I shall doubtless be asked whether I assert that one type of mind belongs always to the man and one to the woman.  By no means.  I do not even lay emphasis on the necessity of naming the two types “male” and “female.”  All I say is that the types exist—­with those intermediate cases that always bother the classifier—­and that the great majority of men possess one type and the great majority of women the other.  It is possible that differences of training may have originated or at least emphasised the types; it is possible that future training may obliterate the lines that separate them, but I do not believe it.  I am even afraid of trying the experiment, for there is reason to believe that its success in the mental field might react unfavourably on those physical differences on which the future of the race depends.  We may have gone too far in this direction already; else why the feverish anxiety of the girls’ colleges to prove that their graduates are marrying and bearing children?

The fact is that the problem of the education of the sexes is not yet solved.  Educating one sex alone didn’t work; neither, I believe, does the present plan of educating both alike, whether in the same institution, or separately.

II—­A Diagnosis

Reading, like conversation, is, or ought to be, a contact between two minds.  The difference is that while one may talk only with his contemporaries and neighbours one may read the words of a writer far distant both in time and space.  It is no wonder, perhaps, that the printed word has become a fetish, but fetishes of any kind are not in accordance with the spirit of the age, and their veneration should be discouraged.  Reading in which the contact of minds is of secondary importance, or even cuts no figure at all, is meaningless and valueless.

In a previous paper, reasons have been given for believing that reading of this kind is peculiarly prevalent among the members of women’s clubs.  The value of these organisations is so great, and the services that they have rendered to women, and through them to the general cause of social betterment, are so evident, that it seems well worth while to examine the matter a little more closely, and to complete a diagnosis based on the study of the symptoms that have already presented themselves.  As most of the reading done in connection with clubs is in preparation for the writing and reading of papers, we may profitably, perhaps, direct our attention to this phase of the subject.

Most persons will agree, probably, that the average club paper is not notably worth while.  It is written by a person not primarily and vitally interested in the subject, and it is read to an assemblage most of whom are similarly devoid of interest—­the whole proceeding being more or less perfunctory.  Could it be expected that reading done in connection with such a performance should be valuable?