y teachers largely outnumbered the gentlemen. The lady
with whom I was conversing replied that the upper classes in girls'
schools were all taught by gentlemen, as the ladies were not prepared
to pass the required examinations for these positions. "The gentlemen
have a course in the _Gymnasium_ about equal to that in your
colleges," she said, "and then pursue a course in the University, in
order to fit themselves for teachers." "The expense of this is too
much for ladies?" I inquired. "Yes; and they have not the opportunity.
They are not admitted to the University of Berlin, and then--women
have not the strength for such hard studies"! "How many recitations do
you hear?" I asked. "The lady teachers, twenty-two per week; the
gentlemen, twenty-four." "The salaries of the gentlemen are higher?"
"Oh yes, much higher. They have families to support; and then, the
ladies are unsteady,--they often marry."

I was now conducted to the upper division of the first class; girls in
the last of the nine years' course of study,--ages about fourteen to
sixteen. This was the only class reciting in English, which within a
few years has been made a part of the required course, as well as
French. They were reading in little paper-covered books, in German
text, the _Geisterseher_ of Schiller, and translating the same into
English. The teacher was an English gentleman. He wrote occasionally a
word on the blackboard, when he wished to explain or impress upon the
memory a term or a synonym,--as, for instance, "temporarily," and the
words "soften," "mitigate," "assuage,"--and corrected such mistakes in
translation as "guess to" for "guess at," and "declaration" for
"explanation."

The second division of this first class was in German history. Several
of the pupils had historical atlases open before them, which covered
the history of the world from the most ancient times to the present,
prepared with that excellence which has made German maps famous. The
compendium used for a class-book was a brief record of dates and
events in Roman type, which is gradually but surely superseding the
old German letters. The teacher talked of the quarrel between popes
and emperors in the Middle Ages, and especially of the wars of the
Investitures. Passing through the corridor after this recitation, I
inquired the use of a library there, consisting of several hundred
volumes, and was told it was for the use of the teachers; and that
there was also one for the us