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 . THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMM: 
 
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 Delivered at the Opening of Queen's OoUege, Kingston,,, i^yfj,; 
 
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 KINGSTON, 
 1871. 
 
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 \ 
 
 At tiie Oldening proceeding of Queen's 
 University on Wednesday, the Rev J 
 Olai-k Murray, Professor of Logio and ]\Ie- 
 taphysics, delivered tlie following addresa 
 on the Higher Education of Women. 
 
 To any one, avIio tliinku of it for the first 
 tune, or wlio at any time thinks of it se- 
 riously, it cannot but be felt as surprising, 
 that all tlie great public aclioola and collegt's 
 and universities of the civilised world,— Uiat 
 all the other institutes for an advanced in- 
 tellectual culture, are, witli a very few re- 
 cent exceptions, constituted and inanagod 
 on the obvious supposition, that their edu- 
 cational advantages shall be enjoyed by tlie 
 male sex alone. Not that in all, or even 
 in most cases, tliere is any statutory exclu- 
 sion of tho other sex; for within the laat 
 few years, in the I'aci' or nuicli ungenerous 
 oppositKHi, some w(,mon have ostabli.slud 
 their claim to sit in tJio cIrkb -rooms of ■<n.\ - 
 eral colleges. The lact, to x'.luch reference 
 13 mado, in tlie oonstituoion and mjaii.gt- 
 ment of nearly all our great a'-;adoiidcal e:i- 
 tablishments, is more forcibly sltown in tho 
 circumstance, that v,omen are ratlier ignored 
 than explicitly excluded. It Ia iuiposnibio 
 to account for this circunl8t^ulce otlierwise 
 
 tlian 
 
 by supposing, that the founders and 
 
 legislators of ihesie establi/ihi^eurs never 
 contemplated tho possibility of women re- 
 quiring or sesking'more than a merolv ole 
 nientary education. Familiarificd as 'tve Inivo 
 become in recent years with tho nobler 
 ideas of woman's jnission, which we owe to 
 the niodorn vindicatoi-s rif hoj.- rights, wo 
 find it dillicult to rfeali^e that tlioijo, 'wlio 
 were liberrJ onon;;li to mak(! aniiniremenTd 
 for superior culture, naoald h.^ve iiuplicitly 
 resolved to keep the female mind beyc.nd 
 
the reacli of its elevating power. But it 
 must be remembered, that the importance 
 of any education, for the male sex itself, 
 has been but alowly discovered, even in civi- 
 lised countries ; and those, who have watch- 
 ed the progress of legislation on the subject 
 in England, must have been astonished to 
 observe how long a national system of edu- 
 cation has been rendered impossible by 
 me n, who choose rather to let children go 
 uneducated, than to give up a pet theory on 
 the kind of religious doctrines which should 
 be instilled into children's minds. More- 
 over, there is an obvious reason, why wo- 
 man has not been considered in past ar- 
 rangements for higher education ; and that 
 reason is to be found in the limited range of 
 duties, to whinh she has hitherto been gen- 
 erally confined in the organisation of human 
 society. It is quite evident that, if|men had 
 assigned to her a sphere of life which ob- 
 viously required a higher education to fit 
 her for it, the means of obtaining such an 
 education would have been provided for 
 her ; and it must therefore be inferred, that 
 the sphere, actually assigned to her, is one 
 for which a higher education has been 
 deemed to be, if not absolutely disqualify- 
 ing, at least altogether unnecessary. 
 
 Now, there are two points on which ob- 
 jection maybe taken to this exclusion of 
 women from our systems of higher educa- 
 tion. (1) The lim'tavion imposed on the 
 range of female occupations conflicts with 
 the natural rights of every human being ; 
 and (2) a superior education is neither dis- 
 qualifying nor indeed unnecessary even for 
 that limited range of occupations, 
 
 I. — The restriction of women to the 
 sphere of life, within which our social usages 
 rigidly confine them at present, is without 
 foundation in natural justice ; and conse- 
 quently their exclusion from the means of 
 superior education, on the ground that such 
 education is not required for their sphere, is 
 unjustifiable. I know that, in entering on 
 this subject, I tread upon a path, in which 
 it IS extremely difficult to avoid running 
 
5 
 
 agaiiiBt the foolish prejudices of fhe thouifht- 
 less, and even tht) cliwrinhed cf)nvictions of 
 some who arc hy no. means thoughtless, 
 hut who .Iread tlie effect of any m-eat 
 8o(,ia cliange,. It is possible, however, 
 to Hhow that the most important of 
 the norhta, at present claimed for women 
 iiro anu.ng Ux.jse palpable demands of jus- 
 tice which cannot be refused except on the 
 pvincip-lo of opposin^^r all progress ; and it 
 follows, therefore, that these rights are at 
 present ignored rather from want of thouitht 
 ab(mt them than from any denial of their 
 justice. One thing at least is certain, that 
 there is a very wide-apread discontent with 
 tlie position to which woman has been hith- 
 erto restricted,- that this discontent has 
 ueen of late spreading more widely every 
 your. Any one, who has been observinc^ 
 tin, current of thought on this (iuestion° 
 must have been at times surprised to hear 
 —otten 111 qimrters where he may least of 
 all have expected it,--a voice which may 
 have been timi.l at its first utterances, but 
 wJuch on the slightest encouragement, be- 
 came fearless, unequivocal, earnest, in its 
 demand for some reform. There is pro- 
 bably no great social question, on which 
 the opinions of men have advanced with the 
 same astonishing rapidity, as on the ques- 
 tion regarding the position which women 
 should occuj.y in society. A few years a«o 
 the movement in favour of woman's riL^hts 
 was generally talked of in ridicule, or at 
 least with no more resnectful feeling than 
 pity, as one of the unwholesome excrescen- 
 ces protruding on the surface of communi- 
 ties, which are stirred into an abnormal fer- 
 ment by the diseases incident to a youthful 
 state (jf society or to a period of revolution 
 liVen yet, it is true, there are some, habitu- 
 ated to treat everything with levity, who 
 atiect to consider the claims of women suf- 
 bciently refuted by being simply pooh- 
 poohed ; while our comic papers endeavour 
 to abuse our judgments by representing the 
 profound revolution, which is elevating wo- 
 man to social and legal equality with man 
 
as merely an exchange uf the female for the 
 male coatume. Still no one can now dare, 
 even if he felt inclined, un ocouair>ns whui.v 
 serious argument isreiiuired, to dismiss the 
 ((uustiou witli lilt) stalt) jest^ with which i^ 
 was formerly st;t aside. For all thoughtful 
 men it in becoming one of the most earnest 
 j)r()bloiiis of modern society, whether the 
 dbiunnds of tli<j highest Christian civilisa- 
 tion are satisliod by the social position 
 which has boon hitherto assigned io women. 
 Theru is still, however, a great amount of 
 coiiluaion inthu minds of moat persons with 
 regard to the piecise nature of the claims 
 which are being advanced in favour of wo- 
 men. Thcrt; is (me 8])ecial misiipprehen- 
 8i(m, whicli riaea perhaps naturally in any 
 one's mind when the subject is lirat brought 
 before his attention, and which is fre(j[uent- 
 .ly foiitored by thohantyeli'usions of periodi- 
 cal writers, who are often forced to write on a 
 piil.iic ipiestion before they have obtained any 
 dee])or insight into its V)earinga than that 
 which is derived from a firat impression, 
 but this misapprehension so ludicrously 
 reverses the nature of the reform demand- 
 ed, that it must be removed, before that re- 
 form can be seen to claim our support. 
 Those, then, who wish to xxnderstand this 
 question, must at once rid their minds of 
 the supposition, that the advocates of wo- 
 man's rights claim for her a right to ne- 
 glect her family duties, — a right to leave 
 the varied arrangements of her household 
 to be attended to as best they may, in order 
 tluit fjhe may enter the public career of a 
 politician or engage in tlie practice of some 
 professi(;n. If any movement tended to 
 make a wife less faithful to the trust reposed 
 in her by her husband, to make a mother 
 less anxious to promote the true welfax'e of 
 her children, to make the mistress of a 
 house leas scrupulous in her management of 
 it with a view to the comfort of all its in- 
 mates, the mo.st luimitigated opponents of 
 such a movement would be the advocates of 
 woman 'ri rights. They demand a recogni- 
 tion not only of woman's rights, but per- 
 
• imi 
 
 liaps more truly of her dntieH ; they duim, 
 for every woiiiiin, higli .iiul h>w, matron and 
 niiiid«n, n ri|L;ht to })() something more than 
 a mero ornament of human lifo,- a riyht to 
 have, like every man, specific duties in the 
 industrial arrangements of societj'. Noth- 
 ing, therefore, couUl be so ccmtradictory of 
 such a claim, as a demand that women 
 slnmld be allowed to neglect their house- 
 hold duties ; or indeed any other d'lti'i.s 
 which they may reasonably be called up'iu 
 to perform : and no one has donounerd, 
 more strongly than the greatest living ;iil- 
 vocate of wiiman's rights, the idleness wiiic]! 
 ladies of wealth often pnrchaHo at the cost 
 of enormous wasie by surrendering their 
 proper work into the hands of a hired 
 liousekoeper. 
 
 J?ut if the 'moveiii'.Mit apokuii of does not 
 seek to withdraw women iVoni the work of 
 tlieir liouselioklH, the (|ue«ti(>n will naturally 
 be asked, v/hat is tiie ()l)jeet at which it aims ? 
 It eu(?uavours to acjoniplibh a refonii in the 
 same directimi in Mliich every ,)revii)iis ini- 
 piovement in fclie relation of the sexes han pro- 
 ceeded, — towards the elevation of v.uman from 
 a state of real or virtual slaver} to man. 
 What is noAV retpiired is that this tendency of 
 civilization shall be tunnplcted by at last ac- 
 cording to women perfect ecpiality witli men 
 in reference to social j)osition and legil rights. 
 The (jonscience of Chrislendom nndonhtedly re- 
 volts against any explicit snljjeetion of the one 
 sex to the other; and consciiuently ic is only 
 necessary to ]i<pint (nit t!ie ine(iuality in the pri- 
 vileges accoi'ded to the two nexes, in order to 
 yrove the riglitfnlness of the demand i'oi' some 
 reform. ^l(nv, tiure a:<; vaiious wa^ys in 
 which tiiin snlijcct may lie a})proached, as 
 there are various aspects in which this inequal- 
 ity of jightH is exhibited. Tiio point of view 
 from which '^^he question will be examined at 
 present, is one from wliich the necessity of 
 .some concession to wonieji is pecniliariy clear. 
 
 Let xe; stait ii'oni the most fumlamental 
 rights of huniani'y, n.nd we sliall liud at once 
 a ghuing discrepancy betv^eeu tl.esu and the 
 )>osition wl'.ic!) i.-. assigned to women. The 
 rights wliich are most fundamental are those 
 which belong to every human being a.s a 
 
8 
 
 •^e Hi'«h. Anions theie , Ji7 ''"• ''"'"""S t.. 
 
 toiico, and tlierefoio to H 1 P''.V«"-«i nxi«. 
 tfmt exi.to,.,.c, is nuinVu' !. '•r.''^' ^''"■'•'' 
 
 f tho other right.; : i ';/", ;^« '•<:-A'"iti.„. 
 
 ^-oeiety by that cvij-di ' '"/'""'I'-'"', "•''"iuro 
 ?'"ty that support u'h.c nJf "*!".' *''"'" ««■ 
 
 1" .debarred by any .^^ ,.'"'* "", ""e Hh.lJ 
 «f>eietyfrom practiBini «^. •■•K"'»t'«'m of 
 
 t'on. I'y whiot the S;;'„;'''''f !->«l o...c„pa. 
 be obtained, HH long as'ud ■'"^"'«*«l"^e may 
 "otconHict with the rL.?, o,"'tTi'"*""» '^«e« 
 what IS tilt) onse with £ • "*''«'*'• ^''>w. 
 
 thia right? ir^^Hil r*" '" '•*'^'^''^"''"« to 
 brought up witif r .'vT'';^ ^""g man is 
 «"I'Port himself by J s 0^7 '*^ >'"'y "ble to 
 are abo certain ciLse- of l *''^'*'«"«- 'J'l'ore 
 
 parentH are not i^.h-.n^ "*"'""'•'"' '^^'''"'^ 
 them till t,l,«„ „1. •"< ".instance* to 
 
 ever 
 
 to 
 
 'H8propVrtio"ned t(?Tiut wliic'l! f.'' f y'*' ""* 
 .used to in thoir father's h ,f "'^ ^'^^"-^ '•*■«» 
 }f they renmin u nmu-H '' i.'" ""'*• «^«" 
 insolvency or di.ab * ' *''^"' ^•'^ther'a 
 nottakeawavther n'eis.r •'^■='^'' 'l<'- 
 how does mo,forn Hooi^tyr^ o,?^;^'"*-. -^"t 
 the girl, whose father ex ' , L t *^""«'"« "P 
 support her till „j.oi,„S^f"*" '^« able to 
 '^s ong a.s she live, y " ;« /r f'^^P" «ven 
 statement to say that \l 1 too strong a 
 
 precaution more scrnn.lT ',' «^'arcely any 
 training, than to ^S w' ^'^'^''^'^'^ '» f' ' 
 the Idea, that she^wln etr L '^?' V''^"«J"ng 
 ercise of her "accon, Li . '''''''' bvthe ex- 
 
 her own s«ppor " ^ h™rh'''" ^^'^'-vi^Ie^or 
 with greatly' inferior ah ,1 f.T' ^"^^'^ P*"'h'^P« 
 look forward with con£ w' " *'"-^'^* '« 
 several hundred or eve oJ V **", '"•'""^•^ «f 
 pounds a year: she comes ff""*' thousand 
 tion only to be startleTSv t h/r^'' "^ '•'''««^- 
 
 »\ till they are mar i "jT;''" *" *"'f'P"'t 
 
 r be- and foitunateiC n ' ""J'''"'' they 
 
 support themi&'^^i : '"; '^?"«''* "P 
 
 'roport.onedto thaf ..,1..- ,' .'' "tylo n„t 
 
 . 
 
. 
 
 thun bcome a torturing alternutive, that she 
 shall «urren«ler hersflf, under the Hyinbol of a 
 lore which she doer, not f^el, to one who will 
 provide for her iupport, or that she ahull itrug- 
 gle to support herHelf without the luxuries, — 
 without even the comfortH, of her earlier life, 
 by some kind of sadly unrumitting and sadly 
 unremunerative toil '! It would be too painful 
 to sketch in detail the physical RufTerings, the 
 moral and social evilH, which stream from this 
 abundant source ; but by those, who have in- 
 quired into the.so results, it must be felt that 
 tne enlightened conscience of the Christian 
 community cannot long be Hatistied with thiH 
 state of affairs. 'J'ho j;>owth of a civilising 
 (christian sentiment, spreading into every re- 
 gion of our social existence, must give up this 
 unmanly advantage which is taken by the 
 stronger in the race of life. 
 
 To disseininate more widely the nobler sen- 
 timent which must sweep away this wrong in 
 our social system, it may be useful to trace 
 the wrong to its origin ; for tiie first step to- 
 wards the removal of an evil must be to reach 
 its cause. It ia not ahvays possible, indeed, 
 to discover the influences by which every fact 
 of social life is originated, for they are often 
 so intricate as to butlle our analysis, and so 
 subtle as to escape our observation. I do not, 
 therefore, pretend t'> point out all the causes 
 which may hayo been at work in assigning to 
 woman the position she occupies in modern 
 society. But there are two of these causes 
 which it seems to me specially important to 
 notice, — the one of tliem having its root in the 
 generous gallantry of man,— the other in the 
 unconscious tendencies of his selfishness. 
 
 1. It is not, then, wholly to unjust motives 
 that the subordinate social position of women 
 is due ; is has been assigned to her partly from 
 a misdirected sentiment which is essentially 
 generous. To understand this we miist ob- 
 serve the meaning of the distinction between 
 poverty and wealth. When a man requires to 
 labour for his dalli/ bread, in the most literal 
 sense of the e.vpression, he is said to be poor ; 
 in other words, poverty consists in the neces- 
 sity to work for sub.sistence, without being 
 able, by each day's labour, to provide more 
 means of subsistence than are sufficient for 
 each day. A m •' becomes leas poor when 
 the labour of a day is able to support him more 
 

 10 
 
 than a day ; and he grows in wealth, precisely 
 in proportion to the length of time during 
 which he can sulisist without actual Inbour. 
 Wealth, therefore, consists in freedom from 
 the neoesaity of perpetual toil ; the wealthiest 
 are those wlio, througliout life, are never sub- 
 jected to thi.s necessity. 
 
 Now, what is the position in which the man 
 of generous nature is ambitious of placing his 
 wife and daughters ? His wi.sh is undoubted- 
 ly to let thcni enjoy that immunity from toil, 
 which is the lot of tlie wealr.hy ; he feels that, 
 howev('r ia1.)oriously he may "require to work 
 iiim-'clf, he should "cmleavour to save tliem 
 from t!ie roui.;h encounter with life's nnplea- 
 santnesscs, which must be etidnrcd in the com- 
 petitions of labour. 'I'his feeling ia undoubt- 
 edly A^•o^thy of all respect ; but the best of 
 feeling!, M'hen uugnidet' ..y rrtional princi- 
 ]des, liiul expression often in very exception- 
 able fonii:) ; and it will not be diflicult to show 
 that this feeling, M'l.um it seeks to raise the 
 ■V .men of the industrial cla?;ses into the po- 
 sition of an iip])er class, def^its its oM^n end, 
 ami engenders f:ir worse evils tlian any against 
 which ^^ is intended to guard. There are va- 
 rious v, ;iys ii, Mhi«h, if it were desirable, 't 
 miglit li ■ possible to secure the deliverance 
 of women nMin the ncces,«ity of labour for 
 their .•!nbsi,--,tc.!ice, as, for instance by a tax r.oa 
 (.jomm.oii fund from whicii all women might 
 draw, -H-hen depn' .od of their natural male 
 supptirteiv. J'.ut it. is useless to discuss im- 
 I ricticablo .^chemcs for an nndesir.able object, 
 'i'ho fa,!t is, therefore, that men take no real 
 measures to nttaiu the ol)ject of their chival- 
 rous Avii-'lics ; and women are forced according- 
 ly to lind sMpjHtrt for themselves. in general 
 only three courses are oi)eM. I'ho first,— that 
 v,hich tliey arc taujilit by all the inliucncea of 
 prevalent uuininns aixl usages to regnrd as tlie 
 main object of life, -is to get married Fail- 
 ing in tliis lirst alternative, t'liey may fortu- 
 nately find a lir.ine in the liouse of scnie rela- 
 tive. If both of tlio..!.' aveim/'s arc closed, 
 the only resort left is seif-.-,u].))ort by (mo of 
 the few companitivcly niiremunerative occnpa- 
 tions to wlii''!i Momcn are admitted. 
 
 With regard to the (ii\st of these three 
 courses, it is oviilently unjust, as well a.s nn- 
 ciiivalnuH, to constrain women to look upon 
 marriage as the only natural means of sup- 
 
 i 
 
i 
 
 11 
 
 port. Almost every satirist of modem man- 
 ners seeks to make us merry over the keenness 
 with whicli women pursue what they have 
 been taught to consider the prime end of their 
 existence,— th-^ pretty tricks by which the 
 female temi)ter endeavours to lure the unwary 
 male into the matrimonial trap. In their best 
 luoments men < annot join in that merriment ; 
 it is but a cruol jest at the wrongs which they 
 have done to women. For the sake of all that 
 is of w orth i»i marriage, — for the sake of man- 
 liness in man, and of womanliness in woman? — 
 for the sake of cpial justice to both sexes, — 
 both ought to be cf^ually fveeto choose whether 
 they shall marry or not. 
 
 \Vith reference to the second alternative, 
 even if a woman is welcomed in the house of a 
 relative,— even if she is not made to feel 
 herself an intruder, —yet the sense of depen- 
 dence will be to many,— and these the hnest 
 spirits of their se;v,—a keen torture through- 
 out life. 1 shall say nothing of the third al- 
 ternative at present, as 1 must return to it 
 again. 
 
 '2. But the social position of women is owiug 
 not solely to the chivalrous feelings, it a;isus 
 partly from the ueltjshness, of men. Even 
 the chivalrous desire to free women from the 
 necessity of toil is often, - perhaps in all casts 
 more or less, -alloyed with a ftcltish vanity, 
 it is not always a manly t(Miderncss for in 
 wife and ilauglitei-.-i, tliafc leads a man to lo- 
 lieve tueni ^'roni tlie necessity of labour, it is 
 too often the coutcuiptiblc desire of makii;"' 
 them a sort of stalking horse lor tJic display of 
 his own riclics. We may try to hide it from 
 our minds, iiut it is iinpotjsiblf, it we h)ok at 
 the facts of life, to deny, tnau the industrial 
 classes reproduce many of the Jollies, separated 
 from tlio virtues, of old aristocracy. '1 he 
 vicissitudes of traile, fi-om tlie imuerlecfc prin- 
 ciples on MJiich it is 'jtill cai-iied on, are scarce- 
 ly compatible with an hereilitary aristocracy ; 
 and in consequence it lias been generally at- 
 tempted to secure for such an aristotracy a 
 means of subsistence; free from tliose vicissi- 
 tudes. The result has been to ongtndtr, along 
 with the mure aniiaMc pride in family nnti- 
 quit.>, an utteily repreliensihte Heil-gratuia- 
 tion in the po.i.Dcysion of mere wealth, --of 
 the mere ability to subsist v.itliout woiiiir,^ 
 for the moans of subsistence. It is not sim- 
 
12 
 
 ply a aupersitiouB horror of losing caste, that 
 icakea the member of an old nobless shrink 
 from contaminating heiself with trade ; mixed 
 with that there is a cowardly shame of honest 
 poverty, or, to apeak more correctly, at not 
 possessing any riches but those which he ac- 
 quires by his own industry. Who is there, 
 even among the industrial classes, that does 
 not, by the sheer tyranny of social manners, 
 encourage this craven feeling by his conduct 
 and conversation ? Is there any one who can 
 plaa^ not guilty to the folly of acting at 
 times as if the m%n, whose hereditary pro- 
 perty places him above the necessity of la- 
 l)our, should occupy a more respectable rank 
 in society than the poorer man who, though 
 superior in intelligence and moral worth, 
 is obliged to work for his subsistence ? Can 
 we wonder, therefore, that, even in commu- 
 nities like those of the United States and the 
 British Colonies, which are founded almost en- 
 tirely on industrial principles, there should be 
 a strong ambition to let women take the rank 
 of those who are independently wealthy ? 
 Hov/ever numerous a man's daughters may be, 
 and however useless, therefore, for industrial 
 purposes they may be in his own house, he 
 feels that, if they adopt any occupation for 
 their support, he can no longer flaunt one of 
 the most easily recognizable symbols of wealth. 
 A lady, thrown upon her own resources, 
 feels that, if she goes out to any of the well- 
 remunerated occupations of men, she gives un- 
 mistakeable evidence of being obliged to work 
 for her support ; and none of us dare say that 
 the fear she entertains with regard to her rank 
 in society is wholly without foundation. She 
 knows that social opinion would degrade her 
 rank if she went into a shop or a counting 
 house, a bank or a public office, where she 
 might make a reasonable income ; but she is 
 not disgraced if she remdna at home, and toils 
 herself into an early grave at needlework or 
 some similar employment, on the miserable re- 
 muneration of which it is scarcely possible to 
 suppose that she could be dependent for her 
 support. 
 
 1 shall not, for want of time, attempt to il 
 lustrate other modes in which the selfishness 
 of men operates, often unconsciously, in ex- 
 cluding women from the more remunerative 
 employments of life. But this foolish pride in 
 
 i|i 
 
13 
 
 idlenesB, this apiug of aristocracy by merely 
 copying its follies, must give way before truer 
 ideas of real nobleness, in a Miser system of 
 social economy. The industrial influences of 
 the modern world will, it is to be hoped, ulti- 
 mately teach us to look upon honest, earnest, 
 thorougli work as the only ground of esteem, 
 and to place the woman, who squanders in- 
 valuable years in idle frivolities, in a less re- 
 spectable rank of society than the factory girl, 
 who wins at least her own bread. Hereditary 
 property itself, if it exist in the more perfect 
 society of the future, shall then no longer be 
 regarded as absolving its owner from the duty 
 of work, but as merely imposing on him an 
 obligation to labour at some of those employ- 
 ments which, not being immediately remune- 
 rative, can he undertaken only by men whose 
 means of subsistence are already secured. It 
 is not of course to be supposed, that in such a 
 state of society women ought tri be selected 
 for any employment in preference to men, who 
 are equally qualified for it, or that women 
 would be admitted to all the occupa- 
 tions which are at presert monopolised by 
 men. The principles of free trade, which are 
 the principles of justice, ought to be rigorous- 
 ly carried out ; and the same rule, which 
 makes it impolitic and unjust to compel me 
 to buy a,n article from my neighbour when I 
 can get it cheaper or better from a foreigner, 
 makes it equally wrong to compel an employ- 
 er to purchase the labour of a man when a wo- 
 man would do the required work better or for 
 smaller wages. At the same time it is clearly 
 wrong to exclude a woman from any occupa- 
 tion, not because it is in itself dishonourable, 
 or because she ib not qualilied for it, but 
 simply because she is a woman ; and no one 
 can have the hardihood to deny that there are 
 various employments of a remunerative char- 
 acter, at present confined to men, for which 
 women are equally qualified. 
 
 I have thus endeavoured to point out the 
 injustice of limiting women to a sphere of life, 
 which prevents them from entering on those 
 occupations that yield the means of tomforta- 
 ble or luxuriotis self-support. The barest 
 justice to them requires that they shall be 
 brought up, as men are, to support themselves 
 by their own labour. Now, what would be 
 the difference in the education of young wo- 
 
14 
 
 men, if they were trained, like young men, 
 with the view of taking jmrt in the industrial 
 arraiigementa of human life ? One of the most 
 obvioua defects in the present education of 
 women, whenever it rises above elementary 
 branches, is its comparative aimlessness or the 
 comparative triviality of its aim, contrasted 
 with the comparative dtatiniteuess of purpose, 
 which is given to the education of young men, 
 from the fact that it is directed to their pre- 
 jjaration for the particular industry which 
 they have chosen. It is impossible to deny 
 that a girl's studies would show much more of 
 earnest and thoiough work, if from the outset 
 she were inspired by the consciousness that 
 she waa preparing liersslf for an occupation on 
 which slie might depend for her subsistence. 
 >iot only, therefore, would the existing insti- 
 tutes of higher education be thrown open to 
 women, or at least new institutes of a similar 
 kind be provided for them, if the usages of so- 
 ciety induced thcni gcnei'ully to qualify them- 
 selves for industrial employments ; but their 
 study would be rendered (^uite as eflective as 
 that of men. 
 
 ll.—ltisnot, however, necessary to show 
 that the social usaiMjs, which exclude women 
 from remunerative occupations in general, are 
 unjust, in order to prove the justice of their 
 claim to the means of higher education. I 
 have dwelt at greater length on this cause of 
 their being ignored in our academical es- 
 tablislimeuts, because it is clearly the chief 
 rensun of the omission, and such a social 
 wrong must be rectilied before the right of 
 women to the advantages of a higher educa- 
 tion v.ill be generally ailmitted. But it may 
 be wortli while to inquire whether that right 
 ought not to be recognized, even if there is 
 no change in the social position of women.' 
 
 Let MA take, then, the narrowest estimate 
 of woman's nu.isi(m, which can be adopted by 
 the most unmitigated antagonist of her pre- 
 sent claims. Let us admit that the sole na- 
 tural sphere of woman's labour is the family 
 
 that every woman ought to be brought up 
 solely on the expectation of becoming a wife, 
 a mother, a mistress of a household .■ is that 
 any reason why her education should be re- 
 stricted to the elementary branches,— why the 
 cla.^s-rooms of Universities should be closed 
 against her ? To deny women on this ground, 
 
 i 
 

 i 
 
 15 
 
 the riglit of a University odnnation, wouM im- 
 i>l.y that Kuoli ;in education i;; not only unne- 
 (tessary, })ut woul.l even incapacitate them for 
 the domestic duties wliich are tlieir peculiar 
 function in Kociety. For if a .sui)erior culture 
 would not actually render women less fit for 
 those duties, there could be no reasonable 
 ground for absolutely excluding them from 
 the enjoyment of su<;h culture. It would not 
 be considered just to prevent a young man 
 from proceeding to a TTniversity, becauFO ho 
 intended to adopt sonu; industrial occupation 
 which could be practised successfully without 
 an academical training. Jt is ahvaj's a^'nit- 
 tod that his University career need not hiiido- 
 the success of his subsequent occupation, and 
 that, even if it do notaddtothe success of that 
 occupation, it will probably contribute to his 
 u.sefulness as a member of general society. In 
 like manner, I believe, no one, except when 
 driven to rash assertion by the perplexities of 
 a controversy, would iiiaintaiu that tlie func- 
 tions of ^^•ifehood, of motherhood, and 
 of household economy would be in gen- 
 eral less elheiently performed in con- 
 sequence of the high intellectual cul- 
 ture of the M'oman by whom tliey are un- 
 dertaken. There is no reason, therefore, for 
 excluding M-onien from Universities, which 
 should not, witli equal justice, exclude also 
 those young men who cannot directly apjily a 
 IJniversity training to their industrial occupa- 
 tion, who seek a liberal culture as an object 
 which is worthy of being attained ff.r its own 
 sake. 
 
 But if it cannot bi; maintained that an aca- 
 demical curriculum would uiitit a woman for 
 her household splioro of labour, can it even be 
 said tiiat a supcjiior education is wholly un- 
 necessary for that spliere? It may l)e said, in- 
 deed, that tlie duties of a household have 
 often ))ecn, and tlierofove can l)e still at times, 
 yierformed, and avcII performed, without tlie 
 previous training of a University; but look 
 at the nature of tlio.so duties as well as of the 
 mental activity v/liic!i is implied in their skil- 
 ful performance, and you v,-iU have little hesi- 
 tation in adiiiittiii:: that a ]iartial or complete 
 course in the liton,.ry and scientili(! depart- 
 ments of ,•• University could have no natural 
 tendenc.,- r; to enhance the value of woman's 
 peculiar W( ik. It is common and natural for 
 
16 
 
 men, who are accuHtomed to see home brrange- 
 menta only in their tidy completeness, never 
 to reflect on the amount of intellectual and 
 moral activity which the completion of those 
 arrangements has called forth. There is an 
 amusing old Scottish ballad, the subject of 
 which ]p attempted again in a more modern 
 song, in which a husband is pictured coming 
 heme after a hard day's work at the plough 
 and flndiog his wife seated comfortably at a 
 tidy hearth. He cannot repress a grumble 
 over the difference in the toil which falls to the 
 lot of men and the ease which women seem to 
 him to enjoy; whereupon the wife offers to 
 take the plougli in hand next day, if he will at- 
 tend to the affairs of thn house. I shall not 
 attempt to reproduce the inimitable humour 
 with which the results are detailed in the old 
 ballad, the wife returning home after a good 
 day's ploughing to find her husband distracted 
 with the multiplicity of his labours, none of 
 which, in his perplexity, he bad succeeded in 
 finishing. The fact is, that a man breaks 
 down on undertaking the peculiar work of a 
 woman, not simply from being unaccustomed 
 to it, but as frequently from the fact that the 
 routine of his 0T7n occupation has not culti- 
 vated that rapidity and originality of mental 
 action which are developed by the efficient 
 management of a family. The fitness for a 
 life-companionship, which mnst be of infinite 
 moment to all concerned, the care of children 
 through those years which influence, perhaps 
 more powerfully than any others, their per- 
 manent physical, mental, and moral character, 
 the ingenuity of providing for the ever-vary- 
 ing emergencies in the daily life of a family — 
 these things give scope for the display of an 
 intellectual vigour and quickness, as well as 
 of a moral culture, for which no training can 
 be considered too high. But if the ordinary 
 curriculum of a University does not provide 
 the most appropriate training for the domestic 
 duties of woman, what, in the name of com- 
 mon sense, is the peculiar virtue of the studies 
 which are carried on in ladies' schools? If 
 time had allowed, it would have been worth 
 while to remind you in detail of the work 
 which is done in such schools, and contrast it 
 with a University curriculum. Few, how- 
 ever, who reflect, will see in the studies of 
 these schools a more efficient culture for the 
 
17 
 
 proper duties of womanhood than could be de- 
 nved from the literary and scientific traiuinjr 
 of a University. * 
 
 This subject might be enlarged on at much 
 greater length fhe few points which I have 
 
 t Jan^f,?!? 5^^ ^''^^"* ^"«^y indicated rather 
 than fully discussed; and to those who have 
 fwen thinking or reading on the subject, few 
 
 ^l,?il^iC®" ''*'' ^"""^ b««° suggested with 
 whieTi tKey are not already fanSliar. There 
 
 ^"I'u ^°Zr"' ^® • °"™ber in this audience 
 to whom these suggestions are new. and who 
 maybe led by them to reflect more seriously 
 on the injustice of systematically excludine 
 women from all the established means of thi 
 highest intellectual culture, while these are 
 ireeJy opened to men, and numberless induce- 
 ments are offered to them to accept the enjoy- 
 ment of their advantages.