One of the most important indices of religious change is the advance in
the character of female education during the last thirty years.
Fifty years ago, to read, write and cipher, and a few accomplishments,
were all that were attempted in the school education of women. A little
history and one or two other branches were added in some of the higher
schools.
It being assumed that the _equal_ culture of _all_ the faculties, so as to
insure a _well‐balanced_ mind, is the chief aim of all education, it is
probable that the mental culture of women in this country for the last
thirty years has approached nearer to the true standard than was ever
known in the experience of any other nation.
The training to the handicraft of the needle, even if only for ornament,
the measure of domestic duty that most young girls learn to perform, the
culture of the musical taste and the art of drawing, the combination in
female schools of mathematics, languages and general knowledge, and the
immense variety of culture from lectures and general reading, all have
tended to develop the female mind on a scale of advancement and equable
culture never before known.
The result is a generation of women well trained for high and independent
thought and action. At the same time, it is probable that there never
before was so large a proportion of the best educated women who were so
decidedly conscientious and religious.
It is granted by all, that it is to woman more than to man, that is
committed the chief business of training the human mind at its most
important stage of development. It is granted, also, that in order to
success in culture, both physical and mental, it is the first step to
understand _the nature_ of that which is to be trained and developed. The
first question, then, to every woman, in reference to her first duty is,
what is _the nature_ of the minds given us to train?
In this light, it is as if a gardener were to receive some rare and
delicate plant with directions from his lord to train it with the utmost
care; his first inquiry would be, What is its nature? Does it require sun
or shade? Does it need a moist or a sandy soil? Is it a climber, or a
shrub, or a tree? Or, it is as if a young machinist should receive from
his master a collection of wheels and springs, and a great variety of
delicate machinery, with the direction to put them together and adjust
them for right action. His first inquiry would be, what is the _nature_ of
the thing to be thus arranged? For what _end_ or _purpose_ is it
constructed? What is the _mode of working it_ which will best accomplish
the end designed?
In like manner woman receives from her Lord the delicate physical form and
immortal spirit of her child to train _aright_ for an existence never to
end. She asks of those who are her Lord’s messengers for this very end,
what is _the nature_ of this wonderful and delicate organization? What is
the _end_ or _purpose_ for which it is made? What is the _mode_ of
_training_ which will best accomplish the end designed?
The preceding pages exhibit the kind of replies that for ages have met
these heart‐wrenching queries of womanhood. From most, it is shown, she
hears that the _ruined nature_ of her offspring is such that she can do
absolutely nothing to secure any right development. Others tell her that
no one knows what was the end or purpose for which the mind of her child
was made. Others tell her that no one knows what are _right_ means in
regard to the training and action of mind. Others tell her that the mind
of her child is constructed wrong, and that nothing can be done to secure
its right training and development, but in some way to induce its Maker to
re‐create it.
Meantime, also, her teachers are in conflict as to what is the difficulty
with the _nature_ of her child, and what would be its right action, and
what is to be done to secure its right development. At the same time, the
greater portion of the teachings on this great matter are so enveloped in
abstruse theological and metaphysical technics as to baffle the wisest in
their attempts to gain clear and definite ideas from them.
In this state of the case many sensible mothers and teachers, all over the
land, have adopted a course dictated by their own common sense and their
experience of the _nature_ of mind, as discovered in their attempts to
train it. In pursuing such a course, many of them have taught simply the
system of common sense, leaving out entirely the Augustinian
contradictions. They have in various forms of language taught their little
ones after this fashion: “Your heavenly Father made you to be happy and to
make others happy. In order to this, he wishes that you should always have
what you like best, except when it would injure you or others. But when
what you like best and want the most, is not _best_ for you or _best_ for
others, you must always choose what is _for the best_, and in so doing you
act virtuously and please and obey God. And just so far as you do all that
is best for yourself and for others, guided by the teachings of Christ,
and with the desire and purpose to obey him, you become a virtuous, pious
and holy child, and a true Christian.”
In taking such a course as this, many mothers and teachers find themselves
in antagonism with the teachings of the pulpit, the Sunday School and the
great body of religious books, and yet they persevere. And sometimes they
take their children from the Sunday School because the home training is
there so directly assailed. And they would, in some cases, keep them from
the church also, were not the theological technics so effective in
protecting childhood from all comprehension of a large portion of pulpit
teachings.
It is such intelligent, cultivated and pious mothers and teachers that go
to their pastors with their perplexities and troubles, and not
unfrequently find that tender sympathy which those only can give who have
suffered the same kind of distress.