ntenon's great college; it was
for the Demoiselles de St. Cyr that he composed Athalie; and he devoted a
great deal of his time to the education of his own children. The Lycee
Racine will, no doubt, become as important an institution as the Lycee
Fenelon, and the speech delivered by M. Spuller on the occasion of its
opening was full of the happiest augury for the future. M. Spuller dwelt
at great length on the value of Goethe's aphorism, that the test of a
good wife is her capacity to take her husband's place and to become a
father to his children, and mentioned that the thing that struck him most
in America was the wonderful Brooklyn Bridge, a superb titanic structure,
which was completed under the direction of the engineer's wife, the
engineer himself having died while the building of the bridge was in
progress. 'Il me semble,' said M. Spuller, 'que la femme de l'ingenieur
du pont de Brooklyn a realise la pensee de Goethe, et que non seulement
elle est devenue un pere pour ses enfants, mais un autre pere pour
l'oeuvre admirable, vraiment unique, qui a immortalise le nom qu'elle
portait avec son mari.' M. Spuller also laid great stress on the
necessity of a thoroughly practical education, and was extremely severe
on the 'Blue-stockings' of literature. 'Il ne s'agit pas de former ici
des "femmes savantes." Les "femmes savantes" ont ete marquees pour
jamais par un des plus grands genies de notre race d'une legere teinte de
ridicule. Non, ce n'est pas des femmes savantes que nous voulons: ce
sont tout simplement des femmes: des femmes dignes de ce pays de France,
qui est la patrie du bons sens, de la mesure, et de la grace; des femmes
ayant la notion juste et le sens exquis du role qui doit leur appartenir
dans la societe moderne.' There is, no doubt, a great deal of truth in
M. Spuller's observations, but we must not mistake a caricature for the
reality. After all, Les Precieuses Ridicules contrasted very favourably
with the ordinary type of womanhood of their day, not merely in France,
but also in England; and an uncritical love of sonnets is preferable, on
the whole, to coarseness, vulgarity and ignorance.

* * * * *

I am glad to see that Miss Ramsay's brilliant success at Cambridge is not
destined to remain an isolated instance of what women can do in
intellectual competitions with men. At the Royal University in Ireland,
the Literature Scholarship of 100 pounds a year for five years has been
won by Miss S