SEPTEMBER 19 



mother having that opportunity and not using it ! There's 

 hardly a parent in fifty could boast as much. Personal 

 contact and sympathy with an older person means hot- 

 house growth to the mental capabilities of a child. The 

 one fear is lest it should overforce them. What do the 

 geography, history, arithmetic, and all the details of 

 early education matter ? The child's general intelligence 

 and power of acquiring knowledge from her own observa- 

 tion, which is the only true educator, will develop much 

 more fully and rapidly in the mother's company than 

 with a governess, especially if the mother lays herself 

 out to share all her knowledge, so far as possible, with 

 her child. As she grows up, the child will be the first to 

 discover where she is at a disadvantage compared to 

 others. If she is indifferent about this, I should say no 

 one else need mind for her, and she will be none the 

 worse. But if she minds, and she probably will, she can 

 then acquire the belated knowledge in half the time and 

 with half the money spent on teachers that would be re- 

 quired if spread out over a childhood more or less reluc- 

 tant to learn. Do try and stop the lady from taking in 

 "educational literature," for I'm sure it's not only use- 

 less but harmful to fret one's conscience unless it leads 

 to conviction, and, fortunately, this mother seems not 

 convinced by the "professing educationalists." . . . 

 If the child is already fifteen or sixteen, the only modi- 

 fication I should make to what I have said would be to 

 recommend putting most forcibly before the girl herself 

 that if she has to, or wishes to, "take some part in 

 the real work of the world ' ' she must utilise her best 

 faculties to the full, and try to diminish her defi- 

 ciencies.' 



The burning question of what girls should or should 

 not read called forth a good deal of comment and opposi- 

 tion. The following was one of the best of the letters 



