Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-05-14

| his heart is in his work; but the book
which he offers to the public as the re-
cult of his experience is commonplace
in style, faulty in arrangement, and con-
tains more than a suspicion of quackery.
While there is plenty ofsound truth in it,
there are also misstatements and exage-
rations not to be excused even by the
proverbial disagreement Of doctors ; and
the physiological facts introduced would
attain added power from o setting Of cor
rect and eloquent English, which they
unfortunately lack. AS moral stimu-
liant, it is not likely to be of much value;
as handbook of general physiological
information, or manual of education, we
have already better ones, the principal
thing to be said in its favor is that it may
strengthen hands for which Huxley and
Herbert Spencer are as yet too heavy.
The evils struck at are g. familiar to mos.
Of us that they mnst be presented in a
new light before we shall appreciate their
magnitude and limitation; and while the
thinking that is to be done must be
hard and logical, it must be popularized
and simpli6ed to the level of the minds
on which it is to act before it can be-
come visibly remedial.
On the highest plane Of thought, we
have in this generation produced much
that bears directly and practically upon
the education question, but the books in
which this is embodied do not come with
in the range Of the people who need them
most. The sallow elegantc on Fifth
Avenue and the dyspeptic New England
girl are not likely to be greatly benefited
by the reports of German gymnasia or
the closely written argument Of an Ok
ford professor, and "Our Girls" and
analogous works seem only to show the
width Of the gap which is waiting to be
spanned. The method OF nature is the
archetype of all methods" Says Mr..
Marcel, and on that point at least we
have reached the unanimity of the wise /;
who now will make clear to us the work.
ing of that nature upon which all our
progress depends
If the best of our American scientific
men, who know the needs and the power
of our American girls. could be brought
to feel that this is too important subject
to be left to second-rate theorists or even
to honest, unpractised enthusiasts, We
might then hope for the production of a
literature which should give vital assist
ance and wake up the Whole nation to
sense OF the value of wOman's life.
There are few women in any station of
Iif. who are not conscious of their own
warped natures and failure of develop
ment. and who are not willing to try
new path; but the leading and the teach
ing must come from the heights. "Our
Girls" must look beyond behavior, books
and moral tales and empirical treatises
for the help they need; learned professors
must study the aching spines of their
living daughters instead of the backbones
Of extinct fishes, and clergymen, wise in
spiritual things, must condescend to teach
lessons of practical duty to the little wo-
men of their Aocks, before we shall get
the change that we look for. Our edu-
cational machinery is confessedly at
fault; we get a fair article of raw mate
rial, and return it to the market in the
shape of Flora McFlimseys-a process
of manufacture which we are gradually
findinD tn he nnrpmnnorative