Part 8 (1/2)
”I am fully persuaded that we should hear of none of these infantine airs if girls were allowed to take sufficient exercise and not confined in close rooestion destroyed To carry the re cherished, perhaps created, was treated in the same manner as cowardice in boys, we should quickly see wonified aspects It is true they could not then with equal propriety be termed the sweet flowers that smile in the walk of man; but they would be e the iht of their own reasons 'Educate women like men,' says Rousseau, 'and the more they resemble our sex, the less poill they have over us' This is the very point I aim at I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves”
Some philosophers have asserted with contempt, as evidence of the inferiority of the fe before the rowth at twenty, but men not until they are thirty But this Mary eirls she attributes to the fact that they are much sooner treated as women than boys are as men Their more speedy physical development is assumed because with them the standard of beauty is fine features and complexion, whilst male beauty is allowed to have soth of body and that character of countenance which the French term a _physionomie_, women do not acquire before thirty any more than men”
There are soamy as a iven here, since this evil is not legally recognized by civilized people, with the exception of the Moramy, not sanctioned by lahich exists in all countries, and which has doneelse to dishonor wo the strongest in the book She understands the true difficulty hly than many social reformers to-day, and offers a better solution of the problem than they do Justice, not charity, she declares, is wanted in the world Asyludalens are not the proper reiven the same chance as men to rise after their fall The first offence should not be gle with strong passions virtue is often evolved
To sum up in a feords Mary's state always been treated as an irrational, inferior being, has in the end becoradation springs fro But ”whether this arises from a physical or accidental weakness of faculties, time alone can deter before it can be proved that they have none
While each individualthe false position of wo those froreater fault lies riters who have given to the world in their works opinions which, seeatory character to the entire sex
Having set themselves up as teachers, they are doubly responsible They add to their personal influence that of their written doctrine They necessarily beco to be led There were several writers of the eighteenth century who had dogmatized about women and their education and the laws of behavior Rousseau was to many as an inspired prophet No woman's library was then considered complete which did not include Dr Fordyce's Serhters” Mrs Piozzi and Madame de Stael were minor authorities, and Lord Chesterfield's Letters had their admirers and upholders These writers Mary treats separately, after she has shown the result of the tacit teaching of men, taken collectively; and here what ins
As Mary says, the comments which follow can all be referred to a few siht have been deduced from what I have already said” They are a one before, and it would be therefore useless to repeat them She exposes the folly of Rousseau's ideal, the perfect Sophia who unites the endurance of a Griselda to the wiles of a Vivien, and whose principal mission seems to be to make men wonder, with the French cynic, of what use women over forty are in the world She objects to Dr Fordyce's eulogium of female purity and his Rousseau-inspired appeals to women to make themselves all that is desirable in men's eyes, expressed in ”lover-like phrases of puestive of the erotic religious poems of the East, were particularly offensive to her She next regrets that Dr Gregory, at such a solehters, should have added the weight of his authority to the doctrine of dissinant that Mrs
Piozzi and Madanity of true womanhood as to have confirainst theorously condemns Lord Chesterfield's vicious systee of the world and leaves but little opportunity for the free development of man's natural powers These writers, noexternal behavior to be of primary importance; and Mary's criticisms of their separate beliefsproposition by which she contradicts their , virtue and vice, must be studied in the abstract and not by the measure of weak huuments
These remarks are followed by four chapters which, while they really relate to the subject, add little to the force of the book Introduced as they are, they seem like disconnected essays There is a dissertation upon the effect of early associations of ideas to prove what has already been asserted in an earlier chapter, that ”females, who are ht back to childhood when they ought to leave the go-cart forever,” will inevitably have a sexual character given to their minds Modesty is next considered, not as a sexual virtue but coardless of sex, should always be based on hue, and never on the false principle that it is ato irls that reserve is only necessary when they are with persons of the other sex is at once to destroy in their minds the intrinsic value of ht them As a natural consequence, women are free and confidential with each other to a fault, and foolishly prudent and squeamish with men They are never for a mo the seether In their neglect of what _is_ for what _seerasp a shadow This consideration of behavior, arbitrarily regulated, rather than of conduct ruled by truth, leads women to care much more for their reputation than for their actual chastity or virtue They gradually learn to believe that the sin is in being found out ”Women mind not what only Heaven sees” If their reputation be safe, their consciences are satisfied A woallantries, preserves her fair name, looks doith contempt upon another who perhaps has sinned but once, but who has not been as clever a ard for reputation, independent of its being one of the natural rewards of virtue, however, took its rise frorand source of fe respectability by a return to virtue, though ence of vice
It was natural for women then to endeavor to preserve what, once lost, was lost forever, till, this care sing up every other care, reputation for chastity beca needful for the sex”
As pernicious as the effects of distorted conceptions of virtue are those which arise from unnatural social distinctions This is a return to the proposition relating to the necessity of equality hich the book opens In treating it in detail the question of woman's work is more closely studied The evils which the difference of rank creates are aggravated in her case Men of the higher classes of society can, by entering a political or military life, make duties for themselves Women in the same station are not allowed these channels of escape fro idleness and luxury to which their social position confines them On the other hand, women of the middle class, who are above menial service but who are forced to work, have the choice of a few despised employments Milliners and mantua-makers are respected only a little overness is looked upon in the light of a degradation, since those who fill it are gentlewomen who never expected to be _humiliated_ by work Many women marry and sacrifice their happiness to fly from such slavery Others have not even this pitiful alternative ”Is not that government then very defective, and very unmindful of the happiness of one half of its members, that does not provide for honest, independent wo them to fill respectable stations?” It is a melancholy result of civilization that the ”most respectable women are the most oppressed”
The next chapter, on Paternal Affection, leads to the third part of the treatise It is not enough for a reformer to pull down He must build up as well, or at least lay the foundation stone of a new structure The ion is false, but he instructs him in the new one which is to take its place The scientist, besidesthat old theories are exploded, explains to the student new facts which have superseded the educational systeests wherein they s trained and developed, may have the chance to shohat they really are
Family duties necessarily precede those of society As the ”forun very early, and the temper, in particular, requires theshould be undertaken, not from the time it is sent to school, but almost from the moment of its birth Therefore a feords as to the relations between parents and children are an indispensable introduction to the larger subject of education, properly so called, which prepares the young for social life
Father and htful protectors of their child, and should accept the charge of it, instead of hiring a substitute for this purpose
It is not even enough for theulated in this uided by reason For there are the two equally dangerous extreence to be avoided Unless their understanding be strengthened and enlightened, they will not knohat duties to exact frouide to conduct, they ”de, a ”mysterious sanctity is spread around the ht to expect their children throughout their lives to pay theive heed to their advice, and take care of thee make it impossible for them to do this for theate their sons and daughters to their oill, after they have arrived at years of discretion and can answer for their actions To obey a parent, ”only on account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason” These reirls, who ”from various causes are more kept down by their parents, in every sense of the word, than boys,” though in the case of the latter there is still room for improvement That filial duty should thus be reduced to slavery is inexcusable, since children can very soon be s habitually This, of course, necessitates trouble; but it is the only way to qualify them for contact with the world, and the active life which must come with their maturity
Once this rational foundation has been laid for the formation of a child's character, iven to the development of its mental faculties and social tendencies
The first step in solving the great problem of education--and here both sexes are referred to--is to decide whether it should be public or private The objections to private education are serious It is not good for children to be too much in the society of men and women; for they then ”acquire that kind of preorous power ofaccustomed to have their questions answered by older people instead of being obliged to seek the answers for themselves, as they are forced to do when throith other children, they do not learn how to think for theroundwork of self-reliance is thus destroyed ”Besides, in youth the seeds of every affection should be sown, and the respectful regard which is felt for a parent is very different from the social affections that are to constitute the happiness of life as it advances” ”Frank ingenuousness” can only be attained by young people being frequently in society where they dare to speak what they think To kno to live with their equals when they are grown up, children
The evils which result froreat as those of private education The tyranny established a, while the acquiescence to the fores hypocrisy Children who live away from home are unfitted for domestic life ”Public education of every denomination should be directed to forood citizens, you must first exercise the affections of a son and a brother”
Ho-schools on the other, being equally vicious, the only way out of the difficulty is to co what is best in each, and doing ahat is evil This combination could be obtained by the establishment of national day-schools
They overnment, because the school-master who is dependent upon the parents of children coe, necessarily caters to them In schools for the upper classes, where the nuies in giving thee ith they may startle friends and relations into admiration of his superior systees are small, he is forced, in order to support himself, to multiply the number of pupils until it is impossible for him to do any one of them justice But if education were a national affair, school-masters would be responsible to a board of directors, whose interest would be given to the boys collectively and not individually, while the nuulated
To perfect national schools the sexes ether By this means only can they be prepared for their after relations to each other, wohtened citizens and rational companions for men
The experi Even should it fail, women would not be injured thereby, ”for it is not in the power of nificant than they are at present”
Mary is very practical in this branch of her subject, and suggests an ad the young, she shows the influence of Plato; in her hint as to the possibility of uniting play and study in elementary education, she anticipates Froebel
Her ideas can be best appreciated by giving them in her oords:--
”To render this [that is, co-education] practicable, day-schools for particular ages should be established by governether The school for the younger children, froht to be absolutely free and open to all classes A sufficient number of masters should also be chosen by a select coence, etc, ned by six of the children's parents