a woman; especially if she have to take care of herself in after
life; neither, I think, will she be much harmed by some sound
knowledge of another subject, which I see promised in these
lectures: "Natural philosophy, in its various branches, such as
the chemistry of common life, light, heat, electricity, etc. etc."

A little knowledge of the laws of light, for instance, would teach
many women that by shutting themselves up day after day, week
after week, in darkened rooms, they are as certainly committing a
waste of health, destroying their vital energy, and diseasing
their brains, as if they were taking so much poison the whole
time.

A little knowledge of the laws of heat would teach women not to
clothe themselves and their children after foolish and
insufficient fashions, which in this climate sow the seeds of a
dozen different diseases, and have to be atoned for by perpetual
anxieties, and by perpetual doctors' bills; and as for a little
knowledge of the laws of electricity, one thrift I am sure it
would produce--thrift to us men, of having to answer continual
inquiries as to what the weather is going to be, when a slight
knowledge of the barometer, or of the form of the clouds and the
direction of the wind, would enable many a lady to judge for
herself, and not, after inquiry on inquiry, regardless of all
warnings, go out on the first appearance of a strip of blue sky,
and come home wet through, with what she calls "only a chill," but
which really means a nail driven into her coffin--a probable
shortening, though it may be a very small one, of her mortal life;
because the food of the next twenty-four hours, which should have
gone to keep the vital heat at its normal standard, will have to