of elevated tone, as to such matters, among English writers; but the
Frenchman is simply amazed that the Englishman should describe even the
saintliest of mothers as attaching so much weight to such a small affair.

An able newspaper writer, quoted with apparent approval by the "Boston
Daily Advertiser," praises the supposed foreign method for the "habit of
dependence and deference" that it produces; and because it gives to a young
man a wife whose "habit of deference is established." But it must be
remembered, that, where this theory is established, the habit of deference
is logically carried much farther than mere conjugal convenience would take
it. Its natural outcome is the authority of the priest, not of the husband.
That domination of the women of France by the priesthood which forms even
now the chief peril of the republic--which is the strength of legitimism
and imperialism and all other conspiracies against the liberty of the
French people--is only the visible and inevitable result of this dangerous
docility.

One thing is certain, that the best preparation for freedom is freedom; and
that no young girls are so poorly prepared for American life as those whose
early years are passed in Europe. Some of the worst imprudences, the most
unmaidenly and offensive actions, that I have ever heard of in decent
society, have been on the part of young women educated abroad, who have
been launched into American life without its early training,--have been
treated as children until they suddenly awakened to the freedom of women.
On the other hand, I remember with pleasure, that a cultivated French
mother, whose daughter's fine qualities were the best seal of her
motherhood, once told me that the models she had chosen in her daughter's
training were certain families of American young ladies, of whom she had,
through peculiar circumstances, seen much in Paris.