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EADERS of Jane Austen will remember how Mr. Darcy and Miss Bingley defined to their own satisfaction the requirements of an accomplished woman. Such a one, said Miss Bingley, must add to ease of manner and address "a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages." To which Mr. Darcy subjoined: "All this she must possess, and she must have something more substantial in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading." Whereupon Elizabeth Bennet stoutly affirmed that she had never met a woman in whom "capacity, taste, application and elegance" were so admirably and so formidably united.

Between an accomplished woman in Miss Austen's day and an educated