"The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light."


It is an obviously true, and therefore a trite observation, that no one,
woman or man, should consider that education (using the term broadly)
stopped with graduation from school or college. But the statement that
a grown person who has not settled down to some particular life work,
such as is often the case with a young unmarried woman, should continue
at least one serious _study,_ will not be so generally accepted or
acceptable. Yet in no other way may that mental discipline be obtained
which is necessary to the mature development of character. Neglect to
cultivate the ability to go down to the root of a subject, to observe
it in its relations, and to apply it practically, will inevitably lead
to superficial consideration of every subject, and even ignorance of the
fact that this is superficial consideration. As a practical result, the
person will drift through life rudderless, the sport of circumstance.
She will act by impulse and chance, and be continually at a loss how
to correct her errors. The shallowness with which women as a class are
charged is due to the fact that, their aim in life for a considerable
period not having been fixed by marriage or choice of a profession, they
do not substitute some definite interest for such remissness, and so
form the habit of intellectual laziness.

The study which an unmarried and unemployed woman should pursue may be