Making the education of girls such a series of 'man-traps,' makes the
whole system unhealthy, by poisoning the motive.
* * * * *
In tracing evils of any kind, which exist in society, we must,
after all, be brought up against the great cause of all
mischief--_mismanagement in education_; and this remark applies
with peculiar force to the leading fault of the present day, viz.
extravagance. It is useless to expend our ingenuity in purifying the
stream, unless the fountain be cleansed. If young men and young
women are brought up to consider frugality contemptible, and industry
degrading, it is vain to expect they will at once become prudent and
useful, when the cares of life press heavily upon them. Generally
speaking, when misfortune comes upon those who have been accustomed to
thoughtless expenditure, it sinks them to discouragement, or, what is
worse, drives them to desperation. It is true there are exceptions.
There are a few, an honorable few, who, late in life, with Roman
severity of resolution, learn the long-neglected lesson of economy.
But how small is the number, compared with the whole mass of the
population! And with what bitter agony, with what biting humiliation,
is the hard lesson often learned! How easily might it have been
engrafted on _early habits_, and naturally and gracefully 'grown with
their growth, and strengthened with their strength!'
Yet it was but lately that I visited a family, not of 'moderate
fortune,' but of no fortune at all; one of those people who live
'nobody knows how;' and I found a young girl, about sixteen,
practising on the piano, while an elderly lady beside her was darning
her stockings.
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