FEMALE RESPONSIBILITIES.
Comparison of the responsibilities of young men and young women. Saying
of Dr. Rush. Its application to young women. Definition of the term
education. Bad and good education. Opinions of Solomon. Influence of a
young woman in a family--in a school. Anecdotes of female influence.
West, Alexander, Cæsar, Franklin. Story of a domestic in Boston. The
good she is doing. Special influence of young women in families--and as
sisters. Female influence in the renovation of the world.
Much has been said, within a few years, of the duties,
responsibilities, &c., of young men, especially the young men of our
republic. A great deal that has been said, has, in my view, been
appropriate and well-timed. My own attention has been frequently turned
to the same class of individuals; nor do I regret it. My only regret
is, that what I have said, has not been said to better purpose.
Counsels and cautions to young men, standing on slippery places as they
confessedly do, can hardly be too numerous, provided those who give
them, use discretion, and remember their responsibility, not only to
the tribunal of public opinion, but to a tribunal still higher.
The snares, the dangers, the difficulties, the influence, the
responsibilities of young men--at least in the United States--can
hardly be overrated. Would that they could be so trained and directed
as fully to understand them, and govern themselves accordingly! Would
that they could be made to exert that moral influence in the salvation
of our race--politically no less than morally, nationally no less than
individually--of which they are so capable.
Yet, after every concession of this kind, I am compelled to believe
that the responsibilities and influence of young women--to say nothing
at present of their dangers--are much more weighty than those of young
men. I am decidedly of opinion, that the future holiness and happiness
of the world in which we live, depend much more on the character of the
rising generation of the female sex, than on the character of our young
men.
It was said by Dr. Rush, long ago, that mothers and school-masters
plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil in our world.
Presuming that by school-masters he meant teachers of both sexes, will
any one doubt the truth of his assertion? Will any one doubt the
justness of a remark in the late "Western Review," that if this world
is ever to become a better and a happier world, woman must be foremost,
if not the principal agent in rendering it so?
But as mothers are never mothers till they have been daughters, is it
not obvious that the right education of these last is as great a work
as any to which human mind and human effort have ever been called? If
woman moves the world, intellectually, morally, and even, in effect,
politically--as no doubt she does--is it not of primary importance that
she be taught, as well as teach herself, to move it right?
Can it be necessary to advert, in this place, to the well known and
acknowledged fact, that almost every man of extensive influence, for
good or for evil, whom the world has produced, became what he was
through maternal influence? Cæsar, and Caligula, and Talleyrand, and
Napoleon, became what they were in consequence of their mothers, no
less than Alfred, and Doddridge, and Howard, and Washington. For let it
not be forgotten that mothers and teachers, according to Dr. Rush--and,
in fact, according to common observation, too--plant the seeds of the
world of evil no less than of the world of good. How exceedingly
important, then, that _they_ should be well educated, "from whom," in
the language of another writer, "our virtues are, and from whom our
vices may be"--we would add _must_ be--"derived;" at least in no small
proportion!
But I am using the term education without explaining it. Let me, then,
ere I proceed to say more on the subject of female responsibility,
explain what I mean by education, especially female education.
Mere instruction in the sciences is, indeed, education; it is, however,
but a very small part of it. To educate, is to train up. In this view,
all are of course educated; and every thing which has an influence in
developing mind or body, and in training up, either for good or for
evil, is entitled, justly, to the name of education.
But if the above definition be just--if whatever concerns our
development, or the formation of any part of our character, physical,
intellectual, social or moral, is education--then it must follow that
there are two kinds of education, bad and good. All persons, places and
things, which affect us (and what does not affect us?) and influence
us, for good or for evil, must educate us.
I am aware that this definition is not new: still, it is not generally
received, or if received, not generally acted upon. There is still an
almost universal clinging to the old, inadequate, incorrect idea, that
the principal part of education consists in the cultivation of the
intellect; and that, too, by set lessons; received, for the most part,
at the schools. The true idea of education, therefore, must be
continually enforced, till it becomes common property, and until
mankind act as if they believed what they profess in regard to it.
When Solomon says, "Train up a child in the way he should go," he is
talking of what I call _education;_ and the kind of education which he
is there recommending, is _good_ education. I do not believe he had the
schools in his mind--the infant school, the Sabbath school, the common
school, the high school, or the university.
Far be it from me to attempt to detract from the value of our schools;
on the contrary, I regard them as of inestimable worth, when duly
attended to. What I insist on is, that they are not the _all in all_ of
education; and that, in fact, their influence in training up or forming
good character, is so trifling--that is, comparatively--that they
scarcely deserve to be thought of when speaking of education, as a
whole, especially the education of daughters. And though one of the
tribes of the nation to which Solomon belonged, over which he reigned,
and for whom, in particular, he wrote, is said to have been
school-masters by profession, and another priests, I can hardly
conceive that when he was inspired to give the educational advice just
alluded to, he ever turned so much as a thought to the little corner of
Palestine allotted to Simeon, or to the Levites in their respective but
more scattered stations.
Solomon was, in all probability, addressing himself chiefly to the
fathers and mothers, and grand-fathers and grand-mothers, and other
relatives of Israel; the class who, by their united influence, make the
son and daughter, and grand-son and grand-daughter, what they are--a
blessing or a curse to the world in which they are to live. For,
according as children are brought up by these teachers, and by the
influences which are shed upon them from day to day and from hour to
hour, so are they well or ill educated.
If I have been successful in presenting the meaning of a term which is
not only frequently used in this book, but almost every where else, it
will follow, as a matter of course, that I do not attach too much
importance to the education of daughters themselves, nor to their
education as the teachers of others. For if to educate, is to form
character, what young woman can be found, of any age or in any family,
who is not a teacher?
Have young women often considered--daughters, especially--how much they
influence younger brothers and sisters, if any such there are in the
family where they dwell? Have they considered how much they sometimes
influence the character--and how much more they might do it--not only
of their school-mates and play-mates, but also of their more aged
friends and companions--their parents, grand-parents, and others?
[Footnote: On reading these paragraphs in manuscript, to one of our
more eminent teachers, he observed that if he had been useful in the
world, he owed his usefulness to the exertions of a maiden lady who
resided in his father's family, while his character was forming.]
I could tell them--were this the place for it--many a true story of
reading daughters who have been the means of awakening, in their aged
parents, or grand-parents, or other friends, a taste for reading, which
they might otherwise have gone down to the grave without acquiring. I
could tell them of many a father and mother, and grand-father and
grand-mother, grown grey in vice--hardened even by intemperance as well
as other vices--who have been reformed by the prattle, or the reproof,
or the prayers of a good daughter. Is not such a daughter a teacher?
But I am most anxious to convince young women of their responsibilities
in regard to the rising generation, especially their own brothers and
companions. I am anxious, if I can, to convince all who read this
volume, that God has, by his providence, committed to their charge, in
no small degree, the bodies, and minds, and the souls of those with
whom, in this world, they are associated. That according to their own
conduct, good or ill, will be, in no small measure, the health, and
knowledge, and excellence of their friends and companions. That
according to their efforts--attended, either by the blessing of God, or
the tokens of his displeasure--will be the condition of millions, for
time and for eternity.
But is it so? Are daughters, as daughters merely--to say nothing, as
yet, of maternal influence--are daughters thus influential? Is it true
that the destiny of millions is thus committed to their keeping?
I have seen the conduct of a whole school--I speak now of the common or
district school--graduated by the conduct of a single virtuous, and
amiable, and intelligent young woman, not twelve years old, who
attended it. I have seen a whole Sabbath school not a little affected
by the prompt attention, decorous behaviour and pious example of some
elder member of an older class, to whom the younger members of classes,
male and female, looked up, as to a sort of monitor, or I know not what
to call it--for the impression thus made, is better seen and felt than
described. The bad behaviour of a young woman, in these circumstances,
is, indeed, equally influential--nay, more so, inasmuch as the current
of human nature sets more readily downward than upward. Still, a good
example is influential--greatly so: would that it were generally known
how much so!
Suppose now that by your good behaviour and pious example in the
Sabbath school, you are the means of turning the attention of one
younger companion, male or female, to serious things, and of bringing
down upon that young person the blessing of Almighty God. Suppose that
individual should live to teach or to preach, or in some other form to
bless the world, by bringing numbers to the knowledge, and love, and
inculcation of the very truth which has saved his own soul--and these
last, in their turn, should become apostles or missionaries to others,
and so on. Is there any end, at least till the world comes to an end,
of the good influence which a good Sabbath school pupil _may_ thus
exert?
But this is something more than a supposed case. Is it not, in effect,
just what is actually taking place around us in the world continually?
Not, indeed, that a long train of good influences has been frequently
set agoing in the Sabbath school--for Sabbath schools are but of recent
origin. But people have always been led along to virtue or vice, to
piety or impiety, to bless the world or to prove a curse to it, by one
another. A word or a look from a relative, or friend, or acquaintance,
in the school or somewhere else, has often given a turn to the whole
character. A word, it is said, may move a continent. Something less
than a word--a look or a smile of approbation--may move more than a
continent. It may move not merely a West, [Footnote: A mother's kiss,
in token of her approbation of some little pencil sketch, is believed
by Benjamin West to have given the turn to his character--the character
of a who said, and justly, that he painted for eternity. "That mother's
kiss," he observes, "made me a painter."] but an Alexander, a Cæsar, a
Napoleon, a Washington and a Howard--men who, in their turn, moved a
world!
I have spoken of the influence which a young woman may have on millions
through the medium of the Sabbath school. But if she may influence in
this way, the millions of those who are to come after her, how much
more may she do in forming character for the great future, in the
family! Her presence in the Sabbath school is only once a week--an hour
or two a day, once in seven days; whereas, her influence in the family
is going on perpetually.
The clothes of Alexander the Great, are said to have been made, to a
very great extent, by his sisters; and those of Augustus Cæsar were
made for many years, by his. And can we doubt that these young females
were influential, in a great many respects, in the education of these
conquerors? What could the latter have done, but for the assistance and
influence of mothers and sisters? And can we have any Alexanders and
Cæsars, at the present day, to carry on the moral and intellectual
conquests which are so necessary in the world, without the aid and
co-operation of mothers and sisters?
Sisters little know--it is almost impossible for them ever to know--how
much they do to bring about results,--to educate their brothers and
friends, for the work which they perform, whether good or evil. The
sisters of Franklin little knew what they were doing for "young Benny,"
as they called him, while they assisted their mother in taking care of
his clothes, in preparing his food, and in ministering to his other
physical wants--yes, and to the wants of his mind, too. Who can say
that Benjamin Franklin would ever have been what Benjamin Franklin was,
without their aid, joined to the efforts of their mother?
Many a young female, having caught, in some degree, the spirit of doing
good, has sighed for opportunities. "What can I do?" she has seemed to
say, "here at home. If I could be a missionary at Ceylon, or South
Africa, or the Sandwich Islands, or even if I could be a teacher, I
could, perhaps, do something. But as it is, I must remain a mere cypher
in the world. I would do good, but I have no opportunities."
She who says this, is undoubtedly sincere. She is, however, greatly
mistaken. Her opportunities for doing good--for exerting an influence
to bless her race--"are neither few nor small." There is, indeed, a
difference, a very great difference, in human conditions and
circumstances; and yet I am persuaded, no female is so secluded as not
to be able to fulfil, towards her race, a most important mission.
I know of an excellent female who is often heard lamenting her want of
opportunity for usefulness. She has the spirit of doing good as she
supposes, and as I fully believe. And yet she is miserable--she makes
herself so--by repining continually at her want of ability to perform
the good works which her heart meditates. She would rejoice to devote
her self to the elevation of her race. She would gladly go to India, or
the South Seas, if her age and uncultivated intellect did not exclude
her from being a candidate. Now, without saying a word in disparagement
of foreign missions--for the success of which I would gladly contribute
largely, not only by prayers, but by pecuniary contributions--truth
compels me to say of this female, that I am by no means sure she could
do more for humanity, or more, in fact, for the cause of Christ, by a
foreign mission, than she is now doing by a domestic one.
A _domestic_ mission hers indeed is, in the fullest sense of the term.
She is an ordinary domestic--and no more--in the family to which she
belongs. But what is the condition of that family? The head of it is
the distinguished teacher of a private female seminary. Here he has
prepared hundreds of young women--so far, I mean, as the mere
instruction of what he calls a "family school," is concerned--for
usefulness as teachers, as sisters, as ministers to the aged, and as
mothers to the young. Suppose he has instructed, in his comparatively
excellent way, two hundred females. Suppose again one half of the
females he has instructed and counselled and lived among, should, in
their turn, each form as much character as he has already done--and he
is yet but a middle aged man; and suppose half the disciples of each of
these pupils in their turn should do the same, and thus on, till the
year of our Lord 2000, only, which is, as we have reason to believe,
but a little way towards the end of the world. Suppose one hundred only
of each two hundred, should live to have influence, seventy-five of
them as the mothers of families of the usual size, and twenty-five
only, as teachers. There will then be five generations in one hundred
and sixty years; and the number of children which will come under the
influence of this line or succession of mothers and teachers, will be
no less than ninety millions; or a number equal to six times the
present population of the United States.
Now what I have here supposed, is by no means beyond the pale of
possibility. Two hundred pupils is not a large number for one teacher
to instruct during his whole life. Nor is twenty-five a large
proportion of two hundred to become teachers. Nor is seventy-five a
large number in two hundred to live to have families; nor two children
in each family, upon an average, a very large number to come to
maturity and have families in their turn. Besides, I have reckoned but
four generations in one hundred and sixty years, exclusive of that now
educating. So that I have kept my estimates within due bounds in every
respect.
Do you ask what the domestic of whom I have spoken has to do with all
this? I answer, much--very much indeed. Has she not rendered to the
teacher in whose employ she has been, that kind of services, without
which he could not have followed his occupation? And if ninety
millions, or even one tenth that number of citizens should, in the
course of the next two centuries, reap the benefit of his labors, and
become lights in the world, is it too much to say that she has been an
important aid in accomplishing the work? Nay, is it even too much to
affirm that unless the part which she has acted had been performed by
her or somebody else, the school could not have gone on, and two
hundred young women could not have received the teacher's instructions?
Why, then, is not this humble domestic to whom I allude, a benefactor
to her race--if a benefaction it is, to raise up and qualify for
usefulness two hundred females--as well as he who has the whole credit
of it? I will not, indeed, say that any thing like as much credit is
due to her as to him; but I may say, and with truth, that she was an
important auxiliary in producing the results that have been mentioned.
But if a humble domestic, one who imagines herself so obscure as to be
of little service to a world which perhaps estimates her services
almost as low as she does herself--if such an individual may, besides
the general influence of her character upon a family, be an
indispensable aid in the work of sending forth to the world a host of
female missionaries, equal, in the progress of less than two centuries,
at the dawn of the millennium, to ninety millions, what may not be done
by a sister in _a well ordered family_--one who is not only well
educated and governed herself, but who educates and governs others well?
It may indeed be said, that a domestic, in the family of a
distinguished teacher, may indirectly influence, by her labors in the
way I have mentioned, a far greater number of her race than most
sisters are able to do. It may, indeed, be so. There is, however,
another consideration. It is chiefly the externals of education which
can receive attention, even in our best private schools. Little can be
done, at the best, to form character--deep, permanent, and abiding
character. Blessings indeed--great blessings--such schools are; but in
proportion as their numbers are increased beyond those of our larger
families, in the same proportion is the influence which might be
exerted by the teacher, scattered and weakened; whereas, if the number
be small, the influence of those who teach by example and by precept,
is concentrated, and rendered efficient. There is no certainty that the
feebler influence which is exerted on ninety millions, might not do
more good by being concentrated on one tenth or one twentieth that
number. In other words, if the same amount of pains were taken by
mothers and sisters, and the same amount of labor bestowed for the
purpose, there is no certainty that the world might not as soon be
rendered what it should be through the medium of family education
alone, as with the aid of other influences. Christianity, when brought
to bear upon the family by the united exertions of father, mother,
brothers and sisters, will probably have an influence on the
regeneration of the world, of which no human mind--uninspired at
least--has ever yet conceived.
Would that our young females--sisters especially--had but an imperfect
conception of the power they possess to labor in the cause of human
improvement! Would that they had but an imperfect idea of female
responsibility!
My remarks are applicable to all young women; but they are particularly
so to elder sisters. To them is given in special charge, the happiness
and the destiny of all younger brothers and sisters, be they ever so
numerous. As the desires of Abel were to be expressed to Cain, and the
latter was appointed to rule over the former, so is the elder daughter
appointed to rule over those whom God has, in the same manner,
committed to her trust. Happy is she who has right views of her weighty
responsibilities; but thrice happy is she who not only understands her
duty, but does it!
But if the moral character, much more than the physical and
intellectual well being of the family, is given in charge to elder
sisters, and even to all sisters, it is scarcely possible for them to
form a correct idea of the weight of their influence, in this respect
at least, till they are past the age when that influence is most
necessary, most persuasive, and most effectual.
I have seldom found a young man who had strayed long and widely from
the path of virtue, who had enjoyed the society and influence of a
wise, and virtuous, and attentive sister. On the contrary, I have
almost uniformly found such individuals to have been in families where
there were no sisters, or where the sisters were not what they ought to
have been; or to have been kept at schools where there were none but
our sex.
I beseech every young female reader to make herself acquainted, as far
as she possibly can, with the nature of her influence, and the
consequent responsibilities which devolve upon her. Let her understand
that the day has gone by in which physical force was supposed to rule
the world. Moral influence is now the order of the day; and they whose
moral influence is most weighty and powerful, are they who most
effectually bear rule. But as it is reserved for woman, when sensible,
enlightened, virtuous and pious, to exercise the most weighty moral
influence, consequently it is her province most effectually to bear
rule. Kings, and emperors, and presidents, parliaments, and congresses,
and assemblies, and courts, and legislators, and judges, may labor in
vain to influence or to reform mankind, so long as female influence is
not what it should be. But let females be rightly educated, and let
them do what a good education will enable them to do, and vice will ere
long hang her head, and virtue and piety--which alone exalt a nation,
or the individuals that compose it--will resume their sway. Then will
the wilderness and the solitary place be glad, and the desert rejoice
and blossom as the rose.