealth of
feeling was not under the sway Of pas
sion, lived not only to her own advAn-
tage, but that of her husband and house
hold.
Nor has Shakespeare failed to show
that the clear Judgment and calm re
Election of women like Portia do not in
any wise lessen the intensity of their
affection We find her the genuine
, woman, with all womanly instincts
happy in the self-surrender to hus-
band who is worthy of her. No submits
sion could be more womanly than is that
OF Portia to her husband; but it is tho
submission of strength, not of weakness.
Goethe. who knew women WE'LL eestifies
to the same effect. y
It is the disposition Of most women to
live in their feelings; and. perhaps,
from ti.eir physical constitution they
are com pelled to do so to . greater or
less extent Still the tendency need
not be cultivated, as. 1t certainly has
been in times past. And, above all
things, the emotional state need not be
considered the ideal condition for wom-
en-. for IN. whatever way, women, is re-
rarded. whether as an individual of and
for herself or as helpmeet for man, in
either case it is the rational life that
gives a permanent worth to the emo
tional life. It is to be hoped that the