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SOME TALK ABOUT WOMAN'S EDUCATION.
fare of woman. There is always evident in these articles a vast amount of generous disinterestedness. Writers generally attack the mental argument first, and after proving beyond a doubt that the feminine intellect cannot comprehend so-called higher studies, proceed to exercise their imagination concerning the woeful results following a course of study which they themselves have proved to their own satisfaction it is impossible for a woman to pursue.
The mental argument is used in various ways. Some lay down woman's mental inferiority as an axiom; others talk learnedly of the weight and convolutions of the brain, but the most common method is a combination of the axiomatic with frequent allusions to abstract thought, and to the mental strain required to complete a college or university course. Newton leads the hostile hosts on such occasions. There was but one Newton, yet to read some of these arguments, one ignorant of the truth would suppose all men had, undeveloped, the same intellect and "capability of abstract thought." One would conclude that mental effort of hours duration was required to distinguish a tangent from a cosine, while years of study would fail to conquer the Greek alphabet. It is truly remarkable that institutions of learning manage to graduate annually such a number who have endured the terrible strain.
Woman's physical delicacy is made a strong plea against her education. She may practice hours at the piano, attend crowded entertainments, dance, skate, but the muscular exertion required to translate a page of Homer,or solve a problem in mathematics is too much for her.A girl is not allowed time for education,but if she really wants the education she herself should take the time.Of course,if she attempts to gain the friendship of Mrs.Grundy,and to follow every caprice of fashion,when her
attention is really due her studies, she is likely either to resemble the student who never let his studies interfere with his business, or to fail in health. Very few girls at this age of the world care to remain inactive and if they do not expend their energies in one direction they will in another.
After the mental and physical arguments the moral or spiritual tendency of education is advanced. To hear some of these wise people talk, one would suppose that higher mathematics, ancient languages, political economy contained within their pages some mysterious corrupting power. To use a Socratic method of inquiry; some learning is evil for women and some not, what makes this difference and who shall decide what is good and what evil? Is there a harmful tendency in the study of history, literature, or the sciences and languages? Does a knowledge of astronomy or of mathematics make men coarse and hard? Is true womanliness a quality so evanescent that a little knowledge of the world's history or a few problems in trigonometry are likely to prove disastrous?
When these three arguments fail, there are a variety of side-issues to the rescue. Woman's sphere takes an important part. Then there is a general idea that education unfits girls for domestic life. True education never yet unfitted any individual for for his lot in life. A smattering of learning has sometimes turned an empty head. If a man is inefficient, do not blame his education more than if he were stingy, you would blame his religion. Better inquire what he would be without it. A knowledge of Bacon's essays or of Burke's speeches never will damage spring house-cleaning any more than the purchase of spring goods by the merchant. A knowledge of cooking, for instance, is important to most girls, just as it is often convenient that a boy should understand the care of horses or have skill in the making of fires. But no