748 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Science Monthly, which I think excel- 

 lent in itself and perfectly adapted to 

 its purpose of diffusing knowledge and 

 a right way of thinking more widely 

 among the people. I have done what 

 I could to spread the knowledge of 

 the periodical, and it is here very 

 highly esteemed. Prof. Helmholtz and 

 Prof. Dubois- Key mond have both 

 spoken to me their opinions very 

 much in its favor, and higher author- 

 ity could not be found. I should not 

 do justice to ray own opinions if I did 

 not add how well I think you deserve 

 of the country for the persistent and 

 judicious manner in which you em- 

 ploy your great influence through your 

 business to spread through the country 

 the important works of science as fast 

 as they appear. In this way you give 

 very material aid toward educating the 

 coming generation to the love of truth 

 and a knowledge of the world in which 

 they live." 



In the same letter Mr. Bancroft 

 adds : "I send you to-day a copy of a 

 masterly address of Prof. Dubois-Rey- 

 mond, who, you know, stands among 

 the highest in his branch of science : I 

 hope you will have it translated and 

 published in The Popular Science 

 Monthly. No essay of the kind since 

 I have been in Germany has attracted 

 so much attention, and, as you see, it 

 has already arrived at its third edi- 

 tion." The address here spoken of is 

 on " The Limits of our Knowledge of 

 Nature." It is certainly a masterly 

 discussion, and will appear in our next 

 issue. 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 



Of the great movement of modern 

 culture, one of the most important 

 phases is that now recognized as the 

 "higher education of woman." That 

 woman requires a better education 

 than she has hitherto had, and that 

 it should also be of a higher grade, 

 are undeniable, although the prac- 



tical questions that arise in the at- 

 tempt to define and attain it are seri- 

 ous and formidable. The prevalent 

 short-cut solution of the problem — 

 women crave a higher education, there- 

 fore open to them the higher institu- 

 tions — is as far as possible from being 

 an adequate or satisfactory disposition 

 of the case. 



It is a constant complaint among 

 the leaders of the woman's movement, 

 that, in consequence of the long subjec- 

 tion of the sex to the domination of 

 men, women have not been allowed or 

 incited to think for themselves. They 

 complain that women's ideas have been 

 moulded by men, in conformity to the 

 state of subordination in which the 

 weaker sex has been held, and that the 

 first thing women have to do is to as- 

 sert themselves mentally, to develop 

 their own powers in their own way, to 

 form their own opinions, and not be 

 forever dependent upon those who by 

 the radical bias of an opposite consti- 

 tution are incapable of comprehending 

 woman or of doing justice to her capa- 

 cities. On this ground it is of course 

 impossible for woman to accept a mas- 

 culine education. For the existing col- 

 leges and universities have not only 

 been originated and developed through 

 centuries exclusively by men, but they 

 have been pervaded by the thoughts 

 and animated by the feelings and tastes, 

 and moulded by the aims and necessi- 

 ties, of men. If women are to free 

 themselves from male control in the 

 matter of one-sided mental influence, 

 it would seem that their first care 

 should be not to subject themselves to 

 the action of those institutions the 

 very object of which is to assimilate 

 and determine the intellectual charac- 

 ter of students into harmony with their 

 own policy. 



We yield to no others in the ear- 

 nestness of our belief in the higher edu- 

 cation of women ; but we want to see 

 them take the matter in their own 

 hands, and work out a system of mental 



