AUGUST 423 



him to see his pupils making a mess of life. He wished 

 them to take their part in the work of their generation 

 with energy and effect. And yet one of his pupils writes 

 1 that it was Jowett, as much as anyone, who taught me 

 that work, not success, made life worth living.' I quote 

 this here in my chapter to young women, though it is 

 intended for men, because it applies equally to women, 

 and has a cheerful ring. Women's work is seldom 

 crowned with success, but it is always there in some shape 

 or another, ready for them to take up ; and if they do so 

 the result, if there is none other, will at least be the 

 strengthening and improving of their own lives, not by 

 escaping their trials, but by learning to bear them better. 



Goethe says : * Everything that happens to us leaves 

 some trace behind ; everything contributes imperceptibly 

 to make us what we are. Yet it is often dangerous to 

 take a strict account of it. For either we grow proud and 

 negligent, or downcast and dispirited ; and both are equally 

 injurious in their consequences. The surest plan is just 

 to do the nearest task that lies before us.' 



I do not believe the state of mind which improves a 

 woman's character ever comes without some intellectual 

 effort. Most women of a certain type generally fly to 

 music and desultory reading. Both these may be turned 

 to serious use. Both may be only another form of the 

 excitement which brings on reaction. Drawing and art 

 were the saving of me. The creative work and the endless 

 intellectual ramifications independent of in fact, active 

 against a society life made drawing most useful to me. 

 It does not much matter what the occupation is, so long 

 as it is a mental gymnastic something which stretches 

 and strengthens the mind, and consequently, I think, the 

 character something which takes us away from the 

 accusation which George Eliot puts as follows : ' We 

 women are always in danger of living too exclusively in 



