Opening Address. 9 



of science — and they certainly are not incapable of understanding 

 it. Fashion indeed may have drawn a line of demarkation be- 

 tween elegant accomplishments, and the less inviting study of 

 science ; but, -without the sacrifice of any gentleness or refinement, 

 I can discover no reason why that boundary should not be passed, 

 and ladies have the opportunity of studying the laws of "Nature, 

 and a selected system of geometrical reasoning. Since the estab- 

 lishment of ladies' colleges, which, in London especially, has met 

 with such successful results, few will be found to assert that the 

 young ladies educated there have made wives less useful and 

 daughters less agreeable in society than those who have not 

 adopted the same course ; or that they are less proficient in music, 

 singing, and drawing, because they have studied the logic of 

 Euclid, the rules of decimals, which will enable them to keep the 

 accounts of their houses without difficulty when the decimal coin- 

 age becomes law, the general principles of mechanics, and some 

 of the important facts of chemistry and geology. They should 

 know that the phrase "learning astronomy," does not mean 

 merely looking out on a fine night, and being able to point out 

 Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Orion. They should rather 

 learn that astronomy is the most comprehensive of all sciences ; 

 that to be interested by it and understand it in all its sublimity, 

 they should acquire some knowledge of the motion of the planets, 

 and the form of their orbits, the laws which regulate their motions, 

 and of the relative magnitude of their masses • they should learn 

 that the fixed stars are, perhaps, incorrectly termed so, and that 

 they may be systems in motion larger than our own ; and that the 

 sun itself, together with its attendant planets, has, we believe, a 

 proper motion of its own in space. They should know, also, that 

 the phrase "learning geography and ths use of the globes," does 

 not mean a mere knowledge of places and countries, and taking 

 off a latitude and longitude from a common globe ; but that it 

 cannot be studied properly except, to a certain extent, in con- 

 nection with history and geology. 



If any illustrations were needed to show that a knowledge of 

 science in ladies is not inconsistent with ther natural refinement, 

 or incompatible with their usefulness in domestic and social life, 

 I might instance such names as Miss Caroline Herschel, who dis- 

 covered the Greorgium Sidus ; Mrs. Mary Somerville, the authoress 



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