34 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDIGNS 



that there is any desire to underrate the importance of what are 

 called accomplishments for ladies. Far from it ; but they should 

 not be the sole curriculum of their schools. If their education be- 

 gms at 8 years old, and lasts till i8 there is abundance of time to 

 train them in all necessary things, whether practical or ornamen- 

 tal, and if the sons of noblemen and the highest in the land have 

 commenced the work of lowest drudgery on a ship, that they 

 might become efficient officers, and have worked in blacksmiths 

 shops that they might become practical engineers, why should 

 not young ladies be taught the practical sides of life with which, 

 in some form or other, tliey are almost sure to come into con- 

 tact? Would it n. L I 3 well for parents, and all those interested 

 in the welfare of y^iaUg people, to investigate carefully the im- 

 portance of this subject ? Some of the subjects mentioned it is 

 true, could not well be taught in schools, without at least great- 

 ly changing their character from what they are now, but in 

 many ways, knowledge regarding them could easily be acquired 

 and might prove to be of the greatest advantage even in cases 

 least anticipated. 



Much might be said, in the same hne of thought, regard- 

 ing the education of boys, and this brings us at once to the 

 vexed question of Classics and Mathematics. Is it wise to con- 

 sume many years of a boy's life in studying dead languages, 

 when the same time could be occupied, with equal general 

 training to the mind, in subjects of a more useful nature ? This 

 is a question which is not so eaily answered as some seem to 

 think. Ruthlessly to sweep away our dear old Latin and Greek, 

 however we may have groaned over them in days gone by, would 

 seem an innovation too serious to contemplate, nor would it, in- 

 deed, seem advisable to do so. Granted that they are subjects 

 which do not enter much into practical life ; granted that they 

 are often forgotten, in many cases with a hearty good bye for 

 ever, as soon as school and college are left behind, yet there is 

 an influence upon the mind given by them which is not so easily 

 shaken of. Besides, the general science of language is never so 

 clearly comprehended as when there is a good knowledge of 

 Latin and Greek. It is a true saying that no man knows well 

 his own language till he has learned another, and nearly all the 



