so expensively; and in our public schools, at least, one thinks there may be some relaxation of this tremendous strain.  Besides, physiological reformers had the making of our public system.  “A man without high health,” said Horace Mann, “is as much at war with Nature as a guilty soul is at war with the spirit of God.”  Look first at our Normal Schools, therefore, and see how finely their theory, also, presents this same lofty view.

“Those who have had much to do with students, especially with the female portion,” said a Normal School Report a few years since, “well know the sort of martyr-spirit that extensively prevails,—­how ready they often are to sacrifice everything for the sake of a good lesson,—­how false are their notions of true economy in mental labor, ... sacrificing their physical natures most unscrupulously to their intellectual.  Indeed, so strong had this passion for abuse become [in this institution], that no study of the laws of the physical organization, no warning, no painful experiences of their own or of their associates, were sufficient to overcome their readiness for self-sacrifice.”  And it appears, that, in consequence of this state of things, circulars were sent to all boarding-houses in the village, laying down stringent rules to prevent the young ladies from exceeding the prescribed amount of study.

Now turn from theory to practice.  What was this “prescribed amount of study” which these desperate young females persisted in exceeding in this model school?  It began with an hour’s study before daylight (in winter),—­a thing most dangerous to eyesight, as multitudes have found to their cost.  Then from eight to half past two, from four to half past five, from seven to nine,—­with one or two slight recesses.  Ten hours and three quarters daily, Dolorosus! as surely as you are a living sinner, and as surely as the Board of Education who framed that programme were sinners likewise.  I believe that some Normal Schools have learned more moderation now; but I know also what forlorn wrecks of womanhood have been strewed along their melancholy history, thus far; and at what incalculable cost their successes have been purchased.

But it is premature to contemplate this form of martyrdom, for Angelina, who has to run the gantlet of our common schools and high schools first.  Let us consider her prospects in these, carrying with us that blessed maxim, five hours’ study a day,—­“Nature loves the number five,” as Emerson judiciously remarks,—­for our aegis against the wiles of schoolmasters.

The year 1854 is memorable for a bomb-shell then thrown into the midst of the triumphant school-system of Boston, in the form of a solemn protest by the city physician against the ruinous manner in which the children were overworked.  Fact, feeling, and physiology were brought to bear, with much tact and energy, and the one special point of assault was the practice of imposing out-of-school studies, beyond the habitual