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We are sorry that he thought it worth while to invent a word to give point to his sneer. If there are any "agenes "in the world, surely we do not find them in the women who, seeking to do some good work in the world, have sought the development of their best powers in ways unwise or absurd, and have in consequence failed to satisfy the yearnings that they feel. "Other tasks in other worlds "await them, and the yearning may still prove the germ of a completed development. The true "agenes "are the men who have lost manhood through vicious courses, and whose innocent wives will never hear the voices of their children in consequence. We look from the possible mother to the father, and I mean all that my words imply. It is the testimony of one even more familiar with the nursery and the sick-room than with the theories of the platform. The vices of men imperil the populations of the earth far more than the unwise studies of women.

Very painful, also, is the witness these pages bear to the small number of wise and noble mothers among us, -- women who can so impress themselves upon their daughters that they should follow modest and wholesome courses, as if by instinct or habit, and should shrink from all the possible unwomanly exposure which has made these pages necessary, Our author quotes a letter from a German mother, as if it could not have been written here. But the mothers of all my schoolmates lived as if they had written it, and it gives the experience of that portion of present society who believe in motherly influence and exercise motherly care. It is true that there are "fast" young women, with whom the restraints of proper feeling do not prevail; but distinctions should be made in the writing. Refined and thoughtful women should be credited with their actual habits. Dr. Clarke has lost a most precious opportunity. It was in his power to stamp the objectionable mode of life with its real vulgarity. If any fathers would but guard their sons as many women still know how to guard their daughters! The revelations of this book are enough to chill any one with horror.

In the writing of this book acknowledged statistics seem to have been wholly overlooked. More female infants than male survive the perils of infancy, and more girls mature into womanhood than boys into manhood. Will any one who looks carefully at the immature half-developed figures of our young men, or keeps the record of their vitality, claim that it is superior to that of women?

In all books that concern the education of women, one very important fact is continually overlooked.

Women, and even young girls at school, take their studies in addition to their home-cares. If boys are preparing for college, they do not have to take care of the baby, makes the beds, or help to serve the meals. A great many girls at the High Schools do all this. Then, if a man who is a student marries, he is carefully protected from all annoyance. His study is sacred, his wife does the marketing. If his baby cries, he sleeps in the spare room.

So far women have written in the nursery or the dining-room, often with one foot on the cradle. They must provide for their households, and nurse their sick, before they can follow any artistic or intellectual bent.

When it is once fairly acknowledged that women properly have a vocation, they may be protected in it as a man is. At present there is no propriety in making comparisons of results in regard to the two sexes.

It is in "education" that Dr. Clarke seems to find the sole source of numerous evils. It is true that he alludes to bad food and bad habits of dress, but so slightly that the reader might be justified in forgetting it. Of dissipation and precocious folly there is scarce a word. He alludes to "the pallor of our women" as if it were a new thing, whereas the second generation born upon these shores bore witness to it. It was observed by travellers one hundred and fifty years ago. As to the endurance of the duties of motherhood, and the proportion of surviving children born to them, our women are far in advance of the first generation, born and reared across the water. It was a rare thing in that generation for man and wife to live together through the whole natural period of conjugal life. The men lived long; but they had two, three, four, and -- more frequently than any one would believe who had not examined -- five wives. Nor can this be accounted for on the ground that the women were subject to uncommon hardship. The settlers of Ipswich, for example, were wealthy; they built houses more comfortable than those they had left; and they testify that one of their motives in coming to this country was the lack of pure water and good drainage in the old. Still their wives perished by the score. "The wind at Madrid will not blow out a candle," says the old Spanish proverb, "but it can kill a man." The change of climate was at the bottom of this early fatality. The condition of things steadily improved to the happy time that we all remember. If the last thirty years has checked the steady gain, let us consider patiently the era of French fashions, vices, and habits, the era of unnatural hours and pastimes. The movement in behalf of the higher education of woman is a very modern movement. No single generation - can be said to have matured under its influence. It is too early to examine the results, but this is certain: whatever danger menaces the health of America, it cannot thus far have sprung from the over-education of her women.