Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/182

 and alone, to carry forward the various exercises of an elaborate education.

At the commencement of this chapter, I referred to the fact, that, while it is the object of moral training to reduce individual peculiarities to a conformity with the one standard of excellence, it is, on the contrary, the intention of intellectual culture to enhance and to cherish any personal and peculiar talents, with a view at once to the advantage of the individual, and the benefit of the community. But now, and in concluding what I have at present to say of the distinction between male and female education, there is room, I think, for the general rule, that although to enhance the special talent of a man be a prudential and proper course, we may, in the culture of the female mind, well aim rather to equalize and soften down the individual intellectual character, than to give prominence to what might distinguish it. The part of woman is not to devote herself to a calling; nor should it be her ambition to shine as a proficient in a single art or branch of science, but to possess a liberal acquaintance with all studies, and a graceful ability in all the elegant arts.