Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/76

68 certain degree of intelligence and refinement, while it adds to the happiness and means of doing good, is attainable by all, no matter how low their original condition, and should be striven after by all. The influence of an ignorant, vulgar-minded woman is necessarily bad, whether it be felt by her companions, relatives, husband, or children. As a maiden, she inspires no virtuous resolves in those with whom she associates; as a wife, she does not elevate the mind of her husband, and make him love what is really excellent, because in her personified; as a mother, she does not implant in the minds of her children that love of truth by which, in after life, they may be raised from the baseness and disorder of their natural condition. From this simple fact, it is at once seen, that upon the elevation of woman depends the elevation of the lower classes of society. Every one should bear this in mind, and especially woman herself—woman in an humble as well as in a high condition.

A young girl who is poor, and unblessed by the advantages of a good education, will find little to awaken a desire for improvement, refinement, and self-elevation. Nearly all that surrounds her tends to hold her just where she is. Obeying the social law of her being, she