That guides and governs our affections
And plans and orders our connexions;
Directs us in our distant road,
And marks the bounds of our abode.’
This feeling of resignation to existing circumstances prevented Miss Adams from making any strenuous exertions to improve her condition. Once, indeed, she projected a plan of keeping a circulating library at Salem. She had a considerable number of books to begin with, and probably encouraged a hope that she might in this way become instrumental to the promotion of religious and moral instruction. But she never thought superficially on any subject; and before engaging in active measures, she made full inquiry into the probable success and consequences of her plan. It was then that her upright, and conscientious mind, relinquished the undertaking. The reflection, that the emoluments of a circulating library are drawn from novels, plays, and romances, and that, in keeping such a library, she must be accessory to much waste of time, if not perversion of taste and even of principle, by disseminating works which often are read because they are new, determined her conduct. She felt, and lamented the injury, which the promiscuous reading of similar works had produced on her own mind. While they had sharpened her sensibility to the evils of life, they had also enervated her resolution to endure them; and she ascribed much of her mental suffering to this cause. She would not, therefore, pursue the plan of a circulating library, though encouraged to do it by some warm-hearted friends. Had the Waverley novels made their appearance in her youthful days, they would probably have rendered harmless the greater part of those which fell into her hands. Their just historical painting, their strong delineation of character, and masterly touches of passion and feeling, united with the exquisite description of what is beautiful and sublime in the scenery of nature, could not fail to have given her a juster taste, and directed her enthusiasm to a higher mark. Her own good sense, led her, in time, to discriminate, and to separate the gold from the dross; and she never ceased to derive great pleasure from a well written work of fiction. Her whole testimony, however, was given against that promiscuous reading of novels, which has been in times past, more than of late years, permitted among young girls. The rapid progress of education, by occupying the time, and expanding the mind, has done much towards the correction of this evil. Many now sip at the fountain-head of elegant literature, and feel the beauty of Virgil, and the sublimity of Dante, in their native languages; listen to the sweet melody of Tasso; and find in the christian leader of the early ages, Godfrey, a hero far surpassing the heroes of modern romances.
Happily the time has arrived, when the cultivation of female intellect needs no longer to be advocated, or recommended. It is now placed on a just and rational ground. We hear no longer of the alarming, and perhaps justly obnoxious din, of the ‘rights of women.’ Whatever their capacity of receiving instruction may be, there can be no use in extending it beyond the sphere of their duties. Yet how wide a circle does this include! Who can doubt the sacred and important duties of a mother? ‘Nature has not more evidently assigned them the task of nourishing the body of the infant, than she has that of developing, and cultivating the mind, in its earlier stages.’ It is her office to sow the first seeds of virtue; to regulate the first excitements of temper; to cultivate gentleness, forbearance, disinterestedness, and above all, obedience. For this, her own habits must be those of careful observation, of steady self-government, and of systematical arrangement; otherwise, her plan will be made up of miscellaneous feelings, and opinions, that will be constantly fluctuating.
‘It may be doubted whether any one can be placed in so insulated a situation, as to possess a right of appropriating any considerable portion of his time to studies, which may not terminate in a practical result.’ This rule, in an enlightened sense, ought to be the standard of a woman’s education. It ought to be the measure of her cultivation. But surely no faculty of her mind can be spared from this work. ‘She is designed by nature for elegance, and gentleness; to endear domestic life to man, to make virtue lovely to her children, to spread around her order and grace, and to give society its highest polish. No attainment can be above beings whose end and aim is to accomplish these important purposes. Every means should be used to invigorate by principle, and culture, their native excellence and grace.’[2]
[2] Fenelon.
These observations may be deemed irrelevant, but they are suggested by Miss Adams’s own remarks on this subject. She often regretted the time she had spent in useless, and desultory reading and observed that when she first began to turn her attention to the study of the dead languages, she felt as if she was ‘drawing upon herself the ridicule of society.’ She lived, however, to see these prejudices removed, and to receive a respect and deference from literary men, which often excited her astonishment, as well as gratitude. There have been many instances recorded, of talent which has been suffered to languish in obscurity and want. Against these, the present instance ought not to pass unnoticed. The individual kindness that Miss Adams received was invariable. She had outlived almost all her contemporaries. But new generations had sprung up under the enlightened influences of education, who respected her intellect and learning, and who loved her for her goodness. After her removal to Boston, she was therefore seldom long in solitude. Her little apartment was usually decorated with the flowers that her young friends brought her. Many of them spent hours in reading to her, and cheered her by their bright and animated conversation. It would be injustice, also, not to refer to the disinterested, and liberal assistance she received from those friends, who enabled her to reserve a part of her laborious earnings for the benefit of a suffering relative. The annuity, which continued to her death, was said to have been first suggested by ladies; but afterwards, the proposal was put into the hands of Mr Shaw, and the other gentlemen mentioned in her memoirs. A few years previous to her death, a number of ladies at Salem sent her an annual sum as a testimony of their respect.
At one period of her life, her correspondents were numerous. Amongst them might be mentioned names, that will long be cherished by posterity. The venerable President Adams, to whom the second edition of her View of Religions was dedicated, took a benevolent interest in her literary success. From one of his letters to her, the following sentence is extracted.