THE PSYCHOLOGY OP THE FEMALE MIND. 



39 



Discussion. 



Miss Maynard, first Principal of Westfield College, University of 

 London, in the Chair, said : — It is an honour to be connected with 

 Dr. Schofield on this occasion. His book on Modern Spiritism is 

 admirable, and inspires great confidence in his judgment ; it is 

 not a mere outcry, but is a definite showing-up of the occult powers 

 that surround us, and a proof that ethical deterioration invariably 

 follows the breaking through the wall of personality a beneficent 

 Providence has placed around each of us — " By their fruits ye 

 shall know them " is our guiding rule for all life, and here the results 

 are obvious. 



Turning to the pleasanter and brighter subject immediately before 

 us, Dr. Schofield applies the same Divine rule, and his verdict on 

 the position of the younger women to-day is most favourable. 

 Indeed, he is very generous ; he does not look at the exceptions — ■ 

 and, alas, these can easily be found among us ! — but observes the 

 main current of reform, which has rendered the wage-earning young 

 women of to-day steady, dignified, reticent and high-principled 

 Every fire, when first lighted, is invariably attended with discomforts 

 feefore it settles down to a clear working heat, and not for one 

 moment would I defend eccentricity, violence, or loss of gentle manners . 

 But looking at the penetrating immensity of the reform, we surely 

 may thank Heaven and say. Never was there a fire lighted with less 

 smoke ! Read the early days of our national heroine, Florence 

 Nightingale, and mark how convention closed her round like a 

 bird in a gold cage, and the intensity of resolution needed before 

 she was allowed to fly. The efforts spent on gaining a general 

 education came later, and I have been in the thick of the strife 

 from its inception. My own Girton years were 1872-1875, when the 

 whole matter was a subject for rebuke or for merriment. We were 

 looked at askance, and now and then — especially with regard to a 

 medical education — there were serious hints that we were disgracing 

 ourselves and in consequence all womanhood. It was the urgent 

 claim of the Zenana Mission helped to pull us through on this 

 score, but to stand full against the current of popular opinion is 

 always a trying position. The Right does win in the long run, 



