The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-04-02
Dldactic Flirts.
An Objectionable Variety of the Human
Species.
From the SATURDAY. RevieN

L INANAA tAA0 'atuiudJ htNltW
| Many readers of Daniel Derods NAV re-.
membsr--if thick coming novels have not OBJ.
liberated all recollection of the subject-their
surprise at Daniels popularity with women.
Why should two charming girls bow down
and worship this preaching prig? people prob.
ably said to themselves, and doubted whether
the author of his being had not made mis-
take. But there really was no mistake, and
George Eliot only gave proof Of her kuowl-
edge of the mind of modern girls. Daniel
was to put it in two words. an educational
firt Hence his success with the fair
| That young gentleman who was nothing if
not scientific, reflective and didactic should
win women's fancies with word, or even
without word, with glance, would have
seemed strange to Fielding absurd to Scott,
improbable to Thackeray. Yet so rapid a
change has passed over small minority Of
| young women that the educational firt, the
worldly college don. has his day, like those old
| favorites, the officers of the army, and the
clergy. Perhaps there is nothing to be regretted
| in this. We can not all be comets and curates,
and the heroines Of fiction must sometimes
come down to inferior beings and bestSw their
| divines. They will find educational young
men less easy to fix, more volatile and faithless
| than their old friends. AS time goes ou, how
ever, they will begin to understand their edu-
catonal Young men ard to gauge beforehand
his lack of "satisfactoriness," as it is called
They will learn by experience of generations
that his charm are not sterling, and that he is
certain to hutter off. like learned butterfly
from the fullblown flower, to aid some fresh
blossom to expand.
To assist blossoms to unfold themselves is
the nilsson of the educational f1irt. 1t is the
bud that he cares for; the mature rose can take
care of herself. The buds of an intellectual
turn enjoy the process while it lasts, and it is
fortunate for the educational flirt that the
minds of many modern girls are intent on the
,"thngs of the intellect" As maidens once
used to admire manly valor and revel in the
fluent talk of "the military" so maidens now
pine for everything that can be called higher
from the higher culture to the higher curves.
Yet 1t is often. If not always, the fate of the
aspiring to be born into an essentially COM
monplace family. They have brothers in office
or at public schools, and sisters who potter
about the parish and set their hearts on the
distribution of red flannel, tracts, coal and
soup. To the girls IN family of this kind who
has unawakened faculties and dormant taste
for culture the education i fllrt appears like
sober specimen of the fabled fairy prince. He
is not Fighter footed than the fox" but he is
an examiner in many examinations, a reader
of the Esoteric Review, aud he knows man
who once met MIR. Whistler at dinner. It is
the joy of his life to pose as master 10 the
midst OF fair disciples, and he is never so happy
as when he is lecturing to ladies. What satI-
lists have so often said in their original way
about eurates might be said with equal truth
about the educational flrt. Like the curate of
the past he is "nost interesting" and his
very skepticism makes him Sn object of tender
anxiety He has''seen so much Of the world"
tfron rooms 10 college) and here he has
pull over the old favorlte, who is dsta Dced for
the moment, but may come again when cul-
ture grows a WEAKNESS and the educational
fllrt has sought another district Meanwhile it
will be allowed that this sccomp pshed man,
who knows all about the growth of the Eng
lish constitution and about Campanian wall
paintings, who is equally ready TO look over
essays essays on ADgiS-Saxon & literature or copies of
cents" is fortunste person. He supplies
| modern want: he ia the guide and moralist of
dozens OF girls; the harmless Abelard of many
| "staid Heloisss.
The educational flirt is kind of Admirable
Crlchton in small way, and can speak in
| structively and impressiVely about almost
everything of interest. He likes to guide the
taste and mold the mind, and the minds
so much as to be guided and nodded
Ii IS easy to- see how an educational
correspondence about political economy may
glide into an Interchange of views about the
mission OF women and men. Instruction in
English composition may be illustrated on both
| sides by examples of original verse. The SYM
| pathy which narrow-minded sisters and BROTH
| ers whose thoughts are straitened by commerce
cannot give IS readily impaired by the educa-
l tonal f1irt. He is student of humanity and
| OF character. and character upfods very rapidly
| in the sunshine of aesthetic discussion. When
| 1t has quite uDf0lded when Helosa knows all
about sociology" and spectrum analysis, about
| the theory OF rent aod the influence of Greek
L q r on foil mi ohars -:..
| cism and the origin of language, il is time for
ADelard TO go and plant the standard of cnl-
| ture in another quarter. Heosa is now able
to go about doing good on her own account.
Poor Heloisal she cannot possibly carry the
| war into Africa; she cannot march to and fro
converting young men as her Abelard converts
young womep. 1t is very remarkable fact
that men, unlike girls, do not like being prose-
lytized in this way. If the male educational
hirt meets the proper sort of young lady, he
can lay down the law with much acceptance.
| The learned and talkative lady on the other
| hand, never meets the right sort of convertible
young man. Ii she introduces political ecopo.
my or metaphysics or geology or primitive
man TO the youth who sits next her at dinner,
or to her partner in the dance, she finds that
he is not interested. If he is stupid young
man, OF course his dullness needs no explsna-
nation. 1t he is known to be a clever young
man yet he is not responsive. If
would find that he is grumbling at having
"shop' talked to him. His college friends,
Smith or Brown, will entertain him with "the
notion" with "categories,'' with neolithic
talk, with discourse about everything that is
high or higher" in walks round the place
called Mesopotamia or on the Trumpington
road. 1t is to help him forget that kind of
| thing for while that he is conversng with
Heloisa. Now this is hard thing and difficult
to be borne 1t is hard for both sides; hard for
the man who is bored and for the woman who
i thinks haraplE anuhhad tbaro
| young men SO lost to sense of the respect they
| owe to women that they will draw their learned
companion out. as they say. The worst of an
education conducted on the principles we have
| described, the worst of the Couture impaired
by the educational flirt, is its wordiness, its
shallowDess The pupils have misunderstood
| almost all the tips Gas they are technically
called) OF their teacher. They know many
| things, like Margites, but they know them all
| wrong. To young men with more humor than
courtesy it seems lot unamusing TO listen to a
| HJw OF pretty blunders from the lips of ladies
who are happy in the belief that they are dis
| playing an intimate acquaintance with the phi
| losophy of Kant or the theory of Noile, But
the joke is one that soon pals, and it is diff
cult indeed for the modern Diotim to find a
| Socrates, humble-minded man who will sit at
her feet and be her pupil. Thus education by
Hlrtation is a very one-sided game. To play at
| lt one should be able to move about freely, and
cfoose new partners every three months.
Cynlcs have asked whether the ardent desire
Of women to be educated has produced tn at
new variety of man, the educational frt, or
whether the existence of educational hrts has
| produced the novel wish to be educated. 1t is
| impossible TO give direct answer to this ques-
ton. Filtration and education, the study of
mathematics and political economy by ladies,
the study of ladies and Of their character" by
men, have advanced together. They act and
| react on each other; their Influences cannot be
| dsentaDgled. If we are very earnest believers in
the higher education of women, we may look
| 90 the educational iirt as an unconscious in-
strumeut in the spread of learning. He fits
| about like the bee to amuse himself and gather
honey; but he scatters good deal of learned
| dust as he fits. Hs is not always a very can
| did person; he may not always know his own
| Intentions very clearly; but on the whole his
| Influence is not all bad. This is not very
| hign compliment, to be sure, for the influence
| of war, pestilence and famine seems to many
| philosophers to be beneficial in the long run.
| When education has become o recognized
| and organized thing, when all women who care
| for it are instructed like men, as matter of
course, the occupation of the didactic firt will
| be gone, He will no longer have the charm Of
| rarity and mystery He will tutn out to be no
| wiser than his brethren. Hs will cease to
seem to possess strange secrets and hidden lore.
No one will believe in him; he will be found