moral, and the evidence that it is so, is in the demoralization which has taken place in the United States since the era of the Declaration of Independence, and which fact is freely admitted by so many American writers “Ætas parentum pejor avis tulit Horace, lib. iii., ode 6. pro I shall by and bye shew some of the effects duced by this injudicious system of education; of which, if it is necessary to uphold their democratical institutions, I can only say, with Dr. Franklin, that the Americans "pay much too dear for their whistle." It is, however, a fact, that education (such as I have shown it to be) is in the United States more equally diffused. They have very few citizens of the States (except a portion of those in the West) who may be considered as "hewers of wood and drawers of water," those duties being performed by the emigrant Irish and German, and the slave population. The education of the higher classes is not by any means equal to that of the old countries of Europe. You meet very rarely with a good classical scholar, or a very highly educated man, although some there certainly are, especially in the legal profession. The Americans have not the leisure for such attainments; hereafter they may have; but at present they do right to look principally to Europe for literature, as they can obtain it thence cheaper and better. In every liberal profession you will find that the ordeal necessary to be gone through is not such as it is with us; if it were, the difficulty of retaining the young men at college would be much increased. To show that such is the case, I will now just give the difference of the acquirements demanded in the new and old country to qualify a young man as an M.D. :— English Physician. 1. A regular classical edu cation at a college. 2. Apprenticeship of not less than five years. American Physician. 1. Not required. 2. One year's apprentice ship. If the men in America enter so early into life that they have not time to obtain the acquirements supposed to be requisite with us, it is much the same thing with the females of the upper classes, who, from the precocious ripening by the climate and consequent early marriages, may be said to throw down their dolls that they may nurse their children. The Americans are very justly proud of their women, and appear tacitly to acknowledge the want of theoretical education in their own sex by the care and attention which they pay to the instruction of the other. Their exertions are, however, to a certain degree, checked by the circumstance, that there is not sufficient time allowed previous to the marriage of the females to give that solidity to their knowledge which would ensure its permanency. They attempt too much for so short a space of time. Two or three years are usually the period during which the young women remain at the establishments, or colleges I may call them (for in reality they are female colleges). In the prospectus of the Albany Female Academy, I find that the classes run through the following branches :-French, bookkeeping, ancient history, ecclesiastical history, history of literature, composition, political economy, American constitution, law, natural theology, mental philosophy, geometry, trigonometry, algebra, natural philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, geology, natural history, and technology, besides drawing, penmanship, &c. &c. It is almost impossible for the mind to retain, for any length of time, such a variety of knowledge, forced into it before a female has arrived to the age of sixteen or seventeen, at which age, the study of these sciences, as is the case in England, should commence, not finish. I have already mentioned, that the examinations which I attended were highly creditable both to preceptors and pupils; but the duties of an American woman, as I shall hereafter explain, soon find her other occupation, and the ologies are lost in the realities of life. Diplomas are given at most of these establishments on the young ladies completing their course of studies. Indeed, it appears to be almost necessary that a young lady should produce this diploma as a certificate of being qualified to bring up young republicans. I observed to an American gentleman how youthful his wife appeared to be— "Yes," replied he, "I married her a month after she had graduated." The following are the terms of a diploma, which was given to a young lady at Cincinnati, and which she permitted me to copy : "In testimony of the zeal and industry with which Miss MT has prosecuted the |
