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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of their high accomplishments. "Cult- 

 ure" for culture's sake has been the 

 idea, rather than culture for the sake 

 of more efficient work. Now, we are 

 well aware that to some it will sound 

 like a great heresy, but we must frank- 

 ly confess that we do not believe in 

 culture for culture's sake, nor in art 

 for art's sake, nor in science for sci- 

 ence's sake, nor even in truth for 

 truth's sake. "We believe that culture 

 and art and science and truth all find 

 their value in the human life which 

 they tend to beautify and improve. 

 "When culture is given merely for cult- 

 ure's sake, it lacks definiteness of aim, 

 and never seems to know what bound- 

 aries to observe. "We fancy though at 

 this moment we are not prepared to 

 speak positively on the point that we 

 see a result of the " unchartered free- 

 dom " of female education in the more 

 ambitious programmes of female semi- 

 naries as compared with those devoted to 

 the teaching of young men. Men know 

 that they must concentrate their ener- 

 gies if they are to succeed in the spe- 

 cial objects they have set before them. 

 "Women, not having (in general) such 

 special objects, think the whole circle 

 of knowledge none too vast for their 

 grasp. We read in a recent article by 

 a lady upon a well-known college for 

 ladies that, " in passing from class-room 

 to laboratory and lecture-room, while 

 observing the work done by professors 

 and students, one can not fail to be 

 astonished at its breadth and depth 

 and wide scope, at its immense quan- 

 tity and superb quality. Pages would 

 be required to do it full justice." Is 

 there any college for men in this coun- 

 try to which such a description could 

 be applied without seeming somewhat 

 overstrained ? We certainly do not re- 

 member to have seen anything so glow- 

 ing of either Harvard, Yale, Johns 

 Hopkins, or Columbia. 



Supposing, now, we ask for a moment, 

 "What is " higher education " for any 

 given individual ? we should be inclined 



to answer with that bent toward prac- 

 tical views which we have already 

 avowed that it is not so much educa- 

 tion in the minutiae of any branch or 

 branches of knowledge, as education 

 dominated by a relatively high purpose 

 and expressly directed to the perfecting 

 of the individual life with reference to 

 its normal sphere of activity. Now, 

 individual life is not perfected, not im- 

 proved, by any education that ministers 

 to vanity or ambition. That the college 

 education of young men often has that 

 effect we are quite sure ; that the col- 

 lege education of young women has it 

 still oftener we are disposed to believe. 

 Anything that has such an effect for- 

 feits, in our opinion, its title to be re- 

 garded as "higher education," since it 

 really is the education and stimulation 

 of lower impulses and instincts. Apart 

 from this consideration, however, true 

 intelligence is not always promoted by 

 the imparting of a great variety of 

 knowledge, or even by the special pros- 

 ecution of particular lines of study. 

 "Whether the mind becomes truly intel- 

 ligent depends upon whether it is ena- 

 bled to apply to every -day life the 

 lessons of the school-room, and to 6ee 

 all knowledge in its practical bearings. 

 Many minds, male and female, are, we 

 are convinced, simply educated away 

 from true intelligence by the costly ef- 

 forts that are made to give them the 

 highest educational advantages. As be- 

 tween men and women we draw at 

 present no line whatever in respect to 

 intellectual qualifications. That the dis- 

 tinction of sex extends to mind as well 

 as to bodily organization we think high- 

 ly probable; but precisely how the dis- 

 tinction operates in the mental region 

 can not be dogmatically affirmed ; and 

 the best thing to do under the circum- 

 stances is to let the distinction, if there 

 is one, establish itself in practice. Let 

 the same educational facilities and priv- 

 ileges be available for women as for 

 men ; and in the course of time we shall 

 perhaps see better than we do now 



