EDITOR'S TABLE. 



2 43 



French, and German, they will never 

 attain to these qualifications for study- 

 ing the character of children. The 

 seminaries do not prepare them for it; 

 the high-schools and the normal schools 

 do not confer it. Nor is this all, nor 

 the worst. There is no appreciation of 

 it or aspiration for it. The so-called 

 woman's movement, which professes to 

 aim at her higher improvement and the 

 enlargement of her activities, is not in 

 this direction. It looks to public, profes- 

 sional, and political life, as woman's fu- 

 ture and better sphere of action. In the 

 new colleges for women that are spring- 

 ing up in all directions with munificent 

 endowments, the supreme consideration 

 seems to be to ignore sex, and frame the 

 feminine curriculum of study on the old 

 masculine models, and keep it up to the 

 masculine standards. The spirit of these 

 schools is that of a slavish imitation. 

 They are organized with no reference 

 to the urgent and living needs of society, 

 but they go in for the traditional trum- 

 peries of the old colleges ; and, instead 

 of studying science in its personal, do- 

 mestic, and social bearings, the women 

 demand Latin and Greek, and as much 

 of it as the masculine intellect has proved 

 capable of surviving. Children are imi- 

 tators. Savages are imitators. What 

 else are the women in their demands 

 for new and ampler opportunities of 

 culture ? They will study classics, and 

 let the men study the babies ; but, if 

 they are incompetent, of course the men 

 must do it. For this business of study- 

 ing the science of infancy must be pur- 

 sued by somebody, thoroughly and ex- 

 haustively. It is nothing less than a 

 transcendent problem of human charac- 

 ter lying at the foundation of the social 

 state; fur only as the human being is 

 understood in its deeper organic laws, 

 prenatal and infantine, as well as in its 

 subsequent unfolding, can we arrive at 

 settled and scientific views regarding 

 the rights, claims, duties, and true in- 

 terests of the individual in society. If 

 not a new research, it is at least a new 

 impulse and stage of research, and we 



say again that we should think intelli- 

 gent and ambitious women would be 

 glad to have a share in it, and would 

 have wisdom enough to include it in 

 their extended schemes of female edu- 

 cation. 



ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY IN GERMANY. 



We not long ago called attention to 

 a newspaper article under the title of 

 "German Darwinism," which made a 

 point against Herbert Spencer as not be- 

 ing recognized in Germany. We point- 

 ed out various reasons in the national 

 habits of thought, why Spencer's doc- 

 trines, which are put forth under the 

 form of a philosophical system, would 

 be likely not to attract the attention 

 of German thinkers so early as those 

 of other Continental countries. Our 

 view has since been strikingly confirmed 

 by an eminent German authority, Prof. 

 Wundt, of the University of Leipsic, a 

 physiologist and psychologist of world- 

 wide reputation. In a review of the 

 German translation of "First Princi- 

 ples," published in the Jena Literary 

 Gazette, Prof. Wundt gives an excellent 

 account of the book, from which the fol- 

 lowing statements are condensed : 



" Of living English philosophers Herbert, 

 Spencer undoubtedly stands in the foremost 

 rank, yet his works have hitherto been little 

 known in Germany. It would, however, 

 appear that this neglect is soon to be re- 

 trieved, for, simultaneously with the ap.- 

 pearance of the work under review, two oth- 

 er volumes by the same author are issued. 

 By giving an excellent translation of 'First 

 Principles ' (under the title of ' The bases of 

 Philosophy'), Dr. Vetter has rendered good 

 service to his countrymen, and it is to be 

 hoped that he will further aid in making 

 this distinguished author known in Ger- 

 many by translating the subsequent volumes 

 of his system." 



" In the whole tenor of his views Mr. 

 Spencer differs widely from the speculative 

 philosophers of Germany. The indomita- 

 ble persistency with which for twenty-five 

 years he has worked on the various branches 

 of science, bringing them into one system, 

 has no parallel in Germany, save, perhaps, 

 in Hegel's ' Encyclopaedia.' " 



" Among the dominant ideas in this sys- 



