178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



self-control — always under restrictions bounded by her sex and its 

 future possible function. Or, if she disregards these restrictions, and 

 goes in for competitive examinations, with their exhausting strain and 

 feverish excitement — if she takes up a profession w r here she will have 

 to compete with men and suffer all the pain and anxiety of the unequal 

 struggle — let her then dedicate herself from the beginning as the ves- 

 tal of knowledge, and forego the exercise of that function the perfec- 

 tion of which her own self-improvement has destroyed. We can not 

 combine opposites nor reconcile conflicting conditions. If the mental 

 strain consequent on this higher education does waste the physical 

 energies, and if the gain of the individual is loss to the race, then must 

 that gain be sacrificed or isolated. 



Of course, it all depends on that if ; and of this experts are the 

 only trustworthy judges. We must be guided by the better knowl- 

 edge of specialists and those who have studied in all its bearings a sub- 

 ject of which we know only one side, and that side the one turned to 

 our own desire. If one examiner * reports that " of the boys twenty- 

 nine per cent, and of the girls forty-one per cent, were found to be 

 in a sickly state of health " ; if another, f in confirmation, says that 

 " 11*6 per cent of boys and girls in the St. Petersburg schools suffer 

 from headache," we must suppose there is something to be taken note 

 of in the opposition of most medical men to this higher education of 

 women. For we must put out of court, as unworthy of serious consid- 

 eration, that old, well-worn accusation of man's opposition to woman's 

 advancement from jealousy, tyranny, the desire of domination, and 

 the preference of slaves and mistresses over companions and wives. 

 We must accept it as part of all sane argument that people desire the 

 best — ideas as to what is the best differing according to the point of 

 view; as now in this very question under consideration, where the 

 individual gain clashes with the good of the community, and the per- 

 sonal advantage of the woman hurts her usefulness as a mother. We 

 must acknowledge, too, that experts know better than the unlearned ; 

 and that, in matters of health and the wisest rules for physical well- 

 being, medical men are safer guides than girls ambitious for their own 

 distinction, or women ambitious for their sex — holders, too, of the 

 doctrine of absolute equality in mental strength with men, and of free 

 trade in all employments and careers. 



A great deal of the difficulty surrounding the question of woman's 

 employment could be got over by women themselves. If, instead of 

 degrading their own more natural work by the social ostracism of the 

 workers, they would raise it by respect and honor, large fields of pro- 

 duct Lve usefulness would be opened and much cause for heart-burning 

 would cease. The greater democracy of the present age makes it pos- 



* Dr. ITcrtel, speaking of over-pressure in the lri<rh-sehools of Denmark, 

 f Professor J. N. Bystroff. Doth quoted by Dr. Withers-Moore in his speech at the 

 British Association. 



