Your chances for even aesthetic culture are not
to be despised. Though you see fewer objects of art, listen to fewer
men of genius, perhaps are obliged to be less among books, you learn
to know the artistic works more truly, you appreciate the lecture more
fully, and you remember the books you read longer.
Is your home by the ocean, on some sterile length of sand or rock,
and amongst sea-faring people? Still, you are girls to be envied; for
the sea has grand thoughts to tell you, and the rocks are full of
meaning. The bracing air, the salt breeze, the impetuous beat of the
sea, must arouse energy within you which even the heat of summer cannot
wholly allay. Surely, the hospitable, the generous-hearted, people of
your town must prove to you the worth of intercourse with them.
Considering, now, the position of a girl in her home, in society, in
the world, I suppose we must make the confession that a large part
of the discontent we have found among girls has arisen from
dissatisfaction with their positions. Her resources, her industries, her
pleasures, are all too narrow for her, the girl complains. Now, my dear
girls, just think one moment! Isn't it rather your ignorance of your
surroundings, your lack of effort to find out everything good and joyful
in them, which have made you discontented? Don't you think you may be
looking for something above your heads which really lies under your
hands? Have you made the most of what you already possess? When one has
seen England and France, then one is seized with an ardent desire to
visit Germany, Italy, Russia, and Spain.
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