sputants.
With this I shall have nothing to do; but these things are certain;
that the minds of _both_ are capable of much greater activity and more
important results than have been generally supposed; and that whilst
education has not done what it ought for man, it has done far less for
woman. This it is, then, which affords an additional argument in my
mind for a master and a mistress. For let it not be imagined, that
I would dismiss women altogether from the system--that I think them
useless or even dispensable in an infant school. If, indeed, one
or the other _must_ be done without, and I had my choice, I should
certainly give my voice for a woman; but to carry the system into full
effect requires _both_. There is ample opportunity for the offices of
maternal love, of which man is at best but a poor imitator; neither
can it be denied, that an active intelligent woman is a useful
auxiliary to the labours of the man in the duties of the school. The
authoritative presence of the man is the more necessary in the infant
system, because one grand object is, to rule without harshness, and
by that principle of love which is in no degree incompatible with the
respect felt for a kind but judicious schoolmaster. Some children,
indeed, so far as regards authority, might be very well managed by a
mistress only, but then it must be recollected that an infant school
exhibits every variety of temper and disposition; and even were it
otherwise, the objection as to intellectual incompetence and physical
strength, before adverted to, would still hold good.

Such, indeed, is the opinion of the unfitness of females for the
occupation of teaching, in Scotland, that in many places the very idea
of it is scouted. The people of that country have scarcely heard of a
_school-mistress_, even for the youngest children; and certain it is,
that education is much better conducted in Scotland than in most other
places. If the minds of children are to be cultivated, and a firm and
decided tone given to their characters, say they, what can be the use
of sending them to a school conducted by a woman only? And I must
candidly admit, that I perfectly agree with them on this head, and
have therefore deemed it my duty to be thus explicit on the matter.[A]

[Footnote A: I am sorry to say that, at this time, the people
of Scotland have been led into the same error, of which I have
complained. I did hope they would never have allowed themselves to be
led a