HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMAN. 313 



no less becoming to the gentle lady Jane Gray, on whom was forced 

 ■unwillingly the fatal crown, than to the masculine Elizabeth, whose 

 brow it wreathed with a fitness which first taught England how regally 

 woman can reign. 



But this you will perceive to be the point to which my argument 

 thus far leads : — If there is a genuine desire for such high culture, it 

 is not to be accomplished by the mere lecturing of Professors to wil- 

 ling audiences. Only in the belief that there are those among you 

 prepared to become fellow-workers with us ; and, as true students, to 

 strive for some mastery in those departments of science and literature 

 which have been selected for this first experiment : have my colleagues 

 and myself undertaken, at some sacrifice, the pleasant duty of inaugu- 

 rating a scheme which has in view greatly more comprehensive results. 

 ISTor will I allow myself to believe that while London and Edinburgh, 

 Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, already furnish their hundreds of 

 fair students, zealous in the pursuit of higher education, there are not 

 to be found among the ladies of Toronto a sufficient number to en- 

 courage us in proceeding with this movement. 



Do not be deceived, however, under the idea that a series of popular 

 lectures is aimed at. These also have their legitimate uses and value, 

 like fine music or beautiful statuary ; and when, in addition to the 

 refined gratification which they yield, we can reckon up a substantial 

 return of some hundred dollars to one or other of our city charities, 

 their practical value is beyond all dispute. But the present aim is not 

 pleasure ; neither is it pecuniary reward ; but profit of a strictly edu- 

 cational kind. Apart from those branches of higher education which 

 pertain to purely professional training, we see no reason why liberal 

 provision should be made for stimulating our sons to the acquisition of 

 Ancient and Modern Languages, Mathematics, the Natural Sciences, 

 &c., while our daughters aro assumed to have completed all needful 

 culture in the rudimentary acquirements of the school-girl. We pro- 

 pose, accordingly, to try the experiment, on a very limited scale, of 

 inviting ladies to undertake some of those studies which specially 

 belong to a University course. If the plan is ultimately to succeed, 

 a preparatory training must be aimed at in some degree resembling 

 that involved in the requirements of University matriculation : not 

 the least beneficial results of which will be its influence on the curri- 

 culum and training of Ladies' Schools. When this stage has been fully 

 reached, lectures will be required, more numerous, and embracing a 

 4 



