nt etudier beaucoup les hommes et jamais les
femmes, elles doivent connaitre et Etudier tous les ridi-
cules des hommes et jamais ceux des femmes.'
In the days long ago, when my children were
children, and, as is apt to be the case when one is sur-
rounded with a small growing-up family, half the popu-
lation of the world seemed to me to be children, my
thoughts were so centred on the subject that nothing
else appeared to me of any great importance. At that
time two books gave me much comfort, support, and
instruction. One was ' Education : Intellectual, Moral,
and Physical,' by Herbert Spencer. This book, now so
much read and so widely known, requires no recom-
mendation from anyone, but I do wish to say that every
father and mother should read it — not once, but again and
again. Some will disagree with one part and some with
another, but I defy anybody to read it without a certain
DAUGHTERS 329
clearing of the head and opening of the mind, most essen-
tial to those who have the heavy responsibility of training
the young. If there is one thing above all others that
repeats its faults ad nauseam and is blindly conservative,
it is the management of children in the nursery and
schoolroom. Mr. Herbert Spencer's book has fortunately
now reached a very cheap edition. It is a book created
by the hand of genius, and not the result of personal
experience. I humbly bow to it in grateful thanks for
all the good I derived from its perusal.
The second book is called ' Levana, or The Doctrine
of Education,' by Jean Paul Frederick Eichter, and is
only accessible to me through the translation into
English. It is a book full of thought and wisdom, and it
speaks of prosaic things in a poetic manner ; and though
the opening chapters apply to both sexes, it refers rather
to the training of daughters than of sons, as being the
first and most important business of a mother. I can
strongly recommend its perusal ; at the same time a good
deal of it is, of course, out of date. It is written by a
German, and entirely from a man's point of view. The
book is full of love and tenderness, and may perhaps be
thought very high-flown and old-fashioned in these days.
This does not matter ; it speaks of the undying facts of
Nature, which will last as long as the world does. I
cannot resist copying here one passage, which I believe
will come home tenderly to every mother who is about
to give away in marriage a loved young daughter :—
' Certainly a wisely and purely educated maiden is so
poetic a flower of the dull world, that the sight of this
glorious blossom hanging, some years after the honey-
moon, with yellow faded leaves in unwatered beds, must
grieve any man who beholds it with a poet's eye ; and
who must, consequently, in sorrow over the common
usefulness and servitude of the merely human life, over
330 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN
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nt etudier beaucoup les hommes et jamais les
femmes, elles doivent connaitre et Etudier tous les ridi-
cules des hommes et jamais ceux des femmes.'
In the days long ago, when my children were
children, and, as is apt to be the case when one is sur-
rounded with a small growing-up family, half the popu-
lation of the world seemed to me to be children, my
thoughts were so centred on the subject that nothing
else appeared to me of any great importance. At that
time two books gave me much comfort, support, and
instruction. One was ' Education : Intellectual, Moral,
and Physical,' by Herbert Spencer. This book, now so
much read and so widely known, requires no recom-
mendation from anyone, but I do wish to say that every
father and mother should read it — not once, but again and
again. Some will disagree with one part and some with
another, but I defy anybody to read it without a certain
DAUGHTERS 329
clearing of the head and opening of the mind, most essen-
tial to those who have the heavy responsibility of training
the young. If there is one thing above all others that
repeats its faults ad nauseam and is blindly conservative,
it is the management of children in the nursery and
schoolroom. Mr. Herbert Spencer's book has fortunately
now reached a very cheap edition. It is a book created
by the hand of genius, and not the result of personal
experience. I humbly bow to it in grateful thanks for
all the good I derived from its perusal.
The second book is called ' Levana, or The Doctrine
of Education,' by Jean Paul Frederick Eichter, and is
only accessible to me through the translation into
English. It is a book full of thought and wisdom, and it
speaks of prosaic things in a poetic manner ; and though
the opening chapters apply to both sexes, it refers rather
to the training of daughters than of sons, as being the
first and most important business of a mother. I can
strongly recommend its perusal ; at the same time a good
deal of it is, of course, out of date. It is written by a
German, and entirely from a man's point of view. The
book is full of love and tenderness, and may perhaps be
thought very high-flown and old-fashioned in these days.
This does not matter ; it speaks of the undying facts of
Nature, which will last as long as the world does. I
cannot resist copying here one passage, which I believe
will come home tenderly to every mother who is about
to give away in marriage a loved young daughter :—
' Certainly a wisely and purely educated maiden is so
poetic a flower of the dull world, that the sight of this
glorious blossom hanging, some years after the honey-
moon, with yellow faded leaves in unwatered beds, must
grieve any man who beholds it with a poet's eye ; and
who must, consequently, in sorrow over the common
usefulness and servitude of the merely human life, over
330 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN