ses; she will merely be a better judge whether her
work is well done by others.' 'That is true,' replied the mother; 'and
I always meant she should learn; but she never has seemed to have any
time. When she was eight years old, she could put a shirt together
pretty well; but since that, her music, and her dancing, and her
school, have taken up her whole time. I did mean she should learn
some domestic habits this winter; but she has so many visiters, and is
obliged to go out so much, that I suppose I must give it up. I don't
like to say too much about it; for, poor girl! she does so love
company, and she does so hate anything like care and confinement!
_Now_ is her time to enjoy herself, you know. Let her take all the
comfort she can, while she is single!' 'But,' said I, 'you wish her
to marry some time or other; and, in all probability, she will marry.
When will she learn how to perform the duties, which are necessary
and important to every mistress of a family?' 'Oh, she will learn
them when she is obliged to,' answered the injudicious mother; 'at all
events, I am determined she shall enjoy herself while she is young.'

And this is the way I have often heard mothers talk! Yet, could
parents foresee the almost inevitable consequences of such a system, I
believe the weakest and vainest would abandon the false and dangerous
theory. What a lesson is taught a girl in that sentence, '_Let
her enjoy herself all she can, while she is single_!' Instead of
representing domestic life as the gathering place of the deepest and
purest affections; as the sphere of woman's _enjoyments_ as well as of
her _duties_; as, indeed, the whole world to her; that one pernicious
sentence teaches a girl to consider matrimony desirable because 'a
good match' is a triumph of vanity, and it is deemed respectable to
be 'well settled in the world;' but that it is a necessary sacrifice
of her freedom and her gayety. And then how many affectionate
dispositions have been trained into heartlessness, by being taught
that the indulgence of indolence and vanity were necessary to their
happiness; and that to have this indulgence, they _must_ marry money!
But who that marries for money, in this land of precarious fortunes,
can tell how soon they will lose the glittering temptation, to which
they have been willing to sacrifice so much? And even if riches last
as long as life, the evil is not remedied. Education has given a wrong
end and aim to their whole exist