AT the meeting in Boston of the Social Science Association, last Wednesday, there was an exciting discussion concerning the Higher Education of Women, in which President Eliot was severely attacked for not opening Harvard College to women. The advocates of reform rely chiefly on theoretical and abstract reasons. They say that the College is endowed by the State, that women pay taxes, and that therefore it is legally wrong to refuse them the advantages of education that have been procured by their money; that girls in the public and private schools often display a great capacity for study, and often lead the boys, this fact proving that they are not mentally or physically disqualified for brain work. Mr. Phillips further called attention to the absurdity of demanding from women great talent, or genius even, before they are allowed the privilege of the higher education.

The reasons of opponents are chiefly practical, such as their experience has taught them. Thus, President Eliot says that, having examined some thirty mixed colleges in the West, he has come to a conclusion hostile to them. Oberlin College, which began without distinguishing in any manner the female from the male students, has at last almost developed into two colleges under one name; the women taking both courses and degrees different from the men. It is also significant that the matron told Mr. Eliot that she would be unwilling to have a daughter of hers in Oberlin College. The President said, or implied, that the physique of women rendered them unfit for such education as men get. It is unfortunate, we think, that the testimony of leading educators differs so materially upon these practical questions. The evidence is often diametrically opposed, and can do but little more than confuse the candid student of social science. Mr. Eliot says that both male and female physicians agree in declaring that women are physically unfit for study; Mr. Raymond, of Vassar, says that four hundred healthier women can hardly be found than those at Poughkeepsie. In view of this confliction, our condition is much like that of jurors in a murder trial after listening to the testimony of chemical experts.

Colonel Higginson quotes Voltaire, - "Ideas and beards are alike, - women and very young men have none"; so we do not place much confidence in our opinion in this matter, which is as follows:-

The Western mixed colleges are said to have, like boarding-schools, very strict rules with regard to the conduct of their students. The existence of these rules proves that they are needed. We know that boys and girls find ways of circumventing their teachers; does any one suppose that young men and women do not? To us it seems that, if women come to Harvard, the true policy of the College will be teaching, pure and simple, without any laws to control the students outside the class-room. Then it will be expedient that the dormitory system shall be entirely abolished, and instead students will room and board at private houses, as they do in German university towns. If so radical a change as this is really necessary, Mr. Eliot may well hesitate; for a well-endowed college for women could be established at hardly greater expense than the change would necessitate.