The moral feelings were strong in Miss Herschel. She disapproved of all violence, irreverence, and injustice. None knew better than she that love is the just debt due to every human being, and the discipline which God has ordained to prepare us for heaven. Hence she was civil and obliging, free from jealousy, dissimulation, and envy. In a word, she possessed a noble disposition.
SECTION II.—JANE ANN TAYLOR [JANET TAYLOR].
“We believe that she was as gentle and simple in herself, as she was deeply versed in the abstruse science which she professed. Perhaps some surviving relative or friend may be able to throw light on the life and labours of one who was as extraordinary from her acquirements of knowledge as from her social reticence.”
Y.L.Y., in The Athenæum.
NAVIGATION.
It is remarkable that women have, in a great number of instances, been distinguished by merits the most opposite to their imaginary and conventional character. The first use of ships as distinguished from boats appears to have been by the early Egyptians, who are believed to have reached the western coast of India, besides navigating the Mediterranean. But whatever may have been their prowess upon the waves, they were soon eclipsed by the citizens of Tyre, who, to compensate for the unproductiveness of their small territory, laid the sea under tribute, and made their city the great emporium of Eastern and European trade. The Greek states gradually developed the art of navigation, and at the time of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians seem to have been skilful conductors of vessels at sea. Rome next manifested maritime daring. Time rolled on and the Saxon, Jutish, and Norse prows began to roam the ocean in every direction. The Norsemen extended their voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. The sea had no terrors for these hardy rovers. The introduction of the mariner’s compass made the sailor independent of sun and stars; and the discovery of the variation of the compass rendered navigation more secure. The two first treatises on systematic navigation appeared in Spain, one by Pedro de Medina, the other by Martin Cortes. These were speedily translated into French, Dutch, English, etc., and for many years served as the text-books of practical navigation. It would be tedious to enumerate the successive improvements in the science of navigation; suffice it to say, that for its present high perfection, it is under some obligation to female intellect.
BIOGRAPHY.
Jane Ann Jonn, was born on the 13th of May, 1804, at Wolsingham, a market town and parish in the county of Durham, and about thirteen miles from that ancient and celebrated city. She was the fourth daughter of the Rev. Peter Jonn and Jane Deighton, his wife. Her father was curate of Wolsingham, and head master of the grammar school.
When about ten years of age, she got an appointment to Queen Charlotte’s school, at Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, a small town pleasantly situated, partly upon, and partly between two gentle acclivities, forty miles from London. The establishment being very select, and the other girls much older, she became a great favourite with them, and learned much from them. When the very plain, but rigidly virtuous queen, died at Kew, on the 17th of November, 1818, Miss Jonn, was sent by her father to a boarding-school conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Stables, at Hendon, near the village of Hampstead, Middlesex. Here she assisted in teaching, as well as received lessons from various masters; and whilst a certain amount of seclusion was secured by a suburban residence, London was close at hand: the working London with its inspiring life.
However well this boarding-school was carried on, we have no reason to believe that it made Miss Jonn a learned woman. Female education then, and sometimes even now, is simply a little outside polish. It does not teach to think; it does not develope mind; it does not confer power; it does not form character; it does not do anything to mould girls into the noblest types of womanhood.