332 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



frivolity in times of prosperity, and so prove an utter 

 failure in times of adversity, and in the possibility of 

 having to earn a livelihood later in life. I think most 

 sensible young women of the present day feel the 

 necessity of attaining a proficiency in some one direction, 

 to which they could turn for help in the hour of need. 

 Very often, however, the occupation that might best be 

 turned to bread-winning is not the one to which girls are 

 most addicted in their prosperity. In such a case, when 

 money-making is not the object, they must make their 

 own standard, and reach, if possible, a high order of 

 proficiency ; for to take up any one thing, and then 

 to do it badly, has a deteriorating effect upon the 

 moral nature. The superficial beginning which, accord- 

 ing to my theory, is conducive to largeness of mind, 

 is a good preparation to later special training. The 

 only other alternative, which is the worst of all, is if girls 

 fold their hands and say they are not clever, and that 

 they can do nothing. With patience and perseverance 

 every girl can do something. Once a woman has 

 made up her mind that she has to earn her living, no 

 concentration of study for the one particular occupation 

 she has in view can be too thorough or too severe. The 

 essential requirement for bread- winning is that she should 

 be able to do some one thing better than the generality 

 of people with whom she is in competition. 



Now we come to the eternal and ever-discussed 

 question, what young girls should read. I have no 

 hesitation in saying that, taking the question all round, 

 the safest, wisest, most sensible way out of the difficulty, 

 is to let girls read from childhood anything they like. 

 Never make a child come and ask, never forbid this book 

 or that ; the moment you do, you get into a sea of hopeless 

 difficulties. Where a girl is pure-minded, nothing will 

 hurt her ; where she is not, the forbidding of one book 



