FEMALE EDUCATION. 333 



among themselves. Dr. Clarke, in his most instructive book, " Sex in 

 Education ; or, a Fair Chance for Girls," pointed out to the Ameri- 

 can people the risks of forcing young women's brains, and the actual 

 consequences that American physicians found to have resulted from 

 that process. After pointing out that, as a matter of fact, girls in 

 American schools work seven or eight hours a day, he says : " Ex- 

 perience teaches that a healthy and growing boy may spend six hours 

 of force daily on his studies, and leave sufficient margin for physical 

 growth. A girl can not spend more than four, or, in occasional in- 

 stances, five hours of force daily upon her studies, and leave sufficient 

 margin for the general physical growth that she must make in common 

 with a boy, and also for her own development." In Dr. Beard's book 

 on " American Nervousness : its Causes and Consequences," he says 

 that, as the result of a large number of circulars sent to schools, the 

 replies were sufficient to clearly show that " nearly everything about 

 the conduct of the schools was wrong, unphysiological and unpsycho- 

 logical, and that they were conducted so as to make very sad and sor- 

 rowing the lives of those who were forced to attend them. It was 

 clear that the teachers and managers of these schools knew nothing of 

 and cared nothing for those matters relating to education that are of 

 the highest importance, and that the routine of the schools was such 

 as would have been devised by some evil one who wished to take ven- 

 geance on the race and the nation. . . . Everything pushed in an un- 

 scientific and distressing manner, nature violated at every step, endless 

 reciting and lecturing and striving to be first — such are the female 

 schools of America at this hour. The first signs of ascension as of 

 declension in nations are seen in women. As the foliage of delicate 

 plants first shows the early warmth of spring and the earliest frosts of 

 autumn, so the impressible, susceptive organization of woman appreci- 

 ates and exhibits far sooner than that of man the manifestation of 

 national progress or decay." 



It must be distinctly understood that my facts and arguments only 

 apply to the young woman of average type and of average strength. 

 There are plenty of individual examples, where there is naturally so 

 much brain and strength that a very high kind of general masculine 

 education can be given from thirteen to twenty without impairing 

 the development. In such brains there is room for much learning 

 and much affection and many charms. The reasoning power, the 

 muscles, the fat, and the affections may be all equally developed in 

 them. 



It may be too, I am not prepared to deny it, that an education may 

 be good for the individual in many cases, opening up sources of intel- 

 lectual happiness, that is bad for the race. On the other hand, there 

 is some truth in Beard's aphorism, that " ignorance is power as well as 

 joy " to many men and women. 



From a scientific point of view, I am well aware that the weak 



