can find. The female mind "improves by receiving,” as above quoted. This certainly is a new idea. The body, of course, improves by receiving food, and not by digestion and assimilation. We could conceive how a material, inanimate body might be altered in properties, increased or diminished by external objects, independently of its own agency, although probably this never occurs. But how a mind can be, in the slightest degree, affected without the positive and spontaneous action of its own powers, we cannot conceive. Prof. S. is in direct antagonism with the very plainest axioms of intellectual philosophy, and in carrying out his "Theory of Female Education," he will be obliged to remodel, at the same time, our systems of metaphysics, and write a pair of treatises; one suited to the male and the other to the female mind. We shall, in all patience, await their production.

"The kind of knowledge sought to be imparted in these higher schools, ought to be such as have distinct reference to her peculiar nature and destined sphere of life." p. 272. We have no objection to the sentiment of the above quotation. It includes our opinion exactly. In its application, however, our views are not, at all, in coincidence with those of Prof. S. He would exclude all severe study; we deem it absolutely essential. He would exclude mathematics; we would urge their study. We would require severe study and mathematics too, because the nature and destined sphere of action of woman demands them.

We are most decidedly of the opinion, that the course of study should be exactly adapted to the capacity and wants of the female mind, and from many years experience, we have no doubt on the subject. If there is one point, that is, in our own mind, established beyond all question, and by the most rigid induction from innumerable facts, it is as to the course of study for females. We don't feel called upon to occupy the pages of this journal in setting forth a system of study. All that is demanded is the point in regard to mathematics, the others are comparatively indifferent. And first, an early training in the elements of arithmetic, to be succeeded, at as

early a day as time and advancement will permit, with a thorough knowledge, of the theory and practice of the whole subject. In the latter part of this course, to commence algebra, and this to be succeeded by geometry, plane trigonometry, and the elements of spherical trigonometry and conic sections, and then to be completed at as early a stage of the course as circumstances will permit, and followed by mathematical astronomy. We do not propose these studies, because we expect a lady to have any more use for conic sections than a doctor or lawyer has, but we recommend it for the attainment of intellectual power. Our universal experience has been, that, let a scholar perfectly master the elements of mathematics and she will invariably make vastly more rapid progress in all other pursuits. In conversing with one of the most distinguished teachers of females in the United States, some years ago, he said, if we take two girls of the same capacity and put them at the same studies, with the exception of mathematics, and let one study mathematics one fourth of the day and the other study the studies, in common, all the time; at the end of the course, the one who has spent one fourth of her time on mathematics would be further advanced in the common studies on which she had spent only three fourths of her time, than the one who had studied them all the time. Prof. S. would never come to such a conclusion in his study, but we venture that any intelligent teacher, who has seen cases in point, will bear testimony to its truth in practice. The use of mathematics in giving intellectual power is beyond all question. We have seen numberless examples, of young girls enter school, that could not comprehend the simplest proposition, but by some months application to mathematics, could grasp any subject presented with the greatest facility; while we have seen others, whose parents did not wish them to study mathematics, or wished no hard study at all, who would never learn any thing as they ought. Mathematics are, at the same time, the test and stimulant of intellectual power. We do not mean to say that all, who are put on a course of mathematics derive profit from it. It is with that as with

every thing else. Some will pass through the most favorable circumstances for improvement, male and female, and yet receive none. We have been connected with classes of both sexes in colleges, as teacher of mathematics, and we have found as great a part of the females benefitted as of the males. With equal preparation, they grasp them as readily and comprehend their application as perfectly. The idea, that this mere elementary course of mathematics, can produce any ef fect on the affections, or any female peculiarities, other than to control them for good, does not demand a reply. We do not aim at making any of them mathematicians, and they never become such. It is as a knowledge of relations on which the great laws of nature are founded, and which every rational being should learn and may learn with profit.

The scheme of Prof. S., no doubt, will be popular with lazy pupils and indolent teachers, but with all others, it will be valued for all it is worth. It may do some evil, but can do no good. We might notice many other positions of Prof. S. but we deem it uncalled for. It was with no spirit of fault finding that we took up our pen in review of Prof. S.'s posi tions. It was because duty demanded it. We believe the article radically wrong and calculated to do much harm, if any favorable estimate is placed upon it. It is for those who have not made up their minds that we have written. We desire no controversy. We desire to gain no laurels in such a course. Our time and attention are in other pursuits, and it was with much hesitation, that we have written, what we have. Those interested can make their own decision. We have thrown the first stone and if our pebble does not topple over Prof. S.'s "Theory of Female Education," from the unstable equilibrium in which he has placed it, we leave it to be demolished by others, with heavier masses. It is to be hoped, that he will lie quietly where simple truth places him, and labor hereafter in a more promising field, and in one about which, he entertains more substantial opinions.

ART. III.

THE CÆSARS.*

By GEO. FREDERICK HOLMES, Esq., Burke's Garden, Va.

'The Cæsars!' It is a lofty theme, presenting almost equal temptations to the imagination of the poet and to the assiduous researches of the historian. The chronicle of imperial domination in Rome is full of those alternations of dazzling success and overwhelming failure which most captivate the popular fancy and minister most brilliantly to the charms of poetry. But the same annals are also replete with those events of lasting influence, with those profound political lessons, and often with those strange political anomalies, which excite the greatest interest, and best reward zeal in the philosophic student of the past. The startling contrasts of want and profusion, of penury and splendor, of pusillanimity and heroism, of degradation and greatness, keep our liveliest sympathies ever on the wing, while the gilded pathway of national decline rivets our attentive regards to the sinking agonies of the mightiest of empires. The vicissitudes of individual fortunes are so intimately interwoven with the apparent oscillations of the destiny of the world, that the grandest and saddest scene in universal history is blended into one accord with the fitful story of successive princes. Thus we have the bold outlines and compass of a cartoon combined, with the distinctness, the perspicuity, the minute detail of a cabinet picture. Each loses itself so completely in the other, that it is impossible to say whether the biography of the monarch is amplified into the colossal image of the state, or the history of the empire dwarfed to the proportions of the sovereign.

*The Caesars. By Thomas DeQuincey, Author of 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater,' &c., &c. Boston Ticknor, Reed & Fields. MDCCCLI.

In truth, they are both identical: each communicates to the other a portion of its own more special interest; and the impression produced, and which ought to be produced, by the study of this important period of history, is the consciousness of the entire unity of the grand subject throughout all the diversity or dissimilarity of its component parts. Hence it happens that poet, and historian, and philosopher may proceed harmoniously together through all the mazes of the imperial history of Rome; borrowing from each other at every step mutual counsel and mutual assistance. Hence, too, it is that the erratic genius of DeQuincey has succeeded in composing such a sparkling narrative, by uniting into the stream of light which he pours over his subject, the separate rays of poesy, history, and philosophy. They are mingled, however, in very unequal and undue proportions.

The Cæsars!' It is, indeed, a tempting subject. How strange and paradoxical the diverse phases of their position! Throned in the unapproachable isolation of universal and unrestricted dominion, they were thrown into daily contact with all classes of the people, and preserved in their habitual intercourse, in private and public life, much of the social equality which had characterized the best ages of the republic. Wielding the whole power of the armies, and regulating all the functions of the immense government, by the autocracy of their individual will, they yet offered an easy victim to the dagger of the most obscure assassin, and were dependent for life, as for rule, upon the merest caprices of fate and the most trivial accidents of fortune! Self-prompted and self-sustained in their virtues as in their vices, they held their perilous eminence without any prospect of permanent success but in their own resolution; without any shelter against misfortune but in the resources and determinations of their own minds. A sincere friend was a luxury almost denied to them by their giddy elevation, which converted all the satellites of the monarch into jealous and malignant flatterers. A party on which they might throw themselves for protection, and with which they might recommence the struggle, was unknown to them in the