IS EDUCATION OPPOSED TO MOTHERHOOD? 759 



had children, the exceptional record of good health among these 

 children, and their low death-rate, are strong evidences that the 

 powers of motherhood have not suffered from college work."* 

 In addition, the writer's mite of testimony may be offered. In 

 the schools which she has attended,! the majority of earnest stu- 

 dents were in uniformly good health ; a minority were delicate 

 before beginning study. The most frequent examples of ill health 

 were found among those who made a pretense of study and 

 eagerly pursued social excitements. Subsequent effect upon the 

 health may be judged when it is found that twelve years after 

 graduation one young woman, ranking at the head of her class, is 

 the mother of six vigorous children ; two others, earnest students, 

 have each a family of five, and a number of others have four 

 children. No correspondence has been held with married class- 

 mates living at a distance. These mentioned are personally 

 known to be mothers in the fullest sense, and constitute striking 

 contradictions to the claim that education has an injurious effect 

 upon woman. "But," it may be objected, "these are exception- 

 ally healthy women." Undoubtedly, but if the training has any 

 influence at all, it should make them fall slightly below the stand- 

 ard of the preceding generation, whereas, in several instances, 

 they improved upon the record of their mothers, not only in gen- 

 eral health, but in the condition and size of their families. 



If, now, we review the discussion to this point, it may be 

 summed up as follows : 



I. Decrease of marriage results from a transition state in the 

 condition of women, also from unjust laws and false social cus- 

 toms which discourage matrimony. 



II. Able women generally are not dissatisfied with woman- 

 hood, and do not advocate celibacy. It is not evident that women 

 of any class are becoming unfitted for motherhood, but women of 

 the " cultivated classes " are not the best possible mothers. Inde- 

 pendent and highly educated women are only a fraction among 

 these, and can not be substituted for the whole. 



III. The higher education of woman teaches her reverence 

 for Nature ; the development and control, not the suppression 

 of natural instinct, therefore tends to make her the best wife and 

 mother. The "spiritless epicene automaton" is mythical. The 

 spinster is an eternal verity. The woman movement has not created 

 her, but changed her condition from dependence to self-support. 



IV. The education and independence of women is a step in 

 emancipation even from Mrs. Grundy, but it can not be made 

 responsible for the present infertility among women, for these 

 reasons : 



* Report of "Health Committee, Association Coliegiate Alumnse," Annie G. Howes, 1885. 

 f Four schools for girls, one college for women, two universities for men and women. 



