Part 6 (1/2)

And yet, it seehter who has not so sifted her life experience, so learned theof her creation, so separated the accidents and follies of to-day fro of life, and to accept for her daughter, as for herself, the great fact of her wonition of its wonderful possibilities and its supreht bring the testiuish, and yet rejoicing in the spiritual ideal of woreat service by her eloquent vindication of the claims of womanhood, which she bases on very noble spiritual truths But too often the high estirounds, and does not satisfy the demands either of mind or heart in the hour of trial, or the practical cothens a woelic by nature, ious, andfrolected solitude, from want of employies ofher day by day--to be called an angel, when she is only a drudge, is not consoling

The work irl nition of natural law to the acceptance of all the conditions of her nature But for this she uish between the ideal and the actual, beto years of hereditary sin and disease and false custom have made it; between the unfallen Eve, the last best work of Creation, and the daughters of corruption and luxury, bearing the sins of their fathers and their enerations

The s of her daughter on those points of physiology which are still baffling the most candid observers

She should prepare herself for this duty by obtaining all the knowledge of the subject that is possible to her She will find that the laws of the huanization are marked by the same wisdos which seemed dark and cruel will be seen to be beneficent and beautiful when their whole relation is understood She ive so intellect, struggling with the great problems of physical life, is so prone to ask, ”Why was I thus made?” It helps us very much to learn the _how_, even if we can never solve the _why_

Every mother has not the power to answer these questions scientifically; but if she have it herself, she can at least inspire in her child a fir and its use, and that until the workings of any function are hest health and welfare of every hu, its law has not been discovered and obeyed

The very search after the answer to her inquiry, is often the healthful exercise of mind which will drive away morbid doubts

Health is the holiness of the body, and every girl should have a high standard of perfect health set before her, and be ht to trifle with and disobey the hygienic laws, than those of morality or civil society She should be as ht on by her own folly, as of being whipped at school for disobedience to her teacher

But ho, on the contrary, is the standard of health for wo, able-bodied woman is almost an unknown ideal to Aislative coentle exempt from the infirmities that beset woirls they mustn't complain if they do have to lose a year or two by ill health, it is hardly to be expected they should not”

Michelet treats se condition of woreat char discovery, that on the whole, woe a little smaller than men, and society seems to accept the idea that therefore, the smaller they are, the more womanly

But before we decide upon this puny condition as the necessary state of woman, let us look at some of the facts on the other side, and see what are the possibilities of physical strength and health coan, pursuing her studies equally with the youngwoht, and is well proportioned She has a younger sister there who is already five feet eight inches high, and growing very fast At the South, the negro women perforh better than men In Europe all kinds of hard work are perforland woe bars of iron In Daho perforhness with s be possible to women of the poorer classes, and of other countries, it proves that it is not her essential womanhood, but her artificial life and her inherited weakness that makes the lady of Western Europe and America an habitual invalid

And this h not the only essential to health, is of the very first importance, and, within proper bounds, is absolutely requisite for the healthy and full development of animal life It is possible to carry muscular activity too far, or rather to ladiator of old was not found to ues of the war as well as the cultivated citizen But as a basis for other culture it is all-ireat peculiar function of maternity requires the finestother causes, which produces the pains and perils of child-birth, which are ale life ”The women of Abyssinia,” says a missionary there; ”never rest more than two or three days after child-birth,” while in luxurious Athens, where woher ranks were kept alike from physical and mental exertion, six weeks of seclusion was considered absolutely necessary

The Gerhter to spin and weave the linen which is to forin to lay up for their daughters a dowry of th from the time of their birth, hoould the mythical curse be removed fro wife in the first child-birth, be as rare as it is in Abyssinia

The first requisite for the mother is to believe in a possible happy destiny for her child, and to seek to secure it for her

One great secret of all art, and therefore of all education, is the nice balancing of the generic with the special or the individual Coleridge says ”this is the trueof the ideal in art” False culture, by the emphasis laid upon peculiarities of race, sex, or families, develops these peculiarities more and more, and tends to produce monstrosities, while nature always strives to inal type

Nature has her own boundaries, which she does not pass over, but they are always delicate and nicely adjustable When the gardener wishes bleached celery, or seedless bananas, or ives special food in the soil of the plants, or covers the tendrils, that he may produce the variety he covets, but when the farhs deep into the soil of the prairie, sows his seed broadcast, and trusts it to the free influences of the sun and the winds, and the harvest that he reaps is reproductive, and may be multiplied for hundreds of years

It is curious in tracing the progress of both vegetable and animal life upwards towards humanity, to see how nature plays with the secondary distinctions of sex The great distinction always re and the reproductive function; but as regards size, beauty, the care of the young, and all reatest diversity of manifestation In some species, even, thefrom the ferocious mother, who, like Saturn, devours her own children, and soard to the mental differences between men and women Few persons will deny that the difference of sex which runs through creation, colors every part of life; and yet the difference is so delicate, and so varied, that I have never heard any broad statement which was not liable to sufficient exceptions to destroy its value I have again and again asked teachers of mixed schools, What difference do you find between the proficiency of the boys and girls in their various studies? Where differences have been pointed out, they have often been just opposite in different schools, one claiic, as specially adapted to feminine taste or capacity

So, in hu out the broad, healthy powers of hu any peculiar attributes ”How aret Fuller, ”is the life neither of man or of woman, but of Humanity?” Every round of Hurow more rich and abundant

Especially should all prenition of sex be avoided; nature should be allowed to develop slowly and quietly sex ht difference in costume are sufficient, but in play and work, and especially in dress and manners, the early distinctions between the sexes tend to produce irl's dress may be a little different in forhaile muslin, or expensive silk? Why should he be able to climb fences or leap ditches without risk to his clothes, and she be kept in perpetual bondage by her ribbons and her ruffles? Look at a boy's simple round straw or felt hat, with a plain band about it, and pity the little girl with her delicate chip and a wreath of artificial flowers Is it because the girl's physique is more delicate and complicated, that she is thus denied the natural and healthy exercise of her powers, and burdened with a load of finery under which the strong anization, the ss, the more absolutely important is perfect freedom of dress and motion, and the more essential is life in the open air If we must keep any of the children in-doors let it be the boys; they will have out-door life afterwards, but let girlhood have its free play before custom and fashi+on fetter it forever So, too, in ize for their unendurable little ruffians by saying, ”You know boys will be rude!” Why should boys be rude? Is not _gentlehest term for all that is honorable and her qualities is rude, but rudeness is not evidence of power, only witness to the want of culture A sadly pathetic vein runs through Miss Edgeworth's children's stories, especially _Frank_, in the difference she makes in the life of man and woman The children make a list of the virtues which should be cultivated by e is put down very low on the woman's side and first on the e is deemed essential to woman and purity to man there can be no moral perfection in either

Still more is the direct appeal to sexual differences to be avoided in early childhood Many foolish parents encourage the custo little beaux and juvenile flirtations, and even very young children are taught gairl as his partner, and the reverse I once saw a dear little girl about four years old put her arm affectionately around the neck of a little playmate, and her father said, ”Oh, for shame, you shouldn't kiss a boy” Could he have answered her simple question, ”Why not?”

This is one of the important benefits of the co-education of the sexes

Brought up together in schools as in families, side by side, from early childhood, there is no false mystery about their relation Their common life is developed, and they value each other for individual qualities I have never found an exception to the statement by teachers of mixed schools, that there is less of nonsense, less of false sentimentality and precocious sexual attraction, than where the boys and girls are kept separate

In life as in art those characters are the finest in which the distinction of sex is recognized but not emphasized--in which the human nature preponderates over that of man or woerated almost to repulsiveness, but in the Apollo they are present, but they never intrude theor, freedoenius, joy in existence, are his attributes, and while the muses are feminine, he is the God of poesy and music So the Milo Venus has all the traits of wonified presence reminds us that she is a Goddess, and not a weak, self-conscious woe But the type of womanhood in western Europe and America has emphasized all that is weak, all that is sentimental, all that is helpless in woive it a strange and unnatural charnize it as an exquisite creation of art, not of nature, as wonderful as the pouter pigeon or the saffron rose The delicate whiteness of the coed with pink, the fine silky hair, the fragile, y foruid blue eye, the soft, low voice, the sensitive nerves that shrink from every breath of heaven, and weep at every tale of woe, the slight cough that touches your co step that appeals to you for help, are not these all characteristic of that fair, frail, lovely being, to who and rich

A celebrated painter once heard a woraceful” ”Graceful!” he indignantly exclaiility are the conditions of grace”

One of the services of true art is to hold before us models of beauty which keep the eye pure aest any training of corsets or wearing of long skirts, yet poetry and fiction have helped to perpetuate this idea of the lady

Shakespeare has given us his Ophelia and Desdemona, creations of this false theory, and I have heard men declare the story of _Doctor Antonio_, we have the same lovely heroine in our prosaic modern life But reat hours of trial All untrue to the de the en, we have woeration; they are independent noble existences, capable of living alone, and therefore able to meet nobly all the conditions of life and of love[28]