242 MORE POT-POURRI 



to carry it out many years ago. It is sad that what she 

 propounded has made so little way these five-and-twenty 

 or thirty years. Her recommendations were much on the 

 lines of a book first published in 1868, called ' Essays on 

 Educational Beformers,' by Robert Herbert Quick. I 

 only did not mention this book before, much as it 

 interested me years ago, and much as I admire it still, 

 because I thought it was out of print and not to be got. 

 Now it is republished by Longmans, Green & Co. in a 

 cheap edition (2s. 3d.) and arranged on a clearer plan. 

 Get it, you young mothers, and read it. It is the most 

 comprehensive and illuminating book that I have ever 

 seen on the all-important subject. It is far better known 

 in America than in England. The chapter on Pestalozzi 

 is perhaps especially excellent. Nature should be helped 

 by art, and art should come to the assistance of Nature. 

 After showing how children can only learn in their own 

 way he ends with ' Of course I do not mean there is no 

 education for children, however young ; but the school is 

 the mother's knee, and the lessons learnt there are other 

 and more valuable than object lessons/ He goes on 

 to say : ' The mother is qualified, and qualified by the 

 Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the 

 development of her child . . . and what is demanded of 

 her is a thinking love. . . .' Is it not almost fearful how 

 many children grow up without any thinking love at all ? 

 Is there anything more pathetic in three lines than these 

 by Blake or more terribly true ? Think of all the 

 half-castes all over the world, not to mention our own 



cities ! 



The Angel that presided o'er my birth 



Said, ' Little creature, formed of joy and mirth, 



Go, live without the help of anything on earth.' 



It is the non-understanding of children makes the 

 difficulty. The following poem by Mrs. Deamer will give 



