the same time, they could not but see that there are
specialties in the feminine constitution, and in the functions allotted
to woman in life, and they believed that these should not be lost sight
of in arranging the details of her education."

To give an idea of some of the complications and perplexities which
beset the infancy of this educational enterprise, I cannot do better
than to quote at length from President Raymond's Report above named. I
think that his testimony, which is that of an experienced and observing
teacher, is of great value, especially upon the point of the ruinous
lack of system that has so generally obtained in the education of girls:

"In September, 1865, the institution was opened for the reception
of students. A large number, between the ages of fifteen and
twenty-four, from all parts of the Union and from Canada, applied
for examination, and about three hundred and fifty were accepted.
A respectable minority of these, say one-fourth or one-third, had
been well taught--a few admirably. But of the great majority, it
could not be said with truth that they were thoroughly grounded
in anything.

"In the ordinary English branches, had the same tests been
applied then that are applied now, one-half the candidates would
have been refused. In these branches the advantage was notably
with those who had been taught in the graded public schools,
particularly of the larger towns and cities; and none appeared to
less advantage than those on whom the greatest expense had been
lavished in governesses and special forms of home or foreign
education.

"In the more advanced studies, the examinations revealed a
prevailing want of method and order, and much of that
superficiality which must necessarily result from taking up such
studies without disciplinary preparation. Such preparation seemed
not to have been wholly neglected; but in a majority of cases it
had been quite insufficient, and often little better than
nominal. Most of the older students, for instance, had
professedly studied Latin, and either algebra or geometry, or
both. But the Latin had usually been 'finished' with reading very
imperfectly a little Caesar and Virgil; and the algebra and
geometry, though perhaps in general better taught, had not
infrequently been studied in easy abridgments, of little or no