examining all the vessels which came into it or issued out of it we could not discover any communication that it had with the tongue.

We could not but take notice, likewise, that several of those 5 little nerves in the heart which are affected by the sentiments of love, hatred, and other passions, did not descend to this before us from the brain but from the muscles which lie about the eye.

Upon weighing the heart in my hand I found it to be ex10 tremely light and consequently very hollow, which I did not wonder at when, upon looking into the inside of it, I saw multitudes of cells and cavities running one within another, as our historians describe the apartments of Rosamond's Bower. Several of these little hollows were stuffed with in15 numerable sorts of trifles, which I shall forbear giving any particular account of, and shall therefore only take notice. of what lay first and uppermost, which, upon our unfolding it and applying our microscopes to it, appeared to be a flamecolored hood.

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We were informed that the lady of this heart, when living, received the addresses of several who made love to her, and did not only give each of them encouragement but made. every one she conversed with believe that she regarded him with an eye of kindness; for which reason we expected to 25 have seen the impression of multitudes of faces among the several plaits and foldings of the heart, but to our great surprise not a single print of this nature discovered itself till we came into the very core and centre of it. We there observed a little figure, which, upon applying our glasses to it, 30 appeared dressed in a very fantastic manner. The more I

looked upon it the more I thought I had seen the face before, but could not possibly recollect either the place or time; when at length one of the company, who had examined this figure more nicely than the rest, showed us plainly by the make of 35 its face and the several turns of its features that the little

idol which was thus lodged in the very middle of the heart was the deceased beau whose head I gave some account of in my last Tuesday's paper.

As soon as we had finished our dissection we resolved to make an experiment of the heart, not being able to determine among ourselves the nature of its substance, which differed in so many particulars from that of the heart in other females. Accordingly we laid it into a pan of burning coals, 5 when we observed in it a certain salamandrine quality that made it capable of living in the midst of fire and flame without being consumed or so much as singed.

As we were admiring this strange phenomenon, and standing around the heart in a circle, it gave a most prodigious 10 sigh, or rather crack, and dispersed all at once in smoke and vapor. This imaginary noise, which methought was louder than the burst of a cannon, produced such a violent shake in my brain that it dissipated the fumes of sleep and left me in an instant broad awake.

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Daniel Defoe.

1661(?)–1731.

AN ACADEMY FOR WOMEN.

(From An Essay upon Projects, 1697.)

I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women. We reproach the sex every day with folly and 5 impertinence, while I am confident, had they the advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves. One would wonder, indeed, how it should happen that women are conversible at all, since they are only beholden to natural parts for all their knowledge. Their youth 10 is spent to teach them to stitch and sew or make baubles. They are taught to read, indeed, and perhaps to write their names or so, and that is the height of a woman's education. And I would but ask any who slight the sex for their understanding, What is a man (a gentleman, I mean) good for that 15 is taught no more? I need not give instances, or examine the character of a gentleman with a good estate and of a good family and with tolerable parts, and examine what figure he makes for want of education.

The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and 20 must be polished, or the lustre of it will never appear. And it is manifest that as the rational soul distinguishes us from brutes, so education carries on the distinction and makes some less brutish than others. This is too evident to need any demonstration. But why, then, should women be denied the 25 benefit of instruction? If knowledge and understanding had been useless additions to the sex, God Almighty would never have given them capacities, for He made nothing needless.

Or

Besides, I would ask such what they can see in ignorance that they should think it a necesary ornament to a woman. how much worse is a wise woman than a fool? Or what has the woman done to forfeit the privilege of being taught? Does she plague us with her pride and impertinence? Why 5 did we not let her learn, that she might have had more wit? Shall we upbraid women with folly, when it is only the error of this inhuman custom that hindered them being made wiser? The capacities of women are supposed to be greater and their senses quicker than those of the men; and what they 10 might be capable of being bred to is plain from some instances of female wit which this age is not without; which upbraids us with injustice, and looks as if we denied women the advantages of education for fear they should vie with the men in their improvements.

To remove this objection, and that women might have at least a needful opportunity of education in all sorts of useful learning, I propose the draught of an academy for that purpose.

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I know it is dangerous to make public appearances of the 20 sex. They are not either to be confined or exposed: the first will disagree with their inclinations, and the last with their reputations; and therefore it is somewhat difficult; and I doubt a method proposed by an ingenious lady, in a little book called Advice to the Ladies, would be found imprac- 25 ticable, for, saving my respect to the sex, the lexity which perhaps is a little peculiar to them (at least in their youth) will not bear the restraint, and I am satisfied nothing but the height of bigotry can keep up a nunnery. Wherefore the academy I propose should differ but little from public 30 schools, wherein such ladies as were willing to study should have all the advantages of learning suitable to their genius.

But since some severities of discipline more than ordinary would be absolutely necessary to preserve the reputation of the house, that persons of quality and fortune might not be 35 afraid to venture their children thither, I shall venture to make a small scheme by way of essay.

The house I would have built in a form by itself, as well

as in a place by itself. The building should be of three plain fronts, without any jettings or bearing-work, that the eye might at a glance see from one coin to the other; the gardens walled in the same triangular figure, with a large moat and 5 but one entrance.

When thus every part of the situation was contrived as well as might be for discovery, and to render intriguing dangerous, I would have no guards, no eyes, no spies set over the ladies, but shall expect them to be tried by the principles of honor 10 and strict virtue.

Upon this ground I am persuaded such measures might be taken that the ladies might have all the freedom in the world within their own walls, and yet no intriguing, no indecencies, nor scandalous affairs happen; and, in order to this, the fol15 lowing customs and laws should be observed in the colleges, of which I would propose one at least in every county in England, and about ten for the city of London. After the regulation of the form of the building as before:—

1. All the ladies who enter into the house should set their 20 hands to the orders of the house, to signify their consent to submit to them.

2. As no woman should be received but who declared herself willing, and that it was the act of her choice to enter herself, so no person should be confined to continue there a 25 moment longer than the same voluntary choice inclined her.

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3. The charges of the house being to be paid by the ladies, every one that entered should have only this encumbrance— that she should pay for the whole year, though her mind should change as to her continuance.

4. An act of Parliament should make it felony, without clergy, for any man to enter by force or fraud into the house, or to solicit any woman, though it were to marry, while she was in the house. And this law would by no means be severe, because any woman who was willing to receive the addresses 35 of a man might discharge herself of the house when she pleased; and, on the contrary, any woman who had occasion might discharge herself of the impertinent addresses of any person she had an aversion to by entering into the house.