434 MORE POT-POURRI 



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 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 confess without being 

 laughed at.' Many will smile at my thinking it neces- 

 sary 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 sur- 

 rounded 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 chil- 

 dren 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 grati- 

 fies curiosity ; but, for progress to mental improvement, 

 learning without thought or imagination is worse than 

 useless.' 



Goethe says : ' To the man of superficial cleverness. 



