Page:Some Account of a Proposed New College for Women.djvu/2

 some satisfactory means of discriminating between the teachers qualified for their work and those who are not is strongly urged; and the belief expressed that the foundation of a place of education for adult female students, at which certificates should be conferred by an independent authority, and to which scholarships should be attached, is among the most urgent educational wants of the present time.

Of the present unsatisfactory state of girls' schools, and of the need of University education for women, abundant and convincing evidence is to be found in the reports of the Royal Schools Inquiry Commission.

Much may be said in favour of courses of lectures, really educational and supplemented by examinations; but this expedient would meet the wants of those only who reside in towns, leaving the ladies living in the country—which is the case with the majority of the sisters of the Oxford and Cambridge students—wholly unprovided for, and it is this class whom we should specially have in view in any plan for putting superior education within the reach of women. Their abundant leisure and influential position, if turned to good account, would be invaluable—the Hall and the Rectory might become centres of light for a whole parish.

The fundamental question whether Englishwomen will be the better—will fulfil their work in life better—for more education, is not settled in many minds. We want healthy, happy, dutiful Englishwomen. A fear is entertained that the tendency of colleges, of examinations, will be to give us women the reverse of all this. But what if this fear be false? What is so conducive to health, physical and mental, as regular, interesting occupation? Who so likely to see the true poetry which lies in the discharge of the humblest duties as those whose minds are fitly balanced, their imaginations withdrawn from vanities and occupied with pure visions?

The plan of education proposed has not for its object the enabling women to make money, though this may be among the ends indirectly attained. It has a wider scope. Its aim is to prepare women for the duties of life, whatever they may prove to be; and will it not generally be admitted that some further preparation is needed, that too much is expected from girls whose school training is over at the age of eighteen? The college training is not intended as a substitute for the education of life, but as a temporary stage. It will not be specifically directed towards changing the occupations of women, but rather towards securing that whatever they undertake shall be done wisely and well. In works of philanthropy thoughtless activity is not the most fruitful. To untie the knots, to solve the difficult problems which the circumstances of our times force upon us, we want all the light that can be gained by the widest diffusion of sound and godly learning. We cannot spare a single ray.

2. A glance at the distinctive features of the proposed college