82 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



never forget that your mind is to be cultivated ; 

 and that if a part of each day be not employed 

 on objects of a higher and more useful nature, 

 you are only^preparing yourself for a trifling, 

 selfish life." 



I shall think of this advice every day, but I 

 assure you, dear Mamma, that I will not neglect 

 any of those things you used to encourage me 

 to learri. 



My cousins have no governess, and yet my 

 aunt says, she has never found teaching them 

 by any means laborious. She says, the chief 

 part of education is to make children compre- 

 hend the difference between right and wrong 

 to teach them self-command and to give them 

 a love for rational occupation ; and then they 

 do not require to be watched. You would be 

 surprised to see how much they accomplish in 

 the course of the day ; and yet they always 

 seem at liberty; everything is done methodi- 

 cally. Besides their regular employments, 

 many things are done privately without any 

 show ; such as visiting the poor and attending 

 a school for poor children, which my aunt has 

 established. It is in a small white cottage, 

 about five minutes walk from the shrubbery. 

 My aunt, or my cousins, visit it frequently and 

 I go there sometimes. I forgot to tell you in 

 the right place, that I sing every day. We are 



