INTRODUCTORY.

21

training or no training that the schools af­ford. The cerebral processes by which the acquisition of knowledge is made are the same for each sex; but the mode of life which gives the finest nurture to the brain, and so enables those processes to yield their best result, is not the same for each sex. The best educa­tional training for a boy is not the best for a girl, nor that for a girl best for a boy.

The delicate bloom, early but rapidly fad­ing beauty, and singular pallor of American girls and women have almost passed into a proverb. The first observation of a Euro­pean that lands upon our shores is, that our women are a feeble race ; and, if he is a phy­siological observer, he is sure to add, They will give birth to a feeble race, not of women only, but of men as well. I never saw before so many pretty girls together, said Lady Amberley to the writer, after a visit to the public schools of Boston; and then added, They all looked sick. Circumstances have repeatedly carried me to Europe, where I am always surprised by the red blood that fills