ulum is nearly the same. But in all schools the girls were
thoroughly drilled in German, French, Rhetoric, Composition, Arithmetic,
History, and in the History of Literature. English and Italian were
optional. The hours extended from nine till twelve, and from two to four
or five, no other intermission being allowed--which seemed often rather
hard. One and frequently two hours were spent in needlework, which time
was utilized in the practice of French and English conversation with an
experienced teacher. The girls prepared their lessons at home, and
recited sitting. Their attendance was expected to be _uninterrupted_,
and was usually so, even through the critical period of development,
except in cases of suffering and trouble, and these were not frequent. I
remember but little complaint of headache and weariness--back-ache
seemed unknown. And yet these girls worked hard, many of them very hard.
Some began to teach when only sixteen, or even younger, and while still
pursuing their own studies. They went out generally in every weather,
and at all times, month in and month out.

Now, why did they not break down? Why do we find comparatively few
invalids among the educated German girls and women? Are there no other
causes at work than a somewhat different climate and, occasionally, a
more phlegmatic temperament; or is it because the studies of the modern
languages and history, the endless practising of _etudes_ and sonatas,
the stooping wearily over some delicate embroidery, is less taxing to
the nervous system than Latin and Greek, and the working out of
algebraic problems? I am not prepared to say. But grant that a small
part of the solution can be found in this difference, there are yet
other and deeper causes at work. One of them is that the young German
girl, while at school, makes study her sole business. She goes to no
parties, visits no balls. She does not waste her hours of sleep or
leisure in putting numberless ruffles on her garments, so as to surpass
her mother in elegance, nor does she promenade up and down the avenues
and flirt with young gentlemen. Her amusements are of the simplest. A
walk, or an hour spent in a public garden in her mother's company;
occasionally a concert or an opera, which never lasts later than nine or
half-past nine; some holiday afternoon, a little gathering of young
school-friends, to which gentlemen are not admitted; once or twice a
year, perhaps, after she is fifteen, private theatric