ng air of charity. Of a
certain Miss Inshquine she informs us, with all the lucidity of italics
and small caps, that "_function_, not _form_, AS _the inevitable outer
expression of the spirit in this tabernacle age_, weakly engrossed her."
And _a propos_ of Miss Mayjar, an evangelical lady who is a little too
apt to talk of her visits to sick women and the state of their souls, we
are told that the model clergyman is "not one to disallow, through the
_super_ crust, the undercurrent toward good in the _subject_, or the
positive benefits, nevertheless, to the _object_." We imagine the
double-refined accent and protrusion of chin which are feebly represented
by the italics in this lady's sentences! We abstain from quoting any of
her oracular doctrinal passages, because they refer to matters too
serious for our pages just now.

The epithet "silly" may seem impertinent, applied to a novel which
indicates so much reading and intellectual activity as "The Enigma," but
we use this epithet advisedly. If, as the world has long agreed, a very
great amount of instruction will not make a wise man, still less will a
very mediocre amount of instruction make a wise woman. And the most
mischievous form of feminine silliness is the literary form, because it
tends to confirm the popular prejudice against the more solid education
of women.

When men see girls wasting their time in consultations about bonnets and
ball dresses, and in giggling or sentimental love-confidences, or
middle-aged women mismanaging their children, and solacing themselves
with acrid gossip, they can hardly help saying, "For Heaven's sake, let
girls be better educated; let them have some better objects of
thought--some more solid occupations." But after a few hours'
conversation with an oracular literary woman, or a few hours' reading of
her books, they are likely enough to say, "After all, when a woman gets
some knowledge, see what use she makes of it! Her knowledge remains
acquisition instead of passing into culture; instead of being subdued
into modesty and simplicity by a larger acquaintance with thought and
fact, she has a feverish consciousness of her attainments; she keeps a
sort of mental pocket-mirror, and is continually looking in it at her own
'intellectuality;' she spoils the taste of one's muffin by questions of
metaphysics; 'puts down' men at a dinner-table with her superior
information; and seizes the opportunity of a _soiree_ to catechise us o