Woman's mission.

Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Woman's mission. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and labour to tlieir acquisition: time and labour, in many cases, abstracted from the performance of present, or preparation for future duties;—this is especially applicable to the middle classes of society. Let us now turn to the issues of this education! The accomplishments acquired at such cost must be displayed. To whom? The possessor has no delight in them,—her immediate relatives, perhaps, no taste for them,—to strangers therefore. It is not necessary to make many strictures on this subject; the rage for universal exhibition has been written and talked down: in fact, there are great hopes for the world in this particular; it has descended so low in the scale of society, that we trust it will soon be exploded altogether. The fashion, therefore, need not be here treated of, but the spirit which it has engendered, and which will survive its parent. This, as influencing the female cliaracter,—especially the maternal,—bears greatly upon the point in view;—to live for the applause of the foolish many, instead of the approbation of the well-judging few: to rule duty, conscience, morals, by a low, worldly standard; to view worldly admiration as the aim, and worldly ag- grandizement as the end of life: these are a few, —a very few,—indications of this spirit, and these have infected every rank, from the highest to the