Female Education. 
the males.* The real question is, can 
the female mind be improved by educa- 
tion? This, I think, nobody will deny. 
In the higher branches of literature, 
from which females are, in a great mea- 
sure, excluded by education and habit, 
and which, therefore, do not allow a 
fair comparison, they, nevertheless, 
play a conspicuous part. In Miss 
Edgeworth we have the second novel- 
list of the age; and Lady Morgan, 
Miss Burney, Mrs. Hamilton, and Mrs. 
Opie follow at no humble distance. 
Among our best historians ranks Mrs, 
Macauley, and mathematicians boast of 
‘Donna Agnesi. The first tragic writer 
of the age is Johanna Baillie; on the 
stage Mrs: Siddons had no superior; 
and in originality, brilliancy, and gene- 
ral knowledge, few men can compete 
with Madame de Stal. The female 
mind must surely be capable of great 
exertions and immense improvement, if 
it can display in literature such charac- 
ters as these. It should also be re- 
membered that literary excellence is 
not the only, nor the chief object of 
good education, especially of good fe- 
male education, although some portion 
of literature should certainly form a 
branch of it. Beauty soon fades, accom- 
plishments follow quickly in the rear; and 
the once beautiful and admired female, 
scarcely able to exact the coldest civility, 
spends the remainder of her days in 
frivolity and unhappiness. Such is the 
picture of many a woman in high life, 
-and of very many in the middling 
classes of society; few, comparatively, 
being obliged to devote the whole of 
their time to domestic duties. The 
years thus wasted in pain and frivolity 
might be agreeably spent in literary 
pursuits, which, were they of no other 
utility, would, in this respect, prove 
highly valuable. An intelligent female 
can spend her leisure hours with much 
pleasure in these pursuits, and, at the 
/same time, earn the approbation and 
esteem of society. No difficulty can, 
therefore, arise from the female mind 
* This, however, is still a disputed 
question. One party maintains that the 
female understanding is far inferior, which 
‘another party as boldly denies: while a 
third contends that the minds of both sexes 
are equal, although not alike; the male 
being distinguished for superior force, ab- 
straction, and method; the female for su- 
‘perior acuteness, versatility, and delicacy— 
qualities which are alike indispensable to 
our happiness. 
485 
being incapable of profiting by in- 
struction. 
The policy of bestowing much trou- 
ble and expense, in the education of 
females, depends upon the relative si- 
tuation their sex should hold in so- 
ciety, and upon the duties it has to 
perform, 
Knowledge, according to Lord Bacon, 
is power; and what is power but hape 
piness, or the means of pursuing happi- 
ness ?- Debar one-half of society from 
knowledge, from instruction, from hap- 
piness, and so closely is their fate en- 
twined with our own, that you almost 
risk the destruction of society. The 
bonds between the sexes are infinitely 
stronger than those between man and 
mam. They were founded in mutual 
happiness, and, if broken, must occasion 
mutual misery. Woman alone can be 
a partner, without the fear of becoming 
a rival. This vain and noxious phan- 
tom of rivalry, conjured up by igno- 
rance and supported by prejudice, must 
speedily vanish before the light of truth. 
The more enlightened we become, the 
more able and desirous are we to per- 
form our duties; and the duties of the 
two sexes are so distinct by nature, yet 
each is so necessary to the well-being 
of the other, that, united, they form a 
consistent whole, which the best edu- 
cation will render most perfect. 
Women were formed to be our wives, 
not pieces of household furniture, or 
animals for our:amusement, like mon- 
keys and kittens; they were formed to 
be our. partners: not: sleeping partners 
only, but active intelligent partners, 
capable of conversing with us, of un- 
derstanding us, of adding their: share 
of knowledge and talent to the delight 
we experience from our own, of. enter- 
ing into all our pleasures, and of soften- 
ing all our pains. 
It is the wish of the ignorant to degrade 
others to their own level, and, above 
all, so to degrade women, that them- 
selves may shine in the comparison; as 
if, unfortunately, there were not de- 
graded beings enough of both sexes to 
keep each other in full countenance. 
If a woman should be degraded, why 
not utterly degraded,—where are the 
bounds? how can they be marked? If 
intelligent, why not highly intelligent ? 
Is knowledge misery, or can we mark 
out the limits of human improvement ? 
Her situation in society demands intel- 
ligence, no less for our happiness than 
for her own. 
The duties of females now pass un- 
‘der 
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