mothers, they know that the next generation is theirs." This is
significant, because it signifies that, however weak and easy of
enticement the "female mind" may be, it has a mighty power to
influence the young.

But we can show not only opinions and prophecies, but the results of
actual scientific experiments. A recent number of "The Popular Science
Monthly" contains an account of experiments made in Jamaica upon the
mental capacity for learning of the different races there existing.
The experimenter found, he says, "unequal speed," but saw "nothing
which can be unmistakably referred to difference of race. The rate of
improvement is due almost entirely to the relative elevation of the
home circle in which the children live. Those who are restricted to
the narrowest gauge of intellectual exercise live in such a material
and coarse medium that their mental faculties remain slumbering; while
those who hear at home of many things, and are brought up to
intellectual employments, show a corresponding proficiency in
learning."

This, and the editor's comments, bear directly on our side, that is to
say, the culture side. The editor says it is inevitable "that the
medium in which the child is habitually immersed, and by which it is
continually and unconsciously impressed, should have much greater
value in the formation of mental character than the mere lesson
experiences of school. Home education is, after all, the great fact;
and it is domestic influences by which the characters of children are
formed. Where men are exhausted by business, and women are exhausted
by society (or other means), we may be pretty sure that but little can
be done to shape and conduct the home with a reference to the higher
mental needs of the children who live in it."