FEMALE EDUCATION. 323 



in our cities. If boys need play, fresh air, games, muscular develop- 

 ment, I have no hesitation in saying that girls need them all to the 

 extent applicable to their constitution and strength still more. For 

 boys will have them to some extent. If you don't give a boy a play- 

 ground he will play on the street, which is better than no play. Now, 

 the exigency of public opinion will not allow our young ladies to 

 amuse themselves on the streets ; and, if not, how are they to get the 

 fresh air and muscular exercise that are absolutely necessary for their 

 health and proper development ? You can not starve a girl's life of 

 these things without doing her harm, any more than you can with im- 

 punity keep her on a short allowance of food. A girls' school without 

 a play-ground, a gymnasium, or public park near, I look on as a garden 

 without sunshine, or a boat with one oar. It is deficient and one- 

 sided ; it is a machine for production without sufficient provision for 

 the renovation of wear and tear. Mind can't grow except by growth 

 of brain ; brain can't grow but through good food, fresh air, work, 

 and rest, in proper proportion. The blood will not renew itself prop- 

 erly in youth but by brisk circulation, and this can only be got by 

 exercise in the fresh air. The muscles won't grow and harden but by 

 having plenty of good blood and exercise. The fat, that most essen- 

 . tial concomitant of female adolescence, won't form in the proper way, 

 except the blood is rich. Fat is to the body what fun is to the mind, 

 an indication of spare power that is boiling over and available for 

 future use. I don't mean an excessive amount of fat ; I mean that 

 amount that gives roundness, plumpness, and beauty. This little esti- 

 mated substance is, with form, the great source of female beauty. 

 Without it, form can not make a perfect woman ; without it, a young 

 woman can not be said to be really in health ; without it, the body 

 generally has, in most instances, too little spare energy to resist and 

 to recover from disease. Therefore, a proper amount of fat should, 

 in its way, be as much looked to in a young woman as intellectual 

 power or keen feeling. The right sort of fat, firm and smooth, gives 

 the lines of beauty and the idea of softness and health to woman. But 

 to the physiologist its great value and importance are as an index of 

 good nutrition and a reserve of spare material, not needed for work 

 just now, but called up in any illness. When anything is both a 

 beauty and a strength, it should not be decried or spoken disrespect- 

 fully of. I knew a man not a lunatic who always said it was his 

 highest ambition to be fat. Certainly there are many more foolish 

 wishes for our growing adolescent girls than that they should all be 

 fat. It is just because this seems to be incompatible with the work in 

 some of our modern city high-class schools, that I think that work 

 must be conducted to some extent on wrong principles. 



I am no educationalist, and may be accused of speaking about 

 what I am ignorant of, if I suggest that too many things are taught 

 at the same time, and too little time is taken for the whole process. 



