EDITORS' TABLE. 



EDITORS : A. S. PACKARD, JR., AND E. D. COPE. 



The question of the admission of women to our universities 



periodically agitates the controllers of those institutions, as new- 

 sets of female aspirants present themselves. This will no doubt 

 go on until women have the same opportunities as men for higher 

 education. The reasons why they should net enter the univer- 

 sities, as presented by those who oppose their claims, do not ap- 

 pear to us to possess much weight. The diversity of the objections 

 is curious. On the one hand, we are told that the inferiority of 

 the sex is such that university advantages are useless to them. 

 Others insist that the superiority of women is so great that they 

 should not be exposed to the vicissitudes of the student life. 

 Some are afraid of" unsexing " them ; others fear that they will 

 be unfitted for the duties of domestic life. 



We believe these estimates of woman's character to be mistaken, 

 and the fears to which they give rise to be groundless. The relative 

 position of the female sex was fixed before the origin of mankind, 

 and it will not be readily changed in any material respect. When 

 there is a prospect of changing the anatomy and physiology of 

 woman, the possibility of" unsexing " her will present itself, and 

 not sooner. It is the ignorance of this fact that gives rise to 

 much of the solicitude which we hear expressed. There are a 

 few abnormal individuals of each sex, whose sex characters are 

 not pronounced, but this irregularity is very apt to right itself in 

 a second generation, if any there be. For the mass of both sexes 

 the obvious necessity is to make the most of them, intellectually, 

 affectionally, and physically. The policy towards woman has too 

 often been to dwarf them in one or all of these respects. In the 

 East the physical and emotional are encouraged, and the intel- 

 lectual is suppressed. In the West the physical is discouraged, 

 shall the intellectual be so also? To suppress the intellectual 

 development of woman, argues ignorance of his own position on 

 the part of man. This ignorance gives rise to unmanly fear, and 

 to injustice to his own children, and to the race. Women cannot 

 be too highly developed, and the mind cannot be omitted from a 

 true development. As men are the sons of women, they lose 

 nothing by the education of their mothers. Compulsory educa- 

 tion is quite as much needed for women as for men, and good 

 results might be anticipated were it applied. 



