|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 73
While women are thus content to sacrifice delicacy, affection,
principle, to the desire of worldly establishment or aggrandizement, how
is the regeneration of society to be expected from them? Formerly, too,
this spirit was confined to the old, hackneyed in the ways of the world,
and who, having worn out the trifling affections which they ever had,
would subject those of their children to the maxims of worldly prudence.
This we learn from fiction and the drama, where the worldly wisdom of
age is always represented as opposed to the generous but imprudent
passions of youth. But now, in these our better and more enlightened
days, those mercenary maxims which were odious even in age, are found in
the mouths of the young and the fair,--or at least, if not in their
mouths, in their actions. To sacrifice affection to interest is a
praiseworthy thing. It is fearful to hear the withering sneer with which
that folly, love, is spoken of by young and innocent lips--a sneer of
conscious superiority, too! It is a superiority not to be envied, and
which makes them objects of greater pity than those whom they affect to
despise. There is no subject so sacred that it has not a side open to
ridicule, and all the most pure and noble attributes of our nature may
be converted into subjects for a jest, by minds in which no lofty idea
can find an echo. All notions of unworldly and unselfish attachment are
branded with the name of romantic follies, unworthy of sensible persons;
and the idealities of love, like all other idealities, are fast
disappearing beneath the leaden mantle of expediency.
The reform must begin here, as in all great moral questions, with the
arbiters of morals--those from whom morals take their tone--women. That
we have no right to expect it to begin with the other sex, may be
proved even by a vulgar aphorism. It is often triumphantly said, that "a
man may marry when he will--a woman must marry when she can." How keen a
satire upon both sexes is couched in this homely proverb! and how long
will they consent not only patiently to acquiesce in its truth, but to
prove it by their actions? That women may be able thus to reform
society, it is of importance that conscience be educated on this subject
as on every other; educated, too, before the tinsel of false romance
deceive the eye, or the frost of worldly-mindedness congeal the heart of
youth. It seems to me that this object would best be effected, not by
avoiding the subject of love, but by treating it, when it arises, with
seriousness and simplicity, as a feeling which the young may one day be
called upon to excite and to return, but which can have no existence in
the lofty in soul and pure in heart, except when called forth by
corresponding qualities in another. Such training as this would be a far
more effectual preventive of foolish passions, than cramping the
intellect in narrow ignorance, and excluding all knowledge of what life
is--in order to prepare people for entering upon it: a plan about as
wise in itself, and as successful as to results, as the bolts, bars, and
duennas of a Spanish play. Outward, substituted for inward, restraints
are sure to act upon man mentally, as actual bonds do physically; he
only wants to get free from them. Noble and virtuous principles in the
heart will not fail to direct the conduct aright, and it is to transfer
these things from matters of decorum or expediency, to matters of
conscience, that we should use our most earnest endeavours. Above all,
it is incumbent upon those who have the training of the young--of women
especially--so to imbue their souls with lofty and conscientious
principles of action, that they may be alike unwilling to deceive, or
liable to be deceived; that they may not be led as fools or as victims
into those responsible relations, for the consequences of which, (how
momentous!) to themselves, to others, and to society at large, they are
answerable to a God of infinite wisdom and justice.
FOOTNOTES:
[110] Aim� Martin.
[111] It is Coleridge who speaks of the "unselfishness of love," in one
of the volumes of his "Remains."
LITERARY CAPABILITIES OF WOMEN.
BY LORD JEFFREY.
Women, we fear, cannot do every thing; nor every thing they attempt. But
what they can do, they do, for the most part, excellently--and much more
frequently with an absolute and perfect success, than the aspirants of
our rougher and ambitious sex. They cannot, we think, represent
naturally the fierce and sullen passions of men--nor their coarser
vices--nor even scenes of actual business or contention--nor the mixed
motives, and strong and faulty characters, by which affairs of moment
are usually conducted on the great theatre of the world. For much of
this they are disqualified by the delicacy of their training and habits,
and the still more disabling delicacy which pervades their conceptions
and feelings; and from much they are excluded by their necessary
inexperience of the realities they might wish to describe--by their
substantial and incurable ignorance of business--of the way in which
serious affairs are actually managed--and the true nature of the agents
and impulses that give movement and direction to the stronger currents
of ordinary life. Perhaps they are also incapable of long moral or
political investigations, where many complex and indeterminate elements
are to be taken into account, and a variety of opposite probabilities to
be weighed before coming to a conclusion. They are generally too
impatient to get at the ultimate results, to go well through with such
discussions; and either stop short at some imperfect view of the truth,
or turn aside to repose in the shade of some plausible error. This,
however, we are persuaded, arises entirely from their being seldom set
on such tedious tasks. Their proper and natural business is the
practical regulation of private life, in all its bearings, affections,
and concerns; and the questions with which they have to deal in that
most important department, though often of the utmost difficulty and
nicety, involve, for the most part, but few elements; and may generally
be better described as delicate than intricate;--requiring for their
solution rather a quick tact and fine perception, than a patient or
laborious examination. For the same reason, they rarely succeed in long
works, even on subjects the best suited to their genius; their natural
training rendering them equally averse to long doubt and long labour.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|