needless, weak, and militant churches all over the land. There are facts
on this subject that should be deeply pondered.[5]
So in regard to education; although intelligence has diminished the
acerbity of sectarianism, it has led to a higher appreciation of
educational institutions as an element of _sectarian influence_ and
_respectability_. From this has come the struggle to multiply colleges
and female seminaries in each of the several denominations. Each is now
acting _as a sect_ in starting new institutions all over the land, that
demand immense investments for buildings, apparatus, and endowments, and
this without reference to the actual wants of the community. For
example, in Indiana, where the low state of common school education
makes such institutions least patronized, there are _eleven endowed_
institutions, with an aggregate income from these endowments of $14,000
_per annum_, besides tuition. In Ohio there are _twenty-six_ colleges
and professional schools, with an annual income from endowments of
$25,000; and yet, as appears in the public prints, $100,000 has been
subscribed in one city in this same state to start another college for
the Old School Presbyterians, who are expected to raise as much more
among that sect. Besides endowments to support teachers, vast sums are
expended in buildings, some of which are standing unused for the purpose
for which the money to build them was given. This is a fair specimen of
what is transpiring in most of the other states in raising new
institutions or increasing the funds of those already started. In this
way, two, three, and four colleges are often found as competitors in a
section that could properly patronize scarcely one.
After each sect has thus reared an institution, it must then struggle to
find pupils, and thus multitudes of young boys, who are to go into
future pursuits where such knowledge will be of little or no service,
are pressed into a Latin and Greek course, which probably the larger
portion of them forsake before it is completed, with little knowledge of
ancient literature, and far less of their own mother tongue. The waste
of educational benefactions in this way is little realized, while the
effect of congregating the young in boarding-school life, away from home
and parental influence, is most disastrous.
How can it be otherwise? To take the unformed youth at the most
excitable period of the nervous system, at the point where temptations
are strongest, and habits of self-control the weakest, away from
mothers, sisters, and home influences; herd them promiscuously with good
and bad; stimulate the brain to excess; end all the healthful domestic
exercise, and what could be expected but just such wrecks of health,
morals, home habits, and all that is good and pure, as is constantly
going on in such institutions?
If parents could hear the details that have come from mothers and their
young sons of the experiences of boarding-school and college life all
over the land, especially in reference to that most contaminating and
horrible literature and prints that no care can exclude, they would
understand only a small part of the evils included in such institutions
for the young.
Not only colleges, but female seminaries, and even private schools, are
becoming more and more sectarian, as especially patronized by some one
denomination, and relying on this for success.
All this sectarian influence in education is, in fact, operating to
sustain the Augustinian theories _by the pains and penalties_ that first
enforced them; for no teacher of a school, or college, or female
seminary could avow a dissent from theories so powerfully sustained,
without subjecting himself, his institution, and his sect to attacks
from other sects and institutions, as one mode of supplanting a rival.
It was this powerful array of antagonistic influences that for years
withheld the author from any public expression of some of the views set
forth in this work.
It has been stated in the introduction that, while teaching mental
science, in connection with the Bible, to highly gifted minds, an octavo
volume was printed, but not published, which embraced the leading
features of this work. In that, the principles of reason and
interpretation were _not_ applied to the theories of a depraved mental
constitution, which at that time were not, to her own mind,
satisfactorily solved, but to theories on the character and atoning
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, where relief was first experienced by the
writer.
On taking advice as to the publication of such a work, it became clear
that it would probably result in such powerful theological influences as
would end a connection with a public institution, and all labors as a
teacher.
In obedience to the counsel of friends, it was concluded to go quietly
on as an educator, and work out practically all that could be done
without innovating on accepted opinions, and wait till time and
circumstances should afford more maturity and completeness to the
writer's own views; for it was soon perceived that no one ever objected
to having children trained exactly according to the author's present
views, provided nothing was said against the accepted theological
theories. So faithfully has this method been pursued, that it is
probable that there is not an individual with whom the writer has been
associated as an educator, who will not, for the first time, learn her
views on the Augustinian and Calvinistic theories from this work; while,
even in her own family circle, though opinions have been expressed
freely, all discussions on this subject have been avoided.
In pursuing the course of a practical educator, the first years were
spent mainly in the intellectual department, at the period when the
"higher branches" first began to enter as a part of female culture.
Surrounded by some of the most gifted female minds in the country as
both teachers and pupils, and all excited by the interest of pioneers in
the effort to elevate the standard of female education, there resulted
such an amount of intellectual activity and enthusiasm as has never been
witnessed by the author before or since.
Ignorant of the laws of health, and unaware of any danger from excess,
the result was such entire and irretrievable prostration of the nervous
system as forbade forever any farther labor as a practical teacher.
Extensive journeyings to restore health among a widely-dispersed family
connection led to frequent reunions with former pupils. Thence resulted
a deep conviction of the necessity of _training the domestic habits and
tastes_ of young girls as had never yet been attempted, and of the
extreme suffering and _ill health_ consequent on the neglect of it as _a
part of school education_. This led to two works on Domestic Economy,
one of which was designed as a text-book for girls at school, and the
other for their use after they became housekeepers.
Continued ill health, inducing frequent resort to health establishments,
where invalids from all classes were congregated, increased the
conviction that modes of education and other causes were fatally
undermining national health, especially that of women. Thus originated a
work on Health, and another on Physiology and Physical Training.
Incapacitated from labor as a teacher, the only field of effort to the
author was in more general efforts to interest her own sex to enlarged
and _organized_ efforts to secure the proper training of woman for her
distinctive duties, and also to provide _employment_ for her in her
appropriate profession.
Two small works addressed to American women on this subject were issued
by her, and two organizations were the result: one conducted by ladies
in Boston, and one by Governor Slade as General Agent of the Board of
National Popular Education.
As both of these restricted their efforts mainly to providing employment
for teachers already educated, the next attempt was to secure an
organization to prepare woman for her _distinctive duties_ on a more
complete and comprehensive scale.
In this attempt, it was perceived that the other sex have always secured
proper attention to any particular department of education by
_endowments to support highly-educated teachers to give their whole time
to that object_. Thus chemistry, agriculture, and the practical sciences
are made honorable, and are insured as branches of liberal instruction.
The question then arose, Why should not this method be taken to make
woman's _distinctive_ profession honorable, and to secure a proper
training for it?
The business of a woman is divided into three as distinct departments as
the liberal professions of law, medicine, and divinity for men, which
are so honored and endowed. Nor are they less important or universal.
For, in the first place, woman is to train the human mind at just that
period when principles, tastes, and habits are most firmly fixed; next,
she has the care of the human body all through its period of
development, when the physical habits are formed, and also in periods of
sickness for all ages. Lastly, she has charge of the whole circle of
domestic economy, and of all the _home_ interests of the family state.
Educator, nurse, and housekeeper, these three departments are not less
in importance than law, medicine, and divinity.
The leading feature, then, in this attempt was to secure an organization
of American women, who should aim to establish model institutions for
woman, that should prepare her _thoroughly and properly_ for the three
distinctive employments of her profession, by means of endowments to
support highly-educated teachers for this express object. In all other
female institutions, the training of the _intellect_ has been the
leading object; in these, the preparation of woman for her distinctive
duties was to be the leading object.
To the common remark that the mothers must do this _at home_, it is
replied, in the first place, that the mothers, to a great extent--_as
the general rule, having but few exceptions_--are not qualified to do
this; and, next, if they were, they have not the _health_, or they have
not the _time_, or they have not the _will_ to do so. When men wish to
perfect and honor any profession, they provide _endowments_ to sustain
teachers of the highest order. Thus, for example, though it may be said
that farmers can best train their sons for their own profession, still
agricultural professorships in our colleges, and teachers sustained by
endowments, are found to be indispensable to honor and raise that
pursuit to a _science_ and a _profession_.
While the young women of the nation see every thing else more honored
and provided for than the very profession and future business of their
lives, they will grow up to neglect and despise such duties.
The education of woman, to be what Heaven designed for the race, should
unite the _home training_ of the parents with the _school training_ of
the teacher. Instead of taking young girls from all domestic interests
and pursuits, and turning all the energies of their nervous system into
the intellectual department of the brain, there should be an equable and
healthful training, at once, of the bodily powers, the social and
domestic habits, the intellect, and the moral nature; and in effecting
this, the parents and the teachers should _work together_ harmoniously.
It is in reference to this that the tendency of this age and country to
conduct the education of the higher and middling classes in
_boarding-schools_ instead of _at home_ is most disastrous.
Boarding-schools should be the exceptions to meet the wants of a sparse
population. Instead of this, the country sends its daughters to city
boarding-schools, and the city sends to country boarding-schools, and so
_home_ education is becoming more and more neglected.
The consequences to the health, happiness, and moral interests of woman
are more and more disastrous.
In reference to this, the efforts of the above association have been
confined to establishing what it is hoped would become _model
institutions_ in the _centres of influence_ of the states where they
were located, in which the funds should _not_ be spent in providing
great buildings to take children away from all home influences and
domestic pursuits, but rather in providing such teachers and influences
as would have a direct bearing on the homes of the pupils, and aid the
parents in cultivating _home habits_, _home virtues_, and _home tastes_
and _pursuits_.
This brief history of the writer's efforts is given because its results
will now be seen to form a part of the "history of the dogma" which is
the subject of this section.
For, during the whole period of these efforts to promote the _right
training of the human mind by woman as the Heaven-appointed minister for
this end_, the influence of this dogma has been constantly forced on
attention as the real antagonistic force. That is to say, the whole
energies of the Christian Church, in its distinctive character, are
organized to remedy the evil _after the mind is educated wrong_, while
little is attempted by the powerful agency of _organization_ to secure
its _right education_. In proof of this, it will be seen that all the
great benevolent organizations for which collections are enforced from
the pulpit are for adults, with one only seeming exception. There is an
organization to send Bibles, another to send tracts and colporteurs,
another to send missionaries abroad, another to send home-missionaries,
another for the sailor, another for the slaves, another to educate
ministers, another to raise up colleges, another for temperance, and so
on. All these have as their direct aim those who are educated wrong, and
are to be redeemed from sinful habits. Not one has any direct reference
to the _formation of right habits in the daily training of every-day
life_.
The Sunday-school is the only seeming exception. But this is only a
weekly exercise of an hour or two, in which every sect secures the
training of its children in its own religious system, while this system,
in most cases, is based on the Augustinian doctrine of the inability of
children to feel or do a single right thing till they are "regenerated,"
while not only the teaching, but the Sunday libraries for children all
enforce this dogma. The practical influence of this, though counteracted
more or less by other influences, is fairly illustrated in the mental
history of the author in the Introduction.
Thus the Christian Church has all its organizations to _cure_ diseased
and miseducated mind, and not a single one to _prevent_ this ruin by its
right training.
This being so, this effort to promote the neglected and yet great end of
Christian effort has been looked on with indifference, or as a small
concern to receive its mite, while all others are to receive their
hundreds and thousands.
Moreover, the enterprise has been looked upon with jealousy by many
whose attention has been called to it as a _covert_ sectarian movement
to promote the interests of that denomination with which some of its
movers have been connected. Then, too, because it really has not favored
any one sect, it has secured the special favor and sympathy of none.
There has never been a time when its movers have not been made to
understand that success in raising endowments would be certain if the
anti-sectarian feature could be relinquished, and the enterprise could
assume a sectarian banner.
The most influential clergy of the large sects are engaged in
denominational enterprises, to found colleges or theological seminaries,
or to establish book or newspaper agencies _devoted to the interests of
their sect_. The great body of laymen who have wealth to bestow in large
sums are more or less influenced by their clergymen, either as personal
friends or as spiritual advisers. Especially is this true of the few
benevolent ladies who have such independent means as to be able to
furnish endowments.
And thus it has come to pass that this first attempt yet known to
organize Christians _as Christians_, to train woman for her great work
of forming the physical, social, domestic, and moral habits of childhood
by methods deemed indispensable by man for his professions, is on the
verge of failure, after four years of trial. And this is not owing to
the fact that the motives, or the plan, or the conductors of it have
been extensively distrusted, or in any particular disapproved. On the
contrary, the leading clergymen of most of the Protestant sects have
given their unqualified approval, while the Board of Managers embraces a
large proportion of the most distinguished female educators and
authoresses, with some of the most distinguished business men and
financiers of our land. At the same time, the agents and educators who
have performed for four years the details of the enterprise have secured
the entire approval and confidence of the public as to their
qualifications.
The real difficulty at the root of all is the indifference to the
training of the habits of childhood, resulting from the long-established
dogma of a misformed mind, whose propagated incapacity is not within the
reach of educational training. Meantime, the chief energies of the
Christian Church are now tending to the extending of sectarian
organizations, based on peculiarities as to baptism, ordination, and
church officers, which no intelligent person believes are either
indispensable to salvation, or even so important as to be subjects of
direct Divine commands.
It is this view of the subject that has at last brought the author to
relinquish any farther practical educational efforts, and now to attempt
whatever may be in her power in directing public attention to what seems
to be one grand impediment in the Christian world to the right training
and development of the human race.
In presenting this work to the special attention of the laity, the
author does not intend to imply that theologians are not to take the
lead in all discussions and investigations that are to guide and
enlighten mankind in their special department.
The aim is rather to lessen the general impression that the whole matter
is to be left exclusively to them; that it is a _professional_ concern,
in which a layman is to resign his own judgment as he does to his
physician or lawyer. Instead of this, there are some reasons why the
laity have superior advantages to the clergy in cases where
long-accepted theological errors are to be eradicated.
In the first place, they are free from the strong influence of _a
system_ into which the mind has been _educated_. The power of a system
over men who are trained to reason, and who reason on that subject which
involves all the greatest interests of existence both for time and
eternity, is most insidious and incalculable. To this is added the
reverence, love, and veneration felt by pious persons for those great
and good men who, like Augustine, Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards, have
been the revered masters of theological systems for ages. Under these
two influences, every new opinion is compared with _a system_, and when
it is seen to be inconsistent with it, all the veneration attached, both
to that and to its authors and advocates, stands opposed to any
innovation.
The powerful influence of educational training, and of love and
reverence to a revered parent, has taught the author to understand and
sympathize with other minds similarly influenced.
From all such biasing influences the laity are far more free than their
clerical guides.
Add to this the fact that the "pains and penalties" attached to all
change in theological opinions have very little reach among the laity.
Any layman, if he adopts new views, can quietly withdraw from one
religious communion and join another more congenial, or remain
unconnected with any, while no man can call him to an account. But men
connected with parishes, colleges, and all educational institutions, are
subject to the supervision of councils, presbyteries, synods, and many
other organs of surveillance, making it indispensable that all changes
should be known to the public. Thus profession, reputation, and daily
bread become more or less involved.
And here it is but justice to express the author's convictions, which an
extensive acquaintance with the clergy of various sects has induced,
that there is not another body of men, of equal number and education,
who are so free from personal considerations of this kind in forming and
maintaining opinions.
The entrance on the clerical profession in this country involves the
sacrifice of all hope of wealth and its advantages, and includes often
poverty and a painful dependence on the vacillating favor of parishes;
so that, to a man of talents and worldly ambition, the command to enter
this profession is very nearly equivalent to that of the Great Master's,
"Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and come and follow me."
But while allowing that, as a class, this profession is, most of all,
free from biasing influences of the kind indicated, it can not but be
allowed that they are subject to like temptations as other men, and that
these considerations must have more influence with them than with the
laity, who are exposed to little or nothing of this kind.
To this, add the fact that men in other professions are far more
habituated to look at all questions in a _practical_ relation, and to
use the principles of _common sense_ more than the principles of _a
system_.
The writer has had frequent occasion to notice how the well-trained
reasoners of other professions throw aside the theories and systems of
theology, and settle down on the great practical truths of Christianity.
It has sometimes been a matter of wonder to perceive how little
attention is often given by some of the most gifted and well-trained
laity, even those that are devoutly religious, to questions deemed of
paramount and absorbing interest by the clergy.
In presenting this work to public attention, the author is not animated
with the expectation of any immediate or very striking results.
Long-established and time-honored opinions, especially when they are
entwined with the sacred hopes and interests of religion, are changed
only by slow and gradual transitions, and these, often, almost
imperceptible.
It is the hope of the author to do something to promote at least a
_renewed discussion_ of these subjects, under more favorable auspices
than have heretofore existed.
The circumstances that favor and indicate such a renewal are, in the
first place, a gradual change that has been going on the last thirty
years in the theological world as the result of discussions on these
very subjects. Some of the most candid and acute minds that have been
interested in such discussions have, more and more, been led to feel the
difficulties involved in the accepted theory of Augustine; and though
few have come to such clear convictions on the subject as to feel
warranted in taking any public stand as innovators or reformers, many
are ready to examine and discuss in a very different attitude of mind
from what has ever before been so extensively experienced.
One striking indication of this change is the almost universal neglect
of "indoctrinating preaching" among the younger clergy in those sects
where, forty years ago, it was deemed indispensable to success to thus
establish the "five points of Calvinism."
A still more important change is an increase in that _practical_
preaching that urges on the consciences of men all their domestic,
social, and moral duties, _as constituting an essential part of
religion, as truly as the affections toward God and the special duties
owed to him_.
An equal or greater change is apparent among the laity. The strong
Calvinistic doctrines that used to be so reverently received are either
simply tolerated or quietly rejected. This is particularly the case with
mothers and teachers, both in the family and in the secular and Sunday
schools. Thousands of practical, tender mothers utterly refuse to teach
their little ones that a depraved nature has descended to them from
Adam, and that they can never perform any thing that is right or
pleasing to God till this nature is recreated; or, if they use such
language, it is with explanations entirely un-Calvinistic.
Instead of this, they teach their offspring that they can please and
obey their Heavenly Parent as truly and acceptably as they do their
earthly parents; that when they have so learned to love and please Him
(or to feel and act right) that it is their _chief desire_ thus to do,
they have a _new life_. This "new birth," they also teach, is the result
of that aid from the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which both parents and
children so need that they can never succeed without it, and yet which
is promised to all who earnestly desire it, and seek it by proper
methods.
Multitudes of parents and teachers are pursuing this method in churches
whose ministers would entirely revolt from the idea of denying the
Augustinian theory or the system of Calvin resting upon it. Many are
doing this, unconscious that they are taking a course that is contrary
to the standards of their Church.
In conclusion, the author would ask attention to the chief points
presented in this volume.
The main question is, are these principles of reason or common sense,
and the rules for interpreting language here set forth, accepted as
guides in deciding the great questions of life?
Next, are the deductions gained by their aid as to what can be learned
without a direct revelation from the Creator accepted?
Lastly, is the Augustinian theory of a depraved mental constitution
consequent on the sin of the first parents of the race, as tried by
these principles, supported either by reason or the Bible; and, if not,
should not all men renounce it, both theoretically and practically?
In answering this last, it is to be remembered that the question is not
one of _fact_ as to the _depraved action_ of mind, but of the
_philosophy_ of this fact, or _the cause_ of this wrong action. A man
may not be able to form any satisfactory theory on this question, and be
content, as the early Christians used to be, to remain without one. The
repudiation of the Augustinian theory does not necessarily involve the
adoption of any other, while it does remove insurmountable difficulties
from just and generous minds in accepting the Bible as of Divine
authority while encumbered with what seems so contrary both to the moral
sense and the common sense of mankind.
* * * * *
It has been the privilege of the author all her life to be intimately
associated, by family and other connections, with the ministers of
religion in a variety of denominations--those intelligent, excellent,
and pious men who, more than any other class, can understand that heavy
burden of spirit connected with that awful subject, _the eternal loss of
the human soul_.
Before closing, they will permit a few inquiries in reference to this
subject. The almost universal cessation of "revivals" of religion, the
diminished attendance of the masses on Sabbath worship, the decrease in
the relative proportion of the ministry, the diminution of spirituality
and the consequent laxness in the Church, the increase of skepticism and
infidelity of various grades, the terrific rush of worldliness on all
classes, as wealth, and luxury, and temptations of all kinds abound, are
not all these signs of the times of fearful import, foreshadowing either
some dreadful judgments, or the advent of some moral forces that are
appropriate to such a crisis?
In this position of the moral world, is it to be supposed that theology
alone, of all departments of science, has reached its culminating point,
so that there is no possibility of improvement? Is there not manifestly
needed far more powerful motives than any now wielded to stop the
inrushing tide of worldliness? In former times, when revivals abounded,
it was the principle of _fear_ that was first appealed to with such
wonderful results. But where now are such appeals made as once shook
men's consciences with fears of "_the wrath to come_?"
If such preaching abounds in any quarter of our nation, where is it? In
all her travels the writer finds it wanting, and the testimony of others
is similar.
Here, now, is the great question: Could the ministry _now_ preach the
_distinctive_ theories of Calvinism, and at the same time those awful
views of the _eternal loss of the soul_, warranted by Scripture
language, with any prospect of being sustained by the moral sentiments
of the great body of benevolent and intelligent hearers? Would not some
be driven to reckless worldliness, others to infidelity, others to
Universalism, others to another style of preaching, till the remainder
could scarcely maintain any preaching at all? Is not this perceived and
felt by many ministers, and is not this one great reason why that
terrible doctrine, on which the whole Gospel is based, is now so hidden
or so slightly recognized in the pulpit ministrations?
And yet, to the writer, it seems that this very doctrine, so plain and
awful in Holy Writ, could be so drawn forth by the light of reason alone
as to furnish a power of motive now almost unwielded. It seems as if the
terrible exhibitions of this volume in the chapters on _Habit_, and on
the _Wrong Action of Mind in a Future State_, might be wrought out by a
man of talent and eloquence so as to draw such audiences as once
thronged around Whitfield, and with equal results. What, then, could be
done with the added power of revelation, dissevered from obstructing
theories?
When the writer looks back on her own mental history for the last thirty
years, and feels how every step of her life, during the whole of that
period, has been regulated by the overmastering pressure of this
tremendous subject, and when she is sure that a conviction that no such
awful dangers beset our race would bring her life on to just that level
where so many Christians complain that they find themselves, the query
will often arise whether ministers who _say_ so little about the matter,
and those professed Christians who _act_ so little in consistence with
it, _really do believe it_? And yet, when her own difficulties in
expressing all that has been thought and felt are recalled, it is
understood how others too may have been equally embarrassed and
restrained.
In regard to the main topics of this work, is not every minister called
to decide, _practically_, between these two theories?
The first is, that the great and leading aim of all Christian
organization should be _to train new-born minds aright_, and that it is
the special office of the ministry to influence the _educators_ of the
race to the right performance of this, their chief duty.
In doing this, it is to be assumed that the end for which we are made is
"to glorify God" by obedience to those laws by which "the most happiness
with the least evil" is to be secured to His vast eternal empire.
That, at the _first birth_ of a child, it is "impossible, in the nature
of things," for it to feel and act for the happiness of others till it
has learned to know what gives pleasure and pain to _self_, and to
understand that there are other beings who can thus enjoy and suffer; so
that a child, by its very nature, is at first obliged to be _selfish_ in
the _exercise_ of faculties which, _in reference to the great whole_,
are perfect.
That the "second birth" is the sudden or the gradual entrance into a
life in which the will of the Creator is to control the self-will of the
creature; while, under the influence of love and gratitude to Him, and
guided by "faith" in his teachings, _living chiefly for the great
commonwealth_ takes the place of _living chiefly for self_. For this,
the supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit is promised to all who seek it;
and, without this aid, success is hopeless. But the grand instrumentality
is the _right training_ of parents and teachers.
Then, in reference to that great change of character which
wrongly-educated mind must pass in order to gain eternal life, there are
three modes of expression in the Bible in regard to that, viz., "love to
God," "faith in Jesus Christ," and "repentance."
According to all uses of these terms, in _practical_ matters, _love_ is
nothing which does not include obedience or conformity of will and
action to the being loved. _Faith_, or _belief_, is nothing unless it
includes its fruits of obedience. _Repentance_ is nothing unless it
includes ceasing to do evil.
_Obedience_ to the laws of God, physical, social, moral, and religious,
is the grand, indispensable requisite. Now, when any person is so
engaged in striving to obey all these laws that it is the _first
interest_ of the mind, then there is a "new heart;" and so great is the
change from the life of self-indulgence and disobedience to one of such
earnest desire and efforts to obey God, that it is properly expressed by
the terms "born again" and "created anew."
The contrasted theory is, that the chief end of man is "to glorify God,"
without, perhaps, any very definite ideas of what this signifies; that
our whole race comes into life with dwarfed and ruined moral powers, so
that it is as impossible, before a "second birth," to feel and act
right, as it is for a corrupt tree to bear good fruit, or a bitter
fountain to send forth sweet waters; and that the great end of Christian
organizations is to secure and administer certain appointed methods by
which God re-creates these diseased minds. Thus all training, all
instructions, all good habits, are nothing as having any fitness toward
either preparing a child for eternal happiness, or inducing God to
re-create its mind. For it is "unconditional election," and not any
foreseen act, either of parent or child, that decides their eternal
destiny.
Can any minister preach without assuming one of these two theories as
the very foundation-principle of his ministrations? And is this matter
any the less a _practical_ one to all the laity?
During the period in which the author has been engaged as a practical
laborer in the field of education, her chief earthly reliance has been
on the counsel, sympathy, and co-operation of _her own sex_; and in
closing a work especially dedicated to them, a few parting words may be
permitted.
This work is offered, not as one of metaphysics and theology, to
exercise the intellect alone. It presents the grand practical question
of life to _woman_ as the mother, the educator, the nurse, and the
fountain of home sympathies for the race. It is the question over which
every Christian mother ponders with aching heart as every new immortal
is brought to her arms. It is the question where every Christian teacher
stands in awe, as, gazing into the dark futurity over the dim ocean of
eternity, each young mind is felt to be a voyager whose frail and
solitary bark is soon to be launched. The Protestant mother or teacher,
with the Bible in her hands, can not, as in the Catholic Church, throw
off this tremendous responsibility on to _her priest_. She may go to her
minister for aid, but at the last _she must decide for herself_ what is
that path which Jesus Christ decides to be right in guiding the lambs of
His flock through such awful dangers.
Here, then, is the great practical question on which depends the _life
of the soul_, and for ETERNITY! and every parent and every teacher must
decide on which theory the young minds committed to their care shall be
trained.
In contemplating the discussions that must ere long be renewed on these
great topics, and in such forms as to involve, not theologians alone or
chiefly, but _the_ _people_, and especially the most intelligent of her
own sex, the writer recalls with deep interest her early efforts as a
pioneer in elevating the course of female education. Then she supposed
herself the first, as she was among the first, to introduce such works
as Butler's Analogy, Mental Philosophy, and a Mathematical course as a
regular part of female education. And as she recalls the hundreds of
bright, vigorous, and independent minds under her care thus trained to
reason accurately, and now scattered as mothers and influential members
of society in almost every state in the Union, and then remembers, too,
how many institutions all over the land have for years pursued the same
course, she can not but thankfully believe that the Almighty Teacher and
Ruler was thus preparing her sex for these very responsibilities.
In relinquishing that educational enterprise which for years has
absorbed her time and strength, while as yet it is so imperfectly
understood and so little appreciated, she asks, with tender and grateful
memories, the attention, not only of her dear former pupils, but of that
multitude of noble and benevolent women who, at so many times and
places, have afforded her their sympathy and aid, to what is still
farther offered on this subject in the closing note.[6]
[4] The word "church" in the New Testament, in the Greek, signifies
"assembly" or "congregation," and not an organization of regenerate
persons.
[5] See Note C.
[6] See Note D.
NOTES.
NOTE A, page 17.
Some atheists imagine that they escape the difficulty by assuming that
matter is eternal, and thus uncreated. But the question is, not in
reference to the existence of matter, but as to the _organization_,
_contrivances_, and _changes of matter_, all of which prove the
existence of some Intelligent First Cause.
The theory of an "infinite series of changes and causes without a
beginning" is a contradiction in terms, as can be shown to any person
who understands the use of definitions, and no other person is prepared
to discuss such subjects intelligently.
Let it be remembered that the author, in this work, has not attempted to
present a complete exhibition of _all_ the intuitive truths, but only
such a portion of them as are adapted to the design of this work. At the
same time, by a close analysis, some here presented as distinct
intuitions could be shown to be specifics, under a more general
proposition. But in a popular work, and for the purposes aimed at, this
close analysis is inappropriate.
NOTE B, page 192.
"Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever," is an
expression equivalent to what is here maintained, if we assume that the
chief "glory" of God consists in the rectitude and happiness of his vast
empire of intelligent minds.
Various other terms used to express the ultimate end of the Creator in
his works, _accurate definitions_ would show to be simply different
words chosen to express the same idea as that here presented.
NOTE C, page 314.
In the _Home Missionary_ for February, 1856, is the following mournful
exhibition of the results of these sectarian divisions:
"_Subdivision a Source of Weakness and Destitution._
"Now it is but too evident that our American Christendom is prosecuting
its work, in some respects, at a disadvantage. True, funds have been
furnished with a commendable liberality; but, worse than a dearth of
money--which a few months of vigorous effort, or a prosperous turn in
the market might remove--there is a dearth of men. Fields are explored,
openings are found, communities are fast forming, and even make urgent
requests for ministers, but often there are no ministers to send. The
great exigency of the missionary work now is the want of capable and
devoted _men_.
"However we may charge this upon the lukewarmness of the churches, upon
the absence of correct views respecting ministerial support--and its
consequent meagreness--or on the prevalence among young men of a subtile
skepticism, we may not shut our eyes to the fact that the want must
continue as long as that unfortunate division of the field continues,
which must ever come from divided counsels and sectarian rivalries.
Destitutions are likely to last while alienations last.
"Every denomination naturally feels that it must be strong in the
centres of population; and so, without asking whether the Church of
Christ needs so many congregations there, we crowd our six separate
enterprises, of as many rival names, into a little place where two
churches would do more good than the half dozen.
"The evils that result from this course are many and various. One
consequence of it is a weakening of the unity and the moral force of the
Church as a whole. Another is the diminution of the numbers and the
strength of the several local societies, so that an amount of assistance
many times greater is needed, and this need is prolonged for years, when
often its period should have been reckoned in months. But a third
consequence of this overcrowding of one portion of the missionary field
is the _destitution_ of other portions. While many villages are so well
supplied as to leave pastors and churches leisure to quarrel, many rural
districts and young communities are almost totally neglected. If all the
preachers in the United States were evangelical men, well educated and
devoted to their work, they would no more than supply the real wants of
the country, upon a system of wise distribution. On a system, then, so
unfortunate as this, its destitutions are not supplied; and we hear from
all quarters the cry, Send more laborers into the harvest.
"_A Cause of Unwillingness to enter the Ministry._
"Again, a fourth consequence of our denominational divisions, and
another cause of destitution, is seen in the difficulty of persuading
young men of enterprise to enter the ministry. When we consider how the
field of ministerial labor is cut up into small parishes, affording to
men of superior capacity but a limited scope for some of their best
qualities--with scarcely the possibility of much improvement--promising,
also, only a meagre support and a moderate usefulness, we can not wonder
that young men who are conscious of the ability to occupy a larger
sphere, and whose nature thirsts after something stirring and an
opportunity for a hopeful struggle and for achievement, should often
shrink from the seeming narrowness and hopelessness of the work which is
here offered them. We need not praise the truthfulness of their
appreciation in all particulars, but have we, on the whole, a right to
anticipate a different decision? No. The result is manifestly one that
must be _expected_. There is not the least doubt that this diminution in
the size of parishes is also a diminution in the attractiveness of the
pastoral office. And so this very multitude of denominations, which has
increased the want of ministers, operates, in more ways than one, to
diminish the supply.
"_A Discouragement and a Weariness._
"But, what is yet worse, it tends to _injure_ the ministry. No preacher
but has felt, at times, the depressing influence of a small audience. A
large proportion of the missionaries at the West feel this at all times;
and often the intellect is jaded, and the heart is wearied out, from the
want of that natural stimulus which the presence of a multitude and the
pressure of an important occasion alone can afford. If it is
discouraging to find your people coming out in small numbers on rainy
Sabbaths, what is it to have nothing but small numbers the year through,
and year after year? How must this tend to check youthful enthusiasm,
and to dull the fires of intellectual and moral energy. If our brethren
of the West have not fallen behind themselves, it certainly is not due
to the inspiration of large audiences or of populous and able parishes;
for, with so many divisions in such sparse and unstable communities,
these can not be otherwise than small. Good men will labor on, indeed,
under all these discouragements; and the greatness of their faith will
make their work and achievement great. They may triumph over these
difficulties, but they contend at disadvantage; and the difficulties are
_real_, notwithstanding the highest fidelity.
"_Number and Policy of Denominations._
"There are more than _forty_ religious denominations in the United
States. Four of these--the N. S. Presbyterians, the O. S. Presbyterians,
the Congregationalists and Baptists, together with the Methodists and
Episcopalians--habitually esteem it a matter of obligation to be
represented in every community where it is possible to gather a church
of their name, and, in establishing these churches, deem it no part of
their duty to consider, in the least, the welfare of any congregation of
a different name that may have been previously gathered. We have six
great evangelical churches, each one of whom feels bound to push forward
its own growth, with a disregard of the interests of all other churches,
which is equivalent to an ignoring of their existence, and, in practical
effect, identifies the Kingdom of God with the denomination. It is very
much as though each one had laid it down as the fundamental principle of
its procedure--WE are the saints.
"_Waste of Resources._
"Now it is obvious that this system must bring about an unfortunate
distribution of labor and a great waste of power; in some localities
multiplying churches to excess, and leaving other regions destitute;
making the town congregations weak, from their very multitude, and
losing the happy moment in communities that are just forming from the
want of the right men to occupy them at the right moment; while many
laborers abuse as much time and strength in working against each other
as they use in working for Christ. So churches are born weak, and are
compelled to worry through a long and fretful infancy, are kept on a
diet irritatingly low, and compelled to struggle, with slow and
uncertain growth, toward a maturity which must come late, and may come
never."
_Statistics._
Here follow statistics, the details of which we omit, and give these as
the results, as seen in _three_ of the larger denominations, viz.: the
O. S. Presbyterian, the N. S. Presbyterian, and the Congregational.
In this table is shown the _number of churches_, with a given number of
members to each church.
-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------------
| Not | Not | | | |
| more | more | More | More | More |
| than | than | than | than | than | Total
Number of Members. | 50. | 100. | 100. | 200. | 300. | reporting.
-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------------
Presbyterian O.S. | 1239 | 1907 | 763 | 278 | 101 | 2670
Presbyterian N.S. | 743 | 1180 | 432 | 163 | 70 | 1612
Congregational | 696 | 1219 | 752 | 245 | 83 | 1971
+------+------+------+------+------+------------
Total of three | | | | | |
denominations | 2678 | 4306 | 1947 | 686 | 254 | 6253
-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------------
"_Proportion of strong and weak Churches._
"More than _one fifth_, therefore, of all the churches connected with
these denominations may be counted as _very weak_, none of them having
more than twenty-five members, and the average falling considerably
below that number. Nearly _one fourth_ may be counted as _weak_, their
membership ranging between twenty-five and fifty; and these, taken
together with those that are weaker yet, constitute nearly forty-three
per cent. of the whole. More than two thirds of all the churches do not
contain over one hundred members. Those that exceed one hundred are
about thirty-one per cent., and those that exceed two hundred are not
quite eleven per cent. of the entire number.
"_Present Supply of Ministers inadequate._
"The whole number of ministers in these three denominations is 6150. The
number of pastors and stated supplies (errors excepted) is 4336, leaving
1814 to be classed as without charge, as professors, teachers, editors,
secretaries, etc.
"The number of churches in the three denominations whose membership
exceeds fifty is some five hundred less than the number of pastors and
stated supplies. If, therefore, each of the five hundred men remaining
after the largest churches were supplied were to take two of the smaller
churches, more than sixteen hundred churches would still be left
destitute; and if allowance be made for those not reporting, this number
must be taken as exceeding two thousand. Probably none of these contain
more than thirty-five members.
"_Deficiency due to Divisions._
"Now we need a thousand-fold _increase_ of our effective force in the
great harvest-field of the world; but have we any reason to expect that
the Lord of the harvest will hear our cry for laborers, and raise them
up indefinitely, in order to meet wants unnecessarily, nay, wickedly
created by our divisions? Would a spendthrift son expect to prevail with
an indulgent father to administer to his necessities on the plea or the
confession that he had squandered his former bounty, and, moreover, was
intending to make a similar use of what he then solicited? The
responsibility rests upon Christians of no one name, and it would seem
that if the people of God every where could but have a full realization
of the heart-rending inadequacy of all means yet employed for the
conversion of the world, or of the utter hopelessness of ever meeting
the vast want under such a waste of power, the work of economical
adjustment would at once and earnestly commence, and also a new
consecration--that the evangelization of the world may be carried
forward upon a scale commensurate with the providential openings for
missionary effort.
"That would be, indeed, a glorious revolution which should bring the
true disciples of Christ every where to this position--to a consecration
that should keep nothing back from the Lord, to a heaven-appointed
economy in the adjustment of forces, a _condensation_ of churches in the
same neighborhood, till the combined body could support a pastor,
furnish him with all needed facilities for the prosecution of his work,
and, at the same time, open to him an _adequate_ field of labor. All
supernumerary ministers in a given locality would thus be set loose for
effort where men are perishing for lack of vision. Then Apollos would
not interfere with Paul when he planted, nor Paul with Apollos when he
watered, nor would both either plant or water at the same point or time,
provided one could do the work.
"_Divisions unnecessary._
"But it is possible that some, calling to mind the large number of weak
congregations at the East--where denominational rivalry is less active
than at the West--may claim that this feebleness is but a part of the
necessary imperfection of human arrangements; that we must always have
the poor with us, and that it is not the sectarianism of the West which
so reduces our churches. It were sufficient to suggest, in reply, that
the weak churches in the older states are found where the communities
are weak, in barren or uncultivated districts, or in regions depopulated
by emigration, while a large proportion of the feeble churches of the
West are in populous, vigorous, growing communities, where nothing but
irreligion or division could keep the congregations from being numerous,
and where nothing less than the combination of the two could keep them
so small as they are. Yonder are three debilitated churches struggling
for existence against each other. Is it necessary to ask whether, if
they were joined in one, and were with one heart and voice contending
for the kingdom of God, the Christian strength of that community would
not be greater?
"_Proportion of weak Churches at the West._
"But facts are at hand which show that the relative number of feeble
churches is much larger at the West than at the East. Of the churches in
Illinois and Iowa connected with three leading denominations, the
proportion that must be accounted very weak--having not more than
twenty-five communicants--is almost twice as great as in the same
denomination taken entire, and amounts to nearly _two fifths_ of the
whole number reporting. These, again, taken with those whose membership
ranges between twenty-five and fifty, make up nearly _seventy per cent._
of the whole!"
* * * * *
The author would ask attention to a few questions in view of these
statistics.
The above table was formed from _reporting_ churches. There are 934
churches _not reporting_. Giving to these last the average proportion of
ministers and weak churches, and we find this result:
Whole number of churches 7187
Ministers acting as pastors and supplies 4336
----
Churches without ministers 2851
That is to say, in three of our largest and most wealthy and intelligent
denominations, _nearly one third_ of their churches are without
ministers, and _nearly one half_ of them have not over fifty members,
and the majority of these members, no doubt, are women. Then the
relative number of ministers is _constantly decreasing_.
In this state of things, to what is the Church and ministry coming?
When young men of talents and energy see not only independence, but
wealth before them in other callings, where, in preparing, they will not
need to spend _nine years_ in dead languages and literature never to be
used; where they can have an abundant field of usefulness, and where
their minds can be _free_ from creeds and the supervision of
ecclesiastics and parishes, how long will any such seek the ministry?
Will not the ministry thus soon become the resort, first, of poor,
ambitious young men, who find in its official standing the surest mode,
with moderate talents and means, to gain the _highest social position_;
and next, of _ambitious young men of talents_, who, among such inferior
competitors, are sure of the best pulpits and highest salaries?
Again: How long will the _laity_ so freely pour out their earnings to
endow colleges and theological seminaries when such results as these are
seen?
NOTE D, page 336.
In resigning all farther agency in practical educational efforts, the
writer hopes, after so many years of devotion to it, she may be allowed
to speak with entire frankness her views as to the present modes of
education.
The last thirty years have witnessed great efforts all over the nation
to improve and increase common schools, and to multiply higher
educational institutions. Although much has been said and written in
regard to physical and moral training in schools, unfortunately very
little has been accomplished.
It is the intellectual department of the brain that has absorbed
attention, as if this were the chief, or even the whole of man. Parents
stimulate, teachers stimulate, lecturers stimulate, superintendents
stimulate, school committees stimulate--all turning their full energies
on to only one function of the brain.
In our colleges, this _intellectual_ stimulating is divided and
subdivided, one professor for one department, another for a second, and
another for a third, and so on, till from twelve to twenty are thus
employed. Meantime the training of the body, or the development of the
social, domestic, and moral powers, have not even one to minister the
needful care.
Then, in preparatory boarding-schools for boys, taken from mother,
sisters, and home influences in the first blush of youth, all the school
stimulus is turned on to the brain to develop Latin, Greek, and
mathematics, while health of body and soul perish under abuse or
neglect.
Then the boarding-school is taking the young girls through a kind of
college course at the most critical period of life, while their chief
nervous energies are exhausted in completing _a given course of study in
a given time_, and almost every law of health for body and mind are
violated.
Then, in our primary schools, especially in cities, where pure air,
healthful exercise, and home employments are least at command, all the
energies of school committees and superintendents of schools are
directed to securing a given amount of intellectual labor.
But what is the teaching of physiology on this matter? Through one of
its greatest writers, thus it speaks:
"If young children are compelled to sit quietly while their minds are
urged to undue action, _we take from them the noblest part of their
strength, and consume it in the function of thinking_. Thus growth is
retarded, the limbs imperfectly developed, the digestion (and thus the
blood) becomes bad, scrofula perhaps appears, and then ensues a great
predominance of the nervous system. Any _unequal_ development of our
faculties is injurious. It is certain that _mental exertions_ weaken the
more they are unaccompanied by bodily movements. Those who, _between_
mental occupations, take bodily exercise, can _do more_ than those who
neglect this exercise."
The grand evils of our present modes of education are, not that too much
intellectual training is bestowed, but that physical, social, and
domestic training are neglected. The result is a _universal decay of
national vigor and health_. Other causes, such as the use of stoves and
unventilated houses, improper diet and dress, with excess in other modes
of stimulating, have had a large share in the evil, but there can be no
doubt that mistaken modes of education are the chief causes of the
acknowledged fact that our national health is perishing at a frightful
rate.
There are facts that prove the Anglo-Saxon race, as developed in America
under the best circumstances, is the most perfect race on earth as it
respects size, strength, and beauty. The mountain regions of Kentucky
and Tennessee, where the climate allows all to live in pure air night
and day, with the simple food and habit of forest life, send out sons
that, appearing in foreign lands, are followed by admiring crowds as
specimen giants. General Washington's staff, though not picked men, were
most of them over six feet in height, with size and muscle to
correspond. The vigorous mothers and stalwart sons that achieved our
Revolution have given place to sickly mothers with a delicate and puny
offspring.
The Greeks, though they educated the mind, took even more pains to train
the body, and thus they became the wisest, strongest, and most powerful
people on earth. We might do the same, and with far greater facilities;
but, should our present rate of deterioration proceed, two or more
generations would bring us out a race of deformed and unhealthy pigmies.
For facts to sustain such a prediction, the author begs leave to refer
to her _Letters to the People on Health and Happiness_.
The great point now urged is that woman should be _trained_, not, as
some would urge, to enter the professions of men, but _for her own
proper business_, in educating mind in developing the body of infancy
and childhood, and in conducting the economy of an orderly, happy, and
well-regulated _home_. These arduous and complicated duties demand able
assistance, and here is the calling of the female educator; not to carry
off children from their parents and home, but rather to aid these
parents in education in _all_ departments.
It is manifestly the Divine intention that parents should be the chief
educators of the race, and all plans consistent with this will succeed,
and all counter to it will fail. The boarding-school is not in
consonance with this Heaven-appointed plan, and the evils multiply
around it so fast that a nation of so much common sense as ours must
soon forsake it for the true method.
Again: in the grand object of educating humanity for an _eternal_
existence, the questions as to how ordination or baptism shall be
administered, or whether it shall be church elders or church committees
that rule, are to be made secondary, and the followers of Christ are to
unite for the education of the race, not as _sects_, but as
_Christians_.
These views present the principles on which is organized the _American
Woman's Educational Association_.
Its main features are, that it unites all sects in education; that it
spends its funds, not for great buildings to deprive the young of
parents and homes, but to provide well-trained educators to assist
parents _in_ their homes; and, finally, its leading aim is to prepare
woman for her _distinctive duties_ as educator, nurse, and fountain of
home sympathies for the race.
In attempting this, the methods the other sex have employed to honor and
sustain _their_ professions have been claimed, viz.: institutions
governed by _a faculty_ instead of an individual, and teachers supported
by _endowments_ for this express object.
The following extract from the _fourth_ Annual Report of this
Association gives some of the results.
"We are now prepared to indicate what has been accomplished. We have,
then, in the first place, evolved and set forth a fundamental _idea_.
This is no small part of the success of any great movement. Whatever
were the difficulties of first learning to print, the triumph of
Gutenberg was nearly achieved when he first mastered the _idea_ of the
type. It was a secondary affair to work it out and set the world
vibrating to its power. We have got the _idea_, and done something
toward its execution.
"We have secured the existence of two institutions on our plan, one at
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the other at Dubuque, Iowa, whose united
catalogues will show some five hundred pupils the past year. Both are in
very successful operation, with efficient boards of teachers, silently
doing the work for which they have been established.
"We have united all the Protestant citizens in the noble work of
founding and patronizing these institutions, which they cherish as among
their most valued public establishments. We have shown that the _faculty
principle_ is as good for female institutions as for those of the other
sex, and that results may be expected from it for woman corresponding in
utility and dignity with those it has secured to man.
"We have shown that, by the _offer_ of the small endowment of twenty
thousand dollars, we can secure the establishment of one of these
invaluable institutions, and make it a permanent source of measureless
good--a most economical and wise expenditure of educational
benefactions.
"We have, in short, carried out our plan successfully just as far as it
can be done _before_ the endowments are actually furnished.
"We have made a beginning toward raising the first endowment, and are
able to report on hand and pledged nearly ten thousand dollars.
"Our movement has the confidence and full endorsement of many leading
clergymen, educators, and editors of our country. Our institutions have
the hearty co-operation of the religious bodies where they are located.
"At our last annual meeting, an urgent request was made to the
Association to aid in the establishment of a third institution at
Kalamazoo, Michigan. Without any pledge of immediate action, it was
agreed that, if the citizens should comply with our conditions, we would
aid them as soon as our means would allow. Those conditions have not yet
been met, and we have not, therefore, been called to do any thing at
that place.
"It has seemed desirable, moreover, that the endowment of the two
institutions already established should be completed before attempting
to found others."
The questions most frequently proposed to the conductors of this
enterprise, and the answers to them, will now be introduced.
How can the business of domestic economy be taught as a part of school
training?
Not in great boarding-schools, where it never was or can be done. The
"Mount Holyoke" plan, now so popular, is widely supposed to embrace this
in its design. But the _teaching_ of this science is not the aim of
their domestic department. It is a measure for _reducing expenses_ by
saving hired labor, while certain social advantages are supposed to be
combined with it. But no pupil is to be _taught_ any thing in this
department. Meantime, introducing cooking, washing, ironing, and
house-cleaning as a regular part of school duty, makes a system of such
detail and complication, demanding so many rules and such strict
obedience as adds enormously to the already excessive pressure that is
put on the female brain. This is probably an insuperable difficulty
attendant on this system, that will forever forbid its introduction
wherever the _healthful_ development of woman has its proper regard.
How, then, is the object aimed at to be accomplished?
In reply we say, that, with institutions established for the express
purpose of training women to be healthy themselves, and to perform
properly all their duties as educator, nurse, and regulator of the
domestic state; with teachers supported by endowments for this express
object; with a board of managers embracing some of the most influential
ladies in the land, who are or have been both practical teachers and
housekeepers; with committees of influential ladies in each place where
such institutions are located to co-operate, the thing attempted can not
fail to be done, and in the best manner. Whatever ought to be done, can
be; and whatever can be done, will be, when energetic American women
fairly undertake it.
But will endowments for such institutions be furnished?
In reply, we point to the multitudes of needless colleges for the other
sex all over the land, for which the people are pouring forth such
abundant endowments, while _women_ are even more liberal, according to
their relative means, than men.
Since this effort commenced, one lady has endowed a professorship in
Brunswick College, Maine. Another lady has added $20,000 to the nearly
_one million_ endowments of Cambridge. These two are the first cases of
endowments for the _physical_, _social_, and _moral_ departments of
education. Woman, then, has first done for man what is now sought for
her sex.
In this same short period, sufficient for the endowment of a theological
professorship in Connecticut has been furnished by female benefactors.
In New Jersey a lady has given some $30,000 for a college. In New York
City another lady has endowed a theological professorship. In Albany,
New York, a lady has given $50,000 for a scientific institution for man.
In Massachusetts a lady has given more than enough to endow a
professorship for a college in Wisconsin. Many more cases can be given
of large benefactions, amounting in all to hundreds of thousands, given
by woman within a few years for the richly-provided professional
institutions of man, while as yet not one complete endowment for her sex
has been raised.
Why is this? Because it is so difficult to change long-established
customs and habits of thought. The idea that every thing must be done
for man's profession, and nothing for woman's, has so long been
dominant, that even our own sex have fallen into that belief and
practice.
But the American people are eminent for practical wisdom and common
sense. The time is certainly coming when the _true view_ is to possess
the public mind, and then the right practice will follow. The question
is simply one as to time, and as to _who_ are to be the first to provide
means for this great movement to promote the right physical, domestic,
and moral training of our race, whose names shall shine as benefactors
of our sex, as Harvard and Yale have shone for the other.
But it is asked, Why go to the West to establish such institutions?
Because the evils of sectarian strife affect educational interest most
severely there; because educational institutions are most needed there;
and because the moral soil, like the natural, bears fruit so quickly and
so abundantly.
But why not endow large boarding institutions already established?
Because it is contrary to the grand design of Providence to take
children away from parents to educate them; because it is more
economical to provide superior teachers and school-houses in cities and
large towns, than to turn funds into brick and mortar to congregate
great communities of the young away from parents, home, and all domestic
pursuits; and because those who need to go to boarding-schools can find
homes in private families in large towns.
But why not have our public schools on this model?
Because it can not be done until the public, by fair experiments, have
tested the value of such institutions. So long, too, as foreign lands
are emptying all classes into our country, and their children enter all
public schools, it will be impossible to bring the children of the
wealthy classes into them.
In conclusion, the author asks every true woman who reads this to help
in this effort for the _women and the children_ of our country. If she
has money to give, it can be sent to our agent, Rev. William L. Parsons,
No. 11 Cliff Street, New York.
If she has _time_ to devote to the work, let her send $1 25 by mail to
Harper & Brothers, New York, and she will receive, without farther
expense, the author's two works, one on Domestic Economy, and the other
on Physiology and Physical Training, designed as text-books for schools.
She can then _use her influence_ to introduce them, while the author's
profits, as they ever have been, will be devoted to this object.
The following is the Constitution of the association and the names of
the ladies and gentlemen who superintend the enterprise. Most of them
have been practical teachers, most are practical housekeepers, while
they represent seven different religious denominations:
CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN'S EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
ART. 1. The name of this Society is the AMERICAN WOMAN'S EDUCATIONAL
ASSOCIATION.
ART. 2. The object of this Association is to aid in securing to American
Women a liberal education, honorable position, and remunerative
employment _in their appropriate profession_; the distinctive profession
of woman being considered as embracing the training of the human mind,
the care of the human body in infancy and in sickness, and the
conservation of the family state.
ART. 3. The leading measure to be pursued by this Association is the
establishment of permanent endowed institutions for women, embracing the
leading features of college and professional institutions for the other
sex, _i. e._, they shall be conducted by a _Faculty_ of _Teachers_, each
being the head of a given department, and no one having control over the
others. An office corresponding to that of the President of a college
shall be optional with those who control each institution.
ART. 4. The mode of establishing such institutions shall be as follows:
An agent of this Association shall make this offer to some city or large
town in a section where teachers and schools are most needed.
First: That the citizens shall organize a Board of Trustees, in which
the various religious denominations of the place shall be fairly
represented; that these Trustees shall provide temporary accommodations,
and pupils enough to support four Teachers; that a Primary and a High
School Department be organized, and that the college plan of a Faculty
of Teachers be adopted.
On these conditions, the Association shall furnish the Institution with
a library and apparatus to the value of one thousand dollars. The first
Board of Teachers shall be appointed by the Association, with the advice
and consent of the Trustees, and thereafter the Faculty shall have the
nominating and the Trustees the appointing power.
Second: As soon as the Teachers have secured public confidence, and
proved that they can work harmoniously together, the citizens shall
erect a building at an expense of not less than ten thousand dollars,
and engage to give gratuitous tuition to twenty Normal Pupils. In
return, the Association shall provide an endowment of twenty thousand
dollars, the interest of which shall furnish the salaries of the three
superior teachers, each having charge of one of the three departments
set forth above as constituting the profession of woman. They shall also
aid in the literary instruction. These three teachers, with the
beneficiary Normal Pupils, and any others who may wish and are qualified
to enter, shall constitute the Normal Department. The Normal Pupils
shall act as Assistants in the Primary and High School Departments,
under the direction of the Principal Teachers.
ART. 5. With each institution shall be connected an organization of
ladies resident in the place of location, who, with the Teachers of the
Normal Department, shall carry out a system for raising up schools in
destitute places, and for securing employ and suitable compensation for
all teachers trained in the institution. When the home supply is
inadequate, the Teachers shall be sought from the Board of National
Popular Education, and other similar associations. All teachers thus
located shall be under the special care of this local Association, and
the boarding establishment of the Normal Department shall serve as a
temporary home to them in all emergencies demanding it.
ART. 6. Funds contributed for endowments shall be held in trust for this
Association by gentlemen Trustees incorporated for the purpose.
ART. 7. The whole control of the business and funds shall be in a Board
of Managers, who shall appoint their own officers, agents, and executive
committee. This Board shall have power to perpetuate and increase
itself, but the number from any one religious denomination shall never
exceed one fifth of the whole. Not less than seven different
denominations shall be represented in the Board, and a majority shall be
ladies who are or have been practical teachers. Any number of members
present, of the Board or of the Executive Committee, at any meeting of
either, due notice having been given of such meeting, shall constitute a
quorum. The Board shall meet annually at such time and place as it shall
appoint, and the presiding officer shall be appointed at each meeting. A
meeting may also be called at any time, at the request of any three
members of the Board.
ART. 8. Any person may become an honorary _life member_ of this
Association by the payment of twenty-five dollars, and an _honorary
patron_ of the enterprise by the payment of fifty dollars or upward.
BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN'S EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
Mrs. Z. P. G. Banister, _Newburyport, Mass._
Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, _Hartford, Conn._
Mrs. S. J. Hale, _Philadelphia_.
Miss P. Fobes, _Monticello, Ill._
Mrs. Gen. J. Gould, _Rochester, N. Y._
Mrs. E. Ricord, _Newark, N. J._
Mrs. H. B. Stowe, _Andover, Mass._
Mrs. Prof. H. C. Conant, _Rochester, N. Y._
Miss C. E. Beecher, _Boston, Mass._
Miss Mary Mortimer, _Milwaukee, Wis._
Miss C. M. Sedgwick, _New York_.
Mrs. Prof. D. C. Van Norman, "
Mrs. Marcus Spring, "
Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, "
Mrs. Prof. H. Webster, "
Mrs. A. H. Gibbons, "
Mrs. C. W. Milbank, "
Mrs. Rev. Dr. Cheever, "
Mrs. Henry Dwight, Jr., "
Mrs. James Harper, "
Mrs. D. Codwise, "
Mrs. Charles Abernethy, "
Mrs. Prof. Henry B. Smith, "
Mrs. Joseph F. Stone, "
Miss Caroline L. Griffin, "
Mrs. Rev. Abel Stevens, "
Mrs. Rev. W. L. Parsons, "
The following gentlemen are the Officers under the Act of Incorporation
granted to the Association by the Legislature of New York in 1855.
BENJ. W. BONNEY, President.
WM. L. PARSONS, Cor. Secretary.
HENRY A. HURLBUT, Treasurer.
BOARD OF MANAGERS.
CYRUS W. FIELD,
JOSIAH W. BAKER,
BENJ. W. BONNEY,
HENRY A. HURLBUT,
WM. L. PARSONS.
FINANCE COMMITTEE.
CYRUS W. FIELD,
JOSIAH W. BAKER,
BENJ. W. BONNEY.
FORM OF BEQUEST.
I give and bequeath to the "American Woman's Educational Association,"
incorporated by or under an Act of the Legislature of the State of New
York, the sum of [space] Dollars, which I direct to be paid by my
executors to the Treasurer of said Association for the time being.