Young Womans Guide, The

The Young Woman's Guide

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Woman's Guide, by William A. Alcott
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Title: The Young Woman's Guide
Author: William A. Alcott
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9054] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of
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THE YOUNG WOMAN'S GUIDE
by
William A. Alcott

[Illustration: Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Ease and alternate labour, useful

life, Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven! Thomson]
PREFACE.
This work was begun, soon after the appearance of the Young Man's Guide--and was
partially announced to the public. For reasons, however, which I have not room to give in
this place, it was thought proper to defer its publication till the appearance of several
other volumes in the same spirit, involving more particularly the relative duties.
I wish to have it distinctly understood, that I do not propose to give a complete manual of
the social and moral duties of young women. Every one has his own way of looking at
things, and I have mine. Some of the duties of young women have appeared to me to
receive from other writers less attention than their comparative importance demands; and
others-- especially those which are connected with the great subject of "temperance in all
things"--I have believed to be treated, in several respects, erroneously.
Permit me, however, to say, that while I have not intended to follow the path, or repeat
the ideas of any other writer, I have not attempted to avoid either the one or the other. If I
have presented here and there a thought which had already come before the public from
my own pen, I can only say that I did not intend it, although I did not take special pains to
avoid it. The sum is this. I have presented my thoughts, without so much reference to
what has already been said by myself or others, as to what I have supposed to be the
necessities of those for whom I write. I have gone straight forward, asking no questions;
and I trust I shall be dealt with in a manner equally direct.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
EXPLANATION OF TERMS.
Defining terms. The word excellence here used as nearly synonymous with holiness.
What is meant by calling the work a Guide. The term Woman-- why preferable, as a
general term, to Lady. The class to whom this work is best adapted.

CHAPTER II.
FEMALE RESPONSIBILITIES.
Comparison of the responsibilities of young men and young women. Saying of Dr. Rush.
Its application to young women. Definition of the term education. Bad and good
education. Opinions of Solomon. Influence of a young woman in a family--in a school.
Anecdotes of female influence. West, Alexander, Cæsar, Franklin. Story of a domestic in
Boston. The good she is doing. Special influence of young women in families--and as
sisters. Female influence in the renovation of the world.

CHAPTER III.
SELF-EDUCATION.
Views of Agesilaus, king of Sparta--of Solomon, king of Israel. Mistake corrected. What
the wisest and best parents cannot do. What, therefore, remains to the daughter. Necessity
of self-education. The work of self education the work of life--a never-ending progress

upward to the throne of God.

CHAPTER IV.
LOVE OF IMPROVEMENT.
Female capabilities. Doing every thing in the best possible manner. Unending progress.
Every person and every occupation susceptible of improvement, indefinitely. Doing well
what is before us. Anecdote illustrative of this principle. Personal duties. Two great
classes of persons described. Hopes of reaching the ears of the selfish.

CHAPTER V.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE.
Vast extent of the science of self-knowledge. Spurious self-knowledge. Knowledge of
our physical frame--its laws and relations. Examples of the need of this knowledge.
Instruments of obtaining it. The