CHAPTER XXXI.

NEW SCHEME OF BENEVOLENCE.-FEMALE LEARNING.

It was a custom in Mr. D'Arcy's family, in order to render the pleasures of social intercourse as useful as possible, to appoint various topics of conversation for every day of the week; those of a religious, moral, and literary character being all discussed in turn. At the breakfast-table, on Mondays, the subject always was, any new methods of doing good, which had been suggested to either of the party, from observation or reading, during the preceding week, in order that ingenuity might be directed to this most important field of discovery.

Frederick introduced this morning, in a style of goodhumoured raillery, a plan which he said Sophia had formed, to elevate the character of the ladies, by the establishment of a female university; in which "he soon expected to see his learned sisters, with their friends Miss O'Shane and Miss Swift, passing through their examinations in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, mathematics, political economy, moral philosophy, metaphysics, together with the whole family of physics, natural and unnatural, and to hear their names announced in the papers as the authors of prize essays, on all sorts of re

condite subjects, at the cost of, he would not say how many, holes in their own blue stockings, or their father's and brother's shirts."

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Ridicule is not the test of truth with papa," said Sophia, "and I shall submit my plan, or rather my friend Miss O'Shane's, to him, in spite of your wit, Frederick. But I must preface it with her own remarks. She says, that on entering upon the important work of education, she was quite mortified and pained, to discover how very imperfect and limited all her knowledge was; that she seemed scarcely to have got beyond the threshold of any of the various branches of science and literature; though in the school where she was educated great attention was paid to the more solid acquirements. She then began to reflect on the pursuits of young ladies generally, after the period of leaving school-that most important period, when self-education ought to commence-and how very differently they were situated from their brothers, who devoted many succeeding years to study, under the instruction of able professors, and with every possible excitement to diligence, and every facility for the acquisition of learning, in their colleges and universities; and without being, she says, so absurd as to dream or wish to equal them in the path of literature, she yet can see no reason why our inferior understandings should not receive all the improvement of which they are susceptible, or why, because our sphere is a more limited one, we should be deprived of the means of filling it as usefully as possible."

"Your friend's observations are very natural and

sensible, Sophia, and are such as have more than once occurred to myself. We will now discuss the matter fully, and consider what can be done to remedy this disadvantage of which you justly complain."

“But, papa, are not what the ladies call our superior advantages strictly professional, and necessary only to qualify us for situations and duties which do not fall within their province ?”

"That is but very partially the case, Frederick; the chief design of your education is, or ought to be, so to perfect your faculties by cultivation, and so to enlarge your minds by knowledge, as to enable you to judge wisely and act usefully in any situation. This is not less the purpose of education for the other sex; and if we selfishly wish to monopolize learning, a charge from which we are not all perhaps entirely free, we shall find, that to prevent the intellectual improvement of woman, is to inflict injury upon ourselves, and retard the advancement of society, to which she would contribute her full share."

"It must be acknowledged," said Mrs. Cecil," by every impartial judge, that on the present plan of female education, which makes no provision for their advancement in knowledge, after they cease to be school-girls, it is impossible the minds of women can receive the cultivation of which they are susceptible. We leave off learning just at the period when we begin to appreciate its value, and when the expanded faculties are become capable of entering upon those higher branches of philosophy and literature, which require the vigorous exer

cise of the intellectual powers, and form the study necessary to strengthen and enlarge them. I have sometimes compared the minds of young ladies of leisure, at the period of leaving school, to a garden just brought into a state of cultivation, and sown with much valuable seed, but then deprived of diligent and systematic attention; so that it becomes nearly a wilderness of weeds, interspersed with the gaudy flowers of an illtrained fancy, intermingled, perhaps, with some irregular patches of better cultivation, just serving to redeem the whole from an absolute waste."

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"I fear," replied Mr. D'Arcy, "the parallel will, in too many instances, hold good. The reading of a great many young ladies, during that period, tends only to a dangerous excitement of the imagination and the passions; and though there is a large and increasing number who read books of a far higher order, and thus acquire much valuable information, there are few who addict themselves to real study."

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And is not this, papa, rather their misfortune than their fault, while they are left, without instructors or libraries, to their own unassisted and desultory efforts?”

"I am inclined to think it is, Eliza; a very large number of both sexes require every external excitement and aid to induce them to conquer mental indolence, even after they begin to feel the value of knowledge; and if we had been left like you, just at the threshold of the temple of literature, to force our way onward as we could, without help amidst many difficulties, our success would not have been, I believe, much greater

than yours. Genius, in either sex, may overcome all obstacles; for this ethereal quality, like the breath of heaven, rises, soars, and expands, by its own native and elastic force but there is an inferior, and yet very valuable order of talent, that, like water, will not rise above its level, without extraneous means. I, at least, am not only willing, but desirous, to extend to your sex all the advantages we enjoy, that no other inequality may exist between us, than such as nature has established, for the general advantage of both."

"That is just what I expected from my dear papa's liberality," said Sophia, in a tone of exultation.

"There is little disinterestedness in it, my dear Sophia; for as you become more wise we shall become more happy. An enlarged education will increase your capacity for usefulness both at home and in society, and will especially add to that most important female talent, influence. This talent, which seems intended as a compensation for the want of masculine power and strength, now arises from personal beauty, and the sensibilities of the heart; but it would be immensely increased, if your knowledge and judgment produced the same impression upon our understandings as your numerous attractions do on our feelings."

"But will it not be dangerous, papa, to increase this power, since history gives us so many fatal proofs that woman's 'strength of weakness' is often too much for us?"

"It only shows, Frederick, the great importance of giving it a right direction; and the legitimate tendency