322 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



in spite of either spoiling or neglect, over- or under- 

 educating, how few belonging to the same class are really 

 much better or much worse than their fellows in fact, 

 what an ordinary level they attain ! What marked 

 differences do exist are due much more to individuality 

 of character than to the various trainings they have 

 undergone. Even the most earnest mothers have some- 

 times to own that the children of parents who took no 

 pains at all turn out quite as well as their own. I refer, 

 of course, to what is called intellectual education, and not 

 to the physical. I once more come back to saying that 

 neglect of health and over-stimulating of the brain before 

 the age, say, of fifteen in excitable, clever children are the 

 only two things that really might work for evil on the 

 future. No true opinion about the character of a child 

 can be arrived at till the age of sixteen or seventeen, 

 though guesses more or less correct may be made much 

 earlier. The education of children depends so immensely 

 on the gradual growth and development of the mother 

 herself, and on the influences through which she passes. 

 Those mothers most admired in their devotion to their 

 babies have generally turned out, according to my ob- 

 servation, the least satisfactory, and the least able to 

 control and guide their children in later life. This is due, 

 of course, to temperament and to the woman being one 

 who is satisfied with the nursery, who never looks forward, 

 who ceases to cultivate herself after marriage, and who, 

 above all, does not keep pace with the generation which 

 lies between herself and her children, this generation 

 being the only one that will interpret her children to 

 herself when they are grown up. A mother should be 

 on her guard about changing her methods because some 

 one else's children seem more or better instructed or 

 prettier-mannered than her own. To be actively in- 

 fluenced as regards your children by the comments of 



