Healthy Pursuits
Priscilla Wakefield, n.d. *
My author, Priscilla Wakefield (1751 - 1832), was known as an author of books for young people. Moral improvement and natural science were two areas she wrote about, and these two themes crossed over in Introduction to Botany.... Wakefield was a a Quaker, and in this religion "...natural science was prized because it offered a chance to reveal more about the eternal purposes of God whilst avoiding the idleness of contemplation"**(p. 74)
Felicia is the young lady narrator of the text. She conveys the lessons of her governess Mrs Snelgrove, Constance in letter form, explains, class by class, the entire Linnaean system of botanical classification related this to English wildflowers, referring to them by both their Latin Linnaean name and their common English name.
This text then is situated as an ongoing conversation between a group of women.
It models the kinds of polite topic that young ladies may converse upon, and simultaneously suggests a worthwhile solitary pursuit for each sister while they are separated.
Part conduct book, part botanical guidebook, I discouraged daydreaming and unserious pursuits. This was true both in terms of my physicality and the text I contained. It's possible my size made me conveniently portable for those wanting to take me outdoors to examine nature. Though finer editions were offered, it is clear that I was a book made to contain a text, to mediate between the reader and nature, and not to become an object in myself to be fussed and obsessed over.
Felicia is the young lady narrator of the text. She conveys the lessons of her governess Mrs Snelgrove, Constance in letter form, explains, class by class, the entire Linnaean system of botanical classification related this to English wildflowers, referring to them by both their Latin Linnaean name and their common English name.
This text then is situated as an ongoing conversation between a group of women.
It models the kinds of polite topic that young ladies may converse upon, and simultaneously suggests a worthwhile solitary pursuit for each sister while they are separated.
Part conduct book, part botanical guidebook, I discouraged daydreaming and unserious pursuits. This was true both in terms of my physicality and the text I contained. It's possible my size made me conveniently portable for those wanting to take me outdoors to examine nature. Though finer editions were offered, it is clear that I was a book made to contain a text, to mediate between the reader and nature, and not to become an object in myself to be fussed and obsessed over.
*Image from: O'Connor, Irma (1928) "Edward Gibbon Wakefield: The Man Himself" London : Selwyn & Blount (p. 56)
**Leach, Camilla. Religion and Rationality: Quaker Women and Science Education 1790-1850. History of Education 35 (1), January 2006. pp 69-90
**Leach, Camilla. Religion and Rationality: Quaker Women and Science Education 1790-1850. History of Education 35 (1), January 2006. pp 69-90