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Emily Bathurst; or, at Home and Abroad

Conduct Manual

Conduct Manual

Mr Munro’s instruction of Emily’s conduct is a key theme of the novel and suggests that the author undertook a fictional interpretation of the conduct manual genre. However, Bathurstdiverges from more traditional examples of the genre in its exclusively religious, often evangelical, focus. The story begins with an enumeration of Emily’s many scholarly accomplishments. However, her achievements are immediately undercut as Munro asks “what is the object and end of all your attainments? [...] will your acquirements make you useful to others?” (6). He criticises Emily for knowing “next to nothing” of theology and church history as “ the chief end of life” is to “prepare for that eternal world where our hearts should be” (8). The author, through Munro, posits that

all knowledge may be profitable or otherwise, according as we make it so. Knowledge pursued for its own sake is vanity. It will never satisfy the mind. If it is used to increase our acquaintance with God, with His works of creation and order, and with His providential dealings towards His creatures, it is profitable (8).

Although Emily “could write a sensible essay on the constitution of Great Britain, [...] a note of courtesy was an effort to her” (11). Although “a problem in Euclid, or algebraical fractions, gave her real pleasure, [...] she found great difficulty in balancing the account which her mother wished her to keep of the expenditure of her pocket-money” (11). The author’s attitude to female education reflects a preference for the “tradition of training young women in conduct instead of educating them [that] continued well into the nineteenth century.” (Harris 232). Emily’s education appears at best superfluous to her moral development. Instead, the author uses Munro’s homilies and examples in chapters I, IX and XI to represent to Emily and the reader the importance of devout conduct towards both God and parents. Thanks to Munro, by the end of chapter I Emily realises that “she had pursued [her studies] principally for her own pleasure, forgetting whose soldier and servant she was pledged to be” (12).
In chapter IX, the author uses the comparison of two romances to argue not only for dutiful conduct, but more radically, to suggest that becoming a missionary’s wife is the most laudable female accomplishment. In the first story, Mrs Bathurst tells her friend Mrs. Wilson of “a noble instance of true affection” (142). Georgina Prescott appears as the heroine of the piece, both for obeying her father by breaking off an engagement with a man who was no longer wealthy, and for refusing “several advantageous offers of marriage” as she felt “she never could love another" (142). Prescott is dutiful, faithful and, just as importantly, “she did not give way to depression, but continued cheerful and obliging as ever, adding to the happiness of all around her” (142). The ladies agree that “she is quite an example to all girls” and they “rejoice [that] she has her reward” when she is finally allowed to marry her first choice (145). Thus far, the author’s image of ‘good’ female conduct reflects the general consensus of Victorian society. However, the author’s evangelical devotion leads her one step further. Immediately after praising Georgina Prescott, Miss Wilson receives a letter from Mary Clayton with news of her decision to marry “a missionary to New Holland! How perfectly incongruous!" (145). Mary’s mother in a postscript writes “I do, indeed, rejoice and praise my God that he enables her to give up home and friends for her Saviour's sake; and to accompany Mr. Heywood to aid him in the glorious work of bringing the heathen into the fold of Christ” (146). However, Mrs Bathurst and Mrs Wilson immediately condemn her decision as “you know how exquisitely Mary Clayton sings and plays. The sums that have been lavished on her accomplishments! She's fit for any society” (145). In addition to this waste of secular accomplishments, the women mourn the lost opportunity to marry “a young merchant of large fortune” (145). Finally, they judge that her talents would be better spent at home with the poor than with “cannibal” heathens. At this point Mr Munro interjects, arguing that

there can be no doubt Mary is the self-devoted one. While all will admire Georgina [...] whose object is the greater? Georgina goes to form the happiness of one who for years has had her heart's best affections. Mary's first object is her Saviour, and she desires to devote her health and best energies to His service. How do angels regard the two? (149)

Munro concludes the chapter in favour of Mary: “I do love Georgina for her conduct as a daughter and a woman, but Mary, I honour, and most highly prize and esteem, for the determination she has made as a Christian” (149).