efficacy_, to
maintain its level, or even improve it in spite of the hours lost?
What is the length of labor beyond which an average woman's
constitution is overtaxed and deteriorated, and within which,
therefore, the law ought to keep them in spite of their relations, and
sometimes in spite of themselves."--_Vid. Spectator_, London, June 14,
1873.
PART V.
THE EUROPEAN WAY.
"And let it appear that he doth not change his country manners
for those of foreign parts, but only prick in some flowers of
that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own
country."--LORD BACON.
One branch of the stream of travel that flows with steadily-increasing
volume across the Atlantic, from the western to the eastern continent,
passes from the United States, through Nova Scotia, to England. The
traveller who follows this route is struck, almost as soon as he
leaves the boundaries of the republic, with the difference between the
physique of the inhabitants he encounters and that of those he has
left behind him. The difference is most marked between the females of
the two sections. The firmer step, fuller chest, and ruddier cheek of
the Nova-Scotian girl foretell still greater differences of color,
form, and strength that England and the Continent present. These
differences impressed one who passed through Nova Scotia not long ago
very strongly. Her observations upon them are an excellent
illustration of our subject, and they deserve to be read in this
connection. Her remarks, moreover, are indirect but valuable testimony
to the evils of our sort of identical education of the sexes. "Nova
Scotia," she says, "is a country of gracious surprises."
"But most beautiful among her beauties, most wonderful among her
wonders, are her children. During two weeks' travel in the Provinces,
I have been constantly more and more impressed by their superiority in
appearance, size, and health, to the children of the New-England and
Middle States. In the outset of our journey, I was struck by it; along
all the roadsides they looked up, boys _and girls_, fair,
broad-cheeked, sturdy-legged, such as with us are seen only now and
then. I did not, however, realize at first that this was the
universal law of the land, and that it pointed to something more than
climate as a cause. But the first school that I saw, _en masse_, gave
a startling impetus to the train of observation and influence into
which I was unconsciously fal
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