Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/181

 This point is too well understood to need any enlargement; nor does it seem requisite to corroborate the dictates of common sense in opposition to the absurdity of the endeavour, which has been sometimes made, and defended, to fit girls to do that which it is certain they will never be called to do. All along I assume, on the part of parents, a vigorous good sense, and a firm adherence to great and well-sanctioned principles. We save ourselves therefore the labour of refuting any thing which clearly stands condemned by maxims generally admitted.

The specific intentions of female education, considered in contrast with that of the other sex, are three;first, to vivify, elevate, and inform those intellectual tastes in wo- man, which may be the means of happiness to herself, and which exclude tastes that are frivolous, or pernicious:secondly, to render her the attractive companion of man, and to put her into communication with the world of mind; not indeed to explore it, but to tread its beaten paths in all directions; and lastly, and as a special object, female education should keep in view a woman's probable destination to teach what she has learned. This latter intention may justify some more exact and arduous methods of study than otherwise would appear to be necessary. And let me be allowed to remind parents that how secure soever may be, to-day, their possession of affluence, and however un-likely it may seem that their daughters should be compelled to look to their accomplishments as the means of independence, it is a wise caution to fit them for a possible reverse of fortune. Moreover, indulging as I do the hope that, in a larger number of instances than heretofore, home education for girls may be adopted, I cannot forget that any such change would, so far as it extended, occasion a call for the assistance of well-informed young women, to conduct the routine of learning, under the direction of parents; for it is not to be supposed that they should be able, personally