“This is the great danger……We must love our mothers more than Greek dialects. If the instinct of daughter, sister, wife, or mother dies our of a college-bound woman, even in the course of a most brilliant career otherwise, the world will forget to lover her; it will scorn her, and justly. If she does not make her surroundings homelike, wherever she is , whether she be a teacher, artist, musician, doctors, writer, daughter at home, or a mother in her household; and if she herself is not cheerful and loving, dainty dress, gentle in manner, and beautiful in soul as every true woman ought to be, the work will feel that the one thing needful is lacking,--vivid, tender womanliness,--for which no knowledge of asymptotes or linguistics can ever compensate. It is better for a woman to fill a simple human part lovingly, better for her to be sympathetic in troubles and to whisper a comforting message into but one grieving ear, than that she should make a path to Egypt and lecture to thousands on ancient Thebes.”
~An extract from What is Worth While written by Mrs. Samuel Linsay (as quoted in the 1897 edition of the Three Minute Readings for College Girls.
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