Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-09-18
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
A CONSERVATIVE VIEW.
Recent Brilliant Triumphs of Women In
the Higher Branches of Learning Not So
Gnrnri Il Aflar ALI.


with which the success of lady students
in recent university examinations WIS
greeted in England, have reached us on
this side of the Atlantic. All our read
ers know how brilliant that success was.
Miss Fawcett, daughter of the celebrat-
ed professor of political economy, Sc
cured the highest place in the mathe-
NAUTICAL tripos at Cambridge, outstrir-
ping the senior wrangler by considera-
BILE percentage of marks. This victory,
notable under any circumstances, was
rendered all the moro notable by the
fact that it was won in an exceptionally
good year of mathematical scholars.
Hard after Miss Fawcett in the race for
| glory came Miss Afford, of Girton, who
stood in the first division of the first
class in classics. She, too, belongs to a
family honored in literary circles. Her
and her uncle was the Dean Afford, who
contributed some works of permanent
value to English literature.
Both these young ladies showed ex-
ceptional powers of acquisition and as
sanitation, but they have scarcely dol o
enough to justify the ecstatic eulogies
which have been paid them. Some of
their admirers go the length of declar-
ing that they have already done more
for their sex than all the women who
preceded them. Rhapsodies in a similar
vein fill columns in newspapers and
magazines. John Bull is usually sedate
enough, but when any thing powerful
enough to excite him happens, he shouts
with whoops of delight which would pvt
an Indian on the war-path to shame.
That lady should snatch the blue rib
bon of Mathematical scholarship from
the favored sex, seems to him almost
q. a miracle. 1t opens up possibilities for
women which makes him intoxicated
with wonder. He sees dim visions of
women delivering speeches in Parlia-
ment, lecturing in university class
rooms, and sitting on the bench clothed
in judicial authority. Such revolutions
are to be wrought by the phenomenal
success of phenomenally gifted grill
The wise gentlemen, who wag their
heads in editorial chairs and enlighten
the world through editorial columns,
gravely announce that Mrs. Poyser's OBJ.
servation as to the capacity Of her sex
has in these latter days received new
meaning and veritable fulflment IT
will be remembered that the observa-
ton was to this effect-"God Almighty
had made 'em to match the men," We
thought such truism would by this
time have been shelved in the closet OF
commonplaces, but we find it trotted out
in laudatory articles as a sentiment now
invested with striking significance.
Thrashing out thoroughly thrashed out
straw is less needless task than at
tempting, in our day, to explode the
notion of inferiority of the female tC
the male intellect An age which
boasts of George Eliot, Elizabeth Bar
, rett Browning and Harriet Beechel
, Stowe, can not be in ignorance of the
range of woman's mental power.
Attention is also called to the yea
( displayed by English girls in classica
studies, as If that zeal were something
unheard of before. 1t is not so strangel,
new. 1t is but revival of what OBJ
tanned in the good old days of Queer
Bess. History repeats itself" and Ger
tainly the Victorian period is in this re
spect the Elizabethan period. A knowl
edge of Latin and Greek was counted al
essential part of lady's education, dur
ing the reign of Elizabeth. Sir Anthem,
Cooke, who enjoyed the distinction o
being tutor to Edward VI, had fou
learned daughters. Their accomplish
ments were shared though in smalle
degree, by their companions of simila
social standing Katherine wrote Latil
: hexameters and with the ease of prac
ticed knowledge Mildred, who became
the wife of Lord Burleigh, is describet
by Roger Ascham as with the singh
exception of Lady Jane Grey, the bes
Greek scholar among the young womel
t OF England. A third daughter, Anne
was the cleverest of the four She wa
equally at home in theology and classics
: She carried on a long and interestin,
correspondence with Bishop Jewell il
c Greek, and translated one of his book
. written in Latin, so accurately that h
{ was unable to suggest single altera
ton. Such woman was worthy of tn
honor of being Lord Bacon's mother
a We advise the journalists, who write @
7 devotion to classical studies as some
/. thing new for English women, to lear
= a little about the studies of ladies in tn
Elizabethan period.
e Mathematics is generally supposed t
i require more mental power than elias
n sizes, and so to be beyond the range @
/ woman's capacity. Here again histor
may be summoned to administer need
ed rebuke. Within the last century, a
least three women won renown throuv
q their mathematical ability. Mari
9 Getania Agnesi was professor of mathe
mates at the famous University of Be
logna She was so beautiful that sh
had to draw a curtain between hersel
" and her students, and so learned tina
y her commentary on comic sections an
II her analysis of finite quantities and G
infnitesmals became standard treatise
on the subjects they discussed. He
lectures are said to have been remarks
!, bly, lucid, although scholars bewildere
= by her personal charms often ran tn
risk of confusing angles with angles
an error into which students of our da
: are in no danger of falling. Many read
ers must be acquainted with the wor
lone by Mary Somerville in geometr
- and algebra.
Her sex could not bar her out from
, first place among the mathematician
Of her time. The story of the achiev,
u ments of Ellen Watson is less familiar
= Amid the stress of home duties, nc
one Of which was shirked by her, sh
pursued a strenuous course of privat
y study, which qualified her for tn
e highest mathematical class in I'm
:, versity College, London. At collep
she was remarkably successful Sd