There is ample opportunity for the offices of maternal love, of which man is at best but a poor imitator; neither can it be denied, that an active intelligent woman is a useful auxiliary to the labours of the man in the duties of the school.

The authoritative presence of the man is the more necessary in the infant system, because one grand object is, to rule without harshness, and by that principle of love which is in no degree incompatible with the respect felt for a kind but judicious schoolmaster.

Some children, indeed, so far as regards authority, might be very well managed by a mistress only, but then it must be recollected that an infant school exhibits every variety of temper and disposition; and even were it otherwise, the objection as to intellectual incompetence and physical strength, before adverted to, would still hold good.
Such, indeed, is the opinion of the unfitness of females for the occupation of teaching, in Scotland, that in many places the very idea of it is scouted.

The people of that country have scarcely heard of a _school-mistress_, even for the youngest children; and certain it is, that education is much better conducted in Scotland than in most other places.

If the minds of children are to be cultivated, and a firm and decided tone given to their characters, say they, what can be the use of sending them to a school conducted by a woman only?
And I must candidly admit, that I perfectly agree with them on this head, and have therefore deemed it my duty to be thus explicit on the matter.[A] [Footnote A: I am sorry to say that, at this time, the people of Scotland have been led into the same error, of which I have complained.