Excerpt from Education of Girls and Women in Great Britain IN tracing the history of any movement, the rate of development at different periods varies strikingly. There may be no growth for a long time occasionally the tide of progress may appear even to flow back; the spirit of a great reform dies out, and the customs and traditions which have grown up around that reform become a dead weight to hamper progress. Then faint signs of life are to be seen by those who are on the watch, half hearted protests against traditions, here and there revolts quickly quelled, and some discontent. These are promises of future life and vigour. Suddenly the scene is changed, or rather, it appears to be sudden to the casual observer; it is but the ending of a series of events to those who have watched carefully. We have an outburst of Utopian schemes, many brave beginnings, and many failures. All seems chaos for the time being; currents cross and re-cross the eternal struggle between the conservative element and the progressive element in humanity is intensified. Gradually out of disorder comes order and rest. But the world is not as it was: the trend of progress is altered; new forces have probably come into Operation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.