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are proverbially sickly and delicate, but that we have any women at all deserving the sacred name.
Much that has been said in the chapter devoted to boys, is equally true of girls, but with the latter a system of training is pursued, which not only forces a precocious sexual development, but wholly destroys that maidenly freshness and innocence which, at the pace we are going, will soon cease to have real examples, and will be ranked only with the dreamy visions of poets and romancers.
We purpose to deal plainly with a few salient facts within the knowledge and observation of all, and to connect these facts with their legitimate consequences in the prevalence of evils so universally deplored. In behalf of girls, even more strongly than of boys, we would plead for early isolation of the sexes—not that complete separation which would exclude children of the same family from innocent and legitimate participation in childish sports and pleasures, but isolation in sleeping, and dressing, and all those little matters which expose the differences of conformation, and are capable of suggesting ideas of curiosity or comparison. "With the opulent there is no sort of difficulty in effecting this to perfection, and with nearly all classes it can be carried to the fullest extent necessary for the purpose. There is required only a full appreciation of its necessity and binding obligation. This kind of isolation should begin as early as the fourth or fifth year, and rigid supervision, with lessons in propriety, should be maintained thereafter. Erotic propensities are often very early manifested, and, if as early detected, can be easily controlled.
Love of dress is less an innate passion with girls than it is one so early implanted by pernicious example and precept as to seem congenital. It is, moreover, fraught with
