that sex had been secured beyond any serious reaction. Spaniards, French, and Dutch took none. Even now the number of female emigrants to America is far beneath that of the male; The people who settled New England but in the time when America was thought were very peculiarly trained: they were of only as a wilderness full of savages, people of refinement and education reduced every woman who went voluntarily was a to poverty, and compelled to do hard work. heroine. With the exception of those of That work was an important part of their the Spaniards in the south-west of America, tuition, and the idea was handed down as a the Indian squaws were not inclined to fa- law that the thinker must work and the vour the advances of the European adven- worker must think. It was thus from the turers. So great inducements were offered earliest days held that women should unite to European women to go to Virginia and the highest intellectual culture with domesNew England, and a system of importation tic duties which, in a land of few sersomething like that by which Miss Rye is vants, are generally arduous. The Yankee supplying Australia was devised. Many girls have thus had real powers and practiof the women who followed the pilgrims to cal qualities trained in them; and they were New England were moved to do so by their much more ready to march westward by the religious sympathies with them, and thus side of man, than their sisters of the old that region began with a somewhat superior world had ever been. Nevertheless, destiny class of women. Nevertheless, in all the was not to be swerved from its old method early settlements of America, women were of elevating woman. The discovery of for several generations rare enough to be gold in California, and other regions of of great importance, and obtained a con- the Pacific coast, and the wars attending sideration in society far beyond that which the settlement of Texas and Kansas, led to they enjoyed in Europe. The reader of another vast male emigration beyond the the early histories of the American colonies Mississippi. At one time a woman could will find that women were mixed up with hardly walk through the streets of San some of their most important public affairs. Francisco without having every one pause Indeed, it is almost certain that women would to gaze on her; and a child was so rare that have been enfranchised in New England-as once at a theatre in the same city, where a they were for a time in New Jersey - but woman had taken her infant, when it began for something in Paul's writings about their to cry, just as the orchestra began to play, keeping silence in the churches, and the a man in the pit cried out- "Stop those Puritan State was a kind of church. How- fiddles and let the baby cry. I haven't ever, fortunately for women in America, heard such a sound for ten years!" The the high value which the people of New audience applauded this sentiment; the orEngland placed upon their mothers took a chestra stopped; and the baby continued better form even than enfranchisement. It its performance amid unbounded enthutook the form of giving the girls a good and sound education. The Puritans placed reading the Bible above all other things; the school thus was to them a part of the plan of salvation; and since the hard soil and the Indians demanded all the energies of the men, it was necessary that the women should be trained as educators of the young. And to this day two-thirds of the school-teachers throughout America are women. Under education women were shown to have as various and as valuable endowments as men. And thus it was that when the young men of the Eastern States began to settle in the far West- leaving the women behind them—the elevation of siasm. Into such communities as these women are now following; and in them they are finding a position and influence, enhanced by their scarcity, which is still very remarkable. In America men exceed women in number by a million; and in the West the disproportion is extreme. California there is one woman to three men; in Nevada one to eight; in Colorado one to twenty.* And if the women there had not In The Daily News has recently shown, by the corresponding statistics of the Eastern States, the error of the theory that the lowness of the birthrate in some of those States is attributable to a grow ing aversion of their people for large families. It shows that the result is due to the vast disproportion many thousands of women for whom no husbands which has been made by male emigration, leaving gained in moral and intellectual power, we other lands and ages, have "builded better should see them again having their heads than they knew." A great republic and turned and hearts corrupted by the poor the abolition of slavery were their unforeambition of outshining each other in soci- seen results. The Puritans established ety. But the various important movements free schools to teach people to read the in the West for securing equal educational Bible, and so save them from hell; the reand political privileges, show that they sult is a grand system of universal secular have the ability and virtue to seize this education. fresh opportunity for securing the emancipation of their sex from the thraldom of ages. Similarly, to return to the theme of Miss Becker's memoir, the plan of educating men and women in the same universities We cannot pause to particularize all the and colleges is not at all eccentric—is not changes which have resulted from the in- due to the whim of some visonary — but fluences described. We may sum them up originated in the economy of some Western in one direction by saying that, in 1829, the farmers. They wished to have their daughWestern State of Illinois began the work ters thoroughly educated, so that, in regions of reforming the provisions of the common as yet too thinly settled to have many law which America inherited from England schools, the daughter might be qualified to as it affects women- that work which Mr. teach the rest of the family. And of course Lefevre has recently begun in the House of they wished to have their sons educated, for Commons; - and since that young State - in America particularly - an uneducated took this step, the laws which give up a man is hardly a man at all. These farmers married woman, body, soul, and property were generally well-to-do but not wealthy, to the absolute ownership of her husband, and they put to themselves the question, have been modified in nineteen of the Why should we build two colleges - one for American States, and in many of them en-men, another for women- when one will tirely stricken out of the statute book. No answer? These boys and girls grow up toone dreams that in any of the new States gether in their homes, in neighbourhoods, that are forming in the distant West any in children's schools, Sunday schools, law will reappear that affects the equality of woman as regards property. And in none of these nineteen States has any man arisen to suggest that the home is less secure, or the domestic relations of men and women less happy, than before the household tyranny was overthrown; in not one has there been any reactionary movement towards its restoration. 66 The equality of women has been idly called an American idea; " but that is really to say it is the product of the ages of experience which have passed into man since first from the rocks of Asia he turned his face Westward. Every genuine American idea is a fruit in which has garnered the light and flush of every dawn that has arisen on mankind. We sometimes meet with people in Europe who fancy that beyond the Atlantic men are engaged in evolving reforms out of their inner consciousness, and carrying them out for the sake of experiment; but humanity is the same there as in all lands and ages, and what it does is rooted in the need of the hour. America took up arms against George III. not for democracy, but against heavy taxes; she took up arms lately not for humanity, but to save the Union. In these things Americans, like the people of are possible As compared with the marriage-rate, the birth-rate of New England is as high as it is else where. churches; and when educated they will And a law that no school or college connected | ber of the United States Congress and the with its government shall refuse women on founder of the public school system of New the same terms with men, or in any respect England in its modern shape, is final. Mr. educate them differently. Indeed this ex- Mann was for many years by far the most perience of the Western colleges has so re-eminent educator in America, and he had, acted upon the Eastern States, where the separate plan—inherited from England prevailed, that some of the finest of its institutions have pulled down the ancient barriers. It is even reported that the Vassar Institute the largest, wealthiest, and even most aristocratic female college of New York- has decided to admit young men hereafter; and the founder of the new State University of New York, the "Cornell University," has declared it to be his desire to have it opened to women equally with men. This then is the verdict on the subject after forty years of experience, marked by the critical vigilance of people who have as much anxiety for the purity and welfare of their sons and daughters as any in the world. Indeed, so rapidly are transatlantic institutions falling into this line that co-education may already be called the American system. But its advocates are not content that the matter should rest upon the mere supposition that the plan answers, without any drawback, the simple purpose of educating young men and women for which it was instituted. They distinctly declare that it has resulted in advantages far higher than any contemplated by the economical farmers who devised it. When it began the prophets of evil did not fail to shriek out their warnings that the system would produce horrible results. The girls would become coarse, the young men coarser, and the project end in licentiousness. It is remarkable how often things have turned out the exact reverse of what was theorized concerning them. Theory said the sun moved around the earth; the truth shows that the in pursuance of his duties as superintendent of the schools of Massachusetts, travelled through Europe and made himself personally acquainted with all of its systems and seats of learning. In 1853 this able and accomplished man was induced to accept the position of president of Antioch College, which had just been established in Central Ohio on the co-educational plan. He was a severe moralist, and his wide acquaintance with schools and colleges inspired him with very serious misgivings as to the prudence of this new plan. But after he had been there about five years, devoting himself to a personal supervision over the college, President Mann wrote to his friend Mr. Combe of Edinburgh in these terms: — not a case for "We really have the most orderly, sober, diligent, and exemplary institution in the country. than half through the present; and I have not We passed through the last term, and are more had occasion to make a single entry of any misdemeanour in our record book any serious discipline. There is no rowdyism in the village, no nocturnal rambles, making night hideous. All is quiet, peaceful; and the women of the village feel the presence of our students, when met in the streets in the evening, to be a protection rather than an exposure is now almost five years since I came here, and as yet I have had no practical joke' or 'college prank,' as they are called, played upon me not in a single instance." It But in such a case the testimony of a woman is of equal importance; and this we have from Mrs. Mann, a lady of the highest culture, who shared her husband's toils and triumphs. This lady was in fact partly President of the College, and gave her time and extraordinary talents to promoting its social welfare. She writes as follows: earth moves around the sun. It said the earth is flat; we know it is round. It said the sky is solid; we know it to be a vapour. This reversal of old beliefs has been too common for wise men to accept at once "No one conversant with the daily life and even obvious theories. The experience of walk of Antioch College can deny that the purthe American plan has not only shown that ity and high tone of its morals and manners, in the apprehensions amid which it began both departments, were unequalled by those of were unfounded, but just the reverse of all any other known institution. There are many that was predicted or apprehended has colleges at the West, in whose neighbourhood really come to pass. It is the estimate of schools for young ladies have sprung up, in order that the services of teachers and professors in the persons who have been intimately associated former may be made available in the latter; and as patrons and professors with these co-edu- in such cases there have always been regulations cational colleges that in refinement and prohibiting any intercourse whatever between morals they are infinitely higher than others the two. But it is the universal testimony of in which persons of either sex are exclusively those acquainted with the subject, that loss of educated. On this point the testimony of reputation, and even of character, are not unfrethe Hon. Horace Mann, some time mem-quent in such places, growing out of clandes tine correspondences and meetings. Mr. Mann | connection with any student in it. And in thought the monkish error of repressing nat- short, through personal observations of that ural sentiments should be swept away with other and other co-educational institutions in the errors of the same nature, and a generous cul- United States, we have become convinced that ture should enlist them in the interests of purity. the purification and elevation of the educaYoung people are thoughtless rather than vi- tional systems of the world are to be wrought cious; and it is cruel to put them into circum- by carrying into them that influence which has stances where they can learn wisdom only from never failed to civilize and refine wherever it has gone - the influence of woman. We are convinced that young men are never so animated to high endeavours, never so put upon their manliness, as when in the presence of women; and, equally, that women are never so inspired by womanly senti a fatal experience... At Antioch the dininghall, which was the commons of both sexes, was a charming scene of social enjoyment and innocent hilarity-a scene which Mr. Mann specially enjoyed for its beneficent influences upon manners and happiness. . . In American society the freedom of intercourse between the young has ever been found compatible with virtue, in strik-ment, or so raised to noble efforts, as by ing contrast with the system of repression that exists in the older societies of the world, even of modern Europe." This was lately written, some years since President Mann's death, and when his widow had ceased to have any personal connection with the Institution. Antioch College has been visited by Emerson, Theodore Parker, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Dr. Bellows, and other distinguished men. The testimonies as to its superior character have been uniform. A member of the Massachusetts Legislature who visited it said that he left it with a better opinion of human nature than he had when he entered it. the presence of true gentlemen. The two sexes are meant to sustain and encourage each other, and their separation during the period in which principally each is forming its mind and character, is the relic of an age of monks and nuns an age which branded all relations between the sexes as impure. In a recent address the Bishop of Oxford, in maintaining the need of religious instruction in the universities, said: “A college life is to be a house in which the family life of England is to be exhibited on a larger scale; where young men are brought together, exposed necessarily by that very circumstance to a multitude of temptations to expense, as to the indulgence of natural appetites, as to intercourse with one another, where they may make utter shipwreck of life, if there is not a wholesome influence brought to bear upon them." But how is the college to be the larger English home, with all the pure influences of the family pervading it, if that particular influence which has made the English home what it is, is carefully excluded from it? About twelve years ago the writer of this article, at that time very little interested in the subject of it, went to reside in the neighbourhood of Antioch College under circumstances which furnished ample opportunities for forming an acquaintance with its plan, professors, and students. And although he is quite familiar with the University of Virginia, Harvard, and to some extent with English universities, he has an It was prophesied in America that when entire conviction that in none of those male young men and women were brought toinstitutions can there be found anything gether in colleges, there would be many comparable to the moral elevation, the re- love affairs; and that these would be often finement, or the intellectual enthusiasm, imprudent, and lead to the neglect of which characterize the students of Antioch. studies. The experience of the American In our estimates, male students were first colleges shows that though there were fewer called gentlemen at Antioch. The young cases of this kind than had been anticimen were none the less chivalrous because pated, they rather incited those concerned they did not drink or smoke; while their to better conduct and more earnest study. personal neatness, courtesy, and delicacy Both man and maid aspire to make the best of behaviour, showed that under the refin- appearance in the eyes of those they love, ing influence around them a certain manli- and not to be surpassed by others. And ness, very rare in college students, had ap- why should such attachments be imprupeared in their characters. The college dent? Where does society offer the young had the grace of a refined household. On better opportunities for knowing each oththe other hand, the finest and most womanly er's minds and characters, than is implied traits were visible in the young women. in studying side by side for years? The During the seven years of the present writer's intimacy with Antioch College, he at no time knew or heard of any scandal in chief source of domestic unhappiness is that the young, fresh from their monastic colleges, rush heedlessly into life-long rela the other to long beards. It would be strange indeed if by the same mental diet, the same intellectual sun and atmosphere, women should be made too masculine or men too effeminate. The fact is, this is absolutely a phantom, It ought to be needless at this date to affirm to English people that the broad culture and profound psychological penetration of George Eliot, the severe scholarship of Elizabeth Browning, the political insight of Harriet Martineau, and the science of Maria Mitchell, coexist with the utmost womanly feeling and refinement. tions with persons of whose minds and characters they know little or nothing, or else enter into heartless marriages of convenience. There is too much levity associated with this subject; human happiness and welfare are more deeply involved in it than any other; and to a thoughtful man or woman it will be no disparagement of the co-educational plan that it may lead to attachments which, surviving the test of years of associated study, may end in marriage.* In none of these colleges has the standard of study been in the slightest degree lowered beneath that of those in which young We are not, however, disposed to evade, men alone are taught. The girls have not but rather to rejoice in the fact, upon which asked or received any favour. And they is based much of the opposition to the eduhave shown their entire competency to hold cation of women in directions hitherto retheir own in the same field with the other served for men namely, that it must tend sex, whether as pupils or professors. Miss to extend their occupations to employments Mitchell is as good an astronomer as any in hitherto monopolized by men. That there America; and the professor of mathematics are occupations for which men and women at Antioch -a woman -taught without are respectively endowed we have book the most abstruse portions of her sci-doubt; as little do we doubt that Nature ence with a clearness which the best male has in such cases set barriers which, though professors acknowledged could not be sur-they may be overleaped by peculiar natures passed. The writer has often been in the in long intervals, neither sex can destroy. recitation-rooms, and can testify that the Fortunately, however, we are not without girls in nowise were inferior in their performances to the young men; and at the commencement the public essays read by the female graduates dealt with subjects of general interest quite as ably as the orations of the male graduates. Indeed, the uniform testimony of these co-educational colleges confirms that of the examiners at Cambridge, England, that if there has been any difference between the examinations of the young men and young women, it has been in favour of the latter. 66 The undeniable facts reported from Cambridge have compelled the opponents of all such steps to shift their ground. Forced to admit that women can pursue with equal success the same studies with men, they now say- Yes, but they are not proper studies for woman; they do not fit her for her true sphere; and consequently they unsex her." Now it must be admitted that it would be a strange anomaly in Nature if this were true. Women daily sit at the same table with men, and partake of the same food; Nature has not provided one kind of beef and mutton for women and another kind for men; and yet the same meat and bread are converted by one sex into woman, by the other into man. The two are not unsexed by breathing the same air, or by the same sunshine; there is not a female and a male air or sunshine; and yet one frame converts these to long tresses, None of the colleges to which we are referring permit students to marry while in college. no the means of knowing the directions in which the larger education which some women have managed to secure has tended to widen their sphere of employment. The age in which we live has prevailed against our hereditary theories, and many women have gained strength to contend successfully with the prejudices and sentimentalisms which still imprison the majority of their sex. It is remarkable how little of reactionary defiance has attended the movements of those who have thus been liberated. They have not only not sought to become sea captains or military generals, but have not even tried to become lawyers or ambassadors. Politically they have been content to demand the franchise; while the only profession before monopolized by men which they have invaded is that of medicine. The female physician," in our judg ment, represents so well the healthiness and the safety of the "woman's rights " movement, that we propose to devote some portion of our present article to reviewing the present relation of that sex to the medical profession, and the more recent steps by which it has been reached. Before the female physician had made her appearance, it was a conservative platitude that woman's place was in the sick-room. Conservatism, however, meant that she should be there in the capacity of Mrs. Gamp, and had no idea that a Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was disguised in the nurse who relieved the physician of the more disagreeable duties of the |