EDITOR'S TABLE. 



749 



cultivation adapted to their own na- 

 tures and needs. The higher educa- 

 tion as embodied in existing institu- 

 tions cannot meet this requirement. 

 It is, in fact, under indictment for non- 

 adaptation to the present wants of 

 men ; and one of the most profound 

 and important of the reforms of our 

 age is that thorough modification of 

 collegiate methods of study that shall 

 bring them up to the demands of mod- 

 ern life. That they now answer to 

 these demands, but very few will main- 

 tain. There are many, and the num- 

 ber is increasing, who do not go to 

 college because the education there 

 obtained is thought to be of little use 

 to the possessor, if not indeed a hin- 

 drance to him in his future experience 

 with the world. Thousands ignore all 

 considerations of the usefulness of 

 what is to be learned, and go or are 

 sent to cqllege because it is the proper 

 thing, a fashion of society, and has its 

 social benefits; and many undoubted- 

 ly go because they have been made to 

 believe that the old education is the 

 perfection of human wisdom for men- 

 tal discipline, and is, after all, the 

 best thing even for practical life. Yet 

 the distrust of the system is deep, and 

 has already made itself so powerfully 

 felt, that the colleges have been com- 

 pelled to yield to it, and in many cases 

 to modify their methods of instruction 

 and create supplemental schools de- 

 voted to modern knowledge. The 

 higher education of men is thus in a 

 state of conflict and transition ; the old 

 education is giving way, and a New 

 Education is rising in its place. 



It seems to us that this is the first 

 fact for women to consider in their ef- 

 forts to attain a higher education. The 

 question that is forced upon men, What 

 shall the higher education be? has 

 even a graver concern for women, for 

 it is not only an open one, but it is an 

 experiment which must be submitted 

 to the test of time, and if mismanaged 

 may be full of peril. It behooves wom- 



en not to be so carried away by the 

 current clamor about the advantages of 

 education, that they are willing to ac- 

 cept any thing under that name that is 

 dispensed from the schools. Education, 

 like every thing else, may be good or 

 bad, worthless or valuable ; but it dif- 

 fers from most other things in this, that, 

 if bad and worthless, it cannot be got rid 

 of. We have yet to realize the impor- 

 tant fact that much so-called education 

 is worse than none at all ; and that it is 

 better to leave the mind to its spontane- 

 ous forces and its self-development un- 

 der the action of the surrounding influ- 

 ences of Nature and life, rather than to 

 meddle with it inconsiderately, to bur- 

 den it with worthless knowledge, or to 

 violate its proportions by an extrava- 

 gant over-culture of some faculties and 

 a total neglect of others. Were the 

 doors of all the colleges of the coun- 

 try to be opened to-morrow to woman, 

 in good faith, and in obedience to a 

 public sentiment that would lead her 

 to avail herself of the opportunity as 

 men do, we believe that the result 

 could not be otherwise than in a high 

 degree disastrous to woman and to so- 

 ciety ; and this because the education 

 which she would get would be not 

 what she requires, would be put in the 

 place of what she requires, and would 

 indefinitely postpone the attainment of 

 what she requires. 



It is well for woman that, in awaken- 

 ing to the necessity of a higher culti- 

 vation of her faculties, she is free in the 

 choice of means; but it remains to be 

 seen what she will do with her chance. 

 There is superabounding knowledge, 

 the ripening of all the past — wheat and 

 chaff 1 ; there is the world's long expe- 

 rience with education for help or for 

 warning; what, then, will woman do 

 toward constructing a higher education 

 for herself? Will she follow blindly 

 the old traditions, content with any 

 thing, and accept the culture that man 

 has outgrown and is rejecting ; or will 

 she be equal to the occasion, and form 



