2. But chiefly of all, she is taught to extend the [limitations] of her sympathy.
3. Very ready we are to say of a book, “How good this is—that’s exactly what I think!” But the right feeling is, “How [odd] that is! I never thought of that before, and yet I see it is true; or if I do not now, I hope I shall some day.”
4. I believe, then, with this exception, that a girl’s education should be nearly, in its course and material of study, the same as a boy’s; but [entirely] differently directed. A woman in any rank of life ought to know whatever her husband is [liable] to know, but to know it in a different way.
5. I do not blame them for this, but only for their narrow motive in this. I would have them [want] and [assert] the title of “lady” provided they [allege] not merely the title, but the office and duty signified by it.
6. And not less wrong—perhaps even more foolishly wrong (for I will [expect] thus far what I hope to prove)—is the idea that woman is only the shadow and attendant image of her lord.
7. But now, having no true [avocation], we pour our whole masculine energy into the false business of money-making.
8. Having then faithfully listened to the great teachers, that you may enter into their thoughts, you have yet this higher [advancement] to make,—you have to enter into their hearts.
9. And, lastly, a great nation does not mock Heaven and its Powers by pretending belief in a revelation which [asserts] the love of money to be the root of all evil, and [claiming], at the same time that it is actuated, and [proposes] to be actuated, in all chief national deeds and measures, by no other love.
10. But an education “which shall keep a good coat on my son’s back; which shall [capacitate] him to ring with confidence the visitors’ bell at double-belled doors; which shall result ultimately in the establishment of a double-belled door to his own [residence]—in a word, which shall lead to [advance] in life—this we pray for on bent knees; and this is all we pray for.” It never seems to occur to the parents that there may be an education which in itself is [advance] in Life; that any other than that may perhaps be [advancement] in Death; and that this essential education might be more easily [gotten] or given, than they [guess], if they set about it in the right way, while it is for no price and by no favor to be [got], if they set about it in the wrong.
11. The chance and scattered evil that may here and there haunt, or hide itself in, a powerful book, never does any harm to a noble girl; but the emptiness of an author oppresses her, and his amiable folly [degrades] her. And if she can have [access] to a good library of old and classical books, there need be no choosing at all. Keep the modern magazine and novel out of your girl’s way; turn her loose into the old library every day, and [let] her alone.