Indeed, if it were only on this account, the national education of
women is of the utmost consequence, for what a number of human
sacrifices are made to that moloch prejudice! And in how many ways are
children destroyed by the lasciviousness of man? The want of natural
affection, in many women, who are drawn from their duty by the
admiration of men, and the ignorance of others, render the infancy
of man a much more perilous state than that of brutes; yet men are
unwilling to place women in situations proper to enable them to
acquire sufficient understanding to know how even to nurse their
babes.
So forcibly does this truth strike me, that I would rest the whole
tendency of my reasoning upon it, for whatever tends to incapacitate
the maternal character, takes woman out of her sphere.
But it is vain to expect the present race of weak mothers either
to take that reasonable care of a child's body, which is necessary
to lay the foundation of a good constitution, supposing that it do not
suffer for the sins of its fathers; or, to manage its temper so
judiciously that the child will not have, as it grows up, to throw off
all that its mother, its first instructor, directly or indirectly
taught; and unless the mind have uncommon vigour, womanish follies
will stick to the character throughout life. The weakness of the
mother will be visited on the children! And whilst women are
educated to rely on their husbands for judgment, this must ever be the
consequence, for there is no improving an understanding by halves, nor
can any being act wisely from imitation, because in every circumstance
of life there is a kind of individuality, which requires an exertion
of judgment to modify general rules.
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