OP FEMALE EDUCATION. 51 



male/' that we may the better subserve the purposes of his provi- 

 dence, and that our mutual happiness may be augmented. Such 

 being the fact, it is manifestly his intention that we should find 

 pleasure in each other's society. No system can counteract this 

 spontaneous feeling. One which tries to substitute an affected in- 

 difference, cannot be in accordance with the will of our Creator. 

 " What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common," may, (with- 

 out violating the spirit of the imagination), be said to those who 

 endeavour to extirpate as wrong, or to quash as inexpedient, the 

 natural sympathies of the heart. 



Secondly. " Is it desirable in it's results ?" How many a sorrow- 

 ing voice and heart could reply to this question in the negative ! 

 No force of education can render a girl callous to the studied atten- 

 tions of a man, or harden her against susceptibility to attachment. 

 Nor can instruction so far supply the place of experience as to fit 

 her for dispassionately considering what claims to her regard a man 

 actually possesses. Further : constituted as society is, every young 

 woman with even moderate attractions receives a certain share of 

 attention ; and the instances are rare indeed, where some one does 

 not try to win her affection. Here, then, is a case which surely 

 merits caution and observation ; and a mother's fostering care was 

 scarcely more needed when her daughter was a helpless baby, than 

 it is at this period. But the way in which most mothers act, de- 

 prives the child of the advantages which Providence, by his wise 

 arrangements, has placed within her reach. The girl, accustomed 

 to have any expressions that relate to the affections received without 

 apparent interest or sympathy by the parent, has learned to avoid 

 the subject, and in nine cases out of ten the mother is the last con- 

 fidante whom the daughter would choose. The natural result is, 

 that imprudent attachments are formed, and a girl's affection and 

 promise are often engaged, before the parents suspect anything of the 

 kind. They then give a reluctant consent, or enforce a peremptory 

 refusal ; in either case the girl is the victim, and through years of 

 ill-assorted married life, or of singleness resulting from disappoint- 

 ment, she has to bewail the capital error in her education. 



The third consideration I proposed is, " Whether some better 

 course be not practicable ;" I confidently answer that it is. Here 

 and there " a more excellent way" is followed, and with the hap- 

 piest results. The daughter habituated to make the mother her 

 most confidential friend, receives the benefit of maternal council and 

 experience ; and the mother, aware of what passes in her daughter's 

 mind, knows how to time her cautions, and how, silently but 



