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Thoughts on the Education of Daughters

Mary Wollstonecraft

Language:
English
Status:
Complete work
Authorship:
Written by the author
Condition of the text:
Some parts illegible (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 12 illegible passages, excluded from answers
Extent:
~18,100 words · 86 passages
Cite this work
  • APAMary Wollstonecraft. (n.d.). Thoughts on the Education of Daughters. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/mary-wollstonecraft/thoughts-on-the-education-of-daughters
  • MLAMary Wollstonecraft. Thoughts on the Education of Daughters. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/mary-wollstonecraft/thoughts-on-the-education-of-daughters.
  • ChicagoMary Wollstonecraft. Thoughts on the Education of Daughters. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/mary-wollstonecraft/thoughts-on-the-education-of-daughters.

Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.

What it is about

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787): her first book.

Context and history

A practical manual, written after the school she had founded at Newington Green closed. The thesis that underpins everything is already there: if women appear frivolous it is because they have been educated to be so.

Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.

How it begins
. ree of art is nl ious correction. Accidents or tricks are too frequently pu- niſhed, and if children can coneed WF 2 theſe, they will, to avoid: chaſtiſement. Bf Refrain them, therefore, but never F c correct them wi a very ſufficient eruelty to animals, infrriors, or thoſe nenen VICE. * * by — Children 4 e 4 Cob 8 Moral Diſcipline. Children ſhould be ter into converſation; but it requires THC, it No FTE great diſcernment to find out ſuch ubjects as will gradually improve them. Animals are the firſt objects * which catch their attention ; and I think little ſtories about them would not only amuſe but inſtruct at the lame time, and have the beſt effect in form- 5 77 2 7 \ a> ee a- 5 557 +. CCC ing the temper and cultivating the good diſpoſitions of the heart. There are many little books which, have r this tendency. One in particular I ; recollect: 7 The Perambulations of a Mouſe. I cannot here help mention- ing a book of hymns, in meaſured proſe, written by the ingenious author. * 1 Moral Diſcipline; 17 af many other proper leſſons for chil- dren. Theſe hymns, I imagine, would contribute to fill the heart with reli- gious ſentiments and affections; and, if I may be allowed the expreſſion, make the Deity obvious to the ſenſes. The underſtanding, however, ſhould not be overloaded any more than the ſtomach, IntelleQual improvements, like the. growth and formation of the body, muſt be gradual—yet there is no reaſon why tire mind ſhould lie fallow, : while its © frail tenement” is imper- ceptibly fitting itſelf for a more rea- ſonable inhabitant. It will not lie fal- low ; promiſcuous ſceds will be ſown. HY accident, and they will ſhoot up with „ 9 ö 4 W e N n ö . ES; * * Rein A N . * ran? ; N 2 2 — 18 Moral Diſcipline. with the en and perhaps never be cradic of cated. 3 * Whenever a child aſks a queſtion, it ſhould always have a reaſonable an- ſuwer given it.…

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