The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-04

| Miss Clara |. CoIburne.
stand the special worth which woman
| ly character has in the world, the
training of the mind seems of small i'm
| portance unless used as a means to-
ward soul, or character training. Rus
| kin says, ''It is of no moment whether
a woman knows many languages or
| one, but it is of the utmost that. she
should be able to show a kindness to
a stranger and to understand the
sweetness of a strangers tongue" All
! the world unitss in doing homage to
woman for these heart and soul quail
| ties, and it is for these, not for intellec
tual worth, that she has held for centu-
ries. and will hold while time endureS,
| her place as the worlds queen.
| There are many who think that the
| higher education of woman is to bring
about a change in this respect; that as
woman gains i'm mental strength she
will lose the old-fashiOned virtues of
modesty, unselhshness and piety, but
| ! believe that colleges will teach our
girls to be wiser i'm their tenderness
juster in their sympathy and more
| broadly charitable in their religious
life, but it would miss the very aim of
the highest development of womanhood
! if it taught them less sympathy and
piety.
The soul-training of our girls seems
| to me so much more a matter of exam
pie than of preceDt. that it would be
almost impossible to give directions. or
even suggestions, which would be help
| ful. A girl viii not become strong
physically because her father and
mother and companions are strong. She
win pTObably not become thoroughly
I TIT
other relatives are so. We must en-
ploy instructors and take infinite pains
with the details of the instruction if we
wish our daughters to grow BEAUTIFULLY
| strong in body and in intellect; but
strength and purity of soul are conta-
gioUs, and are gained or lost in no way
except by contact.
< x
We talk Of putting the study of NOR
ais into our schools, and then employ
q teacher whose highest ideal is to
make her work near enough to the
equivalent of her monthly salary so
/ that the work viii be retained and the
salary not diminished. We approve of
the daily haIf-hour for conversations
in our schools with the younger classes
on subjects of morality and virtue, but
we too often know nothing of the moral
| standards of the women who is to con-
| duct these conversations, and who is
| to leave q lasting impression, not of the
| words she speaks, but. uncOnsciously,
of the thoughts she thinks on the souls
of her little listeners. The teacher who
| is not. in all her classes. her conVersa-
/ tions and her studies, an expression of
| the high moral purpose which governs
her life, will vainly try TO ennoble the
| minds of those around her by means
f5[ 11-e-.
! life is not inspired by the wOmanly viz
and piety will vainly hope that those
virtues may spring up in her daugh-
| ter's soul
| Character, which is the end and aim
of all education, We breathe into our
souls from the characters around Us
as naturally as we breathe the air into
| our bodies, and an impure atmosphere
| has not a more perniciCus influence on
the health of our children than COM
panions with low aims and ideals will
have upon their souls. And yet. from
| the great care which most people take
| to have their houses we'll ventilated,
and the little care which they take in
| choosing their children's companions,
one would think that children's bodies
were worth more than their souls.
Finally, we would say, educate the
girl as you would the boy in the broad
! est sense OF the word. Bring out and
! train all her faculties, that at the end
| of life she may not feel-I failed there
| through ignorance when / might have
| been wise; but that she may say with
confidnce, l have finished the work
which God gave me to do. Educate her
body, because from it shall flow the
| physical strength of the next genera
ton; educate her mind, so that her
strength of limb and feature may be
the index. of the strength within. Let
| schools and colleges for the higher ed
ucation of women flourish-they will
| flourish whether we let them or not,
for 1t is the cry of womanhood that
she. too, as we'll as man, may have all
| the faculties within her developed for
| the great vocation to which she is %
| be called.
| Above all, educate her soul, that like
! a strain of beautiful music she may
move through this workaday, practical
world of ours, leading mems thoughts
above the sordid and material to
heights where the Divine Voice may be
heard. Let those beautiful womanly
qualities of faithful, unselfsh devotion
| TO others and to God be placed before
| brilliant qualities of clever conversa-
tional ability and readiness in repartee,
which are too often urged upon her
both by precept and example
Mrs. Browning, in describing her
ideal woman, says:
II doubt if she said to you much that
could act
As thought or suggestion; she did
not attract
In the sense of the brilliant or wise;
/ infer
Twas her thinking of others made you
think of her"
Then let us train our girls in this
three-fold training, body. mind and
soul. never fearing that we shall train
any one of the three too thoroughly,
and send them forth into the world to
fight life's battles with confidence that,
whatever the vocation, whether at the
desk. in the office, on the platform. or