The education of woman has been a fruitful theme for the exercise of the ablest minds that have ever existed; and various and diversified have been the suggestions made upon this, as we believe, the most important, perhaps, of all the uses and applications of intellectual culture. Yet, while this is the case, we very much doubt if any subject is less understood than the manner, range, and degree of female education, and female intellectual development.

In our remarks upon this subject, we shall confine our attention to female education in the United States, as that is the only sort of female education with which we have any practical or personal acquaintance. We believe that it has been conceded by the ablest writers upon this subject, that there is no difference in the primary condition of the minds of the two sexes; and that the difference which exists after cultivation, is due to the difference of that cultivation. That this difference does and ought to exist, we have no doubt; but that the disparity now existing is "right, proper and just" to woman, we do not for a moment believe.

We shall endeavour to point out what we conceive to be the errors of female education at the present day, and suggest such remedies as we believe will at least mitigate, if not remove, these grave errors and deplorable mistakes.

The first error to which we would call attention, is the habit (arising in many, in most instances, from a want of energy in the mother,) of neglecting, in early childhood, the gradual and systematic training of the young mind; susceptible as it is at that age of impressions which, as long as life lasts, will incline the child, and the woman, to good or evil, virtue or vice, great intellectual superiority, or an equally great intellectual inanity. We would not, of course, confine the child to the prejudice of physical, or overload the mind to the injury of intellectual vigour; but we would have even its sports and amusements, subservient to the great end of education, and a bent, as it were, given

to the mind, which would elevate and enlarge it as it grew with the physical condition of the child.

The present system, (a vicious one we believe,) which prevails in the management of boys as well as girls, is to allow them to "run wild" until they have reached the age of eight or ten years, under the impression that it is necessary for their physical health, leaving the mind to be impressed by the vice and ignorance of, not unfrequently, vicious, ignorant, and depraved companions.

The mind of a child is, perhaps, more inquiring in its nature, than at any after age, and hence the necessity of directing these inquiries in a proper channel, and affording such information to the young inquirer as will tend to develope its intellect and purify its heart. We would, therefore, urge the necessity of feeding the mind with the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and thus laying a foundation deep and abiding, upon which, in after years, a temple of knowledge may be reared, at which its votaries "may wor ship from morn till night." Another source of error in female education, is the custom of sending girls, at a young and tender age, to boarding-schools. We are aware that we run the risk of drawing down upon our devoted heads the "anathemas" of female boardingschool teachers, when we presume to censure a custom which fills their purses with gold; yet we are fully pursuaded— and bold enough to utter the sentimentthat of all systems of education, this is the most pernicious.

Let us be understood! We do not say that there is not an age at which, perhaps, it may be advantageous to send a girl to a boarding-school, well conducted and properly organized; but we do say, without the least hesitation, that the habit of sending very young girls to such institutions is detrimental and injurious to moral and intellectual development. Before proceeding further, we would draw a distinction between intellectual and mechanical instruction, for such a distinction-and a very important one

too-does exist; intellectual instruction consists, we conceive, in that system which explains thoroughly, "root and branch," to the perfect comprehension of the pupil, the subject of instruction, so that the mind of the child is enlarged and developed, and not trained exclusively in memory.

On the other hand, what we term mechanical teaching, is that system of getting "by heart," or, more properly, of memorizing certain rules and axioms, without understanding their use and application. This is a routine system which, as a general thing, is ephemeral in its nature, and at the same time destructive to all the higher powers of the human intellect. Taking it for granted that no one who has had any experience in these two systems of instruction, will doubt the truth of our position, we are constrained to say, that in a large number of female boarding-schools, consisting, as they generally do, of many scholars and few teachers, the mechanical system of teaching, of necessity, is the system adopted especially with the smaller and younger girls. Trained in this mental tread-mill, their intellects do not range beyond this limited circle, while their morals are somewhat neglected, and thus habits and trammels of intellect become a "second nature," and forever disqualify the woman from reaching that high moral and intellectual culture which fits her to be a wife and mother. The mind becomes a mechanical inanity, and loses, if we may so speak, half of its glorious and immortal nature. We are fully convinced, and it is due to teachers of boarding-schools for us to admit, that many of them are aware without having the power to correct all these mistakes; but while we admit this in justice to many excellent teachers, we yet think they could do much towards removing and correcting some, if not all, of these grave errors.

No girl should be admitted into these institutions under a certain age, nor should the number of pupils exceed the capacity (mental and physical) of the instructors, thoroughly to teach whatever is undertaken. Another serious mistake in female education is to attempt to teach

too much in a given time; it is utterly impossible to teach a girl in the usual time allotted to education, the long catalogue of studies advertised as a course at these schools, and the most that can be accomplished is only a tolerable knowledge of some, or merely a smattering in all.

The only real benefit to be derived from a boarding-school, consists in the attrition, if we may so speak, of girls upon each other, some knowledge of the world and the acquirement, perhaps, (on account of superior masters) of a few of the accomplishments (so called) of female education. But even these advantages (if they be such) should be held in subjection to a thorough home education, to be acquired before a girl is ever entrusted within the walls of a boarding-school.

We think the essential requisite for female education of a superior order, is to be found at home; let the education be obtained at home, under carefully selected and thoroughly prepared in

structors.

We do not mean a sickly, sentimental governess, who is weak enough to be ashamed of her calling, and ready to throw herself into the first pair of available matrimonial arms; but when we speak of home instruction under competent teachers, we mean an educated and intellectual woman, whose heart and intellect are developed; who enters upon her duties cheerfully, and is fully aware of the privileges as well as of the responsibility of her position.

man.

Under such a teacher, and watched over by parental solicitude, woman will become not merely the sensual, but also the intellectual companion and equal of There are many young men at the present day, who enter Colleges and Universities for the purpose of having their names published to the world as having taken a degree, rather than for the more laudable and nobler aim of attaining to high literary and intellectual culture. So young girls are sent to school to learn a few airs and graces that are patent in this age, rather than for the more glorious privilege of fitting themselves to be wives and mothers.

It seems to us that the grand end and

aim of American women is marriage, the motto is, "marry well if you can, but if you cannot marry well, marry at any rate;" and the sooner this can be accomplished, after "turning out," the better; almost children themselves, they are soon called upon to take charge of a family, with scarcely a single requisite preparation for such a difficult and responsible position. They are fulfilling, in the physical sense, the law of heaven, without either the adequate conception of the duties, or heaven-born privileges and bliss of maternity.

This characteristic of American women to marry early, is in itself an ef fectual bar to high intellectual culture; too young to have acquired much before, their duties after marriage are such as effectually to preclude the idea of any great degree of improvement. We have, in general, no great admiration for old maids, such as we usually see; but we think there is too much sensitiveness among the sex upon this subject, and we admire, above all others, that woman who voluntarily remains a maid, rather than immolate soul and body upon the altar of mammon.

There is no greater source of moral, intellectual and physical decrepitude, than early marriages, superinduced as it is by a want of stability in an undeveloped mind, and a difference so great in the attainment of husband and wife, as to render a compatibility of tastes, home pursuits and intellectual enjoyments, entirely out of the question. Another cause of intellectual inferiority in woman, arises from her habits and tastes of reading, very few of them having read anything beyond the ephemeral literature of the day, a sentimental novel or two, or perhaps a child's history. They are thus of necessity sent forth into the world utterly unacquainted with its history and ignorant of its standard literature, science and biography. The truth of this is fully attested by the style of conversation between the sexes, so insipid and frivolous is its general tone, that a man of sense rarely finds a young lady qualified to discuss any subject beyond the last novel or the latest fashion.

The improvement of woman's education will excite a like improvement in that of man, and hence we have a double inducement for some radical change and improvement in the present system of female education. Now, we may be asked, since we find fault with the present system, what system we would recommend?

This is a question, we confess, more easily asked than answered, and as we do not feel competent to devise a system, we must content ourselves by throwing out such suggestions as have occurred to us, leaving to others the more difficult task of elaborating a system, which we trust will be an improvement of the one now so universally in use.

We would suggest the early training of the child, by incorporating, from time to time, as the opportunity occurs, instruction and education with the sports and amusements of the child, and then, as soon as the age of the child will admit, of beginning systematically to train the young mind.

We would especially recommend that a taste for reading be cultivated, and such books placed in the child's hands as will afford instruction with amusement; parents also should study the peculiar temperament and disposition of each child, for children differ like the same disease in different individuals, and consequently require a different treatment. We would have the education (as far as circumstances will permit) to be a home article, under a competent teacher, and subject to parental and home influence, to cultivate the heart as well as the mind, and especially to study a course of reading; we say study a course of reading, because casual, hasty and superficial reading is of little or no benefit. Let the course of study be prolonged to a maturer age than young ladies generally deem it necessary to cultivate their intellects, and as a consequence of this, let the age at which marriage generally occurs be postponed at least to the age of twenty-five.

There is no question of the following truth, uttered by a distinguished writer, "that the happiness of a woman will be materially increased in proportion as education has given her the habit and the

The above "cut" is a good representation of that portion of the buildings of this Institution, appropriated to the use of students, to lecture-rooms, &c. The artist has executed his task faithfully as far as he has gone. But in several particulars the picture fails to do justice to the real appearance of the college grounds and their surroundings. In the first place, there are several fine shade-trees in front of the buildings, which we do not find here represented. In the second place, the splendid mountain scenery,

forming the back-ground of that almost unsurpassed landscape, which surrounds the village and the Institution on the West, is here but faintly visible. Again, the Professor's houses, extending out on either side of the line of buildings, add not a little to the beauty of the grounds, but they do not appear in the picture. To criticise, however, was not the object with which we set out, but thus far we may go in that direction, so that the picture may be justly appreciated.

"We have before us the Triennial Reg.