FEMALE EDUCATION. "199 



To illustrate the utter absence of geographi- 

 cal information among the humbler classes, 

 it is only necessary to mention that I have 

 been asked by persons, who have enjoyed a 

 long intercourse with Americans, whether 

 the United States Avas as large a place as the 

 town of Santa Fe! 



Female education has, if possible, been 

 more universally neglected than that of the 

 other sex ; while those who have received 

 any instruction at all, have generally been 

 taught in private famihes. Indeed, until very 

 lately, to be able to read and write on the part 

 of a woman, was considered an indication of 

 very extraordinary talent ; and the fair dam- 

 sel who could pen a billet-doux to her lover, 

 was looked upon as almost a prodigy. There 

 is, however, to be found among the higher 



classes a considerable sprinkling of that su- 

 perficial refinement which is the bane of 

 fashionable society everywhere, and wMch 

 consists, not in superiority of understand- 

 ing, not in acquired knowledge, but in that 

 pecuUar species of assumption, which has 

 happily been styled "the flowing garment 

 with which Ignorance decks herself." 



Yet, notwithstanding this dreadful state of 

 ignorance on all those subjects which it be- 

 hooves man to be acquainted with, it is truly 

 astonishing to notice the correctness with 

 which the common people speak their mother 

 tongue, the Spanish. The application of 

 words out of theh classical sense may occa- 

 sionally occur, but a violation of the simple 



