the highest pinnacles of knowledge. Though ignorant rustics,
they reason in their own rude way that woman and man are made of the
same clay, and refuse to believe that because it has been their fate
to have daughters instead of sons, they must condemn them to bear the
chains of ignorance, incapacitating them from being useful to their
families, society, and their country.

Education has not atrophied or impaired any of the fundamental
faculties of woman; on the contrary, it has enhanced and enriched
them. Far from being a constant charge to the family, the educated
woman has often been its sustain and support in times of great
need. The educated woman has not become a blue-stocking, that fatuous
creature imagined by certain elements, nor has she lost any of her
feminine charms by being able to argue and discuss on every subject
with the men. On the contrary, it seems to lend her an additional
grace and charm, because she understands us better and can make
herself better understood. Thank God, people are no longer ready to
cast ridicule upon what some used to consider the foolish presumption
of women to know as much as the men, and this is doubtless due to the
fact that the disastrous results predicted by the calamity howlers,
the terrible prophets of failure, have not materialized.

Very well; if you allow the instruction and education of woman
in all the branches of science, you must allow woman to take on
her place not only in domestic life, but also in social and public
life. Instruction and education have a twofold purpose; individually,
they redeem the human intellect from the perils of ignorance, and
socially they prepare man and woman for the proper performance of
their duties of citizenship. A person is not educated exclusively for
his or her own good, but principally to be useful and of service to
the others. Nothing is more dangerous to society than the educated
man who thinks only of himself, because his education enables him to
do more harm and to sacrifice everybody else to his convenience or
personal ambition. The real object of education is public service,
that is, to utilize the knowledge one has acquired for the benefit
and improvement of the society in which one is living.

In societies, therefore, where woman is admitted to all the
professions and where no source of knowledge is barred to her,
woman must necessarily and logically be allowed to take a part in
the public life, otherwise, her educatio