If boys are incapable of forming any true idea of religion, much more is it beyond the grasp of girls; and for this reason I would speak of it all the sooner to little girls, for if we wait till they are ready for a serious discussion of these deep subjects we should be in danger of never speaking of religion at all.  A woman’s reason is practical, and therefore she soon arrives at a given conclusion, but she fails to discover it for herself.  The social relation of the sexes is a wonderful thing.  This relation produces a moral person of which woman is the eye and man the hand, but the two are so dependent on one another that the man teaches the woman what to see, while she teaches him what to do.  If women could discover principles and if men had as good heads for detail, they would be mutually independent, they would live in perpetual strife, and there would be an end to all society.  But in their mutual harmony each contributes to a common purpose; each follows the other’s lead, each commands and each obeys.

As a woman’s conduct is controlled by public opinion, so is her religion ruled by authority.  The daughter should follow her mother’s religion, the wife her husband’s.  Were that religion false, the docility which leads mother and daughter to submit to nature’s laws would blot out the sin of error in the sight of God.  Unable to judge for themselves they should accept the judgment of father and husband as that of the church.

While women unaided cannot deduce the rules of their faith, neither can they assign limits to that faith by the evidence of reason; they allow themselves to be driven hither and thither by all sorts of external influences, they are ever above or below the truth.  Extreme in everything, they are either altogether reckless or altogether pious; you never find them able to combine virtue and piety.  Their natural exaggeration is not wholly to blame; the ill-regulated control exercised over them by men is partly responsible.  Loose morals bring religion into contempt; the terrors of remorse make it a tyrant; this is why women have always too much or too little religion.

As a woman’s religion is controlled by authority it is more important to show her plainly what to believe than to explain the reasons for belief; for faith attached to ideas half-understood is the main source of fanaticism, and faith demanded on behalf of what is absurd leads to madness or unbelief.  Whether our catechisms tend to produce impiety rather than fanaticism I cannot say, but I do know that they lead to one or other.

In the first place, when you teach religion to little girls never make it gloomy or tiresome, never make it a task or a duty, and therefore never give them anything to learn by heart, not even their prayers.  Be content to say your own prayers regularly in their presence, but do not compel them to join you.  Let their prayers be short, as Christ himself has taught us.  Let them always be said with becoming reverence and respect; remember that if we ask the Almighty to give heed to our words, we should at least give heed to what we mean to say.