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important particular. In many vital points the English system is just that which American doctors insist on as absolutely necessary. The great strain of educational effort in America comes on before a girl is eighteen. At Girton, girls under eighteen years are not admitted, and the final examinations are three or four years later. The public recitations, the long hours of standing they involve-so condemned by Dr. Clarke-are unknown in England, except in the worst old-fashioned schools. American schools demand eight or ten hours' study per diem, leaving no time for physical exercise; while in England we ask but for six, including music and needlework. Under any system there must be some failures, physiological and moral, but neither confined to one sex.

The controversy had reached this point when an article appeared in the Nineteenth Century' for last May, by Mr. Romanes, on the mental differences between men and women, which appears to us to state with great fairness and ability what may be termed the just medium between the parties. This writer dismisses at once the absurd theory that the mental faculties of the two sexes are identical, though he by no means denies that they may be equal, each having their own peculiar and distinctive qualities. Starting from the fact that the average brain-weight of women is about five ounces less than that of men, he observes that on merely anatomical grounds we should expect a marked inferiority of intellectual power in the former, and this displays itself most conspicuously in a comparative absence of originality. The female intellect is essentially receptiveprompt and subtle to take in all outward impressions-but it is a matter of ordinary comment that in no one department of creative thought can women be said to have approached men, save in fiction. That is the verdict of Mr. Romanes, with which we agree; and he supports it by some judicious arguments, in no way adverse to the laudable efforts now made to improve the education of women as much as possible.

Thus, then, taken generally, stands the argument between the friends and foes of progress, of which our readers will be better able to judge when we have laid before them the more immediate object of the present article. That object is to show, as far as can be ascertained, the real status of things as regards a girl's work and life: the curriculum of study through which she passes, her amusements, the literature

VOL. CLXVI, NO, CCCXXXIX.

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provided for her leisure hours-in a word, her general training for the battle of life.

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Time was when such words as 'the life and work of a girl' would have suggested to most readers a topic of secondrate importance, and, on the whole, a dry and matter-of-fact affair, stereotyped into one narrow and ungenial mould. She was at school until seventeen or eighteen, superficially instructed, after one certain prescribed form, in a fixed course of subjects; to which if the child of rich parents, and able to pay for extras-she might add a smattering of such accomplishments as Poonah-painting,' prim dialogues in Parisian French,' 'calisthenics,' 'conchology,' and the use of the globes.' And this without regard to any special tastes, inclination, aptitude, or ability. Nobody then ever dreamed of her being educated in the same sense as her brother at Harrow or Westminster, the county grammar-school or even at Dr. Swishtail's academy. Her business was not to cultivate her intellect, but to acquire a ladylike appearance, manner, and tone; to write and spell correctly; execute the Battle of Prague' on the piano; and to behave at all times with propriety. Her mission was to make an eligible marriage,* if possible a rich one, and to subside for the rest of her life into a state of thankful inferiority to that member of the nobler sex who became her husband, and required her services as a wife, a mother to his children, and, if need be, a nurse to himself.

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'Man must be pleased; but him to please

Is woman's pleasure: down the gulf
Of his condoled necessities

She casts her best, she flings herself.'

Her highest ambition must be to look to his comfort, the punctuality of the dinner-bell, the succulence of the roast mutton, and the good order of the household, the cares and anxieties of which are her special concern. Beyond this, she was taught to think, and trained to believe, that her duty did not extend; and it was dangerous to attempt to stray. If the scheme matrimonial was a failure, or came to grief, after careful and unwearied effort, and much patience, as in many

* A glance at the Census Paper' will show beyond doubt that a very large number of women in England must of necessity remain spinsters, the fact being that, after twenty years of age, for every 100 men there are at least 106 women, making the total redundancy of unmarried women in the whole population at least one million and a quarter.

cases was inevitable, she must be content to wither quietly into an old maid; cultivate potichomanie, knitting, and tatting; the gossip of tea-parties; the joys of embroidery and botany, or the art of drying seaweeds.

All this, however, belongs to the days of long ago, when George III. was king, rather than to the present time, when, with totally different aims, hopes, and ambitions, there are scattered widely through England some fifty or sixty collegiate, or so-called 'high' schools,* where girls of the middle and next upper class are being educated, and of which we now propose to give some account. In these schools are to be found, in round numbers, from twenty to twenty-five thousand girls, between the ages of twelve and seventeen or eighteen years, the majority of whom are there for the express purpose of being trained and fitted not simply for home duties, but to win and to keep a place in the great battle of life in the world; and, if not to become independent of parents and guardians, at least to avoid being a burden to them. It is evident, at a glance, that any such body of educated women as these must become a mighty factor in the future strength and well-being of the country at large. Its existence must more or less affect for good the class immediately above it in rank and position, and help to raise that below it; all being alike parts of the same great body.

A glance at the general curriculum of one of the chief of these schools † will suffice to show the character and aim of the work done there, and serve as a type of what is, or will probably be, done by the others. It contains, in round numbers, about 1,000 pupils, a very large proportion of whom are day scholars. School work begins at 9 A.M., opening with prayers in the great hall, and ending at 1.30, with an interval of half an hour for drill, and lunch at 11.15. Music and drawing are relegated to the afternoon for all who learn them, after dinner or a meat lunch, which is indispensable. One whole holiday is given per week, with ample vacations at midsummer and Christmas. Object lessons' are given in science, natural history, and botany for younger children, and of a higher grade to senior classes. Lectures on heat, electricity, hydrostatics, mechanics, astronomy, practical chemistry to the sixth form, arithmetic, geometry,

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Of this number about forty belong to the Girls' Public Day School Company (Limited), with a capital of 100,0007.

+ The North London Collegiate School, Camden Town.

and algebra, according to special needs and abilities. The English language is studied analytically, lectures being given by special teachers, and weekly written papers being required on given subjects, or from Shakespeare's plays, or translations. French is taught in all the classes, and German in all above. the first; Latin is made a careful study by the fifth and sixth forms; and Greek by a few special students. Elementary physiology, as far as it relates to health; domestic economy, cookery, history, and geography, each and all hold their due place at special times; while throughout the whole year courses of lessons are given on the Old and New Testaments, besides a weekly religious address by a clergyman. In the upper forms the Church Liturgy is studied, or the substitute allowed by the Cambridge local examiners, with a conscience clause for those wishing to be exempt. Three terms divide the year, the fees for each term averaging 51. 178. The staff of teachers are chiefly ladies, of whom nine are graduates. The lectures vary in length from forty to sixty minutes. Both lower and upper schools are examined annually by University men, as for the Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations.

Rewards and punishments are employed as auxiliary motives; there being a registry of marks for every portion of school and home work; annual prizes (of books) for conduct and general progress; a few competitive prizes for the highest place in the class; exhibitions and scholarships; all in view of the Cambridge Local Examinations, the College of Preceptors, or the Matriculation Examination of the London University. Discipline, order, punctuality, accuracy, neatness, are based on a sense of personal responsibility. Moral influence enforces the laws, and every girl is trained to conquer self. This is the atmosphere of the whole school, which she must breathe under the guidance of sixth-form prefects and monitors.

Thus has a great school of a thousand scholars grown slowly up into what it now is, but yet, we are specially told, is still open to ripe change of practice, and to developement of principle. It works on in hope. The whole of the extensive building-containing, besides the great hall, libraries, music-rooms, laboratories, and fourteen class-rooms, each fitted for thirty-two students, with separate desks and chairs -has a bright, cheery, and inviting appearance. The Kyrle Society has been busy in every nook and corner; pictures and window gardens deck every room, and the whole aspect of things is such as becomes the abode of 'sweetness and light.'

Much the same may be said, in commendation, as to the general routine of work, structure of building, and management at the Mary Datchelor and other prosperous high schools. There is a healthy and happy tone of vigour and brightness on the faces of thousands of the young disciples, the best and most direct answer to the grave charge-more than once made-of over-pressure and over-work. Against the management of such schools no more fatally perilous charge could be made; and in no respect will the authorities show a higher wisdom than by rendering any justification of such a charge an absolute impossibility.

Supposing, then, that a girl of eighteen has passed through the usual course of some such school as we have described, and desires to advance to a higher stage, there are now open to her four collegiate halls, affiliated to the several Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, at which she may carry on her studies on the same lines as the ordinary members of either University. Girton, say the founders, is designed to hold in relation to girls' schools and home teaching a position analogous to that occupied by the Universities to boys' schools. Since the foundation of the college † 231 students have been in residence, of whom 112 took honours at the University, 40 in classics, 32 in mathematics, and 42 in science and history; while 27 took the ordinary degree of B.A., and 62 are now completing their course. This is a high standard of success, but that at Newnham has been equally brilliant. Out of 474 students who have passed through the course, 400 have graduated in the classical, mathematical, science, or history tripos. Both the smaller foundations of Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville Hall, at

* It would be well if this agreement in general principle and practice extended also to the choice of books, English, French, Latin, and scientific, in which, alas! each school chooses for itself, the result being a wide and strange medley. One prospectus names as many as forty books, at a total cost of eight guineas, and includes a Euclid by Mrs. Nops, and other manuals by authors doubtless as excellent, but unknown to fame.

Girton College was incorporated in 1872; Newnham Hall, Cambridge, founded in 1873; Lady Margaret Hall, and Somerville Hall, both at Oxford, in 1879; the number of students being, respectively, Girton College, 74; Newnham Hall, 113; Lady Margaret Hall, 25; Somerville Hall, 24, their full complement; total, 236.

Out of the whole number of students who have graduated in honours, upwards of 100 have become headmistresses of high schools, or special teachers in other collegiate institutions.

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