72 EMANCIPATION BLACK AND WHITE ill 



exceptions, girls have been educated either to be 

 drudges, or toys, beneath man ; or a sort of angels 

 above him ; the highest ideal aimed at oscillating 

 between Clarchen and Beatrice. The possibility 

 that the ideal of womanhood lies neither in the 

 fair saint, nor in the fair sinner ; that the female 

 type of character is neither better nor worse than 

 the male, but only weaker ; that women are 

 meant neither to be men's guides nor their play- 

 things, but their comrades, their fellows, and their 

 equals, so far as Nature puts no bar to that 

 equality, does not seem to have entered into the 

 minds of those who have had the conduct of the 

 education of girls. 



If the present system of female education 

 stands self-condemned, as inherently absurd ; and 

 if that which we have just indicated is the true 

 position of woman, what is the first step towards 

 a better state of things ? We reply, emancipate 

 girls. Recognise the fact that they share the 

 senses, perceptions, feelings, reasoning powers, 

 emotions, of boys, and that the mind of the 

 average girl is less different from that of the 

 average boy, than the mind of one boy is from 

 that of another; so that whatever argument 

 justifies a given education for all boys, justifies its 

 application to girls as well. So far from imposing 

 artificial restrictions upon the acquirement of 

 knowledge by women, throw every facility in their 



