SALISBURY FEMALE ACADEMY.
Messrs. Krider & Bingham—I last week attended at the examination of our Female Academy; and were I to give vent to the exhuberance of my feelings at beholding the girls exhibit such proofs of advancement in literature, in the useful acquirements of domestic life, and in the elegant accomplishments of refined society, I should involuntarily exclaim to them, individually, with the poet,
"Though your body be confined,
And soft love a prisoner bound,
Yet the beauty of your mind
Neither check nor chain hath found."
The exercises were such as to reflect a high degree of commendation on the industry and application of the pupils, and the highest credit on the Instructresses, for the faithfulness and ability with which they have conducted the school. I think that the evidence of improvement exhibited by the young ladies on their examination, could not fail to realize the fondest anticipations of their relatives.
Are there any parents, who viewed the progress of their daughters in the accomplishments and elegancies of life; bidding fair to reward them for all the paternal care and solicitude with which they have watched over them from their cradles—to prove an ornament to their families, and a solace and a blessing to their old age, without their hearts swelling with a native pride and an inward exultation? Are there any young ladies, not belonging to the Academy, who attended at the examination, who did not feel a spirit of emulation involuntarily rise, and an honest pride actuate them, at beholding the truly noble performance of their sex? And are there any young gentlemen who witnessed the examination, whose hearts were not transported with esteem and respect, and who were not ready to exclaim:
"Better sex! yours was the noble birth;
'Tor you of man were made—man but of earth.
"Best work of the creation! brutes should do
"Homage to man; but man shall bow to you."
And were there any present, whose hearts are either by nature callous, or which have been rendered so by disappointment; whose dispositions have been soured by celibacy, and who are ever ready to underrate the capacity of the female mind, with respect to literary acquirements? If there were, let them "come unto me," and I will pledge myself to eradicate that spirit of envy and detraction which rankles in their breasts. I will show them from history, that women have attained to the highest celebrity in literary acquirements. I will show them, that, in the 13th. century, a young lady of Italy made such progress in her studies, that at the age of 23 she pronounced a funeral oration in Latin, in the great church of Bologna; at the age of 26, she took the degree of Doctor of Laws, and began publicly to expound the Institutions of Justinian; and at the age of 30, her great reputation raised her to a chair, where she taught the law to a prodigious concourse of scholars from all nations; but such was the power of her eloquence, that her beauty was only admired when her tongue was silent. There have been many other illustrious women in Italy. And in Spain, Isabella of Rosea preached in the great church of Barcelona; went to Rome, and converted even the Jews by her eloquence. The brilliancy of the thrones of Russia, Spain and England have been heightened by illustrious women who sat upon them. There are instances of great and expanded minds among the women of our own country: Miss Ramsay, (daughter of the late Dr. Ramsay,) of Charleston, S. C. assumed the practice of medicine, after the decease of her father, and has been extensively useful in some branches of practice; by means of which she contributes largely to the maintenance of the family—the Dr. having been rather embarassed in his pecuniary concerns at his demise. And I will, moreover, show them, if they are not so wilfully blind as to refuse to see, though it should be reflected in their faces like the refulgent beams of the Sun of Heaven, that woman was not made solely for man's use—as a mere plaything, or a pretty piece of furniture.
You may suppose, Messrs. Editors, from my zeal in their cause, that I am some love-enraptured devotee to the female sex. But I am no such thing—and perhaps I shall, some day, convince you of it. No— I only wish to show the utility, and, as I verily believe, the necessity of giving our young females a general education, adapted to all the concerns and vicissitudes of human life—that we may see rise up from among them intelligent, virtuous, accomplished, and amiable women, at once the ornament and honor of an elightened society.
Believing the Salisbury Female Academy, from the skilful and ju-dicous manner in which it is conducted, to be eminently calculated to give a young lady a finished education, I would heartily recommend it to those parents and guardians, of this and the adjoining sections of country, who have the care of the education of young females. The new building, which is now erecting, will add much to the pleasantness and convenience of the school. Alfred.
Salisbury, June 19, 1820.
[A pencil note says this article was written by Philo White.]
—Western Carolinian, June 21, 1820.
(Source: North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840, By Charles L. Coon 1914)
