DAUGHTERS 323 



others is, I think, a mistake. Take all the advice you 

 oan get all round, but never act upon it till you have 

 thoroughly digested it and seriously considered whether 

 it agrees with your general plan or not. Nothing is so 

 easy as to train children like monkeys or dancing dogs ; 

 nothing so difficult as to make that sort of show-training 

 of the smallest use in the far more important factor of 

 character development. Children who are brought up 

 naturally must often be naughty and disagreeable in 

 famUy meetings, which mortifies the mother, but is only 

 an experience gained to the child. What hurts us is 

 not so much that those we love should say what they 

 think, as that they think what they say. 



I remember a boy who was once foolishly talked to 

 by his mother for not being so clever or so industrious 

 as the Httle A.'s, some neighbour's children. The boy 

 instantly answered, ' But, mother, are you and father the 

 least like Mr. and Mrs. A. ? ' There is a good deal in the 

 answer; the first essential is to be ourselves, our best 

 selves certainly, but no imitation of others, and never 

 wishing to be so as regards our children. Even when 

 we strive to be original, we often only end in being affected. 

 Mr. Euskin says: 'That virtue of originahty that men 

 strive after is not newness, as they vainly think (there is 

 nothing new); it is only genuineness.' Every form of 

 training has its merits and its defects, both in the present 

 and the future. 



On looking back mySelf, I can honestly say that what 

 was least usual, least conventional, and most criticised 

 by others is what I regret the least in the education of 

 my own sons. 



To continue what I have to say about Uttle girls ; the 

 moment they are what doctors call delicate — ^that is to 

 say, have any constitutional or hereditary weakness — still 

 more, if there is any organic disease — no sacrifice on the 



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