It  is  worth  remarking,  in  connection  with  the  superiority  of
women  in  acting,  that  it  has  frequently  been  found  that  women
are  also  better  readers. Thus  Mr. Bryce,  in  a  report  on  the
state  of  education  in  Lancashire,  remarks  in  regard  to  reading: —
"  This  is  one  of  the  few  things  in  which  girls'  schools  are
markedly  better  than  boys'. There  does  not  seem  to  be  much
more  direct  training  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other,  so  it  is
left  us  to  suppose  that  the  superiority  of  the  girls  is  due  to  their
more  correct  ear,  their  quicker  perception  of  the  meaning  of
what  they  read,  and  that  more  perfect  harmony  which  seems
to  exist  between  their  intelligence  and  its  expression  in  voice,
feature,  and  gesture. Even  where  they  have  no  special  training,
they  are  free  from  that  plodding  awkwardness  ilvhich  generally
belongs  to  a  Lancashire  boy's  reading. And  in  several  schools,
where  the  mistresses  had  accustomed  their  pupils  to  read  aloud,
and  had  carefully  checked  any  tendency  to  affectation,  the
reading  was  everything  that  could  be  desired  in  point  of
grace,  variety,  and  expressiveness."    And  Mr. Fearon,  reporting


THE    ARTISTIC    IMPULSE. 375

on  schools  on  the  East  Coast,  also  refers  to  the  superiority  of
girls  in  reading;  he  found  that  even  in  mixed  schools  girls  read
better  than  boys. (D. Beale,  Reports  issued  by  the  Schools'
Inquiry  Commission,  pp. 55  and  136.)

Legouve,  who  had  a  long  and  intimate  connection  with  the
stage,  has  some  remarks  on  the  success  of  women  in  acting
in  his  charming  and  acute  though  scarcely  scientific  Histoire
Morale  de  la  Femme,  6th  ed.,  1874  (p. 345); — "Whether  actor
or  singer,  the  interpretative  artist  needs  above  all  a  talent  for
observing  details,  flexibility  of  the  organism  to  follow  the  move-
ments of  thought,  and  above  all,  that  mobile,  ardent,  and  varied
impressionability  which  multiplies  in  an  almost  incredible  de-
gree the  sensations  and  signs  which  represent  it. For  this
reason  the  dramatic  faculty  is  more  native  to  women  than  to
men. 