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The best remedy for too hard study at any one time of life is a thorough and gradual mental training from childhood up. The earliest education of both boys and girls is, generally speaking, aimless and indefinite. A certain amount of reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography are considered necessary, but instruction in these is not in itself cultivation of mind. It may be perfectly arbitrary and wooden, done without any reference to or attempt to develop the nature. Even reading and writing need not be taught so mechanically as is done in the schools. Very little attention is given usually in American schools to the subject-matter of the reading: each child is called upon to read a sentence or a paragraph, in a reader, instead of having a work of genius put into its hands, which is to be read in company, and which is interesting enough in itself to chain the attention and to bring out the natural elocution by making the rest listen while one reads. (2) Geography is usually taught by map and outline, with little or no descriptive or picturesque explanation of scenery, fauna, or remarkable natural features; and arithmetic in as uninteresting a way, instead of being made living by being connected with geometrical science. Children's industrial faculties are not set at work, and the whole routine becomes tedious, is disconnected with life, and is shirked as much as possible. Very little training in the native language is given, and even in the most advanced public schools little attention is paid to the art of writing down thoughts and impressions, -- an exercise which can with advantage be begun in childhood. Boys and girls begin to study Latin thus without an interesting idea about human speech.

Boys are at last set to work systematically to prepare for their higher education, and every aid is given them to make up for lost time. Girls sometimes share this training for a little while in some places; but, as it leads to nothing in particular, it soon loses its interest, unless perchance they are preparing to be teachers. Girls rarely go far in mathematical studies, which are the basis of all scientific education, and, if they study what are called the higher branches in schools, without this thorough mathematical training that boys have, it is very superficial study, and soon forgotten. In the exceptional cases, consisting of those whose strong native talent and favoring circumstances urge on to hard study, the necessity of making up for lost time may injure the weak, and even break down the strong, as is often the case with men. I do not believe the overstraining of the brain is any more injurious to young women than to young men, and it is not a thousandth part so common. The evil effects that appear at that time of life in both sexes are due to other causes than those Dr. Clarke points out so exclusively. He says there are other causes, but he passes them over lightly. One of his reviewers has pointed them out ably and in detail. As far as they refer to study, the system of cramming and emulation, in both public and private schools, should bear the brunt of his accusations. It would undoubtedly be far better for girls for for boys) between the ages of fourteen and nineteen to be withdrawn from these, and study more calmly and gradually without the stimulus of emulation, and to defer the completion of their education in colleges till that tender age is past.

I do not share in the fears expressed by President Eliot, of a demoralizing influence from the co-education of the sexes. Experience has amply proved that such fears are groundless. Young men and women have long been educated together in country high schools, in academies and normal schools, and of late in colleges; and the result has been satisfactory, a healthy stimulus, a great enjoyment, and productive of mutual self-respect. But I agree with him that Harvard College is not the place to try it in at present, for several reasons, -- the traditional prejudice, the want of proper arrangements, the very low moral character of the college community; but I think the history of Antioch College, where the system was carried out under great advantages, is a sufficient testimony to the success and good effects of co-education as well as to the possibility of harmonious persistent study for women.

The only feature of it that was ever objectionable in my eyes has been the gathering of young girls into the preparatory school, where they could enter at the age of twelve. It is unfortunate enough to be obliged to send young boys away from home, but it is far more objectionable to send young girls away. They ought to live at home while getting their preparatory education, and all the more if they are to follow it up with college life. Domestic life is made null to them thus. The only apology for having a preparatory school of the kind there was the fact that so many people live scattered in the West that schools are not accessible to them, and the preparation required for a college course could be obtained in no other way. My heart used to ache for the lovely little girls, separated from their mothers at an age when they should have been in their arms every night, with all those little confidences and confessions that mothers only can elicit. No matron could supply the mother's place, even if devoted solely to the office of mothering the children of a large boarding-school.