328 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



it very seriously and from every point of view, so that 

 they should be able and ready to seize on the practical 

 solution when the difficulty arises. Marriage should not 

 be a woman's only profession, but it should be her best 

 and highest hope. Every girl should try and make 

 herself worthy of it both in body and mind, and this 

 attitude will not make a girl grow into a less sensible old 

 maid if she has to be one. Galiani asked Madame 

 d'Epinay, the writer of the famous ' Memoires ' in the 

 last century, and the friend of Eousseau, what were her 

 views of woman's education. This is her reply : ' Vous 

 voulez savoir de moi ce qu'une femme doit 6tudier ? Sa 

 langue, afin qu'elle puisse parler et crire correctement. 

 La po6sie, si elle y a du penchant; en tout elle doit 

 cultiver toujours son imagination, car le vrai m6rite des 

 femmes et de leur society consiste en ce qu'elles sont 

 moins factices, moins gat6es, moins eloign^es de la 

 nature et par cela plus aimables ; en fait de morale elles 

 doivent 6tudier beaucoup les hommes et jamais les 

 femmes, elles doivent connaitre et 6tudier tous les ridi- 

 cules des hommes et jamais ceux des femmes.' 



In the days long ago, when my children were 

 children, and, as is apt to be the case when one is sur- 

 rounded with a small growing-up family, half the popula- 

 tion of the world seemed to me to be children, and my 

 thoughts were so centred on the subject that nothing 

 else appeared to me of any great importance. At that 

 time two books gave me much comfort, support, and 

 instruction. One was ' Education : Intellectual, Moral, 

 and Physical,' by Herbert Spencer. This book, now so 

 much read and so widely known, requires no recom- 

 mendation from anyone, but I do wish to say that every 

 father and mother should read it not once, but again and 

 again. Some will disagree with one part and some with 

 another, but I defy anybody to read it without a certain 



