nty-five years that succeeded the settlement
of New England, the record of deaths was very imperfectly kept in many
places, but no one who gives much time to genealogical research can fail
to be impressed with the short lives of the women, and the large number
of children who died at birth or soon after.

In those days, the "survival of the fittest" was the rule, and if that
survivor happened to live to a good old age, no one inquired about those
who did not.

I allude to these facts, as I have done before, not because I think them
of much importance, but because it is desirable to set them against the
equally undigested facts of general invalidism which have been so
persistently pressed of late.

I do not believe in this general invalidism, so far as it concerns
women especially. I believe that in no country, in any age, was life
ever so reckless, and so carelessly dissipated as it is in America
to-day. In Sybaris itself, in Corinth, and in Paris, only a few wealthy
people could indulge in the irregular lives which the unexampled
prosperity of this country opens to the great bulk of the population.

I am amazed when I see it stated that "length of time cannot transform
the sturdy German fraeulein into the fragile American girl." The
influence of climate does this in one generation for our Irish and
German population. Standing in the mills at Lawrence, the pale faces and
constant cough of the operatives will attest these words to any
competent observer. During the past three years I have parted with three
satisfactory Irish servants, who were in the incipient stages of
consumption. I dismissed them because no influence of mine could
persuade them to retire early, wear waterproof shoes, or thick and warm
clothing.

In a singular preface to the fifth edition of a work which has lately
occupied the public mind the author says:

"When a remission or intermission is necessary, the parent must decide
what part of education shall be remitted or omitted, the walk, the ball,
the school, or all of these."--"No one can doubt which will interfere
most with Nature's laws, four hours' dancing or four hours'
studying."--"In these pages the relation of sex to mature life is not
discussed."

It is necessary to state at the outset, that this preface does not in
the least represent the book as it naturally strikes the reader. Women
may read carelessly, as they have been accused of doing in this
instance, but when hundreds of wome