1846] Edmund Langton 99 



as having a play- fellow: yesterday he was hard at work 

 driving away the eagles from taking the ichneumon's jam, 

 and to-day being an elephant taking care of the babies. He 

 is surprisingly independent for an only child and receives 

 any notice socially and pleasantly. My baby is a real 

 beauty, except for looking red and rough with the cold. He 

 has fine dark blue eyes, and I can't conceive how he gets 

 them. I daresay you have forgotten the lecture you gave 

 me on education; I quite agree with your maxims, and 

 really I think I am rather severe than otherwise. I think 

 the nonsense is quite knocked out of Susan and Cath. 

 [Darwin] upon the subject of babies and education. . . . 

 [They are] rather weary of children in general, and I saw 

 Susan when she was at Down was rather uneasy till she 

 had tidied away the children's untidiness as soon as they 

 arose. I might be all day doing that, so I let them accumu- 

 late till the room becomes unbearable, and then call Bessy 

 in to do it. ... 



Madame Sismondi to her niece Emma Darwin. 



January 12, 1846. 



. . . Your account of your mother was very consolatory 

 to us, never was decline so slow and gentle. That one 

 of us who would be the most tenderly and carefully 

 nursed, is the only one of us allowed to linger beyond the 

 time here. ... I entirely forget my lecture on education 

 to you. Since you remember it and mean to follow it, I 

 only hope it was a wise one. You are a child after my own 

 heart to like the instructing part, and I only wish you may 

 be allowed intervals that will allow of your being spared 

 the melancholy, the discomfort, and discontent of keeping 

 a governess. With a willing mind it might be done, or 

 how could the French, whose lives are so much more social, 

 accomplish it ? An upper maid of confidence, whose 

 manners are gentle and good, who was capable of teaching 

 them to read, would be sufficient for their young years. 

 When they became rational creatures they would be more 



