Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/149

 be admitted, even at a little risk to that simplicity which hitherto has been so anxiously preserved. And it will also be indispensable, in a home-trained family, I mean for boys, as a compensation for what is gained of spirit and audacity at school, to court hardihood and courage, and to cherish as well animal insensibility (we want the word insensitiveness) and self-possession, by arduous field amusements, and—if they can be had, by enterprises in the forest, or among the mountains. Who could wish to rear, at home, slender, pallid, aspen leaf youths, content to be never far from their mamma's protection, always duly regardful of every species of possible peril, and well pleased, day after day, to take a quiet ramble, carrying the umbrella for their sisters! We must secure something more than this, or renounce home education altogether for boys.

That higher degree of discretion and considerateness, which is likely to attach to children trained at home, may very well find an object, and so be prevented—as it otherwise will, from lowering the youthful spirits, if there be the opportunity of employing them in some really serviceable manner. This is easily done with girls; and whatever certainty parents may have of securing future competence, or even affluence for their children, there can be no doubt at least I have none, of the desirableness, in regard as well to the physical health as to the moral sentiments, and even the finest intellectual tastes, of a practical concernment with domestic duties. A substantial feminine industry, and a manual acquaintance with the routine of family comfort, gives solidity to the muscular system, and solidity also to the judgment: it dispels romantic and morbid sensitiveness; inspires personal independence; dismisses a thousand artificial solicitudes; breaks through sickly selfishness; and in a word, gives a tranquil consistency to the mind, on the basis of which all the virtues and graces of the female character may securely rest.