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XI.

BY ABBY W. MAY.

-Extract from Annual Report of Committee on Work of the New England Women's Club, read May 31, 1873.-

OUR programme for the year just closed occupied itself with the question of women's fitness for entering practical life, presented from several points of view. At our first meeting, Miss Kellogg, in an able manner, set before us the views of several of the most eminent scientific men on the question of the relative capacity of women for the highest education. The extracts Miss Kellogg gave proved that there is a good deal of difference of opinion among authorities; but, whatever may be the conclusion to-day of one or another man, the great desideratum is that the matter should be frankly discussed. Truth will inevitably result sooner or later; and that is what we chiefly desire, even when the lesson of patience is bitterly hard. This valuable résumé of the opinions of others was followed by a highly interesting paper from Dr. Edward H. Clarke, upon the health of women, as affecting steady, persistent mental application. Dr. Clarke -- the skilful physician, the jealous guardian of health, to whose notice comes daily most distressing knowledge of the suffering caused by a lack of it, especially among New England women -- made a strong plea for saving women from the over-pressure and false methods of living, under which so many men, as well as women, break down. The sad fact of great physical weakness among our women is beyond dispute. In that respect, there is no room for difference of opinion; though we thought Dr. Clarke did not sufficiently recognize the gain which has been made in some respects within the last few years. But the discussion which followed the paper showed that the majority could not agree with. Dr. Clarke, in charging much of the misery upon high education or the co-education of the sexes. There are many other deep and clear causes for it; and too little education, as carried up to any high plane, has there been to charge it with so wide-spread an evil. And, again, the statistics which have come to notice are at least doubtful proofs of such statements. On the contrary, they seem to prove that mental training is not only good, but requisite for physical health; and why should it not be so? God has made women, as men, compound creatures, with a fivefold nature; and it cannot be that either side, physical, mental, moral, affectional, or spiritual, can suffer loss without injury to the whole. It is only in the harmonious development of all that each finds its own perfection. The perfect woman must have a sound body, a vigorous mind, a conscience quick, and a heart large enough and true enough to warm and sweeten the whole. Give her the thorough training of all these, and crown her with a spirit seeking the highest, and you have a woman such as we conceive God meant her to be. Who shall dare to say that mental culture must be kept on a poorer plane than the very best there is, because of danger to a woman's body, -- a danger different in its nature from that which men so often find in unwise mental effort? No one would plead for folly, as applied to the training of either sex but that many women are feeble seems a poor reason for depriving those who are strong of any advantage that the world can afford them. Does he want it? is the question we ask in relation to men. Does she want it? -would seem to be the only fair one to ask of the other sex. For both sexes, lack of health must often be practically an insurmountable barrier. Why cannot all interested in this question unite in holding up a high standard of health, in themselves and for others, since no other obstacle can long prevent women from having all the educational advantages they can use.

XII.

BY MARIA A. ELMORE.

DR. CLARKE talks as though women in every thing but college life had perfect liberty to change at will their position from the erect to the reclining; as though nothing else required four weeks' labor in a month; as though a regular, sustained, and uninterrupted course of work was something of which they have never had any experience; and as though identical education of the sexes was the only regimen that ignored the periodic tides and reproductive apparatus of their organization.

We would like to have Dr. Clarke inform us what regimen there is that does not ignore them?

While but very few women are called by a chapel-bell to a standing prayer, thousands and tens of thousands in America are called by the bell of "that university, which has a water-wheel at the bottom," to all-day standing tasks at the noisy loom, and this followed from half-past six in the morning till half-past six at night, with the intermission only of half, three-quarters, or the whole of an hour at noon, throughout every working-day in the year.

Has Dr. Clarke written a book on "Sex in Manufacturing Establishments"? If he hasn't, he ought to.

Women stand behind the counter, obliged to be at their post just such a time every morning, and to wait on customers, if need be, the livelong day. Are they excused from work every fourth week? Can they sit, stand, or recline at their pleasure? Are they exempted from tending to the wants of their employers' patrons because they feel indisposed? Nay, in many instances are they not required to be on their feet all the time, even when there are no customers?