In the early part of Queen Victoria’s reign, the education of girls was indeed deplorable. An excessive amount of time was given to accomplishments and to the study of deportment; the instruction consisted, for the most part, of a smattering of many subjects: and the whole process of education was shallow and superficial. If the women of that day developed--as many did--force of character and of intellect, it was rather in spite of their education than because of it. Numbers of girls rose in revolt against this mental and spiritual starvation: some managed to become well-educated without any outside help, but to a great number this system meant either an utterly frivolous or extremely dull grown-up life. Many were the voices raised in protest against this lack of education. And as one reads the literature of this time one is greatly struck by the number of men who pleaded for a different régime: not only leaders of thought, like Tennyson and Ruskin, but ordinary men of the educated classes. Perhaps as lookers on they saw most of the game, and into their souls there entered a deep bitterness that those who might count for so much counted for so little. But although men by their writings and speeches and actual help in teaching, did much, it was on women that the real burden of this work was to fall. Neither sex can fully educate, though it may teach the other. In the main, the education of boys must be carried on by men; and the education of girls by women. It would be impossible to give a list of all the women who dedicated their powers to this work; who in a very real sense gave their lives that those after them might live. This little book is devoted to the story of one of the pioneers of educational work, and is necessarily limited to the part that Dorothea Beale played in this great enterprise. But Miss Beale, great as she was, was only one of many. Whilst she was working out her ideals at Cheltenham, other women in other schools and colleges were working out theirs: Frances Buss at the North London Collegiate, Emily Davies at Girton, Anne Clough at Newnham, Mrs. Reid at Bedford, Miss Pipe of Laleham, and many others. Nor is it possible to say which of these did the most important work. For we are dealing with that which cannot be measured,--the things of the mind and spirit. Those of us who came late enough to enjoy some of the fruits of their work, can only acknowledge our deep sense of gratitude to this noble army of women who did so much. If the gates of knowledge are open to us, it was their hand which turned the key: if we can enter nearly every field of service, it was their feet which beat the track. If we hold in our hands a lamp that makes many of the dark places bright, it was they who kindled it and passed it on to us. The part we must play is no passive one. If the lamp is to be kept burning, it must be fed by the oil of our devotion and our service. CHAPTER II.