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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ed : first, by an improvement of the 

 home, and, secondly, by the action 

 of a higher public opinion on the 

 schools. We quoted, some months 

 ago, an eminent French writer of our 

 own day as saying that it was neces- 

 sary to put more " soul " in the pub- 

 lic schools. That is precisely what 

 they want, as all the best teachers 

 are fully aware. But you can not 

 make an appropriation for "soul." 

 It is not quoted in the catalogues of 

 school supplies ; it is not among the 

 prescribed subjects in teachers' ex- 

 aminations. It is a very real if not a 

 very tangible thing ; and it is a com- 

 municable thing. There are those 

 who have it and can impart it; in 

 deed, those who have it can hardly 

 fail to impart it. If there is enough 

 of it outside the schools, it will leak 

 in ; and our hope is that the best men 

 and the best women of the day will 

 so join forces as to create, especially 

 around the public schools, an atmos- 

 phere of higher sentiment that shall 

 afiPect for good the working of the 

 state machine, and greatly strength- 

 en the hands of all who, within the 

 schools, have set for themselves a 

 certain standard of spiritual as dis- 

 tinct from merely intellectual ac- 

 complishment. 



Then as to the home. Here is 

 where we want women with new 

 knowledge, but not we speak with 

 all due fear and trembling " new " 

 women. The " new woman " would 

 set every one discussing rights ; but 

 the true woman with adequate knowl- 

 edge would see what the best women 

 have always seen, that the home re- 

 quires a principle of unity and not 

 a system of scientific frontiers or 

 an elaborately arranged balance of 

 power. Home life and home influ- 

 ence have, we fear, been suffering in 

 our day through a variety of causes ; 

 but the home, like marriage, is an 

 institution which only needs to have 

 its possibilities developed in order 



to stand forth more than justified. 

 Without entering into the question 

 as to whether the wisest methods are 

 being followed to-day in the educa- 

 tion of women, it is beyond all doubt 

 that women have gained a vast en- 

 largement of their intellectual hori- 

 zon, and that in many cases women 

 are not only the peers but the supe- 

 riors of men in the same station in 

 life as themselves in knowledge and 

 culture. Such knowledge and cul- 

 ture can nowhere be better employed 

 than in the home, where the phys- 

 ical, mental, and moral development 

 of children has to be watched over. 

 The question is, How far will it be 

 employed in this way, and how far 

 made a means of mere personal self- 

 assertion ? The true woman will use 

 it for the good of others, and, if pos- 

 sible, will make it available for the 

 improvement of the home; while 

 others the new type will use it to 

 make themselves conspicuous in the 

 world, and, as they vainly fancy, add 

 glory to the female sex. 



The hope of the future lies main- 

 ly in well-ordered homes homes in 

 which children are trained to be just, 

 reasonable, and humane, in which 

 they are taught to look with an in- 

 telligent eye upon the phenomena 

 alike of Nature and of society, in 

 which they learn lessons of industry 

 and self-reliance, of honor, purity, 

 and self-respect, and are guarded 

 against the vulgar worship of wealth 

 and worldly success. It is for the 

 wise and noble women of our time 

 to help to make such homes, and it 

 is for men to see to it that they are 

 worthy of partnership in so sacred 

 a cause. It is no time for any silly 

 rivalry or futile opposition between 

 men and women, who are as neces- 

 sary to one another now as at any 

 previous age in the world's history 

 nay, more necessai-y. On the con- 

 trary, it is a time for earnest counsel 

 and vigorous co-operation on the part 



