Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-09-09
HIGHER EDUCATION.
WHAT LIBERAL THOUGHT AND BROAD
MINDS MEAN FOR ALL.

Women Less but More Comprehensive.
Bright Words from Thoughtful Won
ana JOY to Wives and Mothers.
The advantages of what President
Dwight calls intellectual oneness" in mar
ried life are probably obvious to all; but
may say that they are the most obvious
when we leave unhappy marriages out Of
sight, as very possibly due ~ other causes
than intellectual disparity, and contrast
happy married lives devoid of true COM
partnership with happy married lives which
include it. We have seen many happy
marriages where there is no more intellec-
tual kinship between the man and his wife
than between him and his little children;
but there are kinds and degrees of con-
tentment, satisfaction and active enjoy
ment. Love which persists in spite of dis
PARTIES, limitations and hindrances, and
love which persists with full intellectual
sympathy, true comradeship, genuine
friendship are very unlike in the measure
of happiness they can bestow. AS 1t is be-
tween wife and husband, so it is of course
between mother and children. Many
mothers who have no intellect at all ard
scarcely even a tincture of common sense
are fondly loved by their intelligent sons;
but does such love as this profit them or
profit their sons, even in the way of happi-
ness, half so much as the love between an
other mother and the sons who find her
their intellectual equal their intelligent
companion, their most sympathetic friendf
The higher education rightly pursued
and really gained, is not an influence that
will make woman pedants, prudes, prigs
or bluestockings, shrews, amazons or hard,
cold IT,, 10
broad minded, clear minded, free minded,
active minded is not of necessity, nor even
Of likelihood, to be strong minded. Indeed,
the more a " oman knows of life, the better
she understands the past and present of
the world and the experiences and conclu-
sions of it's greatest thinkers, the less likely
she will be TO confuse the masculine and
feminine ideals or to underrate the latter
in comparison with the former.
1t is the narrow, superficial education of
women which leads them to maintain that
there is mo difference" between them
selves and men, or that mems normal OPP
portunities are loftier than their own, and
which consequently make them envy men
and desire to step into their place. The
really educated woman, the one whose
mind really knows and thinks, can COM
prehend better than any one else the true
meaning and glory of womanhood, the
true Importance of its peculiar RESPONSE
bilities, the true value and charm of it's
peculiar privileges; for she alone is able to
attest and appraise these things, and, more.
over, she has learned that the growth of
civilization implies progressive special
ization of capabilities and efforts, and that
the advancement of women has meant
steady departure from that primitive bar
barrie state where men and women were
not more wildly differentiated than are
male and female animals today. If she
claims share in the mans right to a
higher education, it is first of all that she
may be fitted to do work which a man
cannot possibly do, and may help the
world along in a way that is parallel, not
Identical with his.
Far from being unlucky as regards pos
sibilities of intellectual cultivation, the
women of America seem to me lucky above
their brothers. They can develop them
selves as individuals without thinking of
wage earning and if they must develop
less quickly they have time in more than
the needful proportion. Nor does this ap-
ply merely to the years of early prepare
ton. Even the 'usy mother of a family.
unless she is so poor that all the domestic
work falls upon her own hands, has at
least as many free hours in the day as her
husband; and although her days work is
at least as important and significant as
his, it does not exhaust her brain as most
kinds of money making do.
And when the minds of women interest
and satisfy men as much as their bodies
and souls, think the fundamental. uni
versal sentiment will persist and even de-
velop, that the stronger kind will be better
regulated and that the more foolish kind
will decrease. Married men, | am sure.
will be happier with their wives. Unmar-
ried men will choose their wives more
wisely; or, if the lightning of love still
strikes at random, the bolt will more often
be thrown bya sensible as well as a charm
ing young woman. And when associating
with women whom they do not think of
marrying, all men will be less apt than
they are today to feel that sentimentality
Is expected of them or is likely TO be Of
fered to them. And, once more, as 1t will
be with men, so, conversely, it will be with
women. Often today there is small COM
mon ground for that intimacy between
men and women to which nature prompts
except sentimental ground. Widen the
field of compapionship and the danger of an
unuue CULTIVATION Vi tle sentimental tract
will be decreased.
When women have taught men that
they want and value real friendship, that
they can be loyal, interesting and profita-
BILE friends in the same sense that men are
to one another, yet always with that deli
cate flavor of difference which will make
feminine friendship desirable, no matter
how much masculine friendship may be at
hand, then men will not be so ready to
drop into the attitude Of lovers or make
believe lovers. Yet there will be lovers
enough, for this instinct is even more i'm
perious than the instinct toward friend
ship. And once the lover is transformed
into the husband, there will be a better
chance of lifelong constancy.
! Did all the young girls feel about their
education as the pressure of public opinion
makes all boys feel, were it properly begun
at rs early an age as it is with boys, and
We're it systematically pursued in a way
adapted to their physical characteristics,
they would absorb 1t as easily, wear it as
naturally, profit by it as generally as their
| brothers, and whatever their future life.
whether devoted to the normal tasks of
women or to more exceptional intellectual
tasks, they would have received the best
| possible preparation for il.
OF course ] do not mean that the higher
education would make all women wise and