324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Think of an undeveloped brain getting up book-knowledge on ten 

 different subjects all the same day, and this going on day after day 

 for years ! It is altogether contrary to the principles of a sound 

 psychology to imagine that any sort of mental process, worthy of the 

 name of thinking, can take place in that brain while that is going on. 

 The natural tendency of a good brain at that age to be inquisitive 

 and receptive is glutted to more than satiety. The natural process of 

 building up a fabric of mental completeness by having each new fact 

 and observation looked at in different ways, and having it suggest 

 other facts and ideas, and then settle down as a part of the regular fur- 

 niture of the mind, can not possibly go on where new facts are shov- 

 eled in by the hundred day by day. The effect of this is bad on 

 boys, but is worse on gii:ls, because it is more alien to their mental 

 constitution. The effect on them of this unnatural process is to ex- 

 haust the nervous power at the time, and to leave the brain afterward 

 filled with useless things that are soon forgotten and pass away ; as 

 Goethe said about professional men : they labor under a great disad- 

 vantage in not being allowed to be ignorant of what is to them use- 

 less. The vital energies and nervous power that had thus been thrown 

 away should have gone toward a feminine equipment of a healthy, 

 well-developed body, a mind built up and stored with knowledge that 

 had a relation to its own nature and to the wants of its future life, 

 affections not attenuated by scholastic routine, and a cheerfulness that 

 is only compatible with good health. The cramming up of the dry 

 facts of those many subjects is in most cases a weariness and pain, 

 while the intelligent study of one third of them, selected on account 

 of their fitness to the mental constitution of the learner, or her prob- 

 able requirements in future life, might be a pleasure and a lasting 

 profit. I would strongly advise parents occasionally to take their 

 daughters' night tasks and do them themselves. It is far more im- 

 portant to extend female education till after twenty years of age than 

 male education. 



While education is going on, a regular periodic testing of the 

 bodily growth and condition should also be carried out in the case of 

 every girl. Her rate of growth should be marked by a notch on a stick 

 every quarter. As regularly as the school fees are paid her weight 

 should be taken, the color of her cheeks and lips should be looked at 

 and noted, her appetite and digestion should be looked to, her habits 

 of activity or otherwise should be observed, her power of sleeping 

 should be noticed, the mode of growth should be observed — e. g., 

 whether her chest is expanding, whether her shoulders are sloping or 

 stooping, whether she is soft or firm in the flesh, etc. Her general 

 mental condition, whether she is frolicsome or irritable, enthusiastic 

 or sluggish, selfish and grudging, or not, is of great moment as an in- 

 dex of the general brain-condition. Of course, anything like disorder 

 of health, or pain, or sleeplessness, or want of appetite, or pallor, or 



