ered in good health 19
" " fair " 14
" " delicate " 12

Of the nineteen "good," fifteen left as well as they came. Two took the
course too young, and felt the undue strain in diminished general
strength. Two deteriorated in health.

Of the fourteen "fair," five left in essentially the same condition;
nine improved.

Of the twelve "delicate," five left in the same condition; seven
improved.

It is scarcely necessary to say that every year the same old battles
with bad habits in dress, diet, exercise, sleep, and work, have to be
fought; but the enemies are not so numerous, and the allies of health
and common sense are always gaining in numbers and strength; so the
prospect for ultimate and complete victory improves. Perhaps the
greatest obstacle that we find to the consummation of our scheme for
intellectual training, is the pressure made by students, and even more
strongly by their parents, to take the work while they are too young.

Fifteen is the minimum age at which any are admitted, even for the
preparatory classes; but no girl of fifteen has the poise, the
_settledness_ of nerve and muscle and brain to enable her to bear
uninjured the immense strain that the mere living in such a great family
necessitates. It is almost impossible for any one who has not tried it
to understand this; and parents listen with a polite, incredulous smile,
when I explain why I think it unwise for their bright young daughters to
attempt here the not difficult Latin, mathematics, etc., of the
preparatory years. We--the parents and I--agree perfectly that the girls
can do the work easily enough, but they, the parents, can not see the
difference which is so clear to my mind--as, after these eight years, it
could hardly help being--the difference that it will make to the girls
whether they do the work in the small classes of the home school, and
surrounded in their leisure hours with the freedom and repose of the
accustomed family, or in the large classes that are here necessary, and
amid the inevitable excitements, outside the recitation room, of a
constant residence in a household of five hundred.

Again and again I have seen these young students, for, of course, they
enter despite my protestations--everybody wants to see the folly of
everything for himself--I have seen them succumb to the unwonted nervous
tax within a few weeks; others bear up for months, many get through the
year and go h