Addressed to the American Lyceum, May, 1834.
The importance of education seems now to be universally admitted. It
has become the favorite subject of some of the wisest and most gifted
minds. It has incorporated itself with the spirit of our vigorous and
advancing nation. It is happily defined by one of the most elegant of
our living writers, as the "_mind of the present age, acting upon the
mind of the next_." It will be readily perceived how far this machine
surpasses the boasted lever of Archimedes, since it undertakes not
simply the movement of a mass of matter, the lifting of a dead planet
from its place, that it might fall, perchance, into the sun and be
annihilated; but the elevation of that part of man whose power is
boundless, and whose progress is eternal, the raising of a race "made
but a little lower than the angels," to a more entire assimilation with
superior natures.
In the benefits of an improved system of education, the female sex are
now permitted liberally to participate. The doors of the temple of
knowledge, so long barred against them, have been thrown open. They are
invited to advance beyond its threshold. The Moslem interdict that
guarded its hidden recesses is removed. The darkness of a long reign of
barbarism, and the illusions of an age of chivalry, alike vanish, and
the circle of the sciences, like the shades of Eden, gladly welcome a
new guest.
While gratitude to the liberality of this great and free nation is
eminently due from the feebler sex, they have still a boon to request.
They ask it as those already deeply indebted, yet conscious of ability
to make a more ample gift profitable to the _giver_ as well as to the
_receiver_. It seems desirable that their education should combine more
of thoroughness and solidity, that it should be expanded over a wider
space of time, and that the depth of its foundation should bear better
proportion to the height and elegance of its superstructure. Their
training ought not to be for display and admiration, to sparkle amid
the froth and foam of life, and to become enervated by that indolence
and luxury, which are subversive of the health and even the existence
of a republic. They should be qualified to act as teachers of knowledge
and of goodness. However high their station, this office is no
derogation from its dignity; and its duties should commence whenever
they find themselves in contact with those who need instruction. The
adoption of the motto, that _to teach is their province_, will inspire
diligence in the acquisition of a knowledge, and perseverance in the
beautiful mechanism of pure example.
It is requisite that they who have, in reality, the _moulding of the
whole mass of mind in its first formation_, should be profoundly
acquainted with the structure and capacities of that mind; that they
who nurture the young citizens of a prosperous republic, should be able
to demonstrate to them, from the broad annals of history, the blessings
which they inherit, and the wisdom of preserving them, the value of
just laws, and the duty of obeying them. It is indispensable that they
on whose bosom the infant heart is laid, like a germ in the quickening
breast of spring, should be vigilant to watch its first unfoldings, and
to direct its earliest tendrils where to twine. It is unspeakably
important, that they who are commissioned to light the lamp of the
soul, should know how to feed it with pure oil; that they to whose hand
is entrusted the welfare of a being never to die, should be able to
perform the work, and earn the wages of heaven.
Assuming the position that _females are by nature designated as
teachers_, and that the mind in its most plastic state is their pupil,
it becomes a serious inquiry, _what they will be likely to teach_. They
will, of course, impart what they best understand, and what they most
value. They will impress their own peculiar lineaments upon the next
generation. If vanity and folly are their predominant features,
posterity must bear the likeness. If utility and wisdom are the objects
of their choice, society will reap the benefit. This influence is most
palpably operative in a government like our own. Here the intelligence
and virtue of every individual possesses a heightened relative value.
The secret springs of its harmony may be touched by those whose
birth-place was in obscurity. Its safety is interwoven with the welfare
of all its subjects.
If the character of those to whom the charge of schools is committed,
has been deemed not unworthy the attention of lawgivers, is not _her_
education of consequence, who begins her labor before any other
instructor, who pre-occupies the unwritten page of being, who produces
impressions which nothing on earth can efface, and stamps on the cradle
what will exist beyond the grave, and be legible in eternity?
The ancient republics overlooked the worth of that half of the human
race, which bore the mark of physical infirmity. Greece, so exquisitely
susceptible to the principle of beauty, so skilled in wielding all the
elements of grace, failed to appreciate the latent excellence of woman.
If, in the brief season of youth and bloom, she was fain to admire her
as the acanthus-leaf of her own Corinthian capital, she did not
discover, that like that very column, she might have added stability to
the temple of freedom. She would not believe that her virtues might
have aided in consolidating the fabric which philosophy embellished and
luxury overthrew.
Rome, notwithstanding her primeval rudeness, and the ferocity of her
wolf-nursed greatness, seems more correctly, than polished Greece, to
have estimated the "weaker vessel." Here and there, upon the storm
driven billows of her history, the form of woman is distinctly visible,
and the mother of the Gracchi still stands forth in strong relief, amid
that imagery, over which time has no power. Yet where the brute force
of the warrior was counted godlike, the feebler sex were prized, only
in their approximation to the energy of a sterner nature, as clay was
held in combination with iron, in the feet of that mysterious image
which troubled the visions of the Assyrian king.
To some of the republics of South America, the first dawn of liberty
gave a light which Greece and Rome, so long her favored votaries, never
beheld. Even in the birth of their political existence, they discovered
that the sex whose _strength is in the heart_, might exert an agency in
modifying national character. New Grenada set an example which the
world had not before seen. Ere the convulsive struggles of revolution
had subsided, she unbound the cloistered foot of woman, and urged her
to ascend the heights of knowledge. She established a college for
females, and gave its superintendence to a lady of talent and
erudition. We look with solicitude toward the result of this
experiment. We hope that our sisters of the "cloud-crowned Andes," may
be enabled to secure and to diffuse the blessings of education, and
that from their abodes of domestic privacy, a hallowed influence may go
forth, which shall aid in reducing a chaos of conflicting elements to
order, and symmetry, and permanent repose.
In our own country, man, invested by his Maker with the "right to
reign," has nobly conceded to her, who was for ages a vassal, equality
of intercourse, participation in knowledge, guardianship over his
dearest possessions, and his fondest hopes. He is content to "bear the
burden and heat of the day," that she may dwell in plenty, and at ease.
Yet from the very felicity of her lot, dangers arise. She is tempted to
rest in superficial attainments, to yield to that indolence which
spreads like rust over the intellect, and to merge the sense of her own
responsibilities in the slumber of a luxurious life. These tendencies
should be neutralized by an education of utility, rather than of
ornament. Sloth and luxury, the subverters of republics, should be
banished from her vocabulary. It is expedient that she be surrounded in
youth with every motive to persevering industry, and severe
application; and that in maturity she be induced to consider herself an
ally in the cares of life, especially in the holy labor of rearing the
immortal mind. While her partner stands on the high places of the
earth, toiling for his stormy portion of that power or glory from which
it is her privilege to be sheltered, let her feel that to her, in the
recesses of the domestic sphere, is entrusted the culture of that
knowledge and virtue, which are the strength of a nation. Happily
secluded from lofty legislation and bold enterprise, with which her
native construction has no affinity, she is still accountable to the
government by which she is protected, for the character of those who
shall hereafter obtain its honors, and control its functions.
Her place is in the quiet shade, to watch the little fountain, ere it
has breathed a murmur. But the fountain will break forth into a stream,
and the swelling rivulet rush toward the sea; and she, who was first at
the fountain head and lingered longest near the infant streamlet, might
best guide it to right channels; or, if its waters flow complaining and
turbid, could truest tell what had troubled their source.
Let the age which has so freely imparted to woman the treasures of
knowledge, add yet to its bounty, by inciting her to gather them with
an unremitting and tireless hand, and by expecting of her the highest
excellence of which her nature is capable. Demand it as a debt. Summon
her to abandon inglorious ease.--Arouse her to practise and to enforce
those virtues, which sustain the simplicity, and promote the permanence
of a great republic. Make her answerable for the character of the next
generation. Give her this solemn charge in the presence of "men and of
angels,"--gird her for its fulfilment with the whole armor of education
and piety, and see if she be not faithful to her offspring, to her
country, and to her God!