EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1747, 25 September 1879, Page 4

EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

f« New York Times." J

There is no doubt that bright girls can do well in both the great departments of study, the more rhetorical and the more logical, or in literature and in science ; but what we want more than a new crop of specialists in language and in reasoning is a new generation of genial and reasonable women, who can carry out the true philosophy of life and thought in their own sphere and way, and who can reconcile sentiment with science alike by the charm of their presence and the light of their conviction?. Women were an immense power in maturing and spreading the whole Catholicity, and the Helenas and Paulas, the Berthas and Isabellas did a great deal to win the world to the Catholic truth as they understood it. Now that we are in danger of an outbreak of chaos in opinions and policies, and a rapid individualism on the one hand and a crazy communism on the other hand threaten society, there is a crying need of new wisdom and order alike in household life and in general society, politics, and religion. Women must do their part towards this end, and instead of being outside of this great wor'd, they are at its very heart, and the world is sadly out of joint because they are not up to the mark, and they bo often insist upon thrusting obsolete ideas upon the new times, or upon shutting their eyes to all serious thought when serious thought is the first necessity of their touls and their circle. Sound thinking we must have or go to ruin, and this thinking has its feminine as well as its masculine eide. Many a home owes its downfall to the defects of the woman's training, and what makes the weakness of the household has much to do with the troubles of the nation. It must not be forgotten that the follies of women often match the vices of men in the record of wrong and suffering. ... Of course, the higher education of women must act upon every sphere of society, whether domestic, political, literary, or religious, and women must constantly win new influence everywhere. Bnt exactly in what forms of activity this i flaence will appear, it is not easy to say. This, however, may be said with assurance, that it is a great mistake to stir strife between men and women, and to put women forward as rivals or opponents of men. This makes a worse schism than appears in Church history. The best women prefer to look to men as their leaders, and the best men deserve their confidence.