2.—“... _equal freedom, equal fate_ ...”
“As long as boys and girls run about in the dirt, and trundle hoops
together, they are both precisely alike. If you catch up one half of
these creatures and train them to a particular set of actions and
opinions, and the other half to a perfectly opposite set, of course
their understandings will differ, as one or the other sort of
occupations has called this or that talent into action. There is surely
no occasion to go into any deeper or more abstruse reasoning in order to
explain so very simple a phenomenon.”—Sydney Smith (“Female Education”).
_Id._... “Was it Mary Somerville who had to hide her books, and study
her mathematics by stealth after all the family had gone to sleep, for
fear of being scolded and worried because she allowed her intellect full
scope? She has now a bust in the Royal Institution!... Whatever view of
the case theoretical considerations may suggest, there is one fact
beyond cavil, and it is this: that the female frontal lobes are not only
capable of equalling in power the male lobes, but can surpass them _when
allowed_ free scope. This has been recently proved in one of the
universities, where a woman surpassed the senior wrangler in
mathematics—an essentially intellectual work.”—Dr. Emanuel Bonavia
(“Woman’s Frontal Lobes”).
The “girl graduate” last referred to is Miss Philippa Fawcett at the
University Examinations, Cambridge, in June, 1890.
3.—“_Together reared_ ...”
“We find a good example in the United States, where, to the horror of
learned and unlearned pedants of both sexes, numerous colleges exist in
which large numbers of young men and women are educated together. And
with what results? President White, of the University of Michigan,
expresses himself thus: ‘For some years past a young woman has been the
best scholar of the Greek language among 1,300 students; the best
student in mathematics in one of the classes of our institution is a
young woman, and many of the best scholars in natural and general
science are also young women.’ Dr. Fairchild, President of Oberlin
College in Ohio, in which over 1,000 students of both sexes study in
mixed classes, says: ‘During an experience of eight years as Professor
of the ancient languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and in the branches
of ethics and philosophy, and during an experience of eleven years in
theoretical and applied mathematics, the only difference which I have
observed between the sexes was in the manner of their rhetoric.’ Edward
H. Machill, President of Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania, tells us
that an experience of four years has forced him to the conclusion that
the education of both sexes in common leads to the best moral results.
This may be mentioned in passing as a reply to those who imagine such an
education must endanger morality.”—Bebel (“Women,” Walther’s
Translation, p. 131). (See also Notes to line 7, forward.)
It is of good omen that the precedent thus set in America is finding a
following in our own isle also. All honour to the University of St.
Andrews, concerning which sundry newspapers of 15th March, 1892, relate
that: “The Senatus Academicus of the University of St. Andrews has
agreed to open its classes in arts, science, and theology to women, who
will be taught along with men. The University will receive next year a
sum of over £30,000 to be spent on bursaries, one half of the sum to be
devoted to women exclusively. Steps are being taken to secure a hall of
residence in which the women students may live while attending the
University classes.”
_Id._—“... _in purity and truth,
Through plastic childhood and retentive youth_.”
“Je voudrais que ce petit volume apportât au lecteur un peu de la
jouissance que j’ai goûtée en le composant. Il complète mes _Souvenirs_,
et mes souvenirs sont une partie essentielle de mon œuvre. Qu’ils
augmentent ou qu’ils diminuent mon autorité philosophique, ils
expliquent, ils montrent l’origine de mes jugements, vrais ou faux. Ma
mère, avec laquelle j’ai été si pauvre, à côté de laquelle j’ai
travaillé des heures, n’interrompant mon travail que pour lui dire:
‘Maman, êtes-vous contente de moi?’ mes petites amies d’enfance qui
m’enchantaient par leur gentillesse discrète, ma sœur Henriette, si
haute, si pure, qui, à vingt ans, m’entraîna dans la voie de la raison
et me tendit la main pour franchir un passage difficile, ont embaumé le
commencement de ma vie d’un arôme qui durera jusqu’à la mort.”—Ernest
Renan (“Souvenirs d’Enfance.”).
5.—“_Their mutual sports of sinew and of brain._”
“No boy nor girl should leave school without possessing a grasp of the
general character of science, and without having been disciplined more
or less in the methods of all sciences; so that when turned into the
world to make their own way, they shall be prepared to face scientific
problems, not by knowing at once the conditions of every problem, or by
being able at once to solve it, but by being familiar with the general
current of scientific thought, and by being able to apply the methods of
science in the proper way, when they have acquainted themselves with the
conditions of the special problem.”—T. H. Huxley (“Essay on Scientific
Education”).
And the same learned professor tells us, on another occasion:—“A liberal
education is an artificial education which has not only prepared a man
to escape the great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has
trained him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards which Nature
scatters with as free a hand as her penalties. That man, I think,”
(shall we not include “woman” also, on his own showing as above?) “has
had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body
is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all
the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a
clear, cold logic engine, with all its parts in equal strength and in
smooth working order, ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to every
kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the
mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental
truths of Nature, and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted
ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to
come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who
has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all
vileness, and to respect others as himself.
“Such an one, and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education, for
he is as completely as a man can be in harmony with Nature. He will make
the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; she
as his ever beneficent mother, he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self,
her minister, and interpreter.”—_Id._ (“Essay on a Liberal Education.”)
6.—“_In strength alike the sturdy comrades train_; ...”
How largely strength is simply a matter of training may be instanced by
a case or two:—
“The results of practice and training from childhood on the bodily
development can be seen in female acrobats and circus riders, who could
compete with any man in courage, daring, dexterity, and strength, and
whose performances are frequently astonishing.”—Bebel (“Woman,” p. 126).
“I am a medical man. I have spent several years in Africa, and have seen
human nature among tribes whose habits are utterly unlike those of
Europe. I had been accustomed to believe that the _muscular_ system of
women is necessarily feebler than that of men, and perhaps I might have
dogmatised to that effect; but, to my astonishment, I found the African
women to be as strong as our men.... Not only did I see the proof of it
in their work and in the weights which they lifted, but on examining
their arms I found them large and hard beyond all my previous
experience. On the contrary, I saw the men of these tribes to be weak,
their muscles small and flabby. Both facts are accounted for by the
habits of the people. The men are lazy in the extreme; all the hard work
is done by the women.”—(_Westminster Review_, Oct., 1865, p. 355.)
“Les femmes Sphakiotes ne le cèdent en rien aux hommes pour la vigueur
et l’énergie. J’ai vu un jour une femme ayant un enfant dans les bras et
un sac de farine sur la tête, gravir, malgré ce double fardeau, la pente
escarpée qui conduit à Selia.”—Jules Ballot (“Histoire de l’Insurrection
Crétoise,” Paris, 1868, p. 251).
_Id._... In this context it is pleasant to find in the newspapers such a
note as the following:—
“The frost continued throughout West Cheshire yesterday, and skating
on rather rough ice was largely enjoyed. At Eaton, where the Duke of
Westminster is entertaining a party, the guests had a hockey match on
the frozen fish-pond in front of the hall. The players, who kept the
game up with spirit for over an hour, included the Duchess of
Westminster, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ormonde, Lady Beatrice and
Lady Constance Buller, Lord Arthur Grosvenor, Lord Gerald Grosvenor,
Lady Margaret and Lady Mary Grosvenor, Captain and Mrs. Cawley, Hon.
Mrs. Norman Grosvenor, Hon. Mrs. Thomas Grosvenor, General Julian
Hall, and party.”—(_Manchester Courier_, 12th Jan., 1892.)