New-York tribune., 1869-06-25
PRIMES Ind PRLSMS.


ure of speech, signifies the present ending Of
things scholastic,-is upon us. 1t is impossible,
of course, to overrate the value and sgnt-
cance Of College Commencement Day. We
all know that in the efiulgence of the elo-
quence of young Smith the memory OF De-
mosthenes fades We have all seen the Ad-
mirable Jones, jr, in the calmness of conscious
power dsjoint the nose of the Admirable
Crichton. We recall how the prizes o. life in
evitably fall to the honor men as IL their show
Latin and Greek were an abracadabra to be-
witch success and how the slow men who mis-
place an ictus or blunder in a quantity haY-
ing, perhaps, after all, some rude notion OF
the business of existence, go to the bottom at
once and are never heard of more. And as
each Commencement is the express image OF
each that has gone before, after a score or so
of them ones interest somewhat flags.
But now comes n new display to
Gnip observation. The Young Ladies'
Finishing Schools send forth their val
ediction in the form of invitations
to Closing Exhibitons-appropriate name-or
TO the final Soirfe Musicale or Soir6e Ddnsdnfe;
invitations written in the prettiest Of hands and
with the loftiest disregard of accents The
morning entertainment consists of series of
questions and answers in French, philosophy,
rhetoric, logic, poetry, Shikspur, and the musi-
cal glasses, and, We dare be sworn, plane and
spherical trigonOmetTy, metallurgy, telluric and
cosmical influences for those fair Minervas, the
graduates, spring full-armed into society from
the brain of their parent JOve. All this knowl-
edge being acquired in a three years course of
study at least half whose available time is
given to music, it is safe to assert that the
feminine brain is of far subter and more COM
prehensive force than the masculine, and to
infer corresponding feminine capacity for
affairs and for government. But, bless the
logical sex, We arc not left to inference. 1t is
proved capable, and will go nigh to be thought
so shortly. For only look at the theses which
these June heats have fructifed! On The
Ideal in Art; on The Greek Fate on Girl
hoods DreamSj on WOman's Mission;
on The Influence of Music on Woman in His
tory; on Summer on Modern Nouelsj on The
Immortality ofhe Soul; on Church and State;
on Semper MutdbHis Feminaj on French Liter
atiwe; on The Study Of the Classics. And one
able political economist, aged seventeen or
thereabouts, issues an ultimatum on the ques-
ton of Free Trade, which seems to us to close
debate and leave Protection not leg to stand
upon. We remember nothing 80 conclusive in
literature save the editorials in The Missouri
Democrat, and the Johnsonian argument:
II the man who turnips cries,
Cries not when his father dies,
'Tis proof that he would rather
Have turnp than hIs father.
The evening reception may be described, to
borrow the fcryor of Cleopatra Skewton, rs
"all soul and what y his name.p Palas gdes
E.. l.. .l,1t L.v
Beethoven and Chopin, and Mozart, and Cham
pagne Charley, and lie sabre de mon perc, with
the same readiness, and with the large indif-
ference of genius to the score. She purls along
in melodious flow of that inscrutable speech
which she has brought away from her Olen-
dorf; she dances in a manner copied in part
from her notion of minuet do la coar, and in
part from her recOlcctiOns of TostGe, and she
exhibits pictures which vie in merit with
the adOrnmcnts of the National Capitol. And
next day, having, like Lars POrsena Of Clusium,
seen her messengers ride forth, east, and west,
and south, and north, 10 summon her array,
she packs the said array in the largest of
trunks, aud goes forth completed, finished,
done, to the home OF her childhood, or to
Saratoga, or Long Branch, or Europe, MS the
case may be.
The Summer grows barren. We write it with
regret. The long procession of familiar
Beauties, guarded by II prim duenna with an
umbrella from the genteel young Beasts who
throng the pavement to stare at them, van
ishes from the Avenue. The intermittent gig
gle and response are no more heard in the
church of The Eleven Thousand Virgins.
Handkerchiefs cease to flutter from fourth
story windows to unknown gentlemen in the
next block. Yet it Il comforting to remember
that the lessons in Irritation which the oppor-
tuntlcs of a city Finishing School afford arc