PRECOCIOUS MAIDENS. (Liberal Review)

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 132, 11 March 1873, Page 3

PRECOCIOUS MAIDENS. (Liberal Review )

WnEjf a girl leaves school sho genpraly d>ic3 ono of two thing* She either lays hersMF out for a life of luxurious lcllenpss, or she seta up as & plulosjp.licr on a ninall scalo. If she adopts the former course, her greatest anxiety 19 ho\r she •hall eke out the- very libornl allow unce made bj an indulgent pupa, and her greatest ambition 11 to •hiiio at balls, flower ■how;, and bazaar* ; finally ending her career of maidenhood by becoming the wife of a man who possesses a superabundance of this, world's goods, and combines within himself all the virtues and excellencies that could be found in one of his species. If, ou tho other hand, she goes in for the philosophical hue of business, she lays herself out for a pareer which, to most of her follows, appears to be the reverse of pleasant. She procures, \ha dryest books upon the most abstruse questions. A volume 9ucli os '- Hallam's Conetutional History of England" is, m her eyes, absolutely light reading, while Macaulay Becms only fit to be" read in moments of relaxation. Those dry books she dpvotes, herself to with an ardour worthy of a better cause. We will not flatter her understanding by saying that she fully comprehends all that she reads Still she imagines that she does so, and, perhaps, this amounts to the same thing — certainly, in many instances it is the most satisfactory answer that could be attained. If she perukes what is called light literature, she doei so only to condemn it ; if she affects poetry, she professes to enjoy only that of sternly metaphysical type. Tennyson, being easily understood, and not all deep, is, in hor opinion, milk-and-water'; but Browning, b»ing *t times so deep that it is imposa.ibrl fot ordinary mortals to arrive at his meaning, is considerably more to ncr tnste Of the current ma.gatinesj she procures frcm the circulating library thosp which contain nothing but dull, heavy, philosophical reading. She attends as many leirncd lectures m she can, and bravely endeavours thereat to preserve an aspect of tho deepest interest, and this, when the majority of those by whom she is surrounded are desperately struggling to dh«k3 off the influence of Morpheus and avoid snoring ! When talking she carefully eschews frivolous topics ; frowning >vhen the shape of Mrs Smith's bonnet or the ill-chosen trimmings of Mrs Brown's ilress come under discussion If she can capture, and hold possession of for a stray half hour, an individual who has sic<iuired t\ ie reputation of being learned she i« indeed pie ised. The unfortunate man is questioned and cross-questioued in a manner that he rehshe9 hut Utle ; often, indeed, he is completely posed }f he makes a mistake — oh ! Wiss— she it at once down upon him, citing autl'o itv upon ant'n r ty to prove that he is wrong, until, fiiily bewildered and irritated, the hickl'sa fellow seeks refuge man sdmi'-sion that his memory harl most unaccountably failed him But this is not enouph She is shortly at him again, until adooting an i»nominnu.s mode of escnpe he flies from ber— that is to say he w.alks away and enten into converse with some one whom he imagines will not be quite so hard upon him She is perfectly satisfied. v be has trounced him for a mistake -she. a miss of twenty summers, has c irrec^ed a philosopher of sixty— oh ! high honour. She boasts of the great achievement to those in whom she cpnfides. To hear that she has been de«cribed as a most remarkable giil — clever, though eccentiic— pleases her vastly and urges her on tr. fresh effort*, F^er demeanour is gene-ally «by and av-kwnrd; but there is that abmt her which shows that «he places considerable value upon her own power - that is * 0 say, her power of reiterating the argument* an I gene 1 al ide 19 of the favouiite authors she has read, and passing th'tn off as her 0 vn. Everyone not being acquainted with tb<> productions of these particular writers, she earns the reputation of being a great deal cleverer, more originally, and more remarkable than, she really is. No one is better pleased than herself at thi», for her, happy consummation After a time she feels strong enough to take bolder flights. She endeavours to inculcate the principles which she is pleased to call her own, and, perhaps, resllv imagines arc tho fruit of her own brain, into the minds of others. She is certain to arrive at the conclusion that the education of the day, particularly that wl i>h is given to wotn^n, is faulty in every respect. Ghrl« are taught that whiali is unnoe<?s«arv, and that which should be deemed fß'ential \n their eclurnnon i» totally neglected Suppose, for the snlce of ai-onment, that slip hnd ' e»n, hip most gn*l», content with Hip e'luontipn impartod to her a,t a fashionable boarding school— nonfent oven to simj.lv follow thnt education up when «he b^amp her own mistress. — w 1 at n poor q 'oramnn «'>e would have turned out. The dead lai qua »p* a'nl motn hys en I treatises would have been !>o many meU icnble puzzl >•» to her. And so, whenever she e«nys teaching, she proceeds upon a very different method than that ge orally adopted. She. explains to little pupils the state of Rome in the time of Nero, ere •he thinks of tellirg •'•em the 1 a,nps of the English kings or the salient pomfs of E lijl'sh ' isfc >ry; she pmwd* to tenoh them Latin almost before t <jean spell words of throe lette-s, and introduce* them to the Grerk alphabet b'fbre they can decipher Rnman mimpr-' — to the complete ncrlrct of the multiplication table O1"O 1 " rour*^, nhe and her poor scholar* do not get on very well together They are y^rv dull of comprehension, and fnl to ainrecirto the stor< s of knowledge which *ho )nys biro before th^m. She id <mpat enr. Tho result is Tiolpnt nntngonism bctw> en scholars and teacher. The end of the ma'fer is that the rpl nqn i'l^s her task, allpg'n? t''nt sh^ is not ada ted to instruct other-", owing to tlic fact that she is too much above them in aspiration and grasp of Tjnprehension — in short, thit she ta too clever By-and-by she ro»ts on ber lnn"»l«. She ceasei to be ft student and sets np ns an eiamnle and general critio Pfopl« talk of her an an awfnllv — the word it not one of our choosing — clever women. But the fact is that her creative powers are not great ; if she produce am thing in the shnpeof intellectual work the produces to little purpose. Did she pos■ets a geally powerful character the would never misdirect her talenti in the manner she does Still she is called a clerer woman,, and is so considered to the end of the chapter. If she marries, her very clerernes* stands tn the way of her happiness. She pouesses too great a ion! to think of meddling with domestic concerns. The result is that in her household there may be found nvimanngement, confusion, extravagance, waste ; and if she h*»« oVld^n they arc allowed to grow up to a great extent, unrared for na ', wh 1 > ora nmed wiih knowledge of a certain kind, are kept in ignorance of the living realities of life Is her career a success?