midnight
` Their mental excitement keeps up a flush which , like the excitement caused by strong drink in older children , looks like health , but has no relation to it . ' And if this overtasking the mind is so injurious to the body , what will our women of the next generation be if things go on with us as they are doing at present ? I must just quote again from the same authority . Dr Richardson says , ` If women succeed in their clamour for admission into the universities , and like moths follow their sterner mates into the midnight candle of learning , the case will be bad indeed for succeeding generations ; and the geniuses and leaders of the nation will henceforth be derived from those simple pupils of the Board schools who entered into the conflict of life with reading , writing , and arithmetic , free of brain to acquire learning of every kind in the full powers of developed manhood . ' '' `` You make out a very gloomy case and prospect for us , '' said Mrs Prosser sadly and thoughtfully . `` I do , '' replied the other ; `` and what makes all this far worse is , that this mental overwork can not go on without depriving the sufferers -- for they _ are _ sufferers to an extent they little dream of -- of that sweet privilege of being a true blessing to others which Christian mothers , daughters , and sisters enjoy , whose work inside , and moderately outside the home , is done simply , unostentatiously , and in a womanly manner . Verily , those women who sacrifice all to this mental forcing , to this race for intellectual distinction , -- verily , they have their reward .