SEPTEMBER 17 



easy to form in youth is also most affected by others as 

 time goes on. The result of a powerful influence which 

 we cannot even trace is what often makes children, as 

 they grow up, almost unrecognisable to their parents. 

 The forming of character, however, is totally different 

 from moulding the impressionable clay, and, like easting 

 bread upon the waters, it may return to us after many 

 days. 



Here are some pathetic groans from an intensely 

 anxious mother of an only daughter: 'Needless to say 

 that the chapter of your book which chiefly interested me 

 is " Daughters," the education of my own being the burn- 

 ing question with me just now. You are certainly very 

 comforting in what you say of "casual and superficial 

 education," but I fear that would not satisfy the pro- 

 fessed and professing educationalist. In our case, want 

 of robustness on M.'s part has obliged us to put up with 

 home education, and of course it is then a mere chance 

 whether you happen to get a governess who can really 

 teach; for the teacher is born, not made. When, how- 

 ever, I read the " Parents' EeYiew,"or the educational 

 literature it recommends, I suffer agonies of remorse from 

 the consciousness of not having made enough of these 

 early years. My ambition is humble. I only wish my 

 child to be average, but not to be at a disadvantage if, 

 later on, she is prompted to take some part in the real 

 work of the world. And yet how can I, with my own 

 old-fashioned, defective education, train her in the right 

 way ? This fiend of education sits like a nightmare on 

 me almost day and night — "Almost thou persuadest me 

 it is impossible to be a parent." When I get up from 

 the perusal of these books, I feel castigated to such an 

 extent that my mind feels sore all over, and into those 

 wounds you pour the oil and wine of consolation. My 

 husband, highly educated as he is himself, is very much 



