FEMALE SUFFRAGE, 433 



closing against herself the gate of domestic life. But the demand, as 

 has been ah*eady said, is of yesterday, and probably in its serious form 

 is as yet confined to the countries in which the special impediments to 

 early marriages exist. In the United States it is not easy to distinguish 

 the serious demand from a passion for emulating the male sex which 

 has undoubtedly taken possession of some of the women there, as it 

 took possession of women under the Roman Empire, who began to play 

 the gladiator when other excitements were exhausted. With regard 

 to the profession of law, indeed, so far as it is concerned with the ad- 

 ministration of justice, there is, and, while human emotions retain their 

 force, always will be, a reason, independent of the question of demand, 

 for excluding Avomen, at least for excluding one of the two sexes. The 

 influence of a pretty advocate appealing to a jury, perhaps in behalf of 

 a client of her own sex, would not have seemed to Mr. Mill at all dan- 

 gerous to the integrity of public justice; but most people, and espe- 

 cially those who have seen any thing of sentimental causes in the United 

 States, will probably be of a different opinion. 



What has been said as to the professions is equally true of the uni- 

 versities, which, in fact, were schools of the professions. A few years 

 ago, what English girl would have consented to leave her home and 

 mingle with male students ? What English girl would have thought 

 it possible that she could go through the whole of the medical course 

 with male companions of her studies ? Even now, what is the amount 

 of settled belief in the right, as it is termed, of "coeducation?" 

 What would be said to a young man if he presented himself in the 

 name of that right at the door of Vassar, or any female college ? 

 Without arraigning the past, those whose duty it is may consider, 

 with the deliberation which they deserve, the two distinct questions, 

 whether it is desirable that the education of both sexes shall be the 

 same, and whether it is desirable that the young men and the young 

 women of the wealthier classes shall be educated together in the same 

 universities. Beneath the first probably lies the still deeper question 

 whether it is good for humanity that woman, who has hitherto been 

 the helpmate and the complement, should become, as the leaders in 

 the woman's right movement in the United States evidently desire, 

 the rival and competitor of man. Both she cannot be ; and it is by 

 no means clear that, in deciding which she shall be, the aspirations of 

 the leaders of this movement coincide with the interests of the sex.* 



If the education of women has hitherto been defective, so has that 

 of men. We are now going to do our best to improve both. Surely 

 no accomplishment in the acquisition of which woman has been con- 

 demned to spend her time could well be less useful than that of writ- 



' The question of female education is not here discussed. But the arbiters of that 

 question will do well to bear in mind that the happiness of most women materially de- 

 pends on their having healthy children ; and that children are not Ukely to be healthy if 

 the brains of both parents are severely tasked. 

 VOL. v.— 28 



