The Merry Past 



not as stupid as men. All women, indeed, have a 

 certain amount of cleverness, except those who think 

 they have ; but few of them are capable of viewing 

 the affairs of the world in general with justice and 

 toleration. The lessons of history (if they ever take 

 the trouble to investigate them) are meaningless to 

 most of the sex, who, living essentially in the present, 

 care little for what does not affect themselves or those 

 they love. For this reason female education should 

 rightly be directed more towards developing the 

 admirable qualities of woman than cramming her 

 with knowledge which, though it is easily acquired, 

 seems to have little permanent effect. 



Such education as was received by girls in old 

 days was directed towards producing a gentle, loving, 

 and companionable wife able to manage a household 

 and well fulfil the high destiny of producing a new 

 generation, and in numbers of instances it was 

 eminently successful. 



The ideal woman of the eighteenth century was 

 essentially gentle and intensely feminine, and there 

 are many evidences that the type in question was 

 formerly more easily to be found in the British 

 Islands than is the case to-day. In all probability the 

 best description ever written of a perfect woman is 

 that given by Pope : 



Oh ! blest with temper whose unclouded ray 

 Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day ; 

 She who can love a sister's charms or hear 

 Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear ; 

 She who ne'er answers till a husband cools 



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