composed, well-balanced expression of countenance of which I spoke
before, and of which it would be hard to find an instance in all
Central Park.

"Climate, undoubtedly, has something to do with this. The air is
moist; and the mercury rarely rises above 80°, or falls below 10°.
Also the comparative quiet of their lives helps to make them so
beautiful and strong. But the most significant fact to my mind is,
that, until the past year, there have been in Nova Scotia no public
schools, comparatively few private ones; and in these there is no
severe pressure brought to bear on the pupils.... I must not be
understood to argue from the health of the children of Nova Scotia, as
contrasted with the lack of health among our children, that it is best
to have no public schools; only that it is better to have no public
schools than to have such public schools as are now killing off our
children.... In Massachusetts, the mortality from diseases of the
brain and nervous system is eleven per cent. In Nova Scotia it is only
eight per cent."[36]

It would be interesting and instructive to ascertain, if we could, the
regimen of female education in Europe. The acknowledged and
unmistakable differences between American and European girls and
women--the delicate bloom, unnatural weakness, and premature decay of
the former, contrasted with the bronzed complexion, developed form,
and enduring force of the latter--are not adequately explained by
climate. Given sufficient time, difference of climate will produce
immense differences of form, color, and force in the same species of
animals and men. But a century does not afford a period long enough
for the production of great changes. That length of time could not
transform the sturdy German fraulein and robust English damsel into