424 MORE POT-POURRI 



the affections, And though our affections are perhaps 

 the best gifts we have, we ought also to have our share 

 of the more independent life some joy in things for their 

 own sake. It is piteous to see the helplessness of some 

 sweet women when their affections are disappointed 

 because all their teaching has been, that they can only 

 delight in study of any kind for the sake of a personal 

 love. They have never contemplated an independent 

 delight in ideas as an experience which they could con- 

 fess without being laughed at.' Many will smile at my 

 thinking it necessary in these days to make this quotation ; 

 but women's natures remain the same yesterday, to-day, 

 and for ever and in certain phases of family life, and 

 surrounded by the difficulties they entail, George Eliot's 

 caution may be as much wanted by some young women 

 as it was, more universally, forty years ago. Of course 

 this is an entirely different thing from cramming children 

 in early youth. 



There was nothing Jowett spoke of with so much 

 bitterness as useless learning. ' How I hate learning ! ' 

 he exclaimed. ' How sad it is to see a man who is learned 

 and nothing else, incapable of making any use of his 

 knowledge ! ' If this is true of men, is it not doubly true 

 of women ? ' Is learning of any use ? ' he asks himself 

 in one of his notebooks ; and the answer is : ' Men are 

 often or always unable to use it. It keeps men quiet, it 

 clogs their efforts, it is creditable, it gratifies curiosity; 

 but, for progress to mental improvement, learning without 

 thought or imagination is worse than useless.' 



Goethe says : ' To the man of superficial cleverness 

 almost everything takes a ridiculous aspect ; to the man 

 of thought almost nothing is really ridiculous.' 



I quote Jowett's strong condemnation of useless 

 learning, as it should put us on our mettle to learn in such 

 a way as is most likely to be useful to fill the vacuum in 



