Part 2 (2/2)
Even if these trashy books, which we find everywhere, not excepting the Sunday-school libraries, be not actually exciting and immoral in tone and sentiment, they are so vapid, so utterly without purpose or object, so devoid of any healthy vigor and life, that they are si to the will No one needs to be told how great is the influence of the will over physical health, and any weakening of it tends inevitably to a slackening of all the vital forces, by which alone we preserve health, or even life itself
All such books can be kept out of a house, and their entrance should be guarded against far ases, or even of draughts of pure air Sorateful that in our fathers' houses no such books were to be found Poets were there, novelists were there in abundance, but of such poisonous and weakening literature, no trace; and as we are grateful to our parents for the care and siimen which preserved our physical health for us, we thank them also for the care which kept out of our way the mental food which they knew to be injurious, and for which they themselves had been too well educated to have any taste
The possession, through the instrumentality of education, of simple and healthy appetite and taste, physical and ift that the father, that the ift in coacy of nificance And a tithe of the thought and care which are expended in accu property on the part of the one, a tithe of the care and thought used on dress on the part of the other, would serve to secure it!
The exclusively Airls to fashi+onable resorts for the summer should also be alluded to here No custom could beand sleep, which it alirls in idleness, and left to amuse themselves, are often in such places thrown into contact with persons of both sexes, whose conversation is the worst possible in its effect on eneral principle of education, we ination in one direction without furnishi+ng it some rational food in another; for education, as has been said, consists not in destroying but in training the naturalany natural impulse only defeats its own end For this purpose, and at this period of life, it ell to draw the ih an actual conte and sculpture is of pre-eh their means the allurement which the wholly or especially the half-undraped form has for us, becomes softened and purified The enjoy divine; and it is only through a coarse, indecent, and already infected ienerates into exciteifted to discern the true nature of beauty and grace, ahts and sounds; and beauty, the effluence of fair works, will meet the sense like a breeze, and insensibly draw the soul, even in childhood, into harmony with the beauty of Reason”[14]
There is another matter which can scarcely be passed over in silence in this discussion, but the evil effects of which are seldoainst whose character no whisper has ever dared to raise itself, netism”--I use the term because no other will express exactly what I mean--who often attract the al women They may do this at first unconsciously; but they are pleased by it finally, and see incense-bearers, and they see this excessive, sentimental, and unnatural admiration No harm is done? But harm is done, and that of the most insidious character There is a tiirls and boys when the half-conscious and just awakening spirit is, as it were, casting around in every direction for a soirl comes under the influence of one of these men, she is likely to fall into a most unnatural and morbid state; and the man, whoever he be, that shows himself pleased by such adoration and devotion, who does not by the force of loyalty to the siht, persistently and quietly repel, and effectually repel, all such tribute, is responsible for much harm, and must answer for much unhappiness The reirls which should be sound and healthful; in aht in other directions The safeguard, however, lies in the mother's hands No hter need ever fear for her in this or any other way So long as the girl knows that she can go fearlessly to her h they be, so long as she is never repelled or shut up within herself by ridicule or want of co she is as safe, wherever she may be and into whatever companionshi+p fallen, as if fenced about with triple walls of steel But let that perfect confidence which should subsist between irl once fear to think aloud to her ers encoirl, thus alone, carried away by her i herself to the worshi+p of soe or per to step between and defend her, as Spenser's Britomart did the innocent Amoret froer
As to direct physical care of theirls between fourteen and twenty-one are to be ruled only through their own convictions on the side of prudence, for they will not, as has been before said, blindly obey what seeirls of some other nations can be easily made to do The Ahter, ”You o?” If a girl, then, is ested and softened state it is much more likely to be injured than at other times, she will not, while this is the case, if previously properly educated on the will side, draw her dress tightly around her yielding forether; she will not skate for hours; she will probably not ride for hours on a trotting horse; she will not take long walks; she will not race violently upstairs, or plunge violently down, because she has been taught to believe that no one can with iainst the laws of nature; and thus two of the most frequent causes of trouble, which are displacean, will be avoided If she persists in trying experi time in order to satisfy herself that the wisdom of ancient tradition is of irl who has been properly educated for fourteen years has already made this discovery
However, if, after all advice, any one should persist in so unreasonable a course, she is, when fully grown, a rational and responsible being, and, as such, is answerable alone to herself and to her Creator for theof his workmanshi+p What folly, orse than folly, should we think it in the ers of a steaineer who knew nothing of its construction, or of the way in which the parts act upon one another; and yet, the norance, and then does not carefully guard her herself, is guilty of worse than this; and when the evil is done, the advice of the wisest physician can only be the enjoinment of the very sanitary rules which she herself should have long before enforced; for ”the true method of sexual Education must remain that which has been always hitherto spoken of, that of correct living”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mrs E M King, _Contemporary Review_, Dec, 1873, in an article on ”Cooperative Housekeeping”
[2] _Principles of Political Economy_, Mill American Ed, D Appleton & Co, Vol I, p 551
[3] _Body and Mind_, 2d Ed, p 300
[4] Referring to New York, Boston, or places on saiven on this subject, and in the interest of positive science, therefore, subjoin the following, which any one can easily verify for herself The following articles, viz, ht Balht hoop, corsets, and dress-skirts, over and under, weighed 9lbs 4oz Avoirdupois It ularly exerted, but on account of the swinging and swaying motion of the skirts, is applied now in one direction, now in another The dress weighed was not of the heaviest material, but of fine old-fashi+oned merino, or what is known this year as _Drap d'ete_
[6] Lest this should seem to imply that women should not be employed as bookkeepers, I would call attention to the fact that it presents practically no obstacle whatever to their eest wholesale and retail firms in St Louis has for years employed a woman bookkeeper, and she has never been expected to stand
Low instead of high desks are in their counting-room, and low chairs are also found there The books, bills, etc, are convenient to her hand, and no difficulty whatever is experienced It may, perhaps, be a pertinent question to ask, in what consists the advantage of a high stool and a high desk over a low chair and a low desk, and whether it takes anydown from a stool
[7] In a most valuable and instructive article on the Colish Women, soon to appear in _Scribner's Monthly_, Miss Mary E Beedy, an Ae opportunities for knowing English girls, states that this is exactly the feeling hich the English girl and woard their daily walk I call especial attention to this forthco article because it abounds in accurately observed and skilfully generalized facts; and because it is estive on the whole subject of the health of woe of character at this period is not by any s and their sympathetic ideas; but when traced to its ultis of ious In its lowest sphere, as a mere animal instinct, it is clear that the sexual appetite forces theinto a wider feeling of fa”--Maudsley, _Body and Mind_, 2d Edition, p 31
[9] Maudsley: _Body and Mind_, Am Ed, p 304 _et seq_
[10] Dr Karl Rosenkranz, Doctor of Theology, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Konigsberg
[11] I quote again from Rosenkranz, because I cannot i of the primitive harmony of nature and spirit, and it is very decidedly active in children, however unconstrained they are with regard to nature True modesty is as far removed froht in uous, witty, sha, and it is just as blamable as prudery, which externally affects an innocence no longer existing therein Here is, consequently, the point in which physical education must pass over into moral education, and where the purity of the heart must hallow the body”
[12] A friend of undoubted accuracy testifies to a case where acute dysht clothing, and aggravated by the very cause above-ular and nutritious food, a rational ular brain-hich gave sufficient eination
[13] Rosenkranz refers here, of course, only to the antique, and to the products of modern art which breathe the true spirit of the antique; for it is unfortunately quite possible to find a Joaquin Miller and a Charles Reade, or a Tupper and a T S Arthur, in painting and sculpture as well as in literature
[14] Plato, _Rep_, Book III
[15] ”The great o beyond its physiological liue feelings, blind longings, and obscure i of an i endered, which leads to an abandonence in indefinite religious feelings and aspirations There is a want of sos, to satisfy the undefined yearning--a need of so to adore; consequently, when there is no visible object of worshi+p, the Invisible is adored The ti period for youth; and when there is an inherited infiranization, the natural disturbance of the mental balance may easily pass into actual destruction of it What such patients need to learn is, _not the indulgence but a forgetfulness of their feelings, not the observation but the renunciation of self, not introspection but useful action_” (The italics are ours)--Maudsley, _Body and Mind_, 2d Edition, pp 83, 84
”The next step will be to desire our opponent to sho, in reference to any of the pursuits or acts of citizens, the nature of a woman differs from that of a man That will be very fair; and perhaps he will reply that to give an answer on the instant is not easy--a little reflection is needed”--PLATO, REP, BOOK V