in which she had been initiated by Soeur Bernardine, when, not three years ago, she had been the pet of the Convent of Bellaise. At first it was half sport and the desire of occupation, but the produce of her manipulations was so excellent as to excite quite a sensation in La Sablerie, and the échevins and baillis sent in quite considerable orders for the cakes and patties of Maître Gardon's Paris-bred daughterin-law.

Maître Gardon hesitated. Noémi Laurent told him she cared little for the gain-Heaven knew it was nothing to her but that she thought it wrong and inconsistent in him to wish to spare the poor child's pride, which was unchristian enough already. "Nay," he said, sadly, "mortifications from without do little to tame pride; nor did I mean to bring her here that she should turn cook and confectioner to pamper the appetite of Bailli La Grasse."

But Eustacie's first view was a bright pleasure in the triumph of her skill; and when her considerate guardian endeavoured to impress on her that there was no necessity for vexing herself with the task, she turned round on him with the exclamation, "Nay, dear father, do you not see it is my great satisfaction to be able to do some

thing for our good hostess, so that my daughter and I be not a burthen to her?"

"Well spoken, my Lady," said the pastor; "there is real nobility in that way of thinking. Yet, remember, Noémi is not without means; she feels not the burthen. And the flock contribute enough for the shepherd's support, and yours likewise."

"Then let her give it to the poor creatures who so often come in begging, and saying they have been burned out of house and home by one party or the other," said Eustacie. "Let me have my way, dear sir; Soeur Bernardine always said I should be a prime ménagère. I like it so much."

And Madame de Ribaumont mixed sugar and dough, and twisted quaint shapes, and felt important and almost light-hearted, and sang over her

work and over her child songs that were not always Marot's psalms; and that gave the more umbrage to Noémi, because she feared that Maître Gardon actually liked to hear them, though, should their echo reach the street, why it would be a peril, and still worse, a horrible scandal that out of that sober, afflicted household should proceed profane tunes such as court ladies sung.

To be continued.

AT a time, like the present, when the education of the people is engaging so much attention, and when it becomes daily more evident from speeches delivered both in and out of the House of Commons, by men of all political creeds, that the reform and extension of national education will assume, in the future, supreme importance, it seems not inappropriate that something should be said regarding the education of women.

When such phrases as "national education," and "the education of the people," are made use of, it is usually implied that they mean the extension of education to the working classes; and it is also implied when the reform of national education is spoken of, that the only part of the nation, whose education is neglected, and which therefore needs reform, is that part which receives the designation of "the lower orders." We think that the education of women in the middle and upper classes is at least as important, almost as much neglected, and that it needs even more strenuous efforts to effect reform in it. For scarcely any one now openly opposes, in theory, the education of the poor; but with regard to women, before substantial and national reform is effected in their education, an immense amount of opposition, prejudice, and undisguised hostility must be overcome.

Let it therefore be considered what is the present state of education among women of the upper and middle classes: what are the results of such education : what reforms it is desirable to introduce : and what results may be expected from them. We will first endeavour to give a fair representation of the education girls usually receive, and then proceed to enumerate some of the consequences to

which such an education inevitably leads. A girl, between the ages of twelve and seventeen, generally gives from five to seven hours a day to study. This time is devoted chiefly to music, French, German, and sometimes Latin, and to committing to memory and repeating the ordinary school-lessons; a very small portion of her time is given to arithmetic, or rather to cyphering. If this list of studies is analysed and examined, it is found that a girl usually spends her time, not in learning music, but in acquiring dexterity in playing upon the piano; not in studying language, but in obtaining conversational fluency in French and perhaps German; and, with regard to the ordinary schoollessons, the object of these seems to be, to cultivate not the understanding but the memory. The cyphering is still worse it is seldom that a girl has the advantage of being taught arithmetic well, and it is almost an unknown thing for her ever to enter upon the far higher intellectual study of mathematics. To the loss of the discipline which this great science affords the mind may be attributed the defects so common in a woman's intellect, as to be by many considered inherent in it, viz. a certain looseness of thought and incapability of close logical reasoning.

It must not be supposed that we at all despise the above-mentioned accomplishments, of facility in playing upon a musical instrument, the power of conversing in a foreign language, and strength of memory; on the contrary, we consider all of these most charming and useful appendages to a cultivated mind. But they do not form a substitute for education, and no one can pursue them to the exclusion of real

mental training without bringing on themselves great, nay, irreparable loss.

At many schools, girls are now taught either a little botany or a little geology. But what does this really amount to? It is contrary to the first principles of women's education to teach them anything scientifically: so the young lady botanist is generally a mere collector of plants, and geology is reduced to the power of repeating by heart the names

of the various rocks to be found in the earth's crust, together with a knowledge of some geologist's opinion as to whether they are igneous or aqueous, and to a vague impression that the first chapter of Genesis does not contain all that it is desirable to know about the creation of the world. When we hear from men whose education and mental faculties have enabled them really to pursue astronomy, botany, chemistry, or geology, scientifically, that these studies afford to them an unparalleled amount of the highest intellectual happiness, we cannot but regret that access to these branches of knowledge is practically denied to women through the superficiality of their education.

The effect of this lack of mental training in women has been to produce such a deterioration in their intellects as, in some measure, to justify the widelyspread opinion that they are innately possessed of less powerful minds than men, that they are incapable of the highest mental culture, that they are born illogical, created more impetuous and rash than men. This it is at present, owing to the want of education amongst women, impossible absolutely to disprove. If this inferiority really exists, society must abide the consequences; but in this case, surely, everything which education could do should be done to produce in women the highest mental development of which they are capable; whereas, the present system of education heightens and aggravates the difference between the intellectual acquirements of men and

women.

The belief, however, in the innate

it is impossible from want of sufficient data to prove its absurdity, we do not for one instant hold. All reasoning from analogy points to the fallacy of such a belief. There is no marked difference in the minds and characters of male and female children. When they are all in the nursery together the stereotyped characteristics, in the boys of caution and sound judgment, in the girls of impetuosity and excitability, are not observable. On the contrary, I have frequently noticed more difference in character and disposition between two boys of the same family, than exists between either of them and one of their sisters; and when in the members of a family there is a marked and invariable difference between the two sexes, it is sometimes amusing to find the little girls manly, and the little boys what is usually called girlish. All this, however, changes as soon as the divergence of a girl's from a boy's education begins to exert its influence. Let any man, however gifted and whatever intellectual distinction he may have attained, consider what the state of his mind would have been, had he been subjected to the treatment which ninety-nine out of a hundred of the women of his acquaintance have undergone. He probably, from the time he was ten years old, or younger, had the advantage of possessing a real stimulus to mental exertion; he has spent years probably at some great school where there were many rewards in the shape of exhibitions and scholarships given to those boys who distinguished themselves by special proficiency, and where he has perhaps been taught by such men as Arnold, Temple, or Kennedy. At eighteen or nineteen, he probably went to one of the univer sities, where not only great and almost unparalleled distinction is the reward of the most highly gifted, but where intellects of not extraordinary powers are capable, by perseverance, of carrying off valuable pecuniary prizes. But a far higher advantage than any pecuniary prize can afford is possessed by the university student; at Oxford and

sities, the highest branches of knowledge may be studied under the guidance of men whose scientific fame is European, and all the enthusiasm with which genius in the teacher can inspire the pupil is thus awakened. But these pecuniary and educational advantages are not the only benefits which a young man derives from a university training. Many men, who have not sufficient intellectual power to obtain the former or appreciate the latter, nevertheless would not be justified in thinking that the years they have spent at Oxford or Cambridge have been thrown away. The social and moral advantages conferred by free intercourse among young men of all shades of character, talent, and position cannot be easily exaggerated. Friendships, which last through life, are thus frequently formed; and many lessons are thus learned which are never forgotten, and which no other teaching could have imparted. Nor, in enumerating the benefits to be derived from a university life, must the inspiring and ennobling associations be forgotten which are always connected with an ancient seat of learning.

We have now mentioned some of the principal educational and social advantages which form part of the mental training of a large proportion of the young men of the middle and upper classes. What a contrast does the education of girls in the same social position present! They can by no possibility obtain any pecuniary stimulus to mental exertion, neither do they share with boys the immense advantage of being the pupils of the foremost minds of the age. At about eighteen, when a boy is just beginning his university career, a girl is supposed to have "completed her education." She is too often practically debarred from further intellectual progress by entering into a society where pleasure, in the shape of balls, fêtes, &c., engrosses all her time; or, hers being a country life, and it being her supposed duty to be what is called domesticated, she devotes her life to fancy needlework, or to doing badly the work of a curate, a nurse, or a cook. If she does attempt

to carry on her education by means of reading, many almost insuperable difficulties beset her. For example, she probably finds it nearly impossible to secure her time against those who consider any sort of idleness better for a woman than mental culture; she also has to endure the reproach which a woman incurs when she exhibits a wish to quit the ignorance to which society has consigned her. It may be denied that a woman does incur reproach by desiring to improve herself; but there is implied contempt in the term "bluestocking," though this originally meant simply an intellectual or learned woman; and the epithet "strong-minded," though anything in itself but uncomplimentary, is considered highly condemnatory when applied to a woman.

The principal reform, therefore, which it is desirable to carry out in women's education is their admittance to all the sources of mental and moral development from which they have hitherto been excluded. Let all, both men and women, have equal chances of maturing such intellect as God has given them. Let those institutions which were originally intended to provide an education for girls as well as boys be restored to what their founders intended. Christ's Hospital is a glaring instance of the very secondary importance which is attached to the instruction of girls. It was originally an educational establishment for the purpose of maintaining and teaching a certain number of boys and girls. It is now a great and flourishing boys' school. It gives to about 1,200 boys, free of all expense, a regular public school education-it has produced some of our most distinguished scholars and men of letters. Scarcely any one knows that there is an endowed girls' school connected with this establishment; it has been for some years moved out of London, and maintains about forty girls, and trains them as domestic servants. Gross as are the facts of this case, it does not stand alone in its culpable neglect of women's education. Many charitable institutions, for the purpose of providing an asylum for a certain specified number of old men and

women, were endowed with land which was not at the time considered more than sufficient to provide for their support. Owing to the immense increase in the value of land, the property of these charities has been found much more than adequate to fulfil the intentions of their founders. The surplus property has frequently been appropriated to found, not schools for boys and girls, but schools for boys only. It is indisputably unjust, the property having been left for the benefit of both sexes, that one sex only should reap the advantage of its increased value.

We should therefore wish to see equal educational advantages given to both sexes; to open all the professions to women; and, if they prove worthy of them, to allow them to share with men all those distinctions, intellectual, literary, and political, which are such valuable incentives to mental and moral progress. The University of Cambridge was the first learned body that took an important step in the reform of women's education, by admitting girls to its local examinations. The importance of this as a first step can hardly be exaggerated; it has been attended by none of those evil consequences which its original opponents so greatly feared; on the contrary, it has worked with such success that those who at first were most opposed to it are now some of its most ardent upholders. We trust, however, that Cambridge will not be content to rest here, but that, in the future, some scheme will be carried into operation, by means of which women could, with perfect propriety, become graduates of the University. I believe few, even university men, are aware how easily this could be accomplished at Cambridge. The only conditions which the University of Cambridge imposes on students prior to their passing their examinations are, that they keep a certain term of residence, and that they should attend professors' lectures. Now, residence may be kept in two ways; either by entering at some college, in which case residence is kept either within its walls or in

Of

some Master of Arts who has licensed his house as a "hostel." In this latter manner, residence may be kept by students without their ever setting foot within the walls of a college. There would, therefore, be no difficulty or impropriety in ladies fulfilling the conditions of residence imposed by the University; any married Master of Arts who is living at Cambridge could, by obtaining from the Vice-Chancellor the necessary licence, convert his house into a hostel, and his sons or daughters, by residence in it, and by attending professors' lectures, would do all that the University requires of students previous to their passing, or trying to pass, their examinations. course it would be exceptionally easy for those ladies to keep residence whose fathers are Masters of Arts living at Cambridge; but there would be no conceivable danger or impropriety in allowing a respectable married M. A. to license his house as a hostel for girls not so favourably situated. The difficulty of residence, therefore, which many people regard as insuperable, being thus disposed of, what remains? Simply attendance at professors' lectures, and the admittance of girls to the examinations which the University imposes on those who are desirous of obtaining degrees. As for attendance at professors' lectures, so many ladies in Cambridge already do attend them, that it is unnecessary to say that there is no difficulty whatever in their doing so. It is no uncommon thing in Cambridge for a professor to have a course of lectures largely and regularly attended by ladies.

The opening of all the university examinations to girls is therefore the only remaining hindrance to the possibility of their obtaining a degree which has not been here discussed. One examination has been opened to them, and with great success. The Cambridge local examinations have been held at Cambridge, and boys and girls have both been examined there, in different rooms, but at the same time, without the least difficulty or inconvenience resulting; and if it is safe and practicable thus to examine