commonwealth was
largely regulated by their utility. The ideal of political economy is
that everyone shall be employed, and employed at that for which he is
best adapted, under the condition of freedom of self-development. The
prevalence of such truer theories of society aided in dispelling the
mists of error which had surrounded the popular notions as to women.
Buckle observes, in his _Influence of Women on the Progress of
Knowledge_, that women are quicker in thought than men, and he says:
"Nothing could prevent its being universally admitted except the fact
that the remarkable rapidity with which women think is obscured by
that miserable, that contemptible, that preposterous system called
their education, in which valuable things are carefully kept from
them, and trifling things carefully taught to them, until their fine
and nimble minds are too often irretrievably injured."

The close of the nineteenth century witnessed a complete revolution
in the constituents of girls' education. French, dancing,
flower painting, and music no longer comprised a young lady's
accomplishments. The fear of singularity, which was a social bugbear
to the young women of other generations, no longer served to prevent
them from studying classics and mathematics and science. To-day, they
are expected to add their quota to the contribution of the times,
in thought as well as in the graces of deportment. The latter can no
longer atone for the absence of the former. It is no more the case
among the middle classes that only the girl who intends fitting
herself to take the position of governess needs an education above the
rudiments and the embellishments. Not the least of the departures in
the educational scheme for women is the notable change of attitude
which has taken place with regard to the development of their bodies.
It is but recently that physical training has entered into the
curriculum of colleges, but it is even more recently that an opinion
has prevailed favorable to the physical culture of women.

Before the educational revolution occurred, women were making their
mark in intellectual spheres. In 1835 the names of two women, Mary
Somerville and Caroline Herschell, were enrolled as members of the
Astronomical Society. In its report containing the recommendation of
the election of these ladies, the council of the society observed:
"Your Council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names
of two ladies distinguished in as