A FAREWELL LAY TO THE EAST, BY R. CALDER CAMPBELL,.

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VISIT OF THE Governor OF BOMBAY TO BURRODA, or BRODRAH,

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EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

In the July Number of the Westminster Review, there is an article upon that long debated subject The Education of Women." Good heavens! that it should be possible to raise a dispute upon the questionthat for an instant it should be matter of doubt whether the half of human kind shall be permitted to cultivate the intellects implanted in them by a wise and beneficent Creator or not; and the argument undoubtedly resolves itself into that-for who can look upon the miserable effects of the present system of instruction for young ladies, and deny that it is of all others, calculated to ruin their minds, and render them alike unfit for the duties of a wife, a mother, or a daughter. This is no idle assertion, and we could wish so many thousand proofs of its truth did not exist. Fair readers, we beseech you to spare your rage, and hear us to the end, for we assure you that our object is your advantage; we would fain point out to you the path by which you may attain to all that is great and desirable in this world; we would hold out to your ambition prizes better worth the contest, than those which are now too often the only stimuli to your exertions; you may laugh at us, and if you will, upbraid us with wishing to make blue stockings of you: but we will bear with your scorn, by help of the consciousness that we are working for your good; and for the charge of blue stockingism we utterly deny the most remote intention of fixing such an odious character upon your shoulders-No one detests more to see such a disgusting blot upon female perfection than we do. It is as far removed from the qualifications of a really clever, and what we call well educated woman, as the folly of a pretending and conceited pedant from the refined and elegant scholar. It is perfectly possible for the most delicate girl to receive instruction which might fit her to play the part of a man, in all that intellect, and strength of mind can effect, and yet be in all things a woman-not a leader, of haut ton, we grant- —if that must be a sine qua non with you. Adieu! we must give you up; we cannot presume to expect your condescension so far as to reason about the trifles we would lay before you. But we think better of our fair partners in this mortal career than to suppose them in general unwilling to receive such meet and seemly counsel. It is not the want of inclination to knowledge, but the want of opportunity and proper direction which does the mischief. How can we expect mothers to teach their daughters what they were not taught themselves, and what inducement have the daughters, to learn any thing, beyond what they are taught by their governesses, when they find the whole sum of female perfectability included in the attainment of a few useless, or at most ornamental accomplishments, and their ambition directed to attain as its highest reward, the admiration of a ball room at the elegance of their waltzing, or the of their compa nions at the superior fashion of their millinery. By such a system the intellectual qualities are destroyed for ever, for independently of the negative injury it effects, by occupying time and attention, which might be employed upon higher objects, it gives a frivolity of character

envy

to the thoughts which renders them unfit, even at a future period, to be employed upon nobler pursuits. Worse even than this is the training of the physical qualities, if we may so call them of their minds. From their earliest childhood they are told that cowardice is a feminine, or to say the least of it, a lady like virtue; that to scream at the slightest danger, and faint at the appearance of blood, is interesting in the extreme; and that to possess an ordinary share of firmness is masculine and vulgar. A girl is taught, upon all occasions, to be dependant, and not to act for herself, under any circumstances. The consequence is, that if ever she is placed in a situation of real bodily danger or mental difficulty, she is paralysed in the one case, and in the other she is either unable to form an opinion, or decides improperly, perhaps upon a subject of vital importance to herself or her family-it were better a hundred times that women were not educated at all than spoiled in this way. We do not wish to shock the delicacy of these tender portions of the weaker sex, by comparing them to such coarse and vulgar beings as the women of the lower classes; but we do say, without fear of contradiction, that those despised, and uncultivated creatures, are better brought up, and more fit for all the purposes of life, than their richer and prouder sisterhood. They are children of nature, and fit to contend with the difficulties of life; they are equally able with their fathers and husbands, to conduct the business of their little state, and manage their affairs; for their education has scarcely differed from that of the men, and they consequently possess the firmness of mind and capability of action which results from the independent manner in which they have been brought up. Let it not be understood that we want all women to be servant maids, or suppose a five years' apprenticeship to the dairy to form a needful part of female education. There are other methods of strengthening the mental powers of young women, and teaching them to become something more than mere puppets on the world's stage. Let us look back, and contemplate the heroines of ancient days. Who can regard without veneration the noble dames of Greece and Rome, whose elevation of spirit was in nowise inferior to the magnanimity of their lords? Or approach nearer to the present time, and read of Lady Russel, Lady Jane Grey, and a host of others, whose names sparkle on the page of our own history. But what was their education?-they were not brought up in boarding schools, neither were they taught the accomplishments which are now indispensible-they were taught that to think was not unladylike, and that courage, independance, and fortitude, were compatible with the character of a woman; they learnt to form opinions of their own apart from the rules of fashion,—and did not consider that the affairs of the world were either dull, or unbecoming the attention of a female; and yet did they not neglect their own peculiar province; they arranged their household, and nursed their children;-and the very women who could rule a state in the absence of their husbands, were at the same time the fondest wives, and the most tender mothers. But perhaps of all others the most interesting example of female excellence, and the most striking confutation of that philosophy, (which, besides its want of gallantry, is, beyond all things, false,) which teaches that