Tennyson's "Princess" came in 1847, and "Aurora Leigh" from Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1851, and things moved onward with increasing rapidity until at one moment it seemed like a rush to new goldfields.

One university after another has granted degrees to women or degree certificates in place of the degrees which were refused; women are resident students at some universities and at others present themselves on equal terms with men for examination.
The way has been opened to them in some professions and in many spheres of activity from which they had been formerly excluded.
One advantage of the English mode of proceeding in these great questions is that the situation can be reconsidered from time to time without the discordant contentions which surround any proclamation of non-success in State concerns.

We feel our way and try this and that, and readjust ourselves, and a great deal of experimental knowledge has been gained before any great interests or the prestige of the State have been involved.

These questions which affect a whole people directly or indirectly require, for us at least, a great deal of experimenting before we know what suits us.

We are not very amenable to systems, or theories, or ready-made schemes.