of other persuasions in accepting a
fundamental difference of ideals for girls and boys. Our ideals of
family life, of spheres of action which co-operate and complete each
other, without interference or competition, our masculine and feminine
types of holiness amongst canonized saints, give a calmer outlook upon
the questions involved in the discussion. The Church puts equality and
inequality upon such a different footing that the result is harmony
without clash of interests, and if in some countries we are drawn into
the arena now, and forced into competition, the very slackness of
interest which is sometimes complained of is an indirect testimony to
the truth that we know of better things. And as those who know of better
things are more injured by following the less good than those who know
them not, so our Catholic girls seem to be either more indifferent about
their work or more damaged by the spirit of competition if they enter
into it, than those who consider it from a different plane.

2. Natural science has of late years assumed a title to which it has no
claim, and calls itself simply "_Science_"--presumably "_for short,_" but
to the great confusion of young minds, or rather with the effect of
contracting their range of vision within very narrow limits, as if
theology and Biblical study, and mental and moral, and historical and
political science, had no place of mention in the rational order where
things are studied in their causes.

Inquiry was made in several schools where natural science was taught
according to the syllabuses of the Board of Education. The question was
asked, "What is science?"--and without exception the answers indicated
that science was understood to mean the study of the phenomena of the
physical world in their causes. The name "Science" used by itself has
been the cause of this, and has led to the usual consequences of the
assumption of unauthorized titles.

Things had been working up in England during the last few years towards
this misconception in the schools. On the one hand there was the great
impetus given to physical research and experimental science in recent
years, so that its discoveries absorbed more and more attention, and
this filtered down to the school books.

On the other hand, especially since the South African war, there had
been a great stir in reaction against mere lessons from books, and it
was seen that we wanted more personal initiative and thought, and
resourc