she arrives at the period when the third and
last demand is to be made on her growing power, with not force enough to
assume the additional work, and in consequence she shows signs of
disease. And then, forgetting all the previous want of education, we
either tacitly assume that God treats his children as Pharaoh treated
the Israelites in his unreasonable demands, or, holding to our faith in
him, we seize upon the first cause that presents itself to our startled
vision. Because the education of the body has had for a long time, in
our thought, an importance secondary to the education of the mind, we
very naturally seize upon the latter as the cause of the evil, and
remove the girl from school. One is here almost tempted to wish that the
mind might be proved only a "mode of matter," if, by that means, the
body might be raised up to the level of our mental horizon, and within
the circle of our rational sympathy, for if we knew that matter and mind
were the same, the matter of which our bodies are composed might then
secure a chance for respectful and rational attention.

But there are here other considerations of immense importance which must
not be overlooked, and it is to these that any rational treatment of the
subject must turn its main attention. Besides laying the foundation of
trouble at this time, in a neglect of proper physical education for
thirteen years back, we have also taken pains to lay it in too great an
attention to mental education for exactly the same number of years. It
must not be forgotten that the little girl, as she looks out for the
first time through her intelligence-lighted eyes, by taking notice of
anything, while she lies in her mother's arms, looks out upon a vast and
complicated world of civilization, of which she is entirely ignorant,
and that, from the very fact that she is "the heir of all the ages," she
has to make acquaintance with her inheritance. To the baby, the light,
all sounds, its cradle, the room, its own moving fingers, its mother's
face, are vast regions of unexplored knowledge. There is absolutely
nothing, however small, which is common or customary, and, as she grows
older, to the three year old child even, a walk down one of our avenues,
or the examination of a bureau drawer, is as exciting as a journey in a
fairy palace. In fact, the whole world around her is merely one vast
fairy palace, in which miracles are continually occurring, quite as
astonishing and exciting as the