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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



female teacher, obtained in a normal school, 

 is despised by the male teachers who ob- 

 tained theirs in the university. It is too 

 obvious that the women are found only in 

 subordinate positions (exceptions not count- 

 ed) of the school organism. No wonder 

 that the pupils sometimes refuse them the 

 respect which is offered as a matter of course 

 in England, where the female teachers are 

 provided with the highest professional edu- 

 cation." Quoting again, she says : " In 

 France there were no preparatory schools for 

 the university. Only after the downfall of 

 the second empire, after the humiliating ex- 

 periences in 1870 '71, steps were taken fa- 

 vorable to women. The Government became 

 convinced of the fact that an elevation of the 

 whole people is only possible by means of 

 an elevation of its women. The motion of 

 Camille See to found and maintain lyceums 

 for women was adopted without delay. ' Our 

 law is a moral as well as a social and politi- 

 cal law' thus he pleaded for it, in 1880, 

 before the Chamber of Deputies ' it con- 

 cerns the future and security of Trance, for 

 upon the women depends the greatness or 

 decay of the nations.' " 



In Portugal " the question of establish- 

 ing special girls' lyceums is being agitated ; 

 a violent controversy has been going on 

 concerning this, and the desire of many Port- 

 uguese is that ' their ladies may remain in 

 future as charmingly amiable and foolish 

 children as they have been since Adam's 

 time.' " " Clemens Nohl speaks in his Ped- 

 agogy for Higher Schools of the absolute 

 necessity to grant the female sex a thorough 

 education, and says the mother needs it for 

 the sake of her family, the unmarried woman 

 for her own sake." 



One forcible argument which is not urged 

 by Miss Lange comes to one when he realizes 

 how much work is done by women in the 

 post-office, telegraph, and other public de- 

 partments in England, or, if he chances to 

 pass the Treasury and other departments in 

 Washington at the noon hour, and sees the 

 thronging thousands of women pour out 

 from these buildings, he feels that, in case 

 of war, hardly a man would be needed at 

 home to carry on the minute details of office 

 work. The Landwehr and the Landsturm 

 could march out to a man, and not a wheel of 

 government machinery would be checked in 



its movement. Germany, in this respect, is 

 still in the Oriental stage, and it behooves 

 her public men to look into this matter from 

 the standpoint of military strength. Cer- 

 tainly such an argument might reach her, 

 despite the uniform brutality which marks a 

 German's attitude toward women as contrast- 

 ed with their treatment by other nations. 



A Washington Bible - Class. By Gail 

 Hamilton. New York : D. Appleton & 

 Co. Pp. 303. Price, $1.50. 



The story of the Bible-class is told in an 

 introductory chapter. A mother in Wash- 

 ington, embarrassed by the refusal of her 

 sons to accept certain doctrines as they are 

 held by the theologians, and finding it 

 equally embarrassing to teach them what 

 her reason could not approve, consulted 

 with other mothers about the religious 

 instruction of their children. The end of 

 the consultation was the formation of a 

 class to study the Bible, not with reference 

 to speculation, but to find the truth in 

 it ; not what there might be of Calvin- 

 ism, or Lutheranism, or agnosticism, or 

 Catholicism, or Universalism, but what is 

 Scripture ; not what men say Scripture says 

 and means, but what Scripture itself means 

 and says. " The class, as it grew, embraced 

 members of the families of the Cabinet, of 

 Congressmen, diplomats, scientific and lit- 

 erary men, etc., and persons of a great va- 

 riety of shades of belief. The class was at 

 first intended to be conversational, and its 

 idea one of common study, comparison of 

 results, and general conference " ; but the 

 woman who was chosen leader soon found 

 herself doing most of the talking, and the 

 proceedings, as they are presented in the 

 book, took the form of lectures. The tenor 

 of these lectures is what we might describe, 

 without presuming to express an opinion or 

 to approve or disapprove, as embodying a 

 common-sense view of the questions that 

 arose. The narrative is composed, as to its 

 most remarkable passages, in an anthropo- 

 morphic state of mind, which sees God in 

 everything, regards all phenomena as his 

 direct act, and personifies him as the actor. 

 It is assumed that the destruction of 

 Sodom and Gomorrah was by an eruption 

 of natural gas in that asphaltic region ; 

 that Lot was warned by a messenger who 



