Page:Eminent women of the age.djvu/298

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EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.


OCR PIONEER EDUCATORS.

B? BKV. E. B. HUJJTKGTON.

To woman rather than to man, and to woman in this century rather than in any former one, belongs the credit of preparing the way for the future liberal educatiou of women. , Heretofore the aids to her education have been few awl de- fective. A really liberal education for her has hardly been posBible. Collegiate and University courses have been closed against her ; bo that if occasionally a woman has succeeded in gaining the reputation of a scholar, it has been mainly due to her own unaided exertions, — a triumph of her personal genius and will. We have reached a state of public sentiment now, however, which, partially, at least, accords to woman (he right to enter any field of literature or art, wbicb she maychoose ; and, to a certain extent, we are fumishiDg her with such aids as for generations have been furnished for her brothers.

Already we are gathering excellent fruits from this ad- vance made in our theory and system of woman's cnlturo. Our multiplied young ladies' seminaries and collegiate insti- tutions, and still more our colleges and professional schools in which the two sexes are, to their mutual benefit, prosecut- ing together the studies which were formerly confined to only OQO of them, are important results already attained. Still msturer fruit we have, in the increasing numbers of