EDITOR'S TABLE. 



269 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 



THE interest which this subject is 

 exciting at the present moment is, 

 we take it, a very hopeful sign. The 

 probability would appear to be that, 

 in the clash of opinions, the truth will 

 gradually be beaten out. Every writer 

 brings to the question his or her own 

 contribution of real experience ; and, 

 when once we have the facts properly 

 sifted, it will not be such a difficult mat- 

 ter to draw conclusions. 



Mrs. Lynn-Linton in England has 

 taken up a position on this subject that 

 places her in antagonism to most of 

 those who have espoused what, for con- 

 venience, we may call the women's side 

 of the question. She does not say that 

 women can not take the highest educa- 

 tion or make the best use of it, but on 

 the whole she rather discourages, from 

 a practical point of view, the effort to 

 bestow the highest education on any 

 very large number of women. We do 

 not wish to be understood as commit- 

 ting ourselves to all the views she has 

 advanced ; but we think she has at 

 least made one forward step by import- 

 ing certain simple practical considera- 

 tions into the discussion. She has shown 

 that an advanced education has an ap- 

 preciable money value to young men in 

 a much larger proportion of cases than 

 it has to young women. Much as we 

 may talk of "education of the mind" 

 and "discipline of the faculties," the 

 education of boys and young men has 

 mainly been dominated by practical 

 ends. "We are far from saying that 

 those ends have always been wisely 

 sought; we simply contend that in gen- 

 eral they have been recognized. When 

 a young man has been destined for the 

 bar, for the Church, for the profession 

 of medicine, or for some scientific or 

 literary career, there has been a spe- 



cial object in giving him as liberal a 

 preliminary education as possible; and 

 such courses of higher education as 

 have heretofore been devised have had 

 as their main intention the fitting of 

 men for professional careers, and not 

 the mere production of a large number 

 of finely polished intellects destined for 

 no particular function whatever. It 

 may be further said that, in the edu- 

 cation of men, the definiteness of the 

 ulterior aim has been to a large extent 

 the circumstance that has rendered the 

 imparting of a sound education possi- 

 ble. The mind can carry what it means 

 to make use of, what it expects to find 

 serviceable, far better than it can what 

 does not point to any special applica- 

 tion. The education of men has thus 

 been given a certain concreteness and 

 a certain actuality from the fact of its 

 bearing, or, at the very least, being un- 

 derstood to bear a distinct and definite 

 relation to practical life. 



How is it, now, as regards the edu- 

 cation of women? It is certainly true 

 that women are taking to-day a much 

 wider share in the work of the world 

 than they did even a generation ago. 

 Many more careers are open to them, 

 and their ability to assume even the 

 most difficult professional duties is no 

 longer doubted. Manifestly, then, a 

 practical necessity has arisen for plac- 

 ing within the reach of women the 

 highest educational advantages. It can 

 hardly, however, be maintained that 

 the somewhat clamorous demand that 

 has been made of late years on behalf 

 of women for such advantages has been 

 mainly inspired by the desire to enable 

 women to hold their own in various 

 professional walks. The object has 

 rather been to produce a generation 

 of gifted women without reference to 

 any special practical use to be made 



