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Rh ihoronghly educated women wlio are now prepared to oc- cupy chairs of iostruction, once filled only by the most hon- ored alumni of our best universities. We are coming to welcome woman's taste, and tact, and power,, into every de- partment of onr educational work, and we have much to- hope from the new element thus introduced. Without at- tempting to name, even, the many eminent women whose personal attainments and services have contributed largely towards this result, we shall, in this chapter, briefly sketch the career of only two of them, who, by common consent,, must be held to rank as pioneers in this most excellent work*.

MRS. EMMA WILLARD.

First among the women, still living, who have attained! high rank as professional educators, must stand the name at the head of this sketch. And this position Mrs. Willard deserves, whether we regard her as a pioneer, creating for lierself, and her sex, a new place and rank among educators, or simply as an earnest and skiliiil worker, rendering eminent service in this field. That she is fairly entitled to this em- inence among the gifted women of our day, a very brief sketch of her career will fully show. The story itself is a true epic, needing only the simplest recital, — its main facts, being more exciting 'than any fiction we should dare tO' invent.

HER BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD.

February 23, 1787, is the date of her birth ; Samuel and' Lydia (Hinsdale) Hart, her parents ; and a quiet country farm- house in the parish of Worthington, in Berlin, Connecticut, her birthplace. Bom of the best New England stock, she in« herited the noblest qualities of her parentage. Her father, a itaan of unusual strength of intellect and will, was self-^ lb