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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for it, w r e supposed that this was a liv- 

 ing and stable conviction to be con- 

 sistently carried into practice when- 

 ever opportunity arose. But, if we 

 rightly interpret subsequent develop- 

 ments, our confidence was sadly mis- 

 placed. 



For no sooner had Dr. Dix made 

 proclamation of his views on the woman 

 question, than a rare opportunity was 

 afforded him to reduce them to appli- 

 cation in a large and influential way. 

 The Association for the Promotion of 

 the Higher Education of Woman, in 

 New York, had petitioned the author- 

 ities of Columbia College to admit 

 women to their institution that they 

 might obtain this " higher education." 

 The petition was referred to a com- 

 mittee, of which Dr. Dix was chair- 

 man, and he is declared to be the 

 author of the report that was made 

 upon the subject. It was decided not 

 to admit women to co-education, and it 

 was further declared that Columbia 

 was not able to establish an adjunct 

 institution for the use of female stu- 

 dents; but it was offered that, if the 

 women or their friends would provide 

 their own separate accommodations, 

 Columbia College would take charge 

 of the teaching ; and, in anticipation 

 of this possible event, the committee 

 prepared such a scheme of studies as 

 it deemed suitable for the purpose in 

 view, viz., to afford woman the facilities 

 for a " higher education " than is now 

 assumed to be available. 



Dr. Dix, as we have intimated, 

 drew up this report and framed the 

 curriculum approved by the committee. 

 The situation was thus in every respect 

 most favorable for putting female edu- 

 cation upon a higher and more rational 

 basis, and conforming it to the require- 

 ments of the feminine character as a 

 preparation for woman's practical life. 

 There were no trammels, the institu- 

 tion was to be newly constituted, and 

 there was no reason for not appealing 

 to first principles in shaping the scheme 



of studies and embodying all that has 

 been gained in the progress of educa- 

 tion. Moreover, there were abundant 

 precedents for shaping the course of 

 studies to the highest ends of practical 

 usefulness. Columbia College has al- 

 ready appended to it a group of colleges 

 devoted to applied knowledge a min- 

 ing school, a medical school, a law 

 school, a school of arts, and a school of 

 political science. There was therefore 

 full freedom to construct a new curric- 

 ulum for female students designed to do 

 whatever a " higher education " can 

 accomplish for the improvement and 

 elevation of woman. 



It might have been thought most for- 

 tunate that the subject was mainly in 

 the hands of a man who had given spe- 

 cial and earnest attention to the ques- 

 tion, and avowed fundamental convic- 

 tions which had a potent and salutary 

 bearing upon the result to be attained. 

 Dr. Dix had said : " The place and work 

 of woman in this world are a place and 

 work in social life ; and her place and 

 work are not those of the man." He 

 had said : " Whatever it be in thought, 

 deed, or will that works among us now 

 to break up the home, to make the home 

 idea mean and contemptible in the eyes 

 of woman, or to unfit her for domestic 

 duties, and disgust her with her proper 

 work, whatever now acts on her high- 

 wrought nature, her ambition, her self- 

 love, to turn her steps away from the 

 home-life, and inflate her with visions 

 of a career in the public places outside 

 this, whatever it be, is working against 

 the best interests, the hope, the happi- 

 ness of the human race." Could it be 

 imagined that one who had so vivid a 

 conception of womanly nature and des- 

 tiny, such an appreciation of the higher 

 sphere of her legitimate activities, and 

 so earnest a conviction of the pervert- 

 ing influences to which she is exposed, 

 would frame a working scheme expli- 

 citly designed to mold the feminine char- 

 acter in which these guiding ideas are 

 wholly ignored? Yet this is the anom- 



