EDUCATION OF MAN AND WOMAN. 313 



has been the education of males and females, the former striv- 

 ing for more practical knowledge, and the latter yet preferring 

 the ornamental to the useful ; and whilst our colleges for boys 

 .have added to the old curriculum many studies more directly 

 bearing upon the arts of life, the schools for girls have contin- 

 ued showy and pretentious, and the best education our daugh- 

 ters obtain is that at home, where their moral and social nature 

 receives the highest graces of vigor and refinement, and they are 

 taught the domestic accomplishments appertaining to the due 

 economy of the household. Primarily, the education of the 

 man is, or should be, to prepare him to attain property, position 

 and influence ; that of the woman should be to prepare her to 

 second his efforts by her understanding and advice and assist- 

 ance, so far as it is within the scope of her ability, and does not 

 trench upon her own peculiar duty, and also to prepare her for 

 those duties. " To prepare us for complete living is the function 

 which education has to discharge ; and the only rational mode 

 of judging of an educational course is to judge in what degree 

 it discharges such function." Assuming, therefore, as we should, 

 that every boy will become a husband and parent, and every girl 

 a wife and mother, why should there be a parting of the ways 

 when each leaves school, and why should the intellect of the 

 male continue to be fostered and strengthened, whilst that of 

 the female is neglected and her further education substantially 

 abandoned ? It is no answer to say that her endowments and 

 adaptations are not the same intellectually as those of the male, 

 because the same may be said of the bodily functions ; and yet 

 both sexes partake of the same sort of food, and our natures, 

 which assimilate such provision according to the requirements 

 of the system, will do the same with the mental pabulum. 

 Even the advocates of the origin or improvement of species by 

 artificial methods do not carry their theories so far as to assert 

 that any changes can be permanently made in the distinctive 

 attributes of the sex ; that among the feathered songsters of 

 the grove the music shall issue from the throat of the female 

 instead of the male ; that the brilliant plumage shall, as among 

 bipeds of the human race, be the peculiarity of the feminine 

 gender, or that any style of feeding or natural selection can 

 give vocal charms to the dumb wives of the grasshoppers. 

 Neither will education alter the natures of man or woman as 



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