192 REroKT — 1876. 



stages of the progress of the young human bemg is education useful as a mental 

 o-ymuastic, and how far and when as a means of communicating positive knowledge 

 to be retained. As a mental gymnastic, which are the faculties most to be culti- 

 vated ? and in which, boys or girls, are particular faculties to he drawn out ? Can 

 we classify and distinguish the faculties of the mind — distinguish memory from the 

 reasuniug power for instance ? 



I am inclined to think that imder the present haphazard sj'stem a boy generally 

 gets that mental training which he least wants. The boy with a good memory, 

 who does not need the excessive development of that faculty, does work depending 

 on memory because " he has a turn for it;" and his reasoning powers remain dor- 

 mant for ever. The only boy whoso reasoning powers are exercised by Euclid is 

 the rare boy who has a ii(rn for that sort of thing, and who does not need such 

 a gymnastic. 



Then, when we come to the acquisition of knowledge, can we not distinguish 

 the knowledge to be turned to use in after life ? Is there no distinction in the 

 teaching of boys destined for one sphere of life or another ? In England, at any 

 rate, do not the chains forged by degrading endowments tie down almost all to 

 the same dull routine ? Is the knowledge of the things, the creatures, and the 

 uses of the world put in due proportion to mere empirical learning ? I ask all 

 these questions without pretending to answer them ; but I do again venture 

 to suggest that education at present, of all things, requires scientific inquiry and 

 scieutilic treatment. We must even, in dealing with education, go to the bottom 

 of things, and inquire how far qualities are born, and how far they are produced 

 by association and education. 



As regards the education and employment of women, is not -there great 

 room for scientific inquirj' on the question how far the mind of woman differs from 

 that of man ? Is there not, in fact, a very considerable mental difference between 

 man and woman, just as there is a considerable bodily difference ? Is not woman, 

 to some extent at least, a different creature from man, so that v.c may in some 

 sort predicate that under certain conditions a man will act in one way and a woman 

 will act in another way, in tlie same manner (though not in the same degree) as we 

 can predicate that a dog v.-ill act in one way and a cat in another? To some 

 degree I am inclined to think that there is some natural difference, and that this 

 difference must be taken into uccoimt in determining the treatment, the employment, 

 and the functions of women. 



It is because I thoroughly sympathize with the desire of so many women of the 

 middle classes to hud useful and honourable employment for themselves that I 

 think scientific inquiry ijito the economic capacities of tlie creature woman most 

 necessary. If we can once solve that part of the problem, the rest wiU be com- 

 paratively easy. I feel sure that there are mar^y functions, whether they depend 

 on uimbleness of finger, sympathy of heart, or quickness of intellect, for which 

 women are especially fitted, while there are others for which tlieir nature is less 

 fitted and in respect of which tliey will do well to avoid an unequal rivalry with man. 

 As education fits a man for his duty in the scheme of economy, so dissipation of 

 various kinds unfits him ; and we can hardly exclude from economic science the 

 efi'ect of the abuse of stimulants. I was going to say use and abuse, but I think it 

 may be doubtfid \\hether there is an}- real use for stimulants at all. In dealing 

 Avith the matler scientificallj-, it seems \ ery necessary to inquire how far the appe- 

 tite for various stimulants is connected with questions of race and climate, and 

 what is the compiirative effect of pure stimulants and those which have a narcotic 

 clement. It does seem that man when lie lias the chance will indulge in some 

 luxuries, and that di'ink cannot be stopped by preaching alone. Perhaps the best 

 hope of a remedy may be to discover the means by which innocuous enjoyment 

 may be afforded to ]:im in consonance with his constitution and tastes. It may be 

 a question fairly open to consideration whether the whisky of the Scotchman is or 

 is not as injurious as the semi-narcotic beer of the Englishman. And then we 

 have the larger question, whether the wholly narcotic opium of the Chinese is worse 

 than or as bad as the alcohol of European countries. 



I have been led into the suggestion that these things are very much a matter of 

 race by observation of the very singular way in which in Asia the populations are 



