the fragile American miss. Everybody recognizes and laments the change
that has been and is going on. "The race of strong, hardy, cheerful
girls, that used to grow up in country places, and made the bright,
neat, New-England kitchens of olden times,--the girls that could wash,
iron, brew, bake, harness a horse and drive him, no less than braid
straw, embroider, draw, paint, and read innumerable books,--this race
of women, pride of olden time, is daily lessening; and, in their
stead, come the fragile, easy-fatigued, languid girls of a modern age,
drilled in book-learning, ignorant of common things."[37] No similar
change has been wrought, during the past century, upon the mass of
females in Europe. There--

"Nature keeps the reverent frame
With which her years began."

If we could ascertain the regimen of European female education, so as
to compare it fairly with the American plan of the identical education
of the sexes, it is not impossible that the comparison might teach us
how it is, that conservation of female force makes a part of
trans-Atlantic, and deterioration of the same force a part of
cis-Atlantic civilization. It is probable such an inquiry would show
that the disregard of the female organization, which is a palpable and
pervading principle of American education, either does not exist at
all in Europe, or exists only in a limited degree.

With the hope of obtaining information upon this point, the writer
addressed inquiries to various individuals, who would be likely to
have the desired knowledge. Only a few answers to his inquiries have
been received up to the present writing; more are promised by and by.
The subject is a delicate and difficult one to investigate. The