Complete Essays eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 763 pages of information about Complete Essays.

Complete Essays eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 763 pages of information about Complete Essays.

There is one humiliating objection made to the cap and gown-made by members of the gentle sex themselves—­which cannot be passed by.  It is of such a delicate nature, and involves such a disparagement of the sex in a vital point, that the Drawer hesitates to put it in words.  It is said that the cap and gown will be used to cover untidiness, to conceal the makeshift of a disorderly and unsightly toilet.  Undoubtedly the cap and gown are democratic, adopted probably to equalize the appearance of rich and poor in the same institution, where all are on an intellectual level.  Perhaps the sex is not perfect; it may be that there are slovens (it is a brutal word) in that sex which is our poetic image of purity.  But a neat and self-respecting girl will no more be slovenly under a scholastic gown than under any outward finery.  If it is true that the sex would take cover in this way, and is liable to run down at the heel when it has a chance, then to the “examination” will have to be added a periodic “inspection,” such as the West-Pointers submit to in regard to their uniforms.  For the real idea of the cap and gown is to encourage discipline, order, and neatness.  We fancy that it is the mission of woman in this generation to show the world that the tendency of woman to an intellectual life is not, as it used to be said it was, to untidy habits.

A TENDENCY OF THE AGE

This ingenious age, when studied, seems not less remarkable for its division of labor than for the disposition of people to shift labor on to others’ shoulders.  Perhaps it is only another aspect of the spirit of altruism, a sort of backhanded vicariousness.  In taking an inventory of tendencies, this demands some attention.

The notion appears to be spreading that there must be some way by which one can get a good intellectual outfit without much personal effort.  There are many schemes of education which encourage this idea.  If one could only hit upon the right “electives,” he could become a scholar with very little study, and without grappling with any of the real difficulties in the way of an education.  It is no more a short-cut we desire, but a road of easy grades, with a locomotive that will pull our train along while we sit in a palace-car at ease.  The discipline to be obtained by tackling an obstacle and overcoming it we think of small value.  There must be some way of attaining the end of cultivation without much labor.  We take readily to proprietary medicines.  It is easier to dose with these than to exercise ordinary prudence about our health.  And we readily believe the doctors of learning when they assure us that we can acquire a new language by the same method by which we can restore bodily vigor:  take one small patent-right volume in six easy lessons, without even the necessity of “shaking,” and without a regular doctor, and we shall know the language.  Some one else has done all the work

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Complete Essays from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.