employments, and may without hesitation devote themselves to art and
science. It is indeed astonishing to behold the interest with which
the beautiful sex here enter upon all branches of art and knowledge.

"The ateliers of the painters number quite as many female as male
students, and there are apparently more women than men who copy the
pictures in the Louvre. Nothing is more pleasing than to see these
gentle creatures, with their easels, sitting before a colossal Rubens
or a Madonna of Raphael. No difficulty alarms them, and prudery is not
allowed to give a voice in their choice of subjects.

"I have never yet attended a lecture, by either of the professors
here, but I have found some seats occupied by ladies. Even the
lectures of Michel Chevalier and Blanqui do not keep back the
eagerness of the charming Parisians in pursuit of science. That
Michelet and Edgar Quinet have numerous female disciples is
accordingly not difficult to believe.

"Go to a public session of the Academy, and you find the '_cercle_'
filled almost exclusively by ladies, and these laurel-crowned heads
have the delight of seeing their immortal works applauded by the
clapping of tenderest hands. In truth, the French savan is uncommonly
clear in the most abstract things; but it would be an interesting
question, whether the necessity of being not alone easily intelligible
but agreeable to the capacity of comprehension possessed by the
unschooled mind of woman, has not largely contributed to the facility
and charm which is peculiar to French scientific literature. Read
for example the discourse on Cabanis, pronounced by Mignet at the
last session. It would be impossible to write more charmingly, more
elegantly, more attractively, even upon a subject within the range