ence; they have been taught to look
for happiness where it never can be found, viz. in the absence of
all occupation, or the unsatisfactory and ruinous excitement of
fashionable competition.

The difficulty is, education does not usually point the female heart
to its only true resting-place. That dear English word '_home_,'
is not half so powerful a talisman as '_the world_.' Instead of
the salutary truth, that happiness is _in_ duty, they are taught to
consider the two things totally distinct; and that whoever seeks one,
must sacrifice the other.

The fact is, our girls have no _home education_. When quite young,
they are sent to schools where no feminine employments, no domestic
habits, can be learned; and there they continue till they 'come out'
into the world. After this, few find any time to arrange, and make
use of, the mass of elementary knowledge they have acquired; and fewer
still have either leisure or taste for the inelegant, every-day duties
of life. Thus prepared, they enter upon matrimony. Those early habits,
which would have made domestic care a light and easy task, have never
been taught, for fear it would interrupt their happiness; and the
result is, that when cares come, as come they must, they find them
misery. I am convinced that indifference and dislike between husband
and wife are more frequently occasioned by this great error in
education, than by any other cause.

The bride is awakened from her delightful dream, in which carpets,
vases, sofas, white gloves, and pearl earrings, are oddly jumbled up
with her lover's looks and promises. Perhaps she would be surprised
if she knew exactly how _much_ of the fascination of being engaged
was owing to the aforesaid inanimate concern. Be that as it will, she
is awakened by the unpleasant conviction that cares devolve upon her.
And what effect does this produce upon her character? Do the holy and
tender influences of domestic love render self-denial and exertion a
bliss? No! They would have done so, had she been _properly educated_;
but now she gives way to unavailing fretfulness and repining; and
her husband is at first pained, and finally disgusted, by hearing,
'I never knew what care was when I lived in my father's house.' 'If
I were to live my life over again, I would remain single as long as
I could, without the risk of being an old maid.' How injudicious, how
short-sighted is the policy, which thus mars the whole happiness of
life, in order to mak