them in an indirect manner; for the essential object of moral education is, not to make children do what we wish, but to make them wish it. But to accomplish that, we must first begin by really wishing it ourselves. Let no surprise be manifested at my here questioning the reality of such wishes on the part of parents; it is but too true that they are hardly ever convinced of this truth; and it is this indecision which so often leads them to the temptation of resisting it. Can threats, reproaches, orders given, countermanded, and contradicted a hundred times in the same day, be honoured with the name of wishes? But children are never mistaken in this respect; slaves to our caprices, holding their existence and all the pleasures which make them love it, from us, they learn early to observe, to study our tastes, our inclinations and our characters. If they find us weak, irresolute, undecided, their imaginations immediately magnify the pleasures of which we wish to deprive them, the pain to which we wish to subject them. The temptation to resist takes possession of their minds with the hope of conquering, and gains strength, if I may so speak, from all our weakness. If, on the contrary, they are thoroughly convinced of our energy and determination of character, they take their resolution, and no longer place their happiness on a resistance to a will which they know to be immovable. I do not recommend that you should command as a despot, and make yourself obeyed as a tyrant; man is debased by the fear inspired by a fellow creature. I wish still less that you should make him regard the yoke of your will as that of necessity, because we only regard as such that which is imposed on us by nature. But, what is better than all that, make him consider the execution of your wishes as a pleasure done to you, as a service tendered to you,-in short as a means of contributing to your happiness. But why, it will be said, have recourse to such complicated cares, if by vigorous punishment, we can immediately obtain the same result? Obtain the same result !-doubtless, if the only thing to be considered were immediate obedience; but, I repeat it, the aim of education is not to produce obedience, but to make the child feel pleasure in doing every thing we wish. He must then be truly convinced that in doing your will he really contributes to your happiness; for man attaches himself to others still more by the good he does than by what he receives. But can a child ever believe that he contributes to your happiness, and consequently become attached to you by acts of obedience which you force from him by punishment? And do you always force those acts of obedience? How many times does it happen that he grows callous to what he calls your tyranny, and that he would rather bleed than yield to you? You have then excited in his soul malignant passions, you have made him proof both to barbarity and weakness, while he regards himself as a hero and a martyr. EDUCATION OF FEMALES. Domestic Management. [The following practical suggestions are taken from the work on domestic education, mentioned in our last number. Several of the author's remarks apply more directly to the state of education in England; but the spirit and intention of the observations embodied in this article will admit of a useful application to all attempts at improvement in the instruction of the female sex.] To that middling class of life, to which these thoughts are principally directed, there is no female accomplishment more valuable than housewifery. By that class is it sufficiently prized as an accomplishment? or wisely inculcated as a necessary branch of education? It is feared not. Few girls are regularly initiated into the various household duties; yet, to all girls, the knowledge of them is essential, since, as wives, daughters, or sisters, all will probably have households to superintend. How extensive the mischiefs caused by ignorance of housewifery, we every day hear and see painful instances. The misery endured by the helpless, untaught individual, in feeling her ignorance, and seeing the varied forms of evil that ignorance produces, must be most severe. Let not mothers wilfully condemn their daughters to sorrow, disgrace, and error, from which it is so easy to rescue them. The duties of housewifery being generally of an active and desultory nature, are usually very agreeable in the performance to active and variety-loving young people. They will, therefore, be cheerfully attempted and pursued, and we shall enlarge the pleasures of girls, by the same encouragement with which we prosecute their improvement. But there is one caution that must be undeviatingly regarded. In pursuing the superintendence of housekeeping, girls must act as the mild but respected directors of servants, not as their associates, confidantes, and playmates. This rule can be easily enforced. Children should be taught to regard servants as fellowcreatures, as beings like themselves, prone to error, but capable of virtue. At the same time, they should be taught that, whilst they may love and pity those beneath them, and respect those above them, it is always most wise to choose their companions and friends, as much as possible, in their own rank :— on this principle, namely, that they may not learn to domineer over mean associates, nor cringe beneath great ones. This premised, the first lessons of housewifery should be practised under the eye of the mother. At fifteen years of age, a girl will know enough of arithmetic to be ready at accounts, and will have sufficient judgment to reason fairly on what she observes. At that age she may occasionally attend her mother in her daily visit to the kitchen and the larder. Let her behold the arrangement of household business-the manner of giving directions— the plan of furnishing supplies ;—she will thus gradually imbibe a clear conception of all such matters-she will understand the usefulness of method-she will find out the usual consumption of a family--she may be taught, by example, to censure with mildness-to listen reasonable excuses,-to be peremptory in just orders;-to know what to expect from the industry, and what to pardon to the frailty, of domestics. To avoid a dangerous association with menials, it would be advisable to bound the exertions of the youthful housekeeper to superintendence. Unless urged by imperious necessity, let not girls assist the labours of servants. It is money badly saved to to make them perform any humble business, which, for a few shillings, could be performed by a hireling. The mother had better do it herself, if she cannot afford those few shillings, or dispense with smart clothing for herself or her child, to meet the expense, or be present when her child is so occupied. It is not from a sentiment of pride that this point is so earnestly recommended, but it is from a desire to check the dissemination of error. When a young lady and her maid are engaged together in some occupation, they must enter into conversation; now, of what nature must that conversation prove. The maid * In the Life of Mr. Edgeworth, published by his daughter, it is gratifying to read the retraction of some of that gentleman's severe strictures on ser vants. would not understand the wisdom, nor relish the morality, of her polite associate; but both maid and miss could understand, and, we fear, both would relish, the retailed news of the day-anecdotes of neighbours and petty scandal. By this power or communication both maid and miss are contaminated. The menial is encouraged in habits of espionage and scandal, and the mind of the young lady is irreparably vulgarized and poisoned. It were better she should perform the whole labour in the parlour or her own chamber, than that such a fearful risk should be run by association with a servant, The management of the breakfast and tea-table, will induce some knowledge of performing the honours of the mistress of a house. Occasionally, the whole arrangement of the house may devolve on the young housekeeper. At sixteen she may be invested in all the rights and duties of household superintendence. The mother may sometimes interfere with advice, but let the whole responsibility rest with the daughter, that thus, being thrown on her own powers, she may early learn judiciously to exert those powers. We have seen girls of sixteen very judiciously conduct household affairs; and, when mistakes occur, as occur they must to beginners, in all the offices and buinesses of life, it is better they should occur under the paternal roof, where partial relatives are prompt to excuse and remedy; than in the first days of bridal management, when the agitated mind is full of the variety and novelty of its duties, and new friends and new kindred are less disposed to pardon and correct. By Great pains are taken to instil knowledge into the youthful mind; the memory is loaded with facts and morals, and the various branches of learning, in arts and sciences, are carefully taught. But, with this knowledge, and with this learning, it is necessary, at the same time, to inspire a resolution, and to induce a habit of bringing the acquired information into use. reflecting on the traits of character, and the facts recorded in biography, many excellent maxims could be drawn for the conduct of life, and even our skill in any of the fine arts, and our familiarity in any of the abstruser sciences, might be made subservient to the purposes of domestic duty. A young lady, acquainted with the general principles of chemistry, could, with increased intelligence and precision, direct many of the domestic operations of a household; and, some knowledge of the laws of nature, (as developed in natural and experimental philosophy,) would tend to many useful results in the business of private life. So far from thinking it a degradation to use the information, ob tained from such sources, to the purposes of household and domestic matters, it should be impressed on the young mind,that learning and wisdom are only valuable inasmuch as they are useful; and, as women have few opportunities of being of assistance in the higher walks of science, they will have little chance of being serviceable, except in the humble, and often not less important, labours of domestic life. Nor must they, like the hoarding wife, so ably depicted in the Idler,* store up their treasures, without plan or prospect of bringing them into daily use, whilst anticipating future demand for the accumulated stock. 'I do not inquire how much you have read and studied on the human powers; but I ask how you exert those powers?' This is one of many powerful passages in Epictetus, as rendered to us by Miss Carter. REVIEW. Infant Education; or Remarks on the Importance of Educating the Infant Poor, from the age of eighteen months to seven years; with an account of some of the Infant Schools in England, and the System of Education there adopted: selected and abridged from the works of Wilderspin, Goyder, and others, adapted to the use of Infant Schools in America. By a Friend to the Poor. New-York. 1827. 18mo. pp. 108. First Annual Report of the Infant School Society of the City of NewYork. Instituted May 23, 1827. New-York. 1828. 8vo. Pp. 16. THE subject of our present article, our readers will recollect as one to which their attention was often directed in the early numbers of the Journal. Infant schools were, at the time when our labours commenced, a charitable undertaking but recently attempted, and restricted to a few of the larger cities of England. Since that period, the experiment has, by its singular success, commended itself to the countenance and the exertions of the benevolent throughout that country; and latterly it has been ia *No. 35. |