There were constant demands of force for constant growth of the system
generally, equally constant demands of force for the labor of
education, and periodical demands of force for a periodical function.
The regimen she followed did not permit all these demands to be
satisfied, and the failure fell on the nervous system. She
accomplished intellectually a good deal, but not more than she might
have done, and retained her health, had the order of her education
been a physiological one. It was not Latin, French, German,
mathematics, or philosophy that undermined her nerves; nor was it
because of any natural inferiority to boys that she failed; nor
because she undertook to master what women have no right to learn: she
lost her health simply because she undertook to do her work in a boy's
way and not in a girl's way.
Let us learn the lesson of one more case. These details may be
tedious; but the justification of their presence here are the
importance of the subject they illustrate and elucidate, and the
necessity of acquiring a belief of the truth of the facts of female
education.
Miss G---- worked her way through New-England primary, grammar, and
high schools to a Western college, which she entered with credit to
herself, and from which she graduated, confessedly its first scholar,
leading the male and female youth alike.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92