Let her take all the
comfort she can, while she is single!' 'But,' said I, 'you wish her
to marry some time or other; and, in all probability, she will marry.
When will she learn how to perform the duties, which are necessary
and important to every mistress of a family?' 'Oh, she will learn
them when she is obliged to,' answered the injudicious mother; 'at all
events, I am determined she shall enjoy herself while she is young.'
And this is the way I have often heard mothers talk! Yet, could
parents foresee the almost inevitable consequences of such a system, I
believe the weakest and vainest would abandon the false and dangerous
theory. What a lesson is taught a girl in that sentence, '_Let
her enjoy herself all she can, while she is single_!' Instead of
representing domestic life as the gathering place of the deepest and
purest affections; as the sphere of woman's _enjoyments_ as well as of
her _duties_; as, indeed, the whole world to her; that one pernicious
sentence teaches a girl to consider matrimony desirable because 'a
good match' is a triumph of vanity, and it is deemed respectable to
be 'well settled in the world;' but that it is a necessary sacrifice
of her freedom and her gayety.
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