322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they are not in the least responsible. I have known girls cry bitterly 

 because an accident or headache prevented them preparing their les- 

 sons for the morrow, and blame themselves severely about it. It is 

 not uncommon for our Scotch girls, at least, to think it is some derelic- 

 tion of duty and sin on their part that prevents them from attaining a 

 high place at school. The whole process of education, as it exists in 

 some schools, with its competition, long hours of work, short hours of 

 recreation, enthusiasm for work, and conscientiousness in the doing of 

 it, takes up all the available energy of the girl. There is little left for 

 joyous feeling and enjoyment of life for its own sake. The sources of 

 vital energy in the brain are not sufficiently replenished by fresh air 

 and the frolic natural to the age. Blood is not formed in sufficient 

 amount, and pale cheeks and flabby muscles are the result. Nature 

 can not get material and force to build up the form toward the fair 

 woman's ideal, and, therefore, personal beauty and grace of movement 

 are not attained to the extent they should be. As for a store of en- 

 ergy being laid up, as it should be at that age, for the future, for 

 woman's work of the future, for motherhood, for the race of the 

 future, how can it be, when every available energy is taken up in this 

 educative process ? 



The methods of education are nowadays made far more pleasant 

 for a pupil than they were formerly. Every art and device is now 

 adopted to make it attractive and interesting. That, no doubt, is in 

 the right direction, and it has resulted from a closer study of the men- 

 tal nature of pupils. But it is attended with this danger, that, being 

 more attractive, it can be pushed further and more hurtfully to the 

 constitution, by the aid of the pupils, as it were. Its very seductive- 

 ness and interest, like the tempting courses of a feast, tend toward 

 dangerous surfeiting. 



It must be remembered that, in many respects, the female organism 

 is far more delicate than that of men. This is especially so at adoles- 

 cence. The machine is less tough, and breaks down at slighter causes. 

 It has more calls on it. It needs more careful management. It is not 

 steady in its action, but irregular. It is not fitted for the regular 

 grind that the man can keep up. Having beauty and harmony as two 

 of its great ideal aims, its strength is not so great. Having to lay up 

 more for the future, it can't expend so much in the present. Sensi- 

 tiveness always implies delicacy, and in many cases instability in 

 nature. Even suppose it is granted that it was a good thing for a 

 woman that her brain should contain all the book-knowledge that 

 many modern educationalists demand, this good thing might be al- 

 together counterbalanced if the labor of acquiring it stopped one inch 

 of growth, or diminished the joy and organic satisfaction of life one 

 iota. If the men of the future were to suffer and be degenerate 

 through it in the faintest degree, then it would be radically bad. 



There is one most unaccountable want in very many girls' schools 



