On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    420 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    , The Physician London 'S Daughters : Ja...

    almost limited to her position as a wife . As the young ladies are not marriedin practice it is found necessary to provide them with

    , other temporary ways of _fulfilling their destiny , and the relations of mother , and daughterand sisterare all touched upon ; "but it is as

    , , a wife that woman is especially considered , and it is assumed that it is as a wife onlythat she is to be a helpmeet . The author seems

    , to be aware that some difficulty may be felt in applying this theory to the case of single women , and meets it thus :

    be fitted Yet while fill this we look office upon it will woman include primaril ' all others y as a althou wife , remember h it , if sh be e

    lier lot to live for one , but , many . " ; gmay This is a singularly confused way of putting what may perhaps

    contain some elements of truth . Probably the author means that to make a perfect wife , you must have a perfect woman , and that a

    perfect woman has the basis of character which is requisite ta fulfil all other functions worthily . But how to get the perfect

    woman ? By repression or by development ? If it is meant that the specific duties of a wife include all otherswe are led

    intostrange anomalies . Is it a wife ' s function to teach , her husband ? Teaching a younger sister is the specific task allotted to one of the

    Physician's Daughters . Far be it from us to underrate the importance of a wife ' s

    position . We heartily sympathize with the author of " The Physician ' s Daughters" in considering no education too hih to be

    given , no efforts too , great to be made , in order to qualify g a woman to Ml it as she should . Onlyif we place before young girls as the

    object of their lives to become , good wives , however high the tone which we may endeavour to give themhuman nature is such—or

    , call it human folly and weakness , if you will—that these girls will become mere men-pleasers , and we shall not be able to maintain

    that high standard which could alone justify us in allowing such an object to be presented to them . There is a risk also of iving them *

    a false estimate of what they lose if they do not g marry , and leaving them nothing else for which to live . We believe that a

    happy marriage is the happiest state on earth _; that where there is perfect union of heart and mind , and love crowns life with its

    choicest blessings , there is a sacred joy which none of life ' s storms can touch , and which even death itself does not dissolve .

    But we ought not to forget that there are many unhappy marriages ; and those who have entered most deeply into the joy and

    blessedness of conjugal affection , can best understand how lowering and deadening must be the influence of a marriage of mere

    expediency . It is just because there is in marriage the possibility of the highest blessednessthat it is most important to make it a

    matter of free choice . , And forthis it is not onlthat women should be pecuniarily indep , endentbut necessary that they , should y have

    what is called " an object in life . " Otherwise , , there is great danger

    of their being driven into unsuitable marriage , merely to escape ennui .

    420 Notices Of Books.

    420 NOTICES OF BOOKS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 2, 1863, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02021863/page/60/