Young Womans Guide, The | Page 8

made for many years, by his. And can we
doubt that these young females were influential, in a great many respects, in the
education of these conquerors? What could the latter have done, but for the assistance
and influence of mothers and sisters? And can we have any Alexanders and Cæsars, at
the present day, to carry on the moral and intellectual conquests which are so necessary in
the world, without the aid and co- operation of mothers and sisters?
Sisters little know--it is almost impossible for them ever to know--how much they do to
bring about results,--to educate their brothers and friends, for the work which they
perform, whether good or evil. The sisters of Franklin little knew what they were doing
for "young Benny," as they called him, while they assisted their mother in taking care of
his clothes, in preparing his food, and in ministering to his other physical wants--yes, and
to the wants of his mind, too. Who can say that Benjamin Franklin would ever have been
what Benjamin Franklin was, without their aid, joined to the efforts of their mother?
Many a young female, having caught, in some degree, the spirit of doing good, has
sighed for opportunities. "What can I do?" she has seemed to say, "here at home. If I
could be a missionary at Ceylon, or South Africa, or the Sandwich Islands, or even if I
could be a teacher, I could, perhaps, do something. But as it is, I must remain a mere
cypher in the world. I would do good, but I have no opportunities."
She who says this, is undoubtedly sincere. She is, however, greatly mistaken. Her
opportunities for doing good--for exerting an influence to bless her race--"are neither few
nor small." There is, indeed, a difference, a very great difference, in human conditions
and circumstances; and yet I am persuaded, no female is so secluded as not to be able to
fulfil, towards her race, a most important mission.
I know of an excellent female who is often heard lamenting her want of opportunity for
usefulness. She has the spirit of doing good as she supposes, and as I fully believe. And
yet she is miserable--she makes herself so--by repining continually at her want of ability
to perform the good works which her heart meditates. She would rejoice to devote her
self to the elevation of her race. She would gladly go to India, or the South Seas, if her

age and uncultivated intellect did not exclude her from being a candidate. Now, without
saying a word in disparagement of foreign missions--for the success of which I would
gladly contribute largely, not only by prayers, but by pecuniary contributions--truth
compels me to say of this female, that I am by no means sure she could do more for
humanity, or more, in fact, for the cause of Christ, by a foreign mission, than she is now
doing by a domestic one.
A domestic mission hers indeed is, in the fullest sense of the term. She is an ordinary
domestic--and no more--in the family to which. she belongs. But what is the condition of
that family? The head of it is the distinguished teacher of a private female seminary. Here
he has prepared hundreds of young women--so far, I mean, as the mere instruction of
what he calls a "family school," is concerned--for usefulness as teachers, as sisters, as
ministers to the aged, and as mothers to the young. Suppose he has instructed, in his
comparatively excellent way, two hundred females. Suppose again one half of the
females he has instructed and counselled and lived among, should, in their turn, each
form as much character as he has already done--and he is yet but a middle aged man; and
suppose half the disciples of each of these pupils in their turn should do the same, and
thus on, till the year of our Lord 2000, only, which is, as we have reason to believe, but a
little way towards the end of the world. Suppose one hundred only of each two hundred,
should live to have influence, seventy-five of them as the mothers of families of the usual
size, and twenty-five only, as teachers. There will then be five generations in one hundred
and sixty years; and the number of children which will come under the influence of this
line or succession of mothers and teachers, will be no less than ninety millions; or a
number equal to six times the present population of the United States.
Now what I have here supposed, is by no means beyond the pale of possibility. Two
hundred pupils is not a large number for one teacher to instruct during his whole life. Nor
is twenty-five a large proportion of two hundred to become