ause the school-master who is
dependent upon the parents of children committed to his charge,
necessarily caters to them. In schools for the upper classes, where the
number of pupils is small and select, he spends his energies in giving
them a show of knowledge wherewith they may startle friends and relations
into admiration of his superior system. In common schools, where the
charges are small, he is forced, in order to support himself, to multiply
the number of pupils until it is impossible for him to do any one of
them justice. But if education were a national affair, school-masters
would be responsible to a board of directors, whose interest would be
given to the boys collectively and not individually, while the number of
pupils to be received would be strictly regulated.

To perfect national schools the sexes must be educated together. By this
means only can they be prepared for their after relations to each other,
women thus becoming enlightened citizens and rational companions for men.
The experiment of co-education is at all events worth making. Even should
it fail, women would not be injured thereby, "for it is not in the power
of man to render them more insignificant than they are at present."

Mary is very practical in this branch of her subject, and suggests an
admirable educational scheme. In her levelling of rank among the young,
she shows the influence of Plato; in her hint as to the possibility of
uniting play and study in elementary education, she anticipates Froebel.
Her ideas can be best appreciated by giving them in her own words:--

"To render this [that is, co-education] practicable, day-schools
for particular ages should be established by government, in which
boys and girls might be educated together. The school for the
younger children, from five to nine years of age, ought to be
absolutely free and open to all classes. A sufficient number of
masters should also be chosen by a select committee, in each
parish, to whom any complaint of negligence, etc., might be made,
if signed by six of the children's parents.

"Ushers would then be unnecessary: for I believe experience will
ever prove that this kind of subordinate authority is particularly
injurious to the morals of youth....

"But nothing of this kind [that is, amusement at the expense of
ushers] would occur in an elementary day-school, where boys and
girls, the rich and