Amid the untiring efforts of the present age, to elevate the standard
of female education, it is possible that the excellencies of a more
ancient system, may be too much disregarded. In our zeal for
reformation, we are in danger of discarding, or pronouncing obsolete,
some requisitions of salutary tendency. The wider range both of
intellect and accomplishment, which is now prescribed, seems to exclude
some of those practical and homebred virtues, on which the true
influence of woman depends.
There was a fine mixture of energy and dignity, in the character of
females, of the higher ranks in our olden time. We of modern days, to
whom languor and luxury are dear, allege that it was carried too far.
We complain that it involved reserve and sternness. Perhaps, we are not
sensible that we verge so palpably to the other extreme, as to retain
in our style of manners scarcely the shadow of that power by which
folly is checked and frivolity silenced.
The mother of Washington, has been pronounced a model of the true
dignity of woman. She seemed to combine the Spartan simplicity and
firmness, with the lofty characteristics of a Roman matron. With a
heart of deep and purified affections, she blended that majesty which
commanded the reverence of all. At the head of a large household, whose
charge, by the death of her husband, devolved solely on her, the energy
of her tireless superintendence preserved subordination and harmony.
The undeviating integrity and unshaken self-command of her illustrious
son, were developements of her own elements of character,--fruits from
those germs which she planted in the soil of his infancy. To the
inquiry, what course had been pursued in the early education of one,
whom not only America, but the world, regarded with honor almost
divine, she replied,--_"his first lesson was to obey."_ It was her
dignity of manner, courteous, yet rejecting all ostentation, and
content to array itself in the "plain and becoming garb of the ancient
Virginian lady,"--that elicited from those accustomed to the pomp and
gorgeous costume of European courts, the high praise, that _"it was no
wonder that a country which produced such mothers, could boast such a
man as Washington."_
He therefore, who has been likened to Fabius,--to Cincinnatus, and to
other heroes of antiquity, only to show how greatly he transcended them
by being a christian,--he who has made the hallowed shades of Mount
Vernon, as sacred to the patriot, as the shrine at Mecca, to the
pilgrim,--shares his glory with her, who wrought among the rudiments of
his being, with no careless or uncertain hand. The monument which now
designates her last repose,--which her native clime should have hasted
to erect,--but which private munificence exulted to rear,--speaks
strongly and eloquently to her sex. It bids them impress the character
of true greatness upon the next generation. It warns them to prepare by
unslumbering effort, for this tremendous responsibility. It reminds
them that in their appointed ministration, they stand but "a little
lower than the angels." And let her who is disposed to indulge in
lassitude, or to trifle away the brief season of her probation,--or to
forget that she may stamp an indelible character either for good or
evil, on some immortal mind,--go and renounce her errors, and deepen
her energies,--and relumine her hopes, at the tomb of the _Mother of
Washington_.