by that young girl whose fingers we saw gliding swiftly over the strings of her harp, by her who sat in the garden shade wreathing herself with flowers, by her who sang the fairy song, or by her who, wearied with the dance, fell asleep in a cloud of her own dishevelled hair.

Also, to take a darker view of the picture: the man of pleasure, once no worse than a selfish boy; the gambler, once only the child who was fond of any playful risk; the defrauder, once only weak in resisting temptation, but subsequently the shame of his country and the ruin of his home; these will all have passed under the training hand, the watchful eye, and the tender nurture of some amongst those gay young girls whom we saw so carelessly floating along the stream of life. Or, if the training and the nurture have been wanting, the case is no better. Neglect can do its work as well, or, rather, as ill as mistaken effort. If the care-taker of childhood forgets to do her part, nature asserts her claim, and passion and self-will seize the victim for their own.

Besides these, there are the daughters of such families to be considered, the sisters of such brothers, the mothers of such sons, in a future generation. But no, we will not believe it. Rather let us look forward to the dawn of a happier day, when the education of the heart shall keep pace

with that of the head; and when women shall faithfully maintain their legitimate place in the training of youth, so as that one generation after another shall be marked by greater dignity and worth of character, and each, with God's blessing, be more noble, happier, and better than the last.

CHAPTER II.

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS.

HE fitness of a worker for his work is universally regarded as a point essential to

success. Not only has fitness derived from right teaching to be considered, but natural fitness; or, in other words, the adaptation of a man's whole character, including his talents and inclinations, to that which he has to do. This is a point which parents would often give much to ascertain before sending their sons out into the world; and it is one in which employers are equally concerned when they engage an agent to execute their designs. Many a good position has had to be given up from the want of natural fitness for its requirements; and, owing to the same cause, many a worthy and industrious worker has failed in the business or profession selected for him by his friends, when he might have made honourable progress in some other line for which he was adapted by nature.

No amount of instruction can entirely remedy the defect of natural unfitness; while, on the other and, a surprisingly small amount of training in the line which nature indicates will sometimes so place a person in the way of helping himself that he will spring onward from one point to another, and finally attain a degree of excellence impossible to one differently constituted by nature.

And if this be true of the lower branches of human labour, such as mechanical operations, or even a little higher in the region of art, how much more does the same fact of natural fitness or unfitness operate through all the higher range of intellect, and all the efforts of enterprise in which mankind are engaged. The man of study-of minute and careful investigation of the details of physics or metaphysics-could scarcely be expected to make a successful leader of an army; nor could an explorer settle very well to the adjustment of the small perplexities of a country parish. It is the same through every department of usefulNot only must the intellect be instructed in what has to be done, but the nature, the heart, the whole being, must be such that it can be thrown into the work in order to carry it out successfully.

ness.

Those who have had anything to do with education will be sufficiently aware of this fact. The best masters cannot make a musician of a girl who

has no "music in her soul," nor a true artist in any other branch of execution. To a certain extent it is undoubtedly necessary that all children should acquire a respectable amount of proficiency in the common branches of education, that all the faculties of their minds should be so exercised as to be capable of working when required, at least in a respectable manner; but with regard to many of these the calculation of numbers, for example-it would scarcely be less cruel than absurd to devote a child to the life of an accountant, who had no natural turn for arithmetic.

If in the boys and girls of any particular school there is this difference, and if in the after lives of such individuals we find the difference still more strongly marked, it is but reasonable to suppose that between boys and girls it will be greater and more manifest, especially as they mature into men and women; and this may surely be admitted without any interference with the popular demand of the present day in favour of education being the same for both. With this question I have little to do. My simple idea is, that the more both boys and girls can learn the better, especially of such things as are likely to be advantageous to them in after life. It is of occupation that I am about to speak; of work, and of that work being the best for all persons, whether men or women, for which