Young Womans Guide, The | Page 9

teachers. Nor is seventy-five
a large number in two hundred to live to have families; nor two children in each family,
upon an average, a very large number to come to maturity and have families in their turn.
Besides, I have reckoned but four generations in one hundred and sixty years, exclusive
of that now educating. So that I have kept my estimates within due bounds in every
respect.
Do you ask what the domestic of whom I have spoken has to do with all this? I answer,
much--very much indeed. Has she not rendered to the teacher in whose employ she has
been, that kind of services, without which he could not have followed his occupation?
And if ninety millions, or even one tenth that number of citizens should, in the course of
the next two centuries, reap the benefit of his labors, and become lights in the world, is it
too much to say that she has been an important aid in accomplishing the work? Nay, is it
even too much to affirm that unless the part which she has acted had been performed by
her or somebody else, the school could not have gone on, and two hundred young women
could not have received the teacher's instructions?
Why, then, is not this humble domestic to whom I allude, a benefactor to her race--if a
benefaction it is, to raise up and qualify for usefulness two hundred females--as well as
he who has the whole credit of it? I will not, indeed, say that any thing like as much
credit is due to her as to him; but I may say, and with truth, that she was an important
auxiliary in producing the results that have been mentioned.
But if a humble domestic, one who imagines herself so obscure as to be of little service to

a world which perhaps estimates her services almost as low as she does herself--if such
an individual may, besides the general influence of her character upon a family, be an
indispensable aid in the work of sending forth to the world a host of female missionaries,
equal, in the progress of less than two centuries, at the dawn of the millennium, to ninety
millions, what may not be done by a sister in _a well ordered family_--one who is not
only well educated and governed herself, but who educates and governs others well?
It may indeed be said, that a domestic, in the family of a distinguished teacher, may
indirectly influence, by her labors in the way I have mentioned, a far greater number of
her race than most sisters are able to do. It may, indeed, be so. There is, however, another
consideration. It is chiefly the externals of education which can receive attention, even in
our best private schools. Little can be done, at the best, to form character--deep,
permanent, and abiding character. Blessings indeed--great blessings--such schools are;
but in proportion as their numbers are increased beyond those of our larger families, in
the same proportion is the influence which might be exerted by the teacher, scattered and
weakened; whereas, if the number be small, the influence of those who teach by example
and by precept, is concentrated, and rendered efficient. There is no certainty that the
feebler influence which is exerted on ninety millions, might not do more good by being
concentrated on one tenth or one twentieth that number. In other words, if the same
amount of pains were taken by mothers and sisters, and the same amount of labor
bestowed for the purpose, there is no certainty that the world might not as soon be
rendered what it should be through the medium of family education alone, as with the aid
of other influences. Christianity, when brought to bear upon the family by the united
exertions of father, mother, brothers and sisters, will probably have an influence on the
regeneration of the world, of which no human mind--uninspired at least --has ever yet
conceived.
Would that our young females--sisters especially--had but an imperfect conception of the
power they possess to labor in the cause of human improvement! Would that they had but
an imperfect idea of female responsibility!
My remarks are applicable to all young women; but they are particularly so to elder
sisters. To them is given in special charge, the happiness and the destiny of all younger
brothers and sisters, be they ever so numerous. As the desires of Abel were to be
expressed to Cain, and the latter was appointed to rule over the former, so is the elder
daughter appointed to rule over those whom God has, in the same manner, committed to
her trust. Happy is she who has right views of her weighty responsibilities; but thrice
happy is she who not only