Women and High Culture.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2498, 29 August 1890, Page 3

Women and High Culture.

Lancet. It may reasonably be asked in tho interests of thhe community at large, what will be the effect on women, and through them on future generations, of the prolonged mental strain to which they are now—partly voluntary, partly owing to the suggestion and the inducements held out to them by others—submitting themselves? Will it hurt their constitutions? Will it make them a bag of bones, and body and mind alike hard and angular ? Will it render them less prolific, or make them the mothers of a feeble and degenerate race, prone to epilepsy and insanity ? Will it, by engendering a feeling of independence, render them less lovable, less disposed to enter the married state, or, being married, make them careless ot home ties, the nursing and teaching of infants, and the proper household duties which devolve on a woman under the conditions of modern civilisation ? Or will it act in a contrary way ? Will the mathematical oi the classical lady scholar, decorated with medals, and rich with prizes and exhibitions and scholarships, still be open to the assaults of love? Will her wider knowledge foster domestic happiness ? Will the children, even if fewer, be better developed, more intellectual, better fitted as they grow up to cope with the other great uations in tho conflict for wealth and power, and all these command ? Will she still be as the sweet, gentle mother is now, the very focus and centre of the house ? These and many similar questions must have passed through the minds of most thoughtful persons in contemplating tho present tendencies of female education. From a physical point of view something may be said on both sides. Given a robust and healthy woman of seventeen or eighteen years of age, there can be no harm in continuing her education till she is one or two and twenty ; at the same time the objects and methods of her education might well be different from those of men. Female Bentleys and Persons, Newtons and Herschels, will certainly not be numerous, and if signs of such commanding genius are seen, by all means let it be cultivated to the utmost. But every girl might be so taught that her mind, instead of being devoted to frivolous objects, should be educated in the true sense of the term, and made to recognise the importance of early training and the value of application to useful objects, in order that she may begin betimes to teach without strain or effort her offspring. The arts at least are freely open to her. The point when harm is produced is when weak or dull girls are made to work be3 r ond their strength, and whether weak or strong, it must always be remembered that suitable recreation is demanded. Finally, it must not be forgotten that sound common sense is better in the affairs of life than much knowledge, and that women are not fitted for public appointments. Their sphere is home.