‘I do not think the plan for admitting girls to the same examination with boys in the University local examinations a wise one; the subjects seem to me in many respects unsuited for girls, and such an examination as the one proposed is likely to further a spirit of rivalry most undesirable. I should much regret that the desire of distinction should be made in any degree a prime motive, for we should ever remember that moral training is the end, education the means. The habits of obedience to duty, of self-restraint, which the process of acquiring knowledge induces, the humility which a thoughtful and comprehensive study of the great works in literature and science tends to produce, these we would specially cultivate in a woman, that she may wear the true woman’s ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. As for the pretentiousness and conceit which are associated with the name of “blue-stocking,” and which some people fancy to be the result of education, they are only an evidence of shallowness and vulgarity; we meet with the same thing in the dogmatic conceit of the so-called “self-educated man,” who has picked up learning, but has not had the benefit of a systematic training and a liberal education.’ The formal admission of girls to the Cambridge Local Examinations took place in 1865, though they had been informally accepted as candidates as early as 1863. Miss Beale did not accept the examination at Cheltenham, mainly because its arrangements did not fall in with those of the College year; but she closely observed its working, noted each set of questions and reports, recognising that with these examinations new impetus had been given to the progress of education. She wrote and spoke on the subject, holding it to be the duty of the teacher to seek to guide this movement, which must increasingly affect girls’ schools. The following extract from one of her papers is chosen because of its bearing on the larger and still unanswered question of university degrees:—