Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/66

58 means something more; it means that she is a reading, observing, and reflecting woman. Hundreds have their memories crowded with the rudiments of an education, that lie there as inactive as food in the stomach of a dyspeptic; and they imagine themselves to be well educated; but it is all an imagination. To be well educated is something very different from this.

All real improvement of the mind commences at the time we first begin to think for ourselves; and this is after we have left school. At school, we merely acquire the means to be used in that true and higher order of education which every one must gain for himself. It matters not how many studies a young lady may have pursued at school, nor how thoroughly she may have mastered all she attempted to learn: if, after leaving school, she do not read, observe, and think, she will never make an intelligent woman.

In every company a young lady will find two classes of persons, distinctly separated from each other. If she mingle with those of one class, she will find their conversation to consist almost entirely of light and frivolous remarks on people’s habits, dress, and manners, with the occasional introduction of a graver theme, that is quickly set aside, or treated with a levity entirely at variance with its merits. But if she mingle