LITERARY NOTICES. 



123 



Vassar, Cornell, Smith, Wellesley all 

 distinguished by a violation of this 

 fundamental law of progressive educa- 

 tion. They are all imitations of the 

 old classical establishments, and their 

 pride is in the perfection of the imita- 

 tion. It is their hoast, if not, indeed, 

 the first condition of their endowment, 

 that the feminine nature has no recog- 

 nition either in their objects or grades 

 of study. 



If there is one female college in the 

 land which is devoted to the cultivation 

 of woman as an intelligent being for 

 the discharge of her responsibilities in 

 domestic life which qualifies her for 

 it, as the medical college qualifies the 

 physician for his practice we have not 

 heard of its existence. It is a conse- 

 quence of the rapid diffusion of educa- 

 tion that the traditional methods ot 

 instruction are enormously extended, 

 while existing institutions and current 

 educational literature combine to give 

 omnipresent influence and irresistible 

 strength to distinctively masculine 

 thought that is, thought mainly per- 

 taining to masculine spheres of action. 

 The whole force of these ideas is 

 brought to bear to kindle in woman 

 ambitions of study in all these direc- 

 tions. Thus influenced, she wants to 

 go into politics, law, medicine, art, 

 literature, philanthropy, religion ; and, 

 thus influenced, she is drawn away from 

 the home sphere, despises it for its vul- 

 garity, and hates it as a clog and drag 

 upon all her noblest aspirations. 



Let it be emphasized, then, that those 

 who oppose the entrance of women into 

 the colleges that have grown up to meet 

 the distinctive requirements of men are 

 not, therefore, opposed to the better or 

 higher education of woman. But that 

 only is "higher education " for woman 

 which perfects her nature, capacities, 

 and requirements. Dr. Dix's view of 

 the import of the home in civilization, 

 its vital and ruling place in the so- 

 cial order, we believe to be profoundly 

 true, and that it must be taken as the 



starting - point of all substantial im- 

 provement and higher cultivation of the 

 female sex. Let women have their own 

 colleges, that shall be neither copies nor 

 appendages of men's colleges, and that 

 shall confer a culture comprehensive, 

 refined, and practical, but with supreme 

 reference to a higher preparation for 

 administering home affairs intelligently, 

 and thus in the most efficient way ele- 

 vating the standard of social life. When 

 they ask for this education, there will 

 be no opposition, and there will be 

 plenty of means to secure it. 



It was inadvertently stated, in notic- 

 ing "The Gospel of the Stars" last 

 month, that its author, Rev. Joseph A. 

 Seiss, was a clergyman of the Episcopal 

 Church. This turns out to be a mistake, 

 and is resented as an imputation upon 

 that highly respectable body, if we may 

 judge by the number of letters we have 

 received, denying the statement, with 

 varying comments, and declaring that 

 Dr. Seiss belongs to the Lutheran com- 

 munion, which must be held responsi- 

 ble for him. 



In the article " Speculations on the 

 Nature of Matter" ("Popular Science 

 Monthly " for April), the following 

 corrections should be made : On page 

 798, eighth line from the top, it should 

 read, " namely, the inverse squares of 

 the distance without the sphere, and di- 

 rectly as the distance within it." And, 

 on line 27th of the same page, it should 

 read " directly as the distance." 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES. 

 No. XLIV. 



Animal Intelligence. By George J. Ro- 

 manes, LL. D., F. R. S. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. Pp. 520. Price, $1.75. 



The author of this work has come prom- 

 inently forward within the last few years as 

 an able cultivator of the science of compara- 

 tive psychology, and the treatise he has now 



