EDUCATION
1. BOARDING-SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS
Of schools for girls in the period from 1650 to 1750 we can get only
the most scattered bits of information. It is apparent that there
were boarding-schools for girls from five to sixteen, and that these
schools rapidly increased in number, but of the scope and nature of
the instruction we have only the most general ideas. In 1677 there
appeared the following advertisement:
In Oxford there is set up a boarding-school for young gentlewomen
(by John Waver, Master in the art of dancing) where they may be
educated and instructed in the art of dancing, singing, music,
writing, and all manner of works.
A more famous school was at Chelsea in Gorges House. Our first
knowledge of this boarding-school comes from a play given by the
pupils. It was dated 1676 and was entitled "_Beauty's Triumph_,
a masque presented by the scholars of Mr. Jeffrey Banister and
Mr. James Hart at their new Boarding-School for young Ladies and
Gentlewomen kept in that house which was formerly Sir Arthur Gorges
at Chelsey."[377] The "Epilogue--Spoken by a young lady" recounts
"the serious things" done in the school, embroidery and modeling in
wax being the chief items.
One in rich works with lively colours tells
Lucretia's rape or mourning Philomel's;
Each chaste beholder sighs and drops a tear.
* * * * *
Another's different mind more pleasure takes
In various forms to mould the painted wax;
Such shape, such beauty in each piece is shown,
Nature sits pale, or blushing on her own,
To see her pride by curious art out-done.
Between 1680 and 1690 Purcell's _Dido and Æneas_ was given at this
school. D'Urfey's _Love for Money; or, the Boarding School_ (1691)
has its scene "Chelsey by the River" and is supposed to refer to this
school. It was here that Molly Verney learned to japan. The school
maintained its repute under Mr. Portman, and later under Josias
Priests.
In 1680 the school was advertised:
Josias Priests, dancing master, that kept a boarding school
for gentlewomen in Leicester Field is removed to the great
school-house in Chelsea, which was Mr. Portman's, where he did
teach, and will continue the said master and others to the
improvement of the said school.
Gorges House was demolished in 1726.
Two other notices belong in the reign of Queen Anne. The first one
shows the continued popularity of the Hackney schools:
Whereas it is reported that Mrs. Overing who keeps a Boarding
School at Bethnal Green near Hackney, is leaving off; this is to
give Notice that the said Report is false, if not Malicious. And
that she continues to take sober young Gentlewomen to board and
teach whatever is necessary to the Accomplishment of that sex.
The second one reads,
Mrs. Elizabeth Tutchin continues to keep her school at Highgate,
notwithstanding Reports to the contrary. Where young Gentlewomen
may be soberly Educated, and taught all sorts of Learning fit for
young Gentlewomen.[378]
In _The Levellers_ a dialogue between two young ladies, we have an
account of the education given at most of these schools. One of the
young ladies says:
You know my father was a tradesman, and lived very well by his
traffick; and I, being beautiful, he thought nature had already
given me part of my portion, and therefore he would add a liberal
education, that I might be a complete gentlewoman; away he sent
me to the boarding school; there I learned to dance and sing; to
play on the bass viol, virginals, spinet, and guitar. I learned
to make wax work, japan, paint upon glass, to raise paste,
make sweetmeats, sauces, and everything that was genteel and
fashionable.[379]
One element here indicated seems to have held a fairly permanent
place, and that is some trifling form of hand-work. A book published
in 1671 gives a hint as to the nature of this work. It is entitled
_Four hundred new sorts of Birds, Beasts, Flowers, Fruits, Fish,
Flyes, Worms, Landskips, Ovals, and Histories, etc. Lively coloured
for all sorts of Gentlewomen and School-Mistresses Works._ Many
of the kinds of work with which women attempted to get rid of
their leisure were apparently taught in the schools. All sorts of
needlework seem to have been included in the necessary subjects.
The interest in samplers is shown by a reference in _The Tatler_,
April 19, 1709, to an "excellent discourse" by "Mrs. Arabella Manly,
School-Mistress at Hackney," entitled _An Essay on the Invention of
Samplers, communicated by Mrs. Judith Bagford with an account of her
Collections for the same_.[380]
In 1714 a "Venerable Correspondent" wrote to _The Spectator_ that in
her day young women "Worked Beds, Chairs, and Hangings," and urged
_The Spectator_ to recommend a renewal of these activities. The
humorous response is hardly an exaggerated statement of the great
pieces of work undertaken by the women of the seventeenth century:
What a delightful Entertainment must it be to the Fair Sex, whom
their native Modesty, and the Tenderness of Men towards them,
exempts from Publick Business, to pass their hours in imitating
Fruits and Flowers, and transplanting all the Beauties of Nature
into their own Dress, or raising a new Creation in their Closets
and Apartments. How pleasing is the Amusement of walking among
the Shades and Groves planted by themselves, in surveying Heroes
slain by their Needle, or little Cupids which they have brought
into the World without Pain.
This is, methinks, the most proper way wherein a Lady can shew a
fine Genius, and I cannot forbear wishing, that several Writers
of that Sex had chosen to apply themselves rather to Tapestry
than Rhime. Your Pastoral Poetesses may vent their Fancy in Rural
Landskips, and place despairing Shepherds under silken Willows,
or drown them in a Stream of Mohair.... How memorable would that
Matron be, who should have it Inscribed upon her Monument, "That
she wrought out the whole Bible in Tapestry, and died in a good
old Age, after having covered three hundred Yards of Wall in the
Mansion-House."[381]
In the eighteenth century embroidery and tapestry are still an
occupation, but other and less tedious works partially supplant them.
Pope's Grotto was not an isolated curiosity. _The Spectator_ suggests
the part women were taking in the manufacture of grottoes:
There is a very particular kind of Work, which of late several
Ladies here in our Kingdom seem very fond of, which seems very
well adapted to a Poetical Genius: It is the making of Grottos.
I know a Lady who has a very Beautiful one, composed by herself,
nor is there one Shell in it not stuck up by her own Hands.[382]
Pope wrote an inscription for a "Grotto of Shells at Crux Easton, the
Work of Nine young Ladies." These young ladies were sisters and their
grotto was also celebrated by "N. H."[383] In 1735 "S. J." wrote
a poem to a Lady to accompany a present of shells and stones for
her grotto.[384] In 1746 Mr. Graves congratulated Lady Fane on her
"grotto divine" where "miracles are wrought by shells."[385]
Paper-cutting also remained something of an art. Waller had praised
a lady who skillfully cut a tree in paper.[386] Cutting silhouettes
was one of the diversions of the circle of Dr. Swift, Dr. Delany,
and Mr. Sheridan. There is a series of poems, concerning "Dan
Jackson's Picture Cut in Silk and Paper," by Lady Betty.[387] The
most important cut-paper work on record is Mrs. Delany's herbarium
or paper mosaics, but this did not come till the last quarter of the
century.[388]
Mrs. Barber's _Patch-Work Screen_ gets its name from another sort of
device. Screens were adorned by pasting odds and ends of pictures all
over them. Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe wrote to the Duchess of Somerset in
1734: "The screen your Ladyship sent me is a Rareeshew for all the
women and children about town who have anything of a nice and elegant
taste." The Duchess was at this time doing tent-stitch concerning
which Mrs. Rowe wrote:
I am delighted with all your entertainments, except the
_Tent-stitch_; and that I own, I admire, but then 't is as some
people admire virtue, only in speculation. It seems to me an
ante-diluvian invention, a task for those long-breath'd people,
who spent a sort of eternity on earth, compar'd to the short
duration of a modern period. However, I am in no pain for your
Ladyship: whether your attempt is a chair or a stool, I suppose
it will be an hereditary occupation; if you finish the branch of
a tree, and Lady ----, a shepherd's crook, the service of your
generation is done, and you may contentedly leave the rest to be
finished by your children's children.
In 1758 Lady Bute had just completed a carpet concerning which she
wrote to her mother, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Lady Mary answered:
You need not excuse to me taking notice of your carpet. I think
you have great reason to value your-self on the performance, but
will have better than I have had if you can persuade anybody
else to do so. I could never get people to believe that I set a
stitch, when I worked six hours in a day.
Perhaps the most popular of all the arts was japanning. Molly (b.
1675), the daughter of Edmund Verney, was sent at eight to Mrs.
Priest's school at Great Chelsey. Her father wrote to her:
I find you have a desire to learn to Jappan, as you call it,
and I approve of it; and so I shall of anything that is Good &
Virtuous, therefore learn in God's name all Good Things, & I
will willingly be at the Charge so farr as I am able--tho' they
come from Japan or from never so farr & Looke of an Indian Hue
& Odour, for I admire all accomplishments that will render you
considerable, and Lovely in the sight of God and man.[389]
The continued favor accorded japanning is shown by a letter from Mrs.
Rowe to the Duchess of Somerset in 1734:
My great attainment at present is colouring prints: If Lady ----
wants any birds for her new _Japan_, I have some at her service.
Mrs. ---- is so inchanted with this new japanning, that she has
abandon'd Mr. _Baxter_, and the _Greek_ Fathers, and employes her
time in sticking bears and monkies on all the wooden furniture
she can find about the house.
Japanning was taught in most of the schools.
Mrs. Montagu, Queen of the Blue-Stockings, was indefatigable in her
devotion to hand-work. Not only was she familiar with every kind of
needlework, but she turned in wood and ivory, made shell grottoes,
and designed shell frames, and she planned and executed feather
hangings for a room. Mrs. Delany is the only lady whose recorded work
exceeds that of Mrs. Montagu in amount and variety.
Domestic science was faintly foreshadowed in what were known as
"Pastry Schools." The following illustrates the type:
To all young ladies at Edw. Kidder's Pastry School in little
Lincoln's Inn Fields are taught all sorts of Pastry and Cookery,
Dutch hollow works, and Butter works, on Thursdays, Fridays,
and Saturday, in the afternoon, and on the same days in the
Morning, at his school in Norris Street in St. James's Market,
and at his School in St. Martin's Le Grand, on Monday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday in the Afternoons. And at his School at St. Mary
Overies Dock, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday Mornings from 9 to
12.[390]
An entertaining passage in Shadwell's _The Scowrers_ (1690) indicates
something of the character of a girl's education in the country:
_Priscilla._ Did she not bestow good breeding upon you there?
_Eugenia._ Breeding! what, to learn to feed Ducklings, and cram
Chickens?
_Clara._ To see cows milk'd, learn to Churn, and make cheese?
_Eugen._ To make Clouted cream, and whipt sillabubs?
_Clara._ To make a Caraway Cake, and raise Py Crust?
_Eugen._ And to learn the top of your skill in Syrrup, Sweetmeat,
_Aqua Mirabilis_, and Snayl water.
_Clara._ Or your great Cunning in Cheese cake, several Creams and
Almond butter.
_Prisc._ Ay, ay, and 't were better for all the Gentlemen in
England that Wives had no other breeding, but you had Musick and
Dancing.
_Eugen._ Yes, an ignorant, illiterate, hopping Puppy, that rides
his Dancing Circuit thirty Miles about, lights off his tyred
steed, draws his Kit at a poor Country creature, and gives her a
Hich in her Pace, that she shall never recover.
_Clara._ And for Musick an old hoarse singing man riding ten
miles from his Cathedral to Quaver out the Glories of our Birth
and State, or it may be a Scotch Song more hideous and barbarous
than an Irish Cronan.
_Eugen._ And another Musick Master from the next town to Teach
one to twinkle out _Lilly burlero_ upon an old pair of Virginals,
that sound worse than a Tinker's Kettle that cries for his work
on.
We happen to have somewhat more definite knowledge of one early
eighteenth-century school for girls. Mrs. Hannah Wood, the "Mistress
of a College-Boarding School" in Bury, in 1723, was the sister of Mr.
D. Bellamy who wrote "Dramatic Entertainments" for the "Annual Public
Exercises of the School." These "Entertainments" were published with
a dedication to Mrs. Wood, "A Prefatory Essay," and some "Familiar
Letters." Mr. Bellamy considers it the particular province of Mrs.
Wood "to polish Nature," since she has "a perfect Idea of every
Female Accomplishment" and if her young ladies can be "One Virtue the
better" through his labors it is ample reward.
Mr. Bellamy's plays were rather elaborately staged. There were
"pastoral figure dances" and considerable singing. One character
enters "drest like a Gentleman." There is a machine for the descent
of Apollo. The dramas performed are carefully adapted to young
ladies, "the porcelaine-clay of humankind." Mr. Bellamy examines
every word and weighs each thought to see that "The sence is Chast
and inoffensive to nicest tast." The first of the plays given is
_Vanquish'd Love: or, The Jealous Queen_, an adaptation of the
_Rosamund_ of Addison. The emphasis on warm passions, amorous
prayers, guilty fires, rage, jealousy, vengeance, and death, would
but doubtfully contribute to the delicate innocence of the young
ladies. All is, however, made right by the abrupt and unnatural
repentance of King Henry, and his eulogy of the sweets of "Virtuous
Love." The second play, _Innocence Betray'd; or, The Royal Imposter_,
was taken from Cowley's _Love's Riddle_. In the Epilogue a young lady
says the auditors may
Wish we had Rehears'd our Spelling Books:
And think our Time had been much better spent
In Cross-Stitch, Irish-Stitch, or at the Tent.
And Mr. Bellamy is quite conscious that some indulgent and timorous
parents may censure his designs of teaching young ladies to speak
before an audience:
There are too many, I know, are of Opinion, that the _Art of
Pronunciation_ is no Female Accomplishment; that the Ladies were
design'd by Nature for the Objects of Sight only; and that to
encourage them in Dramatic Representations, is to offer Violence
to their native Modesty....
'T was an Observation of One of the most learned Prelates of his
Age, the late Archbishop of Cambray, That the general Mistake of
Parents in the Education of their Daughters, was this: "That they
were too solicitous about the Ornament of their Person, and too
remiss, if not entirely regardless, of the Endowments of their
Mind."
'T is pity methinks that the favourite Works of Nature should be
nothing but moving Pictures, and, like Sir _Godfrey Kneller's_
Canvas, as Mr. Dryden expresses it, only _Look a Voice_; that the
Study of the Toilet should be recommended to them, as their most
material Accomplishment, whilst the Improvement of their Judgment
is neglected as a Trifle, and the early Exercise of their
Rational Faculties esteem'd, if not a Crime, an Act of Imprudence
and ill Conduct.
In the presentation of the play the young ladies are urged to enter
into the characters they have taken, and to remember the reverence
and respect they owe their auditors. Under more specific directions
Mr. Bellamy says:
In the first place, Ladies, carefully avoid all unnatural
Distortions both of your Limbs and Features. Wry mouths,
contracted Brows, shrug'd up shoulders, and the like are Farce
and Buffoonry, very disagreeable and very ungenteel: Nay,
Coughing and Spitting, unless very accidental, are vicious
Habits, and ought betimes to be corrected.
Among "Useful Observations" is the following on modulation of the
voice:
All Persons Names, viz., I, Thou, He, She, We, Ye, and They, etc.
and their following States, Me, Thee, Him, Her, Us, You, and
Them, etc. and their Possessives, My, Thy, Our, Yours, Theirs,
Mine, Thine, etc. and all Epithets, Adjectives, or Qualities,
by which Substantives, Beings, or Things are explain'd and
distinguish'd as, Black, White, Good, Bad, Round, Square, and the
like, should always be read or spoken with a clear, open, and
distinct Voice, as they are for the most part very emphatical,
and the Beauty of Expression depends much upon them.
In a letter on "Female Accomplishments" the Virtuous and Fair Antiope
in the twenty-second book of Fénelon's _Telemachus_ is set forth as
an example of a lady of the first quality. Her silence, modesty,
reservedness, gentleness, her assiduous industry in spinning and
embroidering, her regularity and order and poise, make her a treasure
worthy to be sought in far regions. In the letter on "Innocent
Recreations" reading is particularly commended. The "chaste and very
useful" collection of books suggested is based on the Postscript to
Dr. Hickes's _Instructions for the Education of a Daughter_, and is
as follows:
The whole Duty of Man, The Lady's Calling, The Government of the
Tongue, Mr. Nelson's Companion for the Feast and Fasts of the
Church of England, Meditations and Soliloquies of St. Augustine,
Comber and Bennet on the Liturgy, Mr. Boyle on the Style of the
Scriptures. Tillotson's Sermons, Paradise Lost with Addison's
judicious and entertaining Remarks, Blackmore's Paraphrase on
Job, Cowley's Davideis.
For the gayer part of poetry,
Mr. Waller, Mr. Cowley's _Mistress_, some pieces of Mr. Prior,
particularly his _Henry_ and _Emma_. Mr. Norris's _Miscellany_,
and Mr. Watts's _Horæ Lyricæ_. For precepts of Morality I would
lay before her Sir Roger L'Estrange's _Seneca_ and his _Fables_;
Mr. Collier's _Essays_ and his _Antoninus_ and some select pieces
of the Letters and Spectators.
For history, Lord Clarendon on the _Rebellion_ and Dr. Welwood's
_Memoirs_ are suggested.
For novels, the _Adventures of Telemachus_, translated by Mr.
Ozell; and _Don Quixot_ by Mr. Motteux, Mr. Congreve, and others,
are the only Pieces that I would offer to her. For Plays, tho'
there are too many unfit for a young Lady's Perusal: yet such as
_Cato_, _Love and Empire_, _Tamerlane_, the _Mourning Bride_, the
_Distress'd Mother_, _Phædra and Hippolitus_, and the _Conscious
Lovers_, with many more, can never be read without Pleasure and
Improvement.
Schools for young ladies increased in number during the eighteenth
century, especially near London. Malcolm, in 1808, said that even so
early as 1759
two or three houses might be seen in almost every village, with
the inscription, "Young Ladies boarded and educated," where every
description of tradesmen sent their children to be instructed,
not in the useful attainments necessary for humble life, but
the arts of coquetry and self-consequence--in short, those of
a _young lady_. The person who received the children had then
the sounding title of Governess: and French and Dancing-masters
prepared the girl for the hour when contempt for her parents'
deficiencies was to be substituted for affection and respect.
Instead of reading their native language with propriety and just
emphasis, it was totally neglected, and in place of nervous
sentences and flowing periods, the vulgarisms of low life were
continued; while the lady repeated familiar words of the French
language with a sound peculiar to Boarding-schools, and quite
unintelligible to a native of France: the pleasing labours of the
needle were thrown aside, and the young lady soon became an adept
in imitating laces and spoiling the beauty of coloured silks.[391]
The _Idler_ in 1750 comments on female education as spoiling girls
for service:
Scarcely a wench was to be got for all work, since education had
made such numbers of fine ladies that nobody would now accept a
lower title than that of waiting-maid, or something that might
qualify her to wear laced shoes and long ruffles and to sit at
work in the parlor window.
2. CHARITY SCHOOLS
In 1698 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge started a
movement for the establishment of charity schools. An organized
propaganda for getting subscriptions was undertaken by the bishops
and was so successful that between 1698 and 1715 more than one
hundred of these schools were established in London and Westminster.
In this scheme poor girls were considered as well as poor boys.
They were, of course, in separate schools.[392] Each school had
a prescribed uniform and the pupils marching in a body made a
picturesque addition to many a civic festival. In 1714 Thoresby went
to hear "the Bishop of London preach the charity sermon before an
almost innumerable company of poor children, decently clad in various
colours, which are Christianly educated and cared for in the several
wards of the city, both for soul and body."[393] In 1723 he again
records seeing the Lord Mayor in all his pomp going to St. Bride's
Church with a great train of charity children, all decently habited,
some with blue coats with yellow vests, others brown, most with
blue caps, but some with white hats and mathematical instruments in
their hands.[394] By 1753 the number of charity children that went
to Christ Church to hear the Anniversary Sermon was five thousand.
William Blake, in _Songs of Innocence_ (1789) and in _Songs of
Experience_ (1799), gives the impression of great numbers. In the
first of these commemorations Blake voices what was the general
attitude, and that is a eulogy of London's magnificent generosity.
The second one represents a much more modern tone, that of question
as to a city's social and civic standards where the supply of
helpless orphans was so large and so constant.
The word education is too pretentious for most of these schools.
The purpose in the main was to train boys and girls for service. In
the pictures drawn by Hogarth in 1741 in honor of Captain Coram's
noble charity, _The Foundling Hospital_, the three little girls in
the foreground are holding a spinning-wheel, a sampler, and a broom,
indicating branches of industry to which they were destined.
There were also many privately endowed schools in various parts of
England. In 1726 William Law, the author of _The Serious Call_,
brought out a treatise on _Christian Perfection_. It is said that an
anonymous stranger presented him with £1000 on reading it. The next
year Law founded a school for fourteen girls at King's Cliffe, and
the money is supposed to have come from this gift. When Archibald
Hutcheson died in 1740 he expressed a wish that his widow should lead
a retired and religious life under Law's guidance. Miss Hester Gibbon
joined Mrs. Hutcheson. Their joint income was £2600 a year, most of
which they planned to spend in charity. In 1744 they settled down in
King's Cliffe in Law's house, formerly a royal manor house and known
as "King John's Palace," where they continued the girls' school,
and added to it a school for eighteen boys. The important schools
in Yorkshire founded by Lady Elizabeth Hastings have already been
mentioned.
Other more private and personal and less permanent educational
ventures are occasionally recorded. A religious family school
something after the fashion of Little Gidding was now and then
attempted. One "religious retirement" is mentioned by Bishop Ken. Two
dear friends whom he frequently visited were Mary and Anne Kemys of
Cefn Mably, Glamorganshire. After the death of their mother in 1683
they went to reside at Naish Court, about a mile from Porteshead.
There they established a kind of Anglican sisterhood where they
lived a devout life and did charitable works. Bishop Ken was their
spiritual adviser, and since he had known Nicholas Ferrar well, it
is not unlikely that the ideals at Naish Court were somewhat like
those at Little Gidding.[395] In 1698 Sir George Wheler brought out a
tractate entitled _A Protestant Monastery, or Christian Œconomics_,
containing _Directions for the Religious Conduct of a Family_. He
founded and endowed a school for girls at Houghton-le-Springs,
Durham, when he was rector there. Sir George Wheler was an intimate
friend and a disciple of Dr. Hickes with whom he went abroad. It
was evidently through the influence of Dr. Hickes that he became an
advocate of higher education for women.
About the middle of the century Mrs. Montagu went to Bath-Easton to
visit her sister, Mrs. Scott, and Lady Bab Montagu, who had chosen a
life of retirement and good works. On her return to Sandleford, Mrs.
Montagu wrote as follows to Mr. Gilbert West:
My sister rises early, and as soon as she has read prayers to
their small family, she sits down to cut out and prepare work
for 12 poor girls, whose schooling they pay for; to those whom
she finds more than ordinarily capable, she teaches writing and
arithmetic herself. The work these children are usually employed
in is making child-bed linen and clothes for poor people in the
neighborhood, which Lady Bab Montagu and she bestow as they see
occasion. Very early on Sunday morning these girls, with 12
little boys whom they also send to school, come to my sisters and
repeat their catechism, read some chapters, have the principal
articles of their religion explained to them, and then are sent
to the parish church. These good works are often performed by the
Methodist ladies in the best of enthusiasm, but thank God, my
sister's is a calm and rational piety. Her conversation is lively
and easy, and she enters into all the reasonable pleasures of
Society; goes frequently to the plays, and sometimes to balls,
etc. They have a very pretty house at Bath for the winter, and
one at Bath Easton for the summer; their houses are adorned
by the ingenuity of the owners, but as their income is small,
they deny themselves unnecessary expences. My sister seems very
happy; it has pleased God to lead her to truth, by the road of
affliction; but what draws the sting of death and triumphs over
the grave, cannot fail to heal the wounds of disappointment. Lady
Bab Montagu concurs with her in all these things, and their
convent, for by its regularity it resembles one, is really a
cheerful place.[396]
3. HIGHER EDUCATION
The lesser boarding-schools and the charity schools give no
intimation of anything even approximating the higher education of
women. But that topic was not neglected. And it is of interest to
take up in chronological sequence the various expressions of opinion
as to the kind of education women should have.
[Sidenote: Anna van Schurman (1607-1678)]
The first influential writer advocating a large and liberal
curriculum for women was a foreigner,[397] the famous Anna van
Schurman of Utrecht. She was, indeed, the most famous learned woman
of the seventeenth century, not only in Holland, but in the entire
world of letters. As a child she gave such indication of unusual
power that her father's interest and ambition were aroused, and
he gave her perfect freedom and sympathetic coöperation in the
development of her tastes. There was no regular plan or discipline in
her education. She merely followed out, in art, in handicrafts, in
letters, every new interest of her singularly alert and responsive
mind. Till she was twenty-eight, art in some form was her chief
occupation. She carved portraits in boxwood, modeled them in wax,
etched them on glass or copper, and cut medallions in ivory. She
did fine needlework and intricate embroidery, and worked tapestry.
Specimens of her scissors-work are still preserved in the Schurman
museum at Franeker and show a dexterity that must have been
remarkable even in that day of exquisite cut-paper.[398] And she
excelled in the fashionable accomplishment of writing in foreign
alphabets. She sang delightfully, and played on the cymbal, the
lute, and the violin. Her interest in the technical side of music
is evidenced by her correspondence with noted musicians such as
Huyghens, Hooft, and Bannius.
But gradually during the amateurish delights of these occupations
and through the frivolities of a gay life there had been growing
in Anna's mind a desire for serious work. And from twenty-eight to
forty-eight she gave herself to the learned pursuits on which her
contemporary renown was based. She became known throughout Europe
and the most extravagant recognition was accorded her. As the finest
Latinist in Utrecht she was chosen to write the ode on the founding
of the University in that city. She was named the "Star of Utrecht."
Gisbert Voët, the Rector of the University, taught her Hebrew,
Syriac, and Chaldee, and influenced her to devote years to a textual
study of the Bible. Beverwyck, who through admiration for her had
become a convinced feminist, dedicated his treatise _De Excellentia
Fæmini Sexus_ to her as "the most wonderful woman of her day." Cats
wrote poems to her as the _Wonderstuk_ of the age. Her _Ethiopian
Grammar_ was greeted as a marvel by the scholars of the Dutch
universities. Jean Louis Balzac congratulated himself on coming to
know "_cette merveilleuse fille_." Descartes was one of her close
friends. She corresponded on terms of equality with theologians like
Jacob Lydius and Fredereck Spanheim and M. de Saumaise of Leyden
University. Caspar van Baerle eulogized her as "a second Sempronia,
a better Sappho, a new Pallas." She became almost an object of
pilgrimage, royal personages being among those attracted by her great
fame. The Queen of Poland, the Duchesse de Longueville, and Christina
of Sweden with an escort of Jesuit priests were among those who made
visits of state to "the incomparable Virgin."
The last twenty years of Anna van Schurman's life were given
entirely to mystical religion under the guidance of Jean de Labadie
of whose community she became the most influential member. But in
the preceding period many topics of contemporary interest held her
attention. Chief among these was the right of women to free mental
development. Dr. Rivet, Professor of Theology at Leyden, and her
intimate friend, once wrote to her that ordinary women were debarred
from equality with men by "the sacred laws of Nature." Anna responded
in lively protest and said that he based his arguments on custom
and not on reason. In time she wrote a book embodying her own views
on the subject. It was published by Elzevir at Leyden in 1641 under
the title _De ingenii muliebris ad doctrinam et meliores litteras
aptitudine_. In 1659 the book was translated into rather stiff and
cumbersome English, by "C. B.," doubtless Clement Barksdale, an
Oxford man, a prolific translator from the Latin and much interested
in education. He was master of a free school at Hereford, and later
had a successful private school at Hawling in Cotswolds. He must
have had especial interest in the education of women, for in 1675 he
wrote a _Letter touching a College of Maids or a Virgin Society_. Mr.
Barksdale's translation appeared under the title, _The Learned Maid_;
or, _Whether a Maid may be a Scholar. Logick Exercise Written in
Latine by that incomparable Virgin Anna Maria à Schurman of Utrecht.
With some Epistles to the famous Gassendus and others._ The book
opens with a quotation from Fr. Spanhemius in which he eulogizes
Anna van Schurman as "the utmost Essay of Nature in this Sex." The
translation is dedicated to the "Lady A. H.," probably the Lady Anne
Hudson to whom Gerbier dedicated his _Elogium Heroinum_. There had
evidently been an earlier translation than Barksdale's, for he says,
"This _strange maid_, being now the second time drest up in her
_English Habit_, cometh to kiss your hand." Two translations into
English within eighteen years indicate a considerable interest in
the arguments advanced. Yet the form of the book was difficult and
unattractive as is indicated by the phrase "Logick Exercise." Every
argument is thrown into stiff syllogistic form. The portion of the
book entitled "A Refutation to the Adversaries" is somewhat more
natural and lively. Stripped of their pedantry the arguments against
the education of women and the answers to these arguments are as
follows:
Objection: The wits of women are too weak for the study of
letters.
Answer: Not all men have "heroical wits" yet they are not
excluded from studies. No claim is made that all women should
study, but only those of "at least indifferent good wits."
Weakness of wit may be aided by study.
Objection: Women have no opportunity to prosecute studies, no
academies or schools being open to them.
Answer: There are parents and tutors.
Objection: Knowledge is a useless acquirement since women are
shut out from "Politicall, Eclesiasticall, or Academicall"
offices.
Answer: Though they gain not the Primary end of public usefulness
they yet gain an important secondary personal end.
Objection: Since a little knowledge will suffice for a woman in
her vocation an "Encyclopædy" of knowledge is superfluous.
Answer: There is ambiguity in the word "vocation." Does it mean
that woman belongs to private as against public life? Then many
gentlemen in private life should be shut out from studies. Does
it mean woman's special calling to Family Life? But all human
beings have a right to a personal development, a "Universal
Calling" separate from and above their special vocation.
Objection: Women do not care for studies, and nothing should "be
done _invitâ Minervâ_, as we say, Against the Hair."
Answer: The assumption that women do not care to apply themselves
to studies becomes logically important only when it is proved
of women after excitation and opportunity in studies. "No man
can rightly judge of our Inclination to studies, before he hath
encouraged us by the best reasons and means to set upon them:
and withall hath given us some _taste_ of their sweetness."
The arguments given and the objections answered lead to the statement:
Wherefore our _Thesis_ stands firm: _A Christian Maid_, or _Woman
may conveniently give herself to Learning_: Whence we draw this
Consectary, that Maids may and ought to be excited and encouraged
by the best and strongest _Reasons_, by the _Testimonies_ of wise
men: and lastly by the _examples of illustrious Women_, to the
embracing of this kind of life, especially _those_ who are above
others provided of _leisure_, and other _means_ and _aides_ for
their _studies_. And, because it is best, that the mind being
seasoned with _Learning_ from the very Infancy: therefore the
_Parents_ themselves are chiefly to be stirred up, as we suppose,
and to be admonished of their duty.
In a presentation of the appropriate range of the studies of women
Anna includes the entire circle of Liberal Arts and Sciences as
convenient for the Head of a Christian Maid.
But specially let regard be had unto those Arts which have
neerest alliance to _Theology_ and the _Moral Virtues_, and
are Principally subservient to them. In which number we
reckon _Grammar_, _Logick_, _Rhetoric_: especially _Logick_,
fitly called _The Key of all Sciences_: and then, _Physicks_,
_Metaphysicks_, _History_, etc. and also the knowledge of
Languages, chiefly of the _Hebrew_ and _Greek_. All which may
advance to the more facile and full understanding of _Holy
Scriptures_: to say nothing now of other Books. The rest, i.e.
_Mathematicks_, (to which is also referred _Musick_) _Poesie_,
_Picture_, and the like, not illiberal Arts, may obtain the
place of pretty Ornaments and ingenious Recreations. Lastly,
those studies which pertain to the practice of the Law, Military
Discipline, Oratory in the Church, Court, University, as less
proper and less necessary, we do not very much urge. And yet we
in no wise yield that our _Maid_ should be excluded from the
Scholastick Knowledge or Theory of those; especially not from
understanding the most noble Doctrine of the _Politicks_ or Civil
Government.
The whole book is a eulogy of learning as a specific for all the
ills of mind or heart. Anna quotes from the great Erasmus to the
effect that "nothing takes so full possession of the fair Temple of
a Virgin's breast, as learning and study, whither, on all occasions
she may fly for refuge," and hence nothing can so effectually
oppose vanity and light-mindedness. Studies will make a woman
sufficient unto herself in leisure hours. Studies perfect and adorn
the intellect; they conduce to reverence for the most beautiful, the
most excellent, and so to love of God; they fortify the mind against
heresies, they teach prudence, they destroy fear, they put courage
into the heart; they give a delight that is like "Divine gladness";
and they mollify and sweeten manners. In fine, the liberal pursuit
of learning brings the whole nature into conformity with "the Rule
of right reason." Who, then, would shut women out from delights so
laudable, virtues so desirable?
The whole book gives such an impression of high-minded earnestness,
it is so strenuous and sincere, affirmative arguments are so
elaborately established, and adversaries are so elaborately crushed,
that it becomes a distinct anti-climax to realize what, after all,
was the extent of her demand. She virtually asks nothing more than
that rich girls of good minds shall be allowed and even encouraged to
study at home under tutors, with the proviso that they make no public
use of their learning, that they remember St. Paul's injunction to
women "to be οἰκουργός, keepers at home," and that they make learning
the handmaid of piety. Anna van Schurman was asking for what she
herself had had. And her conception seems somewhat less modest when
we realize that no scholastic dignities, no authorship, no public
offices, could put a woman of to-day so distinctly in the lime-light
of royal and learned favor as was this retiring Anna in her quiet
little home at Utrecht.
[Sidenote: Bathsua Pell, Mrs. Makin (fl. 1641-1673)]
The immediate follower of Anna van Schurman was Bathsua Pell,
better known as Mrs. Makin.[399] She is one of the most
significant personages connected with the education of girls in
the mid-seventeenth century. Her father was a rector in Southwick,
Sussex. He died in 1616 and his wife in 1617, leaving three
children. Thomas became gentleman of the bedchamber to Charles I,
but went to America in 1635. The younger brother, John (1611-1685),
was early noted as a student. At thirteen he entered Trinity at
Cambridge, being even then "as good a scholar as some masters of
arts." At twenty he was reported to know Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
Arabic, Italian, French, High and Low Dutch. By the time he was
twenty-three he had specialized in mathematics. He held important
mathematical posts under Cromwell; and, later, under Charles II, he
was given a valuable living. Bathsua Pell had her brother's talent
for languages, and like him had an early repute for learning. About
1641, when she was perhaps about thirty, she was appointed tutoress
to Princess Elizabeth, the six-year-old daughter of Charles I. The
learned tutoress was apparently at liberty to follow her own ideas
of education, and for several years she led the sad little Princess
into such delights as might be found in the languages and theology.
She boasted of her pupil's proficiency, saying that at nine she
could "write, read, and in some measure understand, Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, French and Italian."[400] Mrs. Makin had other distinguished
pupils. Among them was Lucy Davies, daughter to Sir John Davies,
Attorney-General for Ireland, and better known as author of _Nosce
Teipsum_, and Eleanor Truchett, fluent author of half-mad books of
prophecy.[401] Lucy married the sixth Earl of Huntington. After his
death in 1655, when their son was but six years old, as Countess
Dowager of Huntington, she evidently gave her time and interest in
her retirement to the studies begun under Mrs. Makin (possibly in the
Putney Schools before 1649), who says of her in 1673: "I am forbidden
to mention the Countess _Dowager of Huntington_ (instructed
sometimes by Mrs. Makin) howe well she understands _Latin_, _Greek_,
_Hebrew_, _French_ and _Spanish_; or what a proficient she is in
Arts, subservient to Divinity, in which (if I durst I would tell you)
she excells."
[Illustration: MRS. BATHSUA MAKIN
"Facsimile copy from an almost unique print by Marshall." From an
engraving in Woodburn's _Gallery of Rare Portraits_, 1816, Vol. II,
page 39.]
Mrs. Makin makes enthusiastic mention of other learned ladies, but
does not make it clear whether they had been under her instruction.
Lady Mildmay could not, she says, be justly omitted. Then there
was Mrs. Thorold, daughter of Lady Carr in Lincolnshire, who was
"excellent in Philosophy, and all sorts of Learning." She cites also
"Dr. Love's daughters,"[402] as "still fresh in the memory of men"
for their "Worth and Excellency in Learning."
In April, 1649, John Evelyn and a party of ladies visited "the
schools or colleges for gentlewomen" at Putney. In all probability
Mrs. Makin had charge of this institution. Certainly no other known
Englishwoman would have been so competent, or would have had such
prestige as a school-mistress, and her _Essay_ of 1673 shows that
she remained in the educational field. Accompanying the _Essay_ is a
_Prospectus_ for a school she had recently opened. "If any enquire
where this education may be performed, such may be informed that a
school is lately erected for Gentlewomen, at Tottenham High Cross,
within four miles of London, on the road to Ware, where Mrs. Makin
is governess who was formerly tutoress to the Princess Elizabeth,
daughter to King Charles the First. Where, by the blessing of God,
Gentlewomen may be instructed in the _Principles_ of _religion_, and
in all manner of sober and virtuous Education: more particularly
in all things ordinarily taught in other schools." These things
"ordinarily taught in other schools" are listed as "Dancing, Musick,
Singing, Writing, Keeping accompts." Half the time in Mrs. Makin's
school was to be spent on this portion of the curriculum. The
other half was to be "employed in gaining the _Latin_ and _French_
tongues." Greek, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish were optional subjects,
but were offered by the Governess who had a "competent knowledge"
of all of them. The language requirements could not have been
extensive since "Gentlewomen of eight or nine years old, that can
read well, may be instructed in a year or two (according to their
parts) in the _Latin_ and _French_ tongues." Something in the way of
natural history was attempted. Mrs. Makin announces, "_Repositories_
also for Visibles shall be prepared; by which, from beholding the
things, Gentlewomen may learn the Names, Natures, Values, and Use
of _Herbs_, _Shrubs_, _Trees_, _Mineral-pieces_, _Metals_, and
_Stones_," a sort of laboratory course in botany and mineralogy.
Astronomy, geography, and especially arithmetic and history were
also offered in a "general" way. Domestic science was not omitted,
though oddly bound up with a course in art: "Those that please may
learn Limning, Preserving, Pastry, and Cookery." The principle of
electives was in full force. "Those that think one language enough
for a Woman, may forbear the Languages, and learn only Experimental
Philosophy." In fact, students were allowed to take "more or fewer"
of the courses offered as they might incline. The regular rate was
twenty pounds per annum, but a "competent improvement in the Tongues,
and the other things aforementioned" was to command an additional
fee. Very astutely Mrs. Makin constituted the parents the judge as
to the excellency of their children's attainments. The notice closes
with this fair offer: "Those that think these Things Improbable,
or Impracticable may have further account every _Tuesday_, at Mr.
Mason's Coffee-house, in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange; and
_Thursdays_, at the 'Bolt and Tun,' in Fleet Street, between the
hours of three and six in the afternoon, by some person whom Mrs.
Makin shall appoint."[403]
This course of study, desultory, inchoate, fragmentary, as it is,
is nevertheless of great historic interest. It is the first known
attempt to organize a scheme of definite and solid study for girls.
However superficial the work, it was based on a novel and important
conception of the value of genuine knowledge in languages and science
for girls as well as for boys. It must have been as doubtful and
epoch-making an event in a community to have its girls sent to
Tottenham High Cross, as for the earliest students to go to Vassar.
Unfortunately the inception of this school is all we know about it.
A knowledge of its actual work, its success, a list of its students,
would serve as an illuminating commentary on the general attitude
towards learning for girls in the last quarter of the seventeenth
century.
That Mrs. Makin expected opposition is shown by the remarkable
_Essay_ that was issued with her _Prospectus_. The full title
of the _Essay_ is, _An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of
Gentlewomen, in Religion, Manners, Arts, & Tongues, with an Answer
to the Objections against this Way of Education. London, Printed by
J. D. to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst, at the Bible and Crown, at the
lower end of Cheapside._ 1673. In her opening paragraphs Mrs. Makin
recognizes that an age in which "Learning and Virtue are counted
Pedantick Things, fit only for the Vulgar" is not a propitious time
to undertake an advanced scheme for the education of girls. She
trenchantly summarizes the prevalent attitude towards learned women;
and then bravely sets forth her own creed. She also emphasizes the
modesty of her demands:
Custom, when it is inveterate, hath a mighty influence: it hath
the force of Nature itself. The Barbarous custom to breed Women
low, is grown general amongst us, and hath prevailed so far, that
it is verily believed (especially amongst a cort of debauched
Sots) that Women are not endued with such reason, as Men; nor
capable of improvement by Education, as they are. It is lookt
upon as a monstrous thing, to pretend the contrary. A Learned
Woman is thought to be a Comet, that bodes Mischief, when ever
it appears. To offer to the World the liberal Education of Women
is to deface the Image of God in Man, it will make Women so
high, and men so low, like Fire in the House-tops it will set
the whole world in a Flame. These things and worse than these,
are commonly talked of, and verily believed by many, who think
themselves wise Men: to contradict these is a bold attempt;
where the Attempter must expect to meet with much opposition....
I verily think, Women were formerly Educated in the knowledge
of Arts and Tongues, and by their Education, many did rise to
a great height in Learning. Were Women thus educated now, I am
confident the advantage would be very great: the Women would have
Honour and Pleasure, their Relations Profit, and the whole Nation
Advantage.... Were a competent number of Schools erected to
Educate Ladyes ingenuously, methinks I see how ashamed Men would
be of their Ignorance, and how industrious the next Generation
would be to wipe off their Reproach. I expect to meet with many
Scoffes and Taunts from inconsiderate and illiterate Men, that
prize their own Lusts and Pleasure more than your Profit and
Content. I shall be the less concern'd at these, so long as I am
in your favour; and this discourse may be a Weapon in your hands
to defend yourselves, whilst you endeavour to polish your Souls,
that you may glorify God, and answer the end of your Creation,
to be meet helps to your Husbands. Let not your Ladiships be
offended, that I do not (as some have wittily done) plead for
Female Preëminence. To ask too much is the way to be denied all.
God hath made Man the Head, if you be educated and instructed, as
I propose, I am sure you will acknowledge it, and be satisfied
that you are helps, that your Husbands do consult and advise with
you (which if you be wise they will be glad of) and that your
Husbands have the casting-Voice, in whose determinations you will
acquiesce.
The main portion of the _Essay_ is addressed to a "much-honoured and
worthy friend" who has expressed considerable doubt as to the wisdom
of her educational projects. The tone of his letter is indicated by
the following summary:
Your great question is, Whether to breed up Women in Arts and
Tongues, is not a mere new Device, never before practised in the
World. This you doubt the more: Because Women are of low Parts,
and not capable of Improvement by this Education. If they could
be improved you doubt, whether it would benefit them? If it
would benefit them, you enquire where such Education may be had?
or, whether they must go to School with Boys? to be made twice
more impudent than learned. At last you muster up a Legion of
Objections.
These doubts and objections are then discussed _seriatim_. To
establish her contention that women have been educated in arts and
sciences in the past she gives an unchronological, uncritical list of
women who attained distinction in Greece and Rome and in Bible times.
Miriam, "a great poet and philosopher," the women who danced before
David (singing songs "compos'd it's like by themselves"), Huldah the
Prophetess, "who dwelt (we may suppose) in a college where women were
bred up in good literature"; Anna and Phebe; Triphena, Triphosa, and
Persis; Priscilla who instructed Apollos; Timothy's mother Eunice and
grandmother Lois; and Philip's four daughters, make up from Sacred
Writ a list intended to allay the anxieties of a devout churchman
as to the effect of learning on female piety. Mrs. Makin was really
forced to get as many Biblical recruits as possible, since her
opponents regularly massed their forces in the Garden of Eden with
the Sin of Eve as their impregnable fort.
To the lay mind examples from classic lands might prove
authoritative, hence there follows a list of Greek and Roman ladies
of learning. If the heroes of ancient story are but idealized
representations of actual men, why, reasons Mrs. Makin, may we not
suppose some actual wise women as the begetters of the legends
of Minerva, the Muses, and the Sibyls? From history she cites
"Sempronia, Cornelia, Lelia, Mutia, Cleobulina, Cassandra, Terentia,
Hortensia, Sulpitia, Portia, Helvitia, Enonia, Paula, Albina, Pella,
Jenobia, Voleria, Proba, Eudocia, Claudia," and many others; a list
too undiscriminating to be convincing, but certainly creditable to
Mrs. Makin's industrious learning. After this wide preliminary sweep,
Mrs. Makin takes up different realms of attainment. "Women have
been good Linguists"; "Women have been good Oratours"; "Women have
understood Logic"; "Women have been profound Philosophers"; "Some
Women have understood the Mathematics"; "Women have been good Poets";
"Women have been good Divines"--such are the theses she is prepared
to defend. The mathematics are most thinly provided with examples,
Hypatia of Alexandria and "A Lady of late, her name I have forgot,"
who printed divers tables, being the only instances she can summon.
The richest assemblage of names comes under the linguists and the
poets. The purpose of this ardent and prolonged search of times past
and present is to show that women are not by act of creation always
of "low parts"; that some, indeed, have approached the standards
set by men. This being the case, women should have full educational
opportunities. Mrs. Makin is careful, however, to hedge in even
this proposition with qualifications. Education belongs only to
the Christian maid, to the maid of excellent mind, to the maid of
wealth and leisure. A woman's education is for her own development
and pleasure and for the service of her family. Any social, public,
utilitarian use of it is not for a moment contemplated. A further
qualification is that education is not absolutely essential:
I do not mean that it is necessary to the _esse_, to the
_subsistence_, or to the salvation of women, to be thus educated.
Those that are mean in the world have not the opportunity
for this education. Those that are of low parts, though they
have opportunity, cannot reach this. _Ex quovis ligno not fit
Minerva._ My meaning is, persons that God hath blessed with the
things of this world, that have competent natural parts, ought to
be educated in knowledge. That is, it is much better they should
spend the time of their youth to be competently instructed in
those things usually taught to gentlewomen at schools, and the
over-plus of their time to be spent in gaining arts and tongues
and useful knowledge, rather than to trifle away so many precious
minutes, merely to polish their hands and feet, to curl their
locks, to dress and trim their bodies.
With these limitations the proposition may be allowed to stand that
the virtuous, talented woman of leisure should be granted educational
advantages. But there are objections still to be met. The more
important of these may be summarized with Mrs. Makin's answers:
1. "If we bring up our Daughters to Learning no Persons will
adventure to Marry them."
Answer: Learned men would surely choose learned wives, and it
will be long before there are learned women enough to overstock
the market.
2. "When Solomon praised the good housewife no mention was made
of her learning."
Answer: The daily tasks of Solomon's housewife required
considerable knowledge. "To buy wool and flax, to dye scarlet
and purple, requires skill in Natural Philosophy. To consider a
field, the quantity and quality, requires knowledge in Geometry.
To plant a vineyard, requires understanding in Husbandry. She
could not merchandise without Arithmetic. She could not govern so
great a family well without knowledge in Politics and Economics.
She could not look well to the ways of her household, except
she understood Physic and Chirurgery. She could not open her
mouth with wisdom and have in her tongue the law of kindness
without Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic." But at the best, Solomon's
good housewife seems to Mrs. Makin hardly more than "an honest,
well-bred, ingenious, industrious Dutchwoman," not at all the
sort of talented gentlewoman of the leisure classes for whom the
new liberal education is to be provided.
3. "Women are of ill Natures, and will abuse their Education."
Answer: Men also abuse their Education.
4. "They will be proud and not obey their Husbands; they will be
pragmatick and boast of their Parts and Improvements."
Answer: "To this I Answer; What is said of Philosophy, is true
of Knowledge; a little Philosophy carries a man from God, but a
great deal brings him back again; a little knowledge, like windy
Bladders, puffs up, but a good measure of true knowledge, like
Ballast in a Ship, settles down, and makes a person more even
in his station; 't is not knowing too much, but too little that
causes the irregularity."
5. "The end of Learning is Publick Business" in which women have
no concern.
Answer: The private ends of learning are as important as the
public ends. Moreover, this objection would apply to all men in
private life.
6. "Women do not desire Learning."
Answer: "Neither do many Boys."
7. "Women are of Low Parts."
Answer: "So are many Men."
8. Women are soft, tender, delicate, weak.
Answer: Then strengthen them by Education.
9. A learned gentlewoman is ridiculous because contrary to custom.
Answer: This custom has a bad ground. Men wish women to be fools,
that they may remain slaves. A bad custom should be broken that
good customs may prevail.
10. The final and crucial objection is elaborately stated:
"How shall time be found to teach children these things here
proposed? Boys go to school ordinarily from seven till sixteen or
seventeen, and not above one in four attain so much knowledge in
the Tongues as to be admitted into the University, where no great
accuracy is required, and they learn nothing else usually besides
a little History. Gentlewomen will not ordinarily be sent out so
soon, nor is it convenient they should continue so long. Further,
half their time, it is supposed, must be spent in learning those
things that concern them as Women. Twice as many things are
proposed to be taught Girls in half the time, as Boyes do learn,
which is impossible."
The rest of the article is taken up with an analysis of Lilly's
_Grammar_, to show how slow and burdensome and distasteful are its
methods, and to an analysis of the short cuts to knowledge devised
by Mrs. Makin and Mr. Lewis. For instance, Lilly's long rule for
substantives is simplified into, "Any word with _a_, _an_, or _the_
in front of it is a substantive." If you wish to distinguish between
a noun and an adjective you have but to note that nouns change
when you make a plural, adjectives do not. And so on with many
shrewd little tricks of learning whereby the parts of speech may
be known at a glance, the nature of said parts of speech not being
in question. The whole of Mrs. Makin's scope and plan of education
seems superficial and uncoördinated until seen in the light of the
contemporary training of boys as she describes it. Then her system
seems alive and energetic in its effort to slough off non-essentials.
In passing, Mrs. Makin frequently utters wise and far-seeing opinions
concerning the education of girls.
If any desire to know what they should be instructed in? I
answer: I cannot tell where to begin to admit Women, nor from
what part of Learning to exclude them, in regard of their
Capacities. The whole _Encyclopoedia_ of Learning may be useful
some way or other to them. "Grammar, Rhetorick, Logick, Physick,
the Tongues, Mathematics, Geography, History, Musick, Painting,
Poetry"--all of these should be open to women, and all could be
advantageously used by them.
With regard to the pleasures of the student she says, "Delight and
Pleasure are the attendants on Learning."
There is no pleasure greater than what is founded in Knowledge;
it is the First Fruits of Heaven, and a glimpse of that Glory we
afterwards expect. There is in all an innate desire of knowing,
and the satisfying this is the greatest pleasure. Men are very
cruel, that give them leave to look at a distance, only to know
they do not know; to make any thus to tantalize is a great
torment.
She is especially scornful of the vain and frivolous women of that
frivolous age, those women whose time is spent in "making Points for
Bravery, in dressing and trimming themselves like Bartholomew-Babies,
in Painting and Dancing, in making Flowers of Coloured Straw, and
building Houses of stained Paper, and such like vanities."
[Sidenote: Poulain de la Barre]
A book nearly contemporaneous with Mrs. Makin's _Prospectus_ is
entitled _The Woman as Good as the Man, or the Equality of Both
Sexes. Written originally in French and translated into English by
A. L._ The French original was by Poulain de la Barre whose _De
l'Egalité des deux Sexes_ was published in 1673. The translation by
A. L. came out in 1677. The Preface by the author and that by the
translator show that they enter upon their work with considerable
trepidation, knowing that they write against the general view. The
probable opponents are classified as "all the Ignorant and most
of the Learned," but the author proceeds valiantly on his mission
of enlightenment. "Men," he says, "have always kept women in
subjection," moved thereto by a "secret Instinct," as if they had for
their own dominance "Letters-Patent from the Author of Nature." Women
have likewise accepted the doctrine of their own inferiority so that
dependence and subjection have come to seem their normal condition.
M. de la Barre states the prevalent idea and his own radical
departure from it in the following passage: