Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

The ancient Persian taught his child nothing in the whole circle of morality but truthfulness.' Truthfulness is so essential to moral superiority that any young man who consistently acts a part in life for ambitious or other reasons is very apt to become morally degenerate, and hardly able to distinguish between truth and falsehood. It is one of the things which, when discovered, is perhaps almost unduly punished by the contempt showered on it by contemporaries. It has been finely said, ' Principle is a passion for truth.' While boys are still at school, is it not distinctly wrong for both parents to be away and out of easy reach at the same time ? Accidents so often happen, and school authorities, more especially school doctors and surgeons, are not to be depended upon, as they cannot give the time and attention which a boy naturally receives at home. If the eyes of love could be bought with money, love would not mean very much in the world ; and it does mean a good deal, in spite of what many think, and, still more, of what many say. 262 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN The common attitude of mind of intelligent boys who have recently gone to school, is that they know every- thing about life, and that their mother understands nothing. The boy thinks his mother good, and that no good women know anything of life ; and that settles the question. As he gets older, the mother must explain to him what she thinks proper. These matters, however, depend so much upon the character of the mother and son that it is impossible to generalise upon them. Mothers will, I think, rarely get much help from the fathers on the subject of school life. Most men have a wonderful knack of forgetting the difficulties of their own boyhood. The influence and example of the father in the home is immense. What he does, the boys will probably wish to do. Direct help in the difficulties of boy-life comes much more from the mother than from the father. For this reason I should say that the mother must take every pains to educate herself, and learn to understand as much about human nature as she possibly can. A course of French novel-reading — and, after all, a great many French novels are magnificent literature — is not otherwise than a harm- less and yet useful way of eating of the tree of knowledge for a mother of five-and-thirty. The French have an extraordinarily honest way of facing the facts of life and the results of conduct, and they are far less sentimental than the English. This advice, of course, applies doubly to the woman who has not read French novels for her amusement in her youth. From the time a boy first goes to school, and still more, I think, when he is six- teen or seventeen, the mother should put a strong guard on herself not to worry him about his comings and goings, or in any way restrict his independence, as the sooner he learns to take care of himself the better. As regards the really serious things of life, you should not ' nag,' but up to a certain age you can forbid. SONS 263