Слике страница
PDF
ePub

found in the service; passages of broil and dissension rarely call for the punishments of the military law; the doors of society are not closed to the individual; fidelity and strict accountability in the disbursement of the public funds pervade the army; and a general intelligence and skill are prominent characteristics of our young officers. There is too much good sense among that portion of our western brethren whose feelings are now unfavourable to the institution, long to retain their impressions. As yet, they have not taken the trouble to examine the details of the whole subject, and their opinions are prejudiced by a mere hue and cry, aided by the force of temporary circumstances. With them, as the border warfare with the Indian has ceased, or is in the gradual progress of cessation, pacific habits, pursuits, and tastes, will be engendered. The jealousy of the militia officer against the officer of the regular army will no longer exist. They, too, will become convinced of the great, truth, that skill and success, in any profession, are not to be attained without labour; and that it is idle to depend upon the resources of sudden and hasty preparation to avert the almost always unforeseen calamity of war. We have been told that

experience is like the sternlights of a ship, which serve to illuminate the path over which the vessel has passed. It is so; for, like the rays which they cast up on the beaten track, its radiance fades away with the disappearance of the body that bears the beaming lamp. In times of peace we forget the maxims and the lessons of strategy. This species of knowledge is like the metal which, unless constantly kept bright by the applications of practice, the lapse of time will rust. Let us, moreover, discard all prejudice, and look upon these youths, thus trained up by ourselves, as our sons, whose best blood is dedicate, like that of the forlorn hope, to the service of their country, and which must be spilled like water upon the altar of battle, whenever we shall require the sacrifice. Let us look upon them, as the Hindoo mother looks upon her children when consecrating them to what she believes a high but fatal destiny-with eyes of affection. Let us not grudge the trifling boon of the education bestowed upon them; for it is merely to fit them for a destined service of toil and peril, unaccompanied by more than a bare subsistence during the earlier years of life, and the distant prospect of promotion when the gray hairs of more advanced age shall bespeak a long period of faithful devotion to the duties we have allotted to them. Let us deal with them, if not liberally, at least justly. The gallantry of the soldier finds its best incentive in the meed of applause which his country willingly yields, and unmerited neglect, dislike, or a want of that sympathy which is due from the people to its zealous servants, begets indifference to the hard tasks of the military calling. Let us remember that our country is our common mother, whose welfare it is not merely our duty,

but our pride, to cherish; that the youths who are gathered at this school, from all quarters of the nation, imbibe one common feeling of duty and devotion for her service; and that, when they part from each other, and leave its walls, they know of no distinction of patriotic sentiment that should pervade the breast of an American. Let us, finally, remember that, as a people, we are not exempt from the visitation of war, and that, although we may not altogether avoid its terrible blow, at least we should so provide as to lessen its force, and alleviate its miseries.

ART. V.-The Young Ladies' Friend. Boston: 1837..

We think it must be a source of great satisfaction to Mrs. Farrar-who, we understand, is the author of this well-conceived and well-managed volume-the consciousness that she has done so excellent a thing for all classes of society, and especially for that class indicated on the title page. Every page of the book tells something of her good sense-and the main object is praiseworthy beyond expression. It enters into those things in which young women are most and most largely interested, and it treats them with a freedom and fairness which are not only unexceptionable, but some of the best recommendations of the work. It is certain that the mistakes under which females are apt to labour, in reference to so many of the particulars which are here so capitally handled, are by no means suspected by one in a hundred to whom they so forcibly apply. Our young ladies are too apt to live contentedly on, while the fiat of fashion may be in their favour, in a reckless and unreasonable life, forgetting, most unfortunately and unaccountably, that their submission to it is ever at the expense of physical, moral, and intellectual health. It is certainly strange, that so many of our delicate and beautiful women--who seem made to do so much for the character of society-are so difficult to be convinced that they do any thing but adorn it, or make it valuable, when they advocate so many of these frivolous and ridiculous customs which are well met and unhesitatingly reprobated by this able and sensible writer. It is not only strange-it is lamentable that a class of beings, graceful to such a degree, and so well designed to add loveliness as well as value to the sphere in which they move, should be willing to surrender their outward and inward natures to much that should have no claim for a moment upon either; should be willing to believe that it is considered a virtue in the circles in which they move-among the thinking and intellectual, we mean--to be pre-eminent in a

fashionable folly, while they are desperately destitute of all knowledge in every valuable economy of existence !—to suppose, in short, that that is worth striving for, or retaining for a day, which, at best, is of the earth, earthy, and forgotten with the turf which is flung upon the body, and which fades into the insignificance of the worm, before that which is continually sounding a lesson in our ears from the sky, and is at once great, beautiful, and eternal!

Mrs. Farrar's book is a friend of the young lady in more senses than one, and, in all, most emphatically so. There is no subject upon which she ought to dwell, that she has left untouched so far, at least, as is connected with the well-being, reputation, and happiness of the class which she addresses. No useless, morbid fear of appearing indelicate, withholds the writer from a free expression of her opinions upon those topics which she manages so well, as well as so faithfully. This is right. It deserves praise. Many of the subjects which young women are apt to revolt from, when made the burden of a book or a chapter, they are only too apt to dwell upon with an ungraceful, and sometimes disgraceful satisfaction, in the useless and bad freedom of a secret, and sometimes bitter, conversation. All these things are managed as they should be by this lady; and the lessons she draws from the principles which she lays down, or the conclusions she deduces, may as well be laid as deep in the bosoms of her young friends as their silks and muslins are in their drawers. Every direction is accompanied with its use, and that, too, in the most agreeable guise.

No one can help seeing-what Mrs. Farrar says in her conclusion she hopes no one can read her book without seeingthat she considers all true happiness as depending upon the faithful performance of duty, and all duty to be founded upon love to God, and love to man; that where these affections have the place to which they are entitled, they betray themselves in the smallest affairs of life, as well as in the most important; and that nothing is too trifling to be referred to those two great principles whether it concern the constant and healthy action of body and mind, or the great interests with which both are connected.

The reader must apply the principles, and follow out the suggestions, which the writer so properly arrays and illustrates; volumes could be formed upon either; but they would be needless to a pure and enquiring spirit, which was once awakened to the topics which so nearly concern it. There is—and there must be a pleasure to a mind properly excited and properly directed, in tracing the application of those doctrines and truths which affect it with all the force and meaning of a vital principle. It is the pleasure of one who sees things in a moral light instead of a moral darkness—who feels a warmth with the

illumination, and not merely the unsatisfactory radiance that may gleam where all is desolate and cold.

A great difficulty and mistake in female education lies here. It is too apt to be supposed by girls, after they have left school, that they have done with it, indeed. This supposition is most sadly false. They have just begun their course, and their school is the world about them. Their best, as well as their worst, lessons are now to be taken; and their characters are to be formed for the circle in which they are to perform their revolution. This must surely appear to be of infinite consequence to the intellect or the heart that views correctly the trial to which they are to be submitted. The greatest and most lasting lessons are now to be learnt. They are those which connect themselves with the life, and almost ever retain an influence during its continuance. A simple conviction of these facts would seem to be sufficient, without any recommendation through the medium of a volume like this. But woman is too ready to believe herself prepared for the encounter of a world when she has only been-indifferently it may be-schooled in some of the principles and precepts which ought invariably to govern it.

Again the lessons which are derived by girls from the wisdom of a master or mistress, are but one in a thousand to the multiplicity which is continually presented by the curious and changing society which they must eventually either discredit or adorn. The variety of attention which the numberless duties and situations of life most properly and naturally demand, would not, we are confident, be, by any means, conjectured, without a work like this, to which we referred above, and which, we cannot but remark, touches so gracefully and unhesitatingly upon all. It is an attention, also, as important as it is multiform. It will be required for the lady as well as the girl-and for the mother and housekeeper, it is more than probable, as well as for the lady. There is, therefore, some one other than herself that the "young lady" is to consult in making the conduct of her life a leading object of consideration, and herself familiar with that simple but valuable knowledge which pertains so immediately to her sex in almost every conceivable situation of her existence.

But to do it justice, we must recur to the volume, and present a few extracts, which we believe may be both profitable and plesant to the reader. The chapter upon the improvement of time has these excellent remarks:

"To sleep a greater number of hours than is necessary for rest and refreshment is a voluntary and wanton abridgment of life. She who sleeps only one hour a day more than health requires, will, in a life of three score years and ten, shorten her conscious existence nearly four years, allowing sixteen hours to the day. Too much sleep weakens the body,

and stupifies the mind; but when we take only what nature demands, the body is invigorated, and the mind has its powers renovated.

"Early rising is not only expedient, but it is a duty, on which many others depend. She who sleeps late and rises in haste, cannot find time for those thoughts and meditations which are calculated to prepare her soul for the business of the day; neither will due care and attention be bestowed on her morning toilet; her ablutions will not be such as are required by a due regard to health and cleanliness; her hair will not be thoroughly combed and brushed, and put up nicely for the day; every thing will be done carelessly and in haste, and from another portion of the morning must be taken the time necessary for farther adjustment of her dress.

"Let us now sum up the evils of late rising to a young lady. Her body is enfeebled, and her eyes are heavy; her mind is stupified; her devotions are neglected, or hastily performed; her toilet is slovenly and incomplete; her morning meal is taken alone, or with those who are annoyed at having waited for her, and the attendants are out of humour; to all this may be added a painful sense of ill desert hanging like a millstone round her neck all day. The reverse of this picture may be easily drawn. The early riser is refreshed and invigorated by the right quantity of sleep; her eye is bright, and her mind unclouded. She has time and inclination to meditate upon God and hold communion with him; she prepares her mind and heart for the duties of the day. Her body is duly cared for; all the niceties of a careful toilet are attended to; she meets her family at the breakfast table, and relieves her mother from the trouble of presiding at it; every thing is done in season; the domestics smile upon her, and she feels the impulse which is given by a consciousness of having begun the day well." pp. 17-19.

Again :

"For a young woman in any situation in life to be ignorant of the various business that belongs to good housekeeping, is as great a deficiency as it would be in a merchant not to understand accounts, or the master of a vessel not to be acquainted with navigation. If a woman does not know how the various works of a house should be done, she might as well know nothing, for that is her express vocation; and it matters not how much learning, or how many accomplishments, she may have, if she is wanting in that which is to fit her for her peculiar calling.

"Whether rich or poor, young or old, married or single, a woman is always liable to be called to the performance of every kind of domestic duty, as well as to be placed at the head of a family; and nothing short of a practical knowledge of the details of housekeeping can ever make those duties easy, or render her competent to direct others in the performance of them.

"All moral writers on female character treat of domestic economy as an indispensable part of female education, and this too in the old countries of Europe, where an abundant population, and the institutions of society, render it easy to secure the services of faithful domestics. Madame Roland, one of the most remarkable women of the last century, says of herself,-The same child who read systematic works, who could explain the circles of the celestial sphere, who could handle the crayon and the graver, and who, at eight years of age, was the best dancer in the youthful parties, was frequently called into the kitchen to make an omelet, pick herbs, and skim the pot.'" pp. 33, 34.

Again :

"In no way has civilized man played more fantastic tricks, and sacrificed his reason more entirely to folly, than in the matter of dress. The

« ПретходнаНастави »