school-days, to her matronly life. She was
well, and would have been called robust, up to her first critical
period. She then had two tasks imposed upon her at once, both of which
required for their perfect accomplishment a few years of time and a
large share of vital force: one was the education of the brain, the
other of the reproductive system. The schoolmaster superintended the
first, and Nature the second. The school, with puritanic
inflexibility, demanded every day of the month; Nature, kinder than
the school, demanded less than a fourth of the time,--a seventh or an
eighth of it would have probably answered. The schoolmaster might have
yielded somewhat, but would not; Nature could not. The pupil,
therefore, was compelled to undertake both tasks at the same time.
Ambitious, earnest, and conscientious, she obeyed the visible power
and authority of the school, and disobeyed, or rather ignorantly
sought to evade, the invisible power and authority of her
organization. She put her will into the education of her brain, and
withdrew it from elsewhere. The system does not do two things well at
the same time. One or the other suffers from neglect, when the attempt
is made. Miss A---- made her brain and muscles work actively, and
diverted blood and force to them when her organization demanded
active work, with blood and force for evolution in another region. At
first the schoolmaster seemed to be successful. He not only made his
pupil's brain manipulate Latin, chemistry, philosophy, geography,
grammar, arithmetic, music, French, German, and the whole
extraordinary catalogue of an American young lady's school curriculum,
with acrobatic skill; but he made her do this irrespective of the
periodical tides of her organism, and made her perform her
intellectual and muscular calisthenics, obliging her to stand, walk,
and recite, at the seasons of highest tide. For a while she got on
nicely. Presently, however, the strength of the loins, that even
Solomon put in as a part of his ideal woman, changed to weakness.
Periodical hemorrhages were the first warning of this. As soon as loss
of blood occurred regularly and largely, the way to imperfect
development and invalidism was open, and the progress easy and rapid.
The nerves and their centres lacked nourishment. There was more waste
than repair,--no margin for growth. St. Vitus' dance was a warning not
to be neglected, and the schoolmaster resigned to the doctor. A long
vacation enab