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[shadowprincess7]

Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children
Pye Henry Chavasse

134. _Have you any general remarks to make on the present fashion of dressing children_?
The present fashion is absurd. Children are frequently dressed like mountebanks, with feathers and furbelows
and finery; the boys go bare-legged; the little girls are dressed like women, with

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[shadowprincess7]

As soon as a little girl begins to be a young lady she must be shut up in the house; talked to as though she did not know much; read novels; be dressed up; go to parties; have suitors; take lessons in music; have a dancing master; visit the theater; go a term or two to the young ladies' seminary to practice calisthenics; study Botany without seeing a flower, Astronomy without looking at a star or planet, Geology without stepping into the dirt or putting her hand upon a rock; write a half-dozen compositions on friendship, mother, and home; daub a little in water-paints; receive a diploma, and then set up for matrimony. This is female Education--without an object, without ambition, without point or force, without strength, depth, or breadth. It is simply a little outside polish. It does not teach how to think; it does not develop mind; it does not confer power; it does not form character; it does not fix the will, direct the life, establish opinion, deepen sentiment, or do any thing to make a true woman.