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But the case was very different with the young women who came to take a course of college study. With an occasional exception, they were of an age and maturity of character that made them competent to take care of themselves. One of the chief principles of that college discipline was the absence of all emulation as a motive power. There were no honors to be studied for, there was not even a rank list to show comparative progress, there was no competition for pre-eminence in college graduation, for every student was called upon to prepare himself or herself to speak; and when the graduating class was large the speakers were determined by lot, and not by choice. No pupil necessarily knew how a fellow - pupil stood. If ill-health interrupted study, time and opportunity were given to make up the deficiencies without any publicity; so that Dr. Clarke's objections to co-education on that score fall to the ground, as far as that college is concerned. The mental and moral influences of the mutual college life were very marked in the superior moral deportment and refinement of manners in the young men, and the unexcited and modest demeanor of the young women, both meeting with mutual, respect for each other's intellectual and social claims. One or two instances of extravagant ambition for scholarship, and still more for dispatch, 'were the only cases of failure in health among the young women; and these were not sanctioned or promoted by any stimulus from the president or professors. One ambitious teacher in the department of the preparatory school, who wished the pupils in her classes to make a greater show than others, was duly checked by interference from the seats of authority. The health of both the young men and women improved in a marked manner during their college life. Many came with no knowledge of hygiene or their own physiological need, and special instruction was given in those branches of knowledge. The health of the girls was much better than that of the young men.

Young women who came with their systems out of order, through ignorance and unhealthy living, were greatly benefited, and sent home to spread the knowledge they had gained. But one death of each sex occurred in six years (the period of which I write), and they were both cases of poisoning by food in metallic vessels; yet the hardships were great during the first years, and the exposures rather exceptional, owing to the poverty of the food and the inadequacy of the buildings as to ventilation and water supply.

Regular occupation and mental activity are as good for women as for men. Dr. Clarke probably judges of women by the invalids he has tended; and his observations have been chiefly limited, to all appearance, to the unhealthful life and habits of cities. It cannot be hard study that has chiefly injured the young women he has known, for I suspect few have ever undertaken it. It has been late hours, fashionable dress, with its necessary sacrifice of warmth and ease, hot houses and school-rooms, and unnatural cramming to meet the demands of unhealthy emulation.

The educators of our private institutions for girls will testify that they have found it difficult to induce their pupils to a continuous and thorough course of study. The demands of society, as it is called, have been allowed to interfere; and fashionable schools have lived by fashion rather than by merit. One of the ablest teachers of a private high school in Boston testified that her school suddenly rose to unexampled popularity without any internal changes, because one or two fashionable girls entered it; and it as suddenly settled back to its usual numbers because they and their followers left it in dudgeon for some cause. All such educators know the frail tenure upon which they hold their city schools; and even gentlemen who have taught young ladies' schools have experienced the same sudden reverses. In the late movement for higher education in Boston, one of the most earnest women in the cause, when it was suggested to her that the girls in high life did not, as far as educators could judge, care for higher education, replied, "We must make it fashionable, and then they will care for it."

No, the demand comes from a very different quarter, -- from those whose means cannot command facilities to meet literary, artistic, or scientific aspirations, and who are willing to make sacrifices for education. If Dr. Clarke had assailed the abuses of society, -- children's parties, fashionable dress in its features of bare neck and limbs, thin shoes, sudden change of costume, late hours, and a thousand hardships and exposures to which the less favored classes of society are subjected, -- he would have done better service than by discouraging women's systematic education, and throwing obstacles in the path of their culture. Still deeper, I would again testify, is the wrong he has done to women by assailing those who devote noble lives to charity, to their own culture and to the culture of others, and whom those who know them feel would be profaned by worldly marriages. The children they act for rise up and call them blessed, and by their affection go far toward making up to them for the lost rapture of actual motherhood.