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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15892.txt b/15892.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d8cd70 --- /dev/null +++ b/15892.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7495 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Education of Catholic Girls, by Janet +Erskine Stuart + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Education of Catholic Girls + + +Author: Janet Erskine Stuart + +Release Date: May 24, 2005 [eBook #15892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS*** + + +E-text prepared by Michael Gray (Lost_Gamer@comcast.net) + + + +THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS + + + * * * * + + + PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS. A Series of Papers by Nineteen + Headmistresses dealing with the History, Curricula, and + Aims of Public Secondary Schools for Girls. Edited by + SARA A. BURSTALL, Headmistress of the Manchester High + School, and M. A. DOUGLAS, Headmistress of the Godolphin + School, Salisbury. Crown 8vo, 4_s_. 6_d_. + THE DAWN OF CHARACTER. A Study of Child Life. By EDITH E. + READ MUMFORD, M.A., Cloth-workers' Scholar, Girton + College, Cambridge, Lecturer on 'Child Training' at the + Princess Christian Training College for Nurses, + Manchester. Crown 8vo, 3_s_. 6_d_, + NOTES OF LESSONS ON THE HERBARTIAN METHOD (based on + Herbart's Plan). By M. FENNELL and Members of a Teaching + Staff. With a Preface by M. FENNELL, Lecturer on + Education. Crown 8vo, 3_s_. 6_d_. + SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. By T. P. KEATING, B.A., L.C.P. With + an Introduction by Rev. T. A. FINLAY, M.A., National + University, Dublin. Crown 8vo, 2_s_. 6_d_. net. + TALKS TO TEACHERS ON PSYCHOLOGY AND TO STUDENTS ON SOME OF + LIFE'S IDEALS. By WILLIAM JAMES, formerly Professor of + Philosophy at Harvard University. Crown 8vo, 4_s_. 6_d_. + EDUCATION AND THE NEW UTILITARIANISM, and other Educational + Addresses. By ALEXANDER DARROCH, M.A., Professor of + Education in the University of Edinburgh. Crown 8vo, + 3_s_. 6_d_. net. + EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY. By MICHAEL WEST, Indian + Education Service. Crown 8vo, 5_s_. net. + + Longmans, Green and Co., + London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. + + + * * * * + + +THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS + +by + +JANET ERSKINE STUART + +With a Preface by Cardinal Bourne +Archbishop of Westminster + +Longmans, Green and Co. +39 Paternoster Row, London +Fourth Avenue & 30th Street, New York +Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras + +Fourth Impression +1914 + + + + + + + +Nihil Obstat: +F. THOS. BERGH, O.S.B. + +Imprimatur: +FRANOISOUS CARD. BOURNE +ABCHIEPOS WESIMONAST, + +die 1 Januarii, 1912. + + +PREFACE + +We have had many treatises on education in recent years; many +regulations have been issued by Government Departments; enormous sums +of money are contributed annually from private and public sources for +the improvement and development of education. Are the results in any +degree proportioned to all these repeated and accumulated efforts? It +would not be easy to find one, with practical experience of education, +ready to give an unhesitatingly affirmative answer. And the +explanation of the disappointing result obtained is very largely to be +found in the neglect of the training of the will and character, which +is the foundation of all true education. The programmes of Government, +the grants made if certain conditions are fulfilled, the recognition +accorded to a school if it conforms to a certain type, these things +may have raised the standard of teaching, and forced attention to +subjects of learning which were neglected; they have done little to +promote education in the real sense of the term. Nay, more than this, +the insistence on certain types of instruction which they have +compelled has in too many cases paralysed the efforts of teachers who +in their hearts were striving after a better way. + +The effect on some of our Catholic schools of the newer methods has +not been free from harm. Compelled by force of circumstances, parental +or financial, to throw themselves into the current of modern +educational effort, they have at the same time been obliged to abandon +the quieter traditional ways which, while making less display, left a +deeper impress on the character of their pupils. Others have had the +courage to cling closely to hallowed methods built up on the wisdom +and experience of the past, and have united with them all that was not +contradictory in recent educational requirements. They may, thereby, +have seemed to some waiting in sympathy with the present, and +attaching too great value to the past. The test of time will probably +show that they have given to both past and present an equal share in +their consideration. + +It will certainly be of singular advantage to those who are engaged in +the education of Catholic girls to have before them a treatise written +by one who has had a long and intimate experience of the work of which +she writes. Loyal in every word to the soundest traditions of Catholic +education, the writer recognizes to the full that the world into which +Catholic girls pass nowadays on leaving school is not the world of a +hundred, or of fifty, or of even thirty years ago. But this +recognition brings out, more clearly than anything else could do, the +great and unchanging fact that the formation of heart and will and +character is, and must be always, the very root of the education of a +child; and it also shows forth the new fact that at no time has that +formation been more needed than at the present day. + +The pages of this book are well worthy of careful pondering and +consideration, and they will be of special value both to parents and +to teachers, for it is in their hands and in their united, and not +opposing action, that the educational fate of the children lies. + +But I trust that the thoughts set forth upon these pages will not +escape either the eyes or the thoughts of those who are the public +custodians and arbiters of education in this country. The State is +daily becoming more jealous in its control of educational effort in +England. Would that its wisdom were equal to its jealousy. We might +then be delivered from the repeated attempts to hamper definite +religious teaching in secondary schools, by the refusal of public aid +where the intention to impart it is publicly announced; and from the +discouragement continually arising from regulations evidently inspired +by those who have no personal experience of the work to be +accomplished, and who decline to seek information from those to whom +such work is their very life. It cannot, surely, be for the good of +our country that the stored-up experience of educational effort of +every type should be disregarded in favour of rigid rules and +programmes; or that zeal and devotion in the work of education are to +be regarded as valueless unless they be associated with so-called +undenominational religion. The Catholic Church in this and in every +country has centuries of educational tradition in her keeping. She has +no more ardent wish than to place it all most generously at the +service of the commonwealth, and to take her place in every movement +that will be to the real advantage of the children upon whom the +future of the world depends. And we have just ground for complaint +when the conditions on which alone our co-operation will be allowed +are of such a character as to make it evident that we are not intended +to have any real place in the education of our country. + +May this treatise so ably written be a source of guidance and +encouragement to those who are giving their lives to the education of +Catholic children, and at the same time do something to dispel the +distrust and to overcome the hostility shown in high quarters towards +every Catholic educational endeavour. + +FRANCIS CARDINAL BOURNE, +ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PREFACE +INTRODUCTION +CHAPTER + I. RELIGION + II. CHARACTER. I. + III. CHARACTER. II. + IV. THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY + V. THE REALITIES OF LIFE + VI. LESSONS AND PLAY + VII. MATHEMATICS, NATURAL SCIENCE, AND NATURE STUDY + VIII. ENGLISH + IX. MODERN LANGUAGES + X. HISTORY + XI. ART + XII. MANNERS + XIII. HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN + XIV. CONCLUSION + APPENDIX I + APPENDIX II + INDEX + + + + +Pair though it be, to watch unclose +The nestling glories of a rose, +Depth on rich depth, soft fold on fold; +Though fairer he it, to behold +Stately and sceptral lilies break +To beauty, and to sweetness wake: +Yet fairer still, to see and sing, +One fair thing is, one matchless thing: +Youth, in its perfect blossoming. + LIONEL JOHNSON. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +A book was published in the United States in 1910 with the title, +EDUCATION: HOW OLD THE NEW. A companion volume might be written with a +similar title, EDUCATION: HOW NEW THE OLD, and it would only exhibit +another aspect of the same truth. + +This does not pretend to be that possible companion volume, but to +present a point of view which owes something both to old and new, and +to make an appeal for the education of Catholic girls to have its +distinguishing features recognized and freely developed in view of +ultimate rather than immediate results. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +RELIGION. + +"Oh! say not, dream not, heavenly notes + To childish ears are vain, +That the young mind at random floats, + And cannot reach the strain. + +"Dim or unheard, the words may fall. + And yet the Heaven-taught mind +May learn the sacred air, and all + The harmony unwind." + KEBLE. + +The principal educational controversies of the present day rage round +the teaching of religion to children, but they are more concerned with +the right to teach it than with what is taught, in fact none of the +combatants except the Catholic body seem to have a clear notion of +what they actually want to teach, when the right has been secured. It +is not the controversy but the fruits of it that are here in question, +the echoes of battle and rumours of wars serve to enhance the +importance of the matter, the duty of making it all worth while, and +using to the best advantage the opportunities which are secured at the +price of so many conflicts. + +The duty is twofold, to God and to His children. God, who entrusts to +us their religious education, has a right to be set before them as +truly, as nobly, as worthily as our capacity allows, as beautifully as +human language can convey the mysteries of faith, with the quietness +and confidence of those who know and are not afraid, and filial pride +in the Christian inheritance which is ours. The child has a right to +learn the best that it can know of God, since the happiness of its +life, not only in eternity but even in time, is bound up in that +knowledge. Most grievous wrong has been done, and is still done, +to children by well-meaning but misguided efforts to "make them +good" by dwelling on the vengeance taken by God upon the wicked, on +the possibilities of wickedness in the youngest child. Their +impressionable minds are quite ready to take alarm, they are so small, +and every experience is so new; there are so many great forces at work +which can be dimly guessed at, and to their vivid imaginations who can +say what may happen next? If the first impressions of God conveyed to +them are gloomy and terrible, a shadow may be cast over the mind so +far-reaching that perhaps a whole lifetime may not carry them beyond +it. They hear of a sleepless Bye that ever watches, to see them doing +wrong, an Bye from which they cannot escape. There is the Judge of +awful severity who admits no excuse, who pursues with relentless +perseverance to the very end and whose resources for punishment are +inexhaustible. What wonder if a daring and defiant spirit turns at +last and stands at bay against the resistless Avenger, and if in later +years the practical result is--"if we may not escape, let us try to +forget," or the drifting of a whole life into indifference, languor of +will, and pessimism that border on despair. + +Parents could not bear to be so misrepresented to their children, and +what condemnation would be sufficient for teachers who would turn the +hearts of children against their father, poisoning the very springs of +life. Yet this wrong is done to God. In general, children taught by +their own parents do not suffer so much from these misrepresentations +of God, as those who have been left with servants and ignorant +teachers, themselves warped by a wrong early training. Fathers and +mothers must have within themselves too much intuition of the +Fatherhood of God not to give another tone to their teaching, and +probably it is from fathers and mothers, as they are in themselves +symbols of God's almighty power and unmeasured love, that the first +ideas of Him can best reach the minds of little children. + +But it is rare that circumstances admit the continuance of this best +instruction. For one reason or another children pass on to other +teachers and, except for what can be given directly by the clergy, +must depend on them for further religious instruction. This further +teaching, covering, say, eight years of school life, ten to eighteen, +falls more or less into two periods, one in which the essentials of +Christian life and doctrine have to be learned, the other in which +more direct preparation may be made for the warfare of faith which +must be encountered when the years of school life are over. It is a +great stewardship to be entrusted with the training of God's royal +family of children, during these years on which their after life +almost entirely depends, and "it is required among stewards that a man +may be found faithful." For other branches of teaching it is more easy +to ascertain that the necessary qualifications are not wanting, but in +this the qualifications lie so deeply hidden between God and the +conscience that they must often be taken for granted, and the +responsibility lies all the more directly with the teacher who has to +live the life, as well as to know the truth, and love both truth and +life in order to make them loved. These are qualifications that are +never attained, because they must always be in process of attainment, +only one who is constantly growing in grace and love and knowledge can +give the true appreciation of what that grace and love and knowledge +are in their bearing on human life: to _be_ rather than to _know_ is +therefore a primary qualification. Inseparably bound up with it is the +thinking right thoughts concerning what is to be taught. + +1. To have right thoughts of God. It would seem to be too obvious to +need statement, yet experience shows that this fundamental necessity +is not always secure, far from it. It is not often put into words, but +traces may be found only too easily of foundations of religion laid in +thoughts of God that are unworthy of our faith. Whence can they have +come? Doubtless in great measure from the subtle spirit of Jansenism +which spread so widely in its day and is so hard to outlive--from +remains of the still darker spirit of Calvinism which hangs about +convert teachers of a rigid school--from vehement and fervid spiritual +writers, addressing themselves to the needs of other times--perhaps +most of all from the old lie which was from the beginning, the deep +mistrust of God which is the greatest triumph of His enemy. God is set +forth as if He were encompassed with human limitations--the fiery +imagery of the Old Testament pressed into the service of modern and +western minds, until He is made to seem pitiless, revengeful, +exacting, lying in wait to catch His creatures in fault, and awaiting +them at death with terrible surprises. + +But this is not what the Church and the Gospels have to say about Him +to the children of the kingdom. If we could put into words our highest +ideals of all that is most lovely and lovable, beautiful, tender, +gracious, liberal, strong, constant, patient, unwearying, add what we +can, multiply it a million times, tire out our imagination beyond it, +and then say that it is nothing to what He is, that it is the weakest +expression of His goodness and beauty, we shall give a poor idea of +God indeed, but at least, as far as it goes, it will be true, and it +will lead to trustfulness and friendship, to a right attitude of mind, +as child to father, and creature to Creator. We speak as we believe, +there is an accent of sincerity that carries conviction if we speak of +God as we believe, and if we believe truly, we shall speak of Him +largely, trustfully, and happily, whether in the dogmas of our faith, +or as we find His traces and glorious attributes in the world around +us, as we consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, +or as we track with reverent and unprecipitate following the line of +His providential government in the history of the world. + +The need of right thoughts of God is also deeply felt on the side of +our relations to Him, and that especially in our democratic times when +sovereignty is losing its meaning. There are free and easy ideas of +God, as if man might criticize and question and call Him to account, +and have his say on the doings of the Creator. It is not explanation +or apology that answer these, but a right thought of God makes them +impossible, and this right thought can only be given if we have it +ourselves. The Fatherhood of God and the Sovereignty of God are +foundations of belief which complete one another, and bear up all the +superstructure of a child's understanding of Christian life. + +2. Eight ideas of ourselves and of our destiny. It is a pity that evil +instead of good is made a prominent feature of religious teaching. To +be haunted by the thought of evil and the dread of losing our soul, +as if it were a danger threatening us at every step, is not the +most inspiring ideal of life; quiet, steady, unimaginative fear and +watchfulness is harder to teach, but gives a stronger defence against +sin than an ever present terror; while all that belongs to hope +awakens a far more effective response to good. Some realization of our +high destiny as heirs of heaven is the strongest hold that the average +character can have to give steadiness in prosperity and courage in +adversity. Chosen souls will rise higher than this, but if the average +can reach so far as this they will do well. + +3. Eight ideas of sin and evil. It is possible on the one hand to give +such imperfect ideas of right and wrong that all is measured by the +mere selfish standard of personal security. The frightened question +about some childish wrong-doing--"is it a mortal sin?" often indicates +that fear of punishment is the only aspect under which sin appears to +the mind; while a satisfied tone in saying "it is only a venial sin" +looks like a desire to see what liberties may be taken with God +without involving too serious consequences to self. "It is wrong" +ought to be enough, and the less children talk of mortal sin the +better--to talk of it, to discuss with them whether this or that is a +mortal sin, accustoms them to the idea. When they know well the +conditions which make a sin grave without illustrations by example +which are likely to obscure the subject rather than clear it up, when +their ideas of right and duty and obligation are clear, when "I ought" +has a real meaning for them, we shall have a stronger type of +character than that which is formed on detailed considerations of +different degrees of guilt. + +On the other hand it is possible to confuse and torment children by +stories of the exquisite delicacy of the consciences of the saints, as +St. Aloysius, setting before them a standard that is beyond their +comprehension or their degree of grace, and making them miserable +because they cannot conform to it. + +It is a great safeguard against sin to realize that duty must be done, +at any cost, and that Christianity means self-denial and taking up the +cross. + +4. Eight thoughts of the four last things. True thoughts of death are +not hard for children to grasp, to their unspoiled faith it is a +simple and joyful thing to go to God. Later on the dreary pageantry +and the averted face of the world from that which is indeed its doom +obscure the Christian idea, and the mind slips back to pagan grief, as +if there were no life to come. + +Eight thoughts of judgment are not so hard to give if the teaching is +sincere and simple, free from exaggerations and phantoms of dread, and +on the other hand clear from an incredulous protest against God's +holding man responsible for his acts. + +But to give right thoughts of hell and heaven taxes the best +resources of those who wish to lay foundations well, for they are +to be foundations for life, and the two lessons belong together, +corner-stones of the building, to stand in view as long as it shall +stand and never to be forgotten. + +The two lessons belong together as the final destiny of man, fixed by +his own act, _this_ or _that_. And they have to be taught with all the +force and gravity and dignity which befits the subject, and in such a +way that after years will find nothing to smile at and nothing to +unlearn. They have to be taught as the mind of the present time can +best apprehend them, not according to the portraiture of mediaeval +pictures, but in a language perhaps not more true and adequate +in itself but less boisterous and more comprehensible to our +self-conscious and introspective moods. Father Faber's treatment +of these last things, hell and heaven, would furnish matter for +instruction not beyond the understanding of those in their last years +at school, and of a kind which if understood must leave a mark upon +the mind for life. [1 See Appendix I.] + +5. Eight views of Jesus Christ and His mother. For Catholic children +this relationship is not a thing far off, but the faith which teaches +them of God Incarnate bids them also understand that He is their own +"God who gives joy to their youth"--and that His mother is also +theirs. There are many incomprehensible things in which children are +taught to affirm their belief, and the acts of faith in which they +recite these truths are far beyond their understanding. But they can +and do understand if we take pains to teach them that they are loved +by Our Lord each one alone, intimately and personally, and asked to +love in return. "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and +forbid them not," is not for them a distant echo of what was heard +long ago in the Holy Land, it is no story, but a living reality of to +day. They are themselves the children who are invited to come to Him, +better off indeed than those first called, since they are not now +rebuked or kept off by the Apostles but brought to the front and given +the first places, invited by order of His Vicar from their earliest +years to receive the Bread of Heaven, and giving delight to His +representatives on earth by accepting the invitation. + +It is the reality as contrasted with the story that is the prerogative +of the Catholic child. Jesus and Mary are real, and are its own +closest kin, all but visible, at moments intensely felt as present. +They are there in joy and in trouble, when every one else fails in +understanding or looks displeased there is this refuge, there is this +love which always forgives, and sets things right, and to whom nothing +is unimportant or without interest. Companionship in loneliness, +comfort in trouble, relief in distress, endurance in pain are all to +be found in them. With Jesus and Mary what is there in the whole world +of which a Catholic child should be afraid. And this glorious strength +of theirs made perfect in child-martyrs in many ages will make them +again child-martyrs now if need be, or confessors of the holy faith as +they are not seldom called upon, even now, to show themselves. + +There is a strange indomitable courage in children which has its deep +springs in these Divine things; the strength which they find in Holy +Communion and in their love for Jesus and Mary is enough to overcome +in them all weakness and fear. + +6. Eight thoughts of the faith and practice of Christian life. And +here it is necessary to guard against what is childish, visionary, and +exuberant, against things that only feed the fancy or excite the +imagination, against practices which are adapted to other races than +ours, but with us are liable to become unreal and irreverent, against +too vivid sense impressions and especially against attaching too much +importance to them, against grotesque and puerile forms of piety, +which drag down the beautiful devotions to the saints until they are +treated as inhabitants of a superior kind of doll's house, rewarded +and punished, scolded and praised, endowed with pet names, and treated +so as to become objects of ridicule to those who do not realize that +these extravagances may be in other countries natural forms of peasant +piety when the grace of intimacy with the saints has run wild. In +northern countries a greater sobriety of devotion is required if it is +to have any permanent influence on life. + +But again, on the other hand, the more restrained devotion must not +lose its spontaneity; so long as it is the true expression of faith it +can hardly be too simple, it can never be too intimate a part of +common life. Noble friendships with the saints in glory are one of the +most effectual means of learning heavenly-mindedness, and friendships +formed in childhood will last through a lifetime. To find a character +like one's own which has fought the same fight and been crowned, is an +encouragement which obtains great victories, and to enter into the +thoughts of the saints is to qualify oneself here below for +intercourse with the citizens of heaven. + +To be well grounded in the elements of faith, and to have been so +taught that the practice of religion has become the atmosphere of a +happy life, to have the habit of sanctifying daily duties, joys, and +trials by the thought of God, and a firm resolve that nothing shall be +allowed to draw the soul away from Him, such is, broadly speaking, the +aim we may set before ourselves for the end of the years of childhood, +after which must follow the more difficult years of the training of +youth. + +The time has gone by when the faith of childhood might be carried +through life and be assailed by no questionings from without. A faith +that is not armed and ready for conflict stands a poor chance of +passing victoriously through its trials, it cannot hope to escape from +being tried. "We have laboured successfully," wrote a leading Jewish +Freemason in Rome addressing his Brotherhood, "in the great cities and +among the young men; it remains for us to carry out the work in the +country districts and amongst the women." Words could not be plainer +to show what awaits the faith of children when they come out into the +world; and even in countries where the aim is not so clearly set forth +the current of opinion mostly sets against the faith, the current of +the world invariably does so. For faith to hold on its course against +all that tends to carry it away, it is needful that it should not be +found unprepared. The minds of the young cannot expect to be carried +along by a Catholic public opinion, there will be few to help them, +and they must learn to stand by themselves, to answer for themselves, +to be challenged and not afraid to speak out for their faith, to be +able to give "first aid" to unsettled minds and not allow their own +to be unsettled by what they hear. They must learn that, as Father +Dalgairns points out, their position in the world is far more akin to +that of Christians in the first centuries of the Church than to the +life that was lived in the middle ages when the Church visibly ruled +over public opinion. Now, as in the earliest ages, the faithful +stand in small assemblies or as individuals amid cold or hostile +surroundings, and individual faith and sanctity are the chief means of +extending the kingdom of God on earth. + +But this apostleship needs preparation and training. The early +teaching requires to be seasoned and hardened to withstand the +influences which tend to dissolve faith and piety; by this seasoning +faith must be enlightened, and piety become serene and grave, +"sedate," as St. Francis of Sales would say with beautiful commentary. +In the last years of school or school-room life the mind has to be +gradually inured to the harder life, to the duty of defending as well +as adorning the faith, and to gain at least some idea of the enemies +against which defence must be made. It is something even to know what +is in the air and what may be expected that the first surprise may not +disturb the balance of the mind. To know that in the Church there have +been sorrows and scandals, without the promises of Christ having +failed, and even that it had to be so, fulfilling His word, "it must +needs be that scandals come" (St. Matthew XVIII. 7), that they are +therefore rather a confirmation than a stumbling-block to our faith, +this is a necessary safeguard. To have some unpretentious knowledge of +what is said and thought concerning Holy Scripture, to know at least +something about Modernism and other phases of current opinion is +necessary, without making a study of their subtilties, for the most +insecure attitude of mind for girls is to _think they know_, in these +difficult questions, and the best safeguard both of their faith and +good sense is intellectual modesty. Without making acquaintance in +detail with the phenomena of spiritualism and kindred arts or +sciences, it is needful to know in a plain and general way why they +are forbidden by the Church, and also to know how those who have lost +their balance and peace of mind in these pursuits would willingly draw +back, but find it next to impossible to free themselves from the +servitude in which they are entangled. It is hard for some minds to +resist the restless temptation to feel, to see, to test and handle all +that life can offer of strange and mysterious experiences, and next to +the curb of duty comes the safeguard of greatly valuing freedom of +mind. + +Curiosity concerning evil or dangerous knowledge is more impetuous +when a sudden emancipation of mind sweeps the old landmarks and +restraints out of sight, and nothing has been foreseen which can +serve as a guide. Then is the time when weak places in education show +themselves, when the least insincerity in the presentment of truth +brings its own punishment, and a faith not pillared and grounded in +all honesty is in danger of failing. The best security is to have +nothing to unlearn, to know that what one knows is a very small part +of what can be known, but that as far as it goes it is true and +genuine, and cannot be outgrown, that it will stand both the wear of +time and the test of growing power of thought, and that those who have +taught these beliefs will never have to retract or be ashamed of them, +or own that they were passed off, though inadequate, upon the minds of +children. + +It is not unusual to meet girls who are troubled with "doubts" as to +faith and difficulties which alarm both them and their friends. +Sometimes when these "doubts" are put into words they turn out to be +mere difficulties, and it has not been understood that "ten thousand +difficulties do not make a doubt." Sometimes the difficulties are +scarcely real, and come simply from catching up objections which they +do not know how to answer, and think unanswerable. Sometimes a spirit +of contradiction has been aroused, and a captious tendency, or a love +of excitement and sensationalism, with a wish to see the other side. +Sometimes imperfect teaching has led them to expect the realization of +things as seen, which are only to be assented to as believed, so that +there is a hopeless effort to _imagine_, to _feel_, and to _feel +sure_, to lean in some way upon what the senses can verify, and the +acquiescence, assent, and assurance of faith seems all insufficient to +give security. Sometimes there is genuine ignorance of what is to be +believed, and of what it is to believe. Sometimes it is merely a +question of nerves, a want of tone in the mind, insufficient +occupation and training which has thrown the mind back upon itself to +its own confusion. Sometimes they come from want of understanding that +there must be mysteries in faith, and a multitude of questions that do +not admit of complete answers, that God would not be God if the +measure of our minds could compass His, that the course of His +Providence must transcend our experience and judgment, and that if the +truths of faith forced the assent of our minds all the value of that +assent would be taken away. If these causes and a few others were +removed one may ask oneself how many "doubts" and difficulties would +remain in the ordinary walks of Catholic life. + +It seems to be according to the mind of the Church in our days to turn +the minds of her children to the devotional study of Scripture, and if +this is begun, as it may be, in the early years of education it gains +an influence which is astonishing. The charm of the narrative in the +very words of Scripture, and the jewels of prayer and devotion which +may be gathered in the Sacred Books, are within the reach of children, +and they prepare a treasure of knowledge and love which will grow in +value during a lifetime. Arms are there, too, against many +difficulties and temptations; and a better understanding of the +Church's teaching and of the liturgy which is the best standard of +devotion for the faithful. + +The blight of Scriptural knowledge is to make it a "subject" for +examinations, running in a parallel track with Algebra and Geography, +earning its measure of marks and submitted to the tests of +non-Catholic examining bodies, to whom it speaks in another tongue +than ours. It must be a very robust devotion to the word of God that +is not chilled by such treatment, and can keep an early Christian glow +in its readings of the Gospels and Epistles whether they have proved a +failure or a success in the examination. In general, Catholic +candidates acquit themselves well in this subject, and perhaps it may +give some edification to non-Catholic examiners when they see these +results. But it is questionable whether the risk of drying up the +affection of children for what must become to them a text-book is +worth this measure of success. Let experience speak for those who know +if it is not so; it would seem in the nature of things that so it must +be. When it is given over to voluntary study (beyond the diocesan +requirements which are a stimulus and not a blight) it catches, not +like wild fire, but like blessed fire, even among young children, and +is woven imperceptibly into the texture of life. + +Lastly, what may be asked of Catholic children when they grow up and +have to take upon themselves the responsibility of keeping their own +faith alive, and the practice of their religion in an atmosphere which +may often be one of cold faith and slack observance? Neither their +spiritual guides, nor those who have educated them, nor their own +parents, can take this responsibility out of their hands. St. Francis +of Sales calls science the 8th Sacrament for a priest, urging the +clergy to give themselves earnestly to study, and he says that great +troubles have come upon us because the sacred ark of knowledge was +found in other hands than those of the Levites. Leo XIII wrote in one +of his great encyclicals that "Every minister of holy religion must +bring to the struggle the full energy of his mind and all his power of +endurance." What about the laity? We cannot leave all the battle to +the clergy; they cannot defend and instruct and carry us into the +kingdom of heaven in spite of ourselves; their labours call for +response and correspondence. What about those who are now leaving +childhood behind and will be in the front ranks of the coming +generation? Their influence will make or unmake the religion of their +homes, and what they will be for the whole of their life will depend +very much upon how they take their first independent stand. + +It is much that they should be well grounded in those elements of +doctrine which they can learn in their school-days. It is much more if +they carry out with them a living interest in the subject and care to +watch the current of the Church's thought in the encyclicals that are +addressed to the faithful, the pastorals of Bishops, the works of +Catholic writers which, are more and more within the reach of all, in +the great events of the Church's life, and in the talk of those who +are able to speak from first-hand knowledge and experience. It is most +of all fundamental that they should have an attitude of mind that is +worthy of their faith; one that is not nervous or apologetic for the +Church, not anxious about the Pope lest he should "interfere too +much," nor frightened of what the world may say. They should have an +unperturbed conviction that the Church will have the last word in any +controversy, and that she has nothing to be alarmed at, though all the +battalions of newest thought should be set in array against her; they +should be lovingly proud of the Church, and keep their belief in her +at all times joyous, assured, and unafraid. + +Theology is not for them, neither required nor obtainable, though some +have been found enterprising enough to undertake to read the _Summa_, +and naive enough to suppose that they would be theologians at the end +of it, and even at the outset ready to exchange ideas with Doctors of +Divinity on efficacious grace, and to have "views" on the authorship +of the Sacred Writings. Such aspirations either come to an untimely +end by an awakening sense of proportion, or remain as monuments to the +efforts of those "less wise," or in some unfortunate cases the mind +loses its balance and is led into error. + +"Thirsting to be more than mortal, +I was even less than clay." + +Let us, if we can, keep the bolder spirits on the level of what is +congruous, where the wealth that is within their reach will not be +exhausted in their lifetime, and where they may excel without offence +and without inviting either condemnation or ridicule. The sense of +fitness is a saving instinct in this as in 1 every other department of +life. When it is present, first principles come home like intuitions +to the mind, where it is absent they seem to take no hold at all, and +the understanding that should supply for the right instinct makes slow +and laborious way if it ever enters at all. + +To know the relation in which one stands to any department of +knowledge is, in that department, "the beginning of wisdom". The great +Christian Basilicas furnish a parallel in the material order. They are +the house of God and the home and possession of every member of the +Church militant without distinction of age or rank or learning. But +they are not the same to each. Every one brings his own understanding +and faith and insight, and the great Church is to him what he has +capacity to understand and to receive. The great majority of +worshippers could not draw a fine of the plans or expound a law of the +construction, or set a stone in its place, yet the whole of it is +theirs and for them, and their reverent awe, even if they have no +further understanding, adds a spiritual grace and a fuller dignity to +the whole. The child, the beggar, the pilgrim, the penitent, the lowly +servants and custodians of the temple, the clergy, the venerable +choir, the highest authorities from whom come the order and regulation +of the ceremonies, all have their parts, all stand in their special +relations harmoniously sharing in different degrees in what is for +all. Even those long since departed, architects and builders and +donors, are not cut off from it, their works follow them, and their +memory lives in the beauty which stands as a memorial to their great +ideals. It is all theirs, it is all ours, it is all God's. And so of +the great basilica of theology, built up and ever in course of +building; it is for all--but for each according to his needs---for +their use, for their instruction, to surround and direct their +worship, to be a security and defence to their souls, a great Church +in which the spirit is raised heavenwards in proportion to the faith +and submission with which it bows down in adoration before the throne +of God. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHARACTER I. + +"La vertu maitresse d'aujourd'hui est la spontaneite +resolue, reglee par les principes interieurs et les +disciplines volontairement acceptees."--Y. LE QUERDEC. + +The value set on character, even if the appreciation goes no further +than words, has increased very markedly within the last few years, and +in reaction against an exclusively mental training we hear louder and +louder the plea for the formation and training of character. + +Primarily the word _character_ signifies a distinctive mark, cut, +engraved, or stamped upon a substance, and by analogy, this is +likewise character in the sense in which it concerns education. A "man +of character" is one in whom acquired qualities, orderly and +consistent, stand out on the background of natural temperament, as the +result of training and especially of self-discipline, and therefore +stamped or engraved upon something receptive which was prepared for +them. This something receptive is the natural temperament, a basis +more or less apt to receive what training and habit may bring to bear +upon it. The sum of acquired habits tells upon the temperament, and +together with it produce or establish character, as the arms engraved +upon the stone constitute the seal. + +If habits are not acquired by training, and instead of them +temperament alone has been allowed to have its way in the years of +growth, the seal bears no arms engraven on it, and the result is want +of character, or a weak character, without distinctive mark, showing +itself in the various situations of life inconsistent, variable, +unequal to strain, acting on the impulse, good or bad, of the moment; +its fitful strength in moods of obstinacy or self-will showing that it +lacks the higher qualities of rational discernment and self-control. + +"Character is shown by susceptibility to motive," says a modern +American, turning with true American instinct to the practical side in +which he has made experiences, and it is evidently one of the readiest +ways of approaching the study of any individual character, to make +sure of the motives which awaken response. But the result of habit and +temperament working together shows itself in every form of spontaneous +activity as well as in response to external stimulus. Character may be +studied in tastes and sympathies, in the manner of treating with one's +fellow creatures, of confronting various "situations" in life, in the +ideals aimed at, in the estimate of success or failure, in the +relative importance attached to things, in the choice of friends and +the ultimate fate of friendships, in what is expected and taken for +granted, as in what is habitually ignored, in the instinctive attitude +towards law and authority, towards custom and tradition, towards order +and progress. + +Character, then, may stand for the sum of the qualities which go to +make one to be _thus_, and not otherwise; but the basis which +underlies and constantly reasserts itself is temperament. It makes +people angry to say this, if they are determined to be so completely +masters of their way in life that nothing but reason, in the natural +order, shall be their guide; but though heroism of soul has overcome +the greatest drawbacks of an unfortunate physical organization, these +cases are rare, and in general it must be taken into account to such +an extent that the battle against difficulties of temperament is the +battle of a lifetime. There are certain broad divisions which although +they cannot pretend to rest upon scientific principles yet appeal +constantly to experience, and often serve as practical guides to +forecast the lines on which particular characters may be developed. +There is a very striking division into assenting and dissenting +temperaments, children of _yes_ and children of _no_; a division which +declares itself very early and is maintained all along the lines of +early development, in mind and will and taste and manner, in every +phase of activity. And though time and training and the schooling of +life may modify its expression, yet below the surface it would seem +only to accentuate itself, as the features of character become more +marked with advancing years. Where it touches the religious +disposition one would say that some were born with the minds of +Catholics and, others of Nonconformists, representing respectively +centripetal and centrifugal tendencies of mind; the first apt to see +harmony and order, to realize the tenth of things that must be as they +are, the second born to be in opposition and with great labour +subduing themselves into conformity. They are precious aids in the +service of the Church as controversialists when enlisted on the right +side, for controversy is their element. But for positive doctrine, for +keen appreciation, for persuasive action on the wills of others, they +are at a disadvantage, at all events in England, where logic does not +enter into the national religious system, and the mind is apt to +resent conviction as if it were a kind of coercion. There are a great +number of such born Nonconformists in England, and when either the +grace of Catholic education or of conversion has been granted to them, +it is interesting to watch the efforts to subdue and attune themselves +to submission and to faith. Sometimes the Nonconformist temperament is +the greatest of safeguards, where a Catholic child is obliged to stand +alone amongst uncongenial surroundings, then it defends itself +doggedly, splendidly, and comes out after years in a Protestant school +quite untouched in its faith and much strengthened in militant +Christianity. These are cheerful instances of its development, and its +advantages; they would suggest that some external opposition or +friction is necessary for such temperaments that their fighting +instinct may be directed against the common enemy, and not tend to +arouse controversies and discussions in its own ranks or within +itself. In less happy cases the instinct of opposition is a cause of +endless trouble, friction in family life, difficulty in working with +others, "alarums, excursions" on all sides, and worse, the get +attitude of distrust towards authority, which undermines the +foundations of faith and prepares the mind to break away from control, +to pass from instinctive opposition to antagonism, from antagonism to +contempt, from contempt to rebellion and revolt. Arrogance of mind, +irreverence, self-idolatry, blindness, follow in their course, and the +whole nature loses its balance and becomes through pride a pitiful +wreck. + +The assenting mind has its own possibilities for good and evil, more +human than those of Nonconformity, for "pride was not made for men" +(Ecclus. x 22), less liable to great catastrophes, and in general +better adapted for all that belongs to the service of God and man. It +is a happy endowment, and the happiness of others is closely bound up +with its own. Again, its faults being more human are more easily +corrected, and fortunately for the possessor, punish themselves more +often. This favours truthfulness in the mind and humility in the +soul--the spirit of the _Confiteor_. Its dangers are those of too easy +assent, of inordinate pursuit of particular good, of inconstancy and +variability, of all the humanistic elements which lead back to +paganism. The history of the Renaissance in Southern Europe testifies +to this, as it illustrates in other countries the development of the +spirit of Nonconformity and revolt. Calvinism and a whole group of +Protestant schools of thought may stand as examples of the spirit of +denial working itself out to its natural consequences; while the +exaggerations of Italian humanism, frankly pagan, are fair +illustrations of the spirit of assent carried beyond bounds. And those +centuries when the tide of life ran high for good or evil, furnish +instances in point abounding with interest and instruction, more +easily accessible than what can be gathered from modern characters, in +whom less clearly defined temperaments and more complex conditions of +life have made it harder to distinguish the characteristic features of +the mind. To mention only one or two--St. Francis of Sales and Blessed +Thomas More were great assentors, so were Pico de Mirandola and the +great Popes of the Renaissance, an example of a great Nonconformist is +Savonarola. + +The old division of temperaments into phlegmatic or lymphatic, +sanguine, choleric, and nervous or melancholy, is a fairly good +foundation for preliminary observation, especially as each of the four +subdivides itself easily into two types--the hard and soft--reforms +itself easily into some cross-divisions, and refuses to be blended +into others. Thus a very fine type of character is seen when the +characteristics of the sanguine and choleric are blended the qualities +of one correcting the faults of the other, and a very poor one if a +yielding lymphatic temperament has also a strain of melancholy to +increase its tendency towards inaction. It is often easy to discern in +a group of children the leading characteristics of these temperaments, +the phlegmatic or lymphatic, hard or soft, not easily stirred, one +stubborn and the other yielding, both somewhat immobile, generally +straightforward and reliable, law abiding, accessible to reason, not +exposed to great dangers nor likely to reach unusual heights. Next the +sanguine, hard or soft, as hope or enjoyment have the upper hand in +them; this is the richest group in attractive power. If hope is the +stronger factor there is a fund of energy which, allied with the power +of charm and persuasion, with trustfulness in good, and optimistic +outlook on the world, wins its way and succeeds in its undertakings, +making its appeal to the will rather than to the mind. On the softer +side of this type are found the disappointing people who ought to do +well, and always fail, for whom the _joie de vivre_ carries everything +before it, who are always good natured, always obliging, always +sweet-tempered, who cannot say no, especially to themselves, whose +energy is exhausted in a very short burst of effort, though ever ready +to direct itself into some new channel for as brief a trial. The +characters which remain "characters of great promise" to the end of +their days, great promise doomed to be always unfulfilled. Of all +characters, these are perhaps the most disappointing; they have so +much in their favour, and the one thing wanting, steadiness of +purpose, renders useless their most beautiful gifts. These two groups +seem to be the most common among the Teutons and Celts of Northern +Europe with fair colouring and tall build; perhaps the other two types +are correspondingly more numerous among the Latin races. They are +choleric, ambitious, or self-isolated, as the cast of their mind is +eager or scornful and generally capable of dissimulation; the world is +not large enough for their Bonapartes. But if bitterness and sadness +predominate, they are carried on an ebbing tide towards pessimism and +contemptuous weariness of life; their soft type, in so far as they +have one, has the softness of powder, dry and crushed, rather than +that of a living organism. In children, this type, fortunately rare, +has not the charm or joy of childhood, but shows a restless straining +after some self-centred excellence, and a coldness of affection which +indicates the isolation towards which it is carried in later life. +Lastly, there is the unquiet group of nervous or melancholic +temperaments, their melancholy not weighed down by listless sadness as +the inactive lymphatics, but more actively dissatisfied with things as +they are--untiringly but unhopefully at work--hard on themselves, +anxious-minded, assured that in spite of their efforts all will turn +out for the worst, often scrupulous, capable of long-sustained +efforts, often of heroic devotedness and superhuman endurance, for +which their reward is not in this world, as the art of pleasing is +singularly deficient in them. Here are found the people who are "so +good, but so trying," ever in a fume and fuss, who, for sheer +goodness, rouse in others the spirit of contradiction. These +characters are at their best in adversity, trouble stimulates them to +their best efforts, whereas in easy circumstances and surrounded with +affection they are apt to drop into querulous and exacting habits. If +they are endowed with more than ordinary energy it is in the direction +of diplomacy, and not always frank. On the whole this is the character +whose features are least clearly defined, over which a certain mystery +hangs, and strange experiences are not unfrequent It is difficult to +deal with its elusive showings and vanishings, and this melting away +and reappearing seems in some to become a habit and even a matter of +choice, with a determination _not to be known_. + +Taking these groups as a rough classification for observation of +character, it is possible to get a fair idea of the raw material of a +class, though it may be thankfully added that in the Church no +material is really raw, with the grace of Baptism in the soul and +later on the Sacrament of Penance, to clear its obscurities and +explain it to itself and by degrees to transform its tendencies and +with grace and guidance to give it a steady impulse towards the better +things. Confirmation and First Communion sometimes sensibly and even +suddenly transfigure a character; but even apart from such choice +instances the gradual work of the Sacraments brings Catholic children +under a discipline in which the habit of self-examination, the +constant necessity for effort, the truthful avowal of being in the +wrong, the acceptance of penance as a due, the necessary submissions +and self-renunciations of obedience to the Church, give a training of +their own. So a practicing Catholic child is educated unconsciously by +a thousand influences, each of which, supernatural in itself, tells +beyond the supernatural sphere and raises the natural qualities, by +self-knowledge, by truth, by the safeguard of religion against +hardness and isolation and the blindness of pride, even if the minimum +of educational facilities have been at work to take advantage of these +openings for good. A Catholic child is a child, and keeps a childlike +spirit for life, unless the early training is completely shipwrecked, +and even then there are memories which are means of recovery, and the +way home to the Father's house is known. It may be hoped that very +many never leave it, and never lose the sense of being one of the +great family, "of the household of faith." They enjoy the freedom of +the house, the rights of children, the ministries of all the graces +which belong to the household, the power of being at home in every +place because the Church is there with its priesthood and its +Sacraments, responsible for its children, and able to supply the wants +of their souls. It is scarcely possible to find among Catholic +children the inaccessible little bits of flint who are not _brought_ +up, but bring up their own souls outside the Church--proud in their +isolation, most proud of never yielding inward obedience or owning +themselves in the wrong, and of being sufficient for themselves. When +the grace of Q-od reaches them and they are admitted into the Church, +one of the most overwhelming experiences is that of becoming one of a +family, for whom there is some one responsible, the Father of the +family whose authority and love pass through their appointed channels, +down to the least child. + +There is no such thing as an orphan child within the Church, there are +possibilities of training and development which belong to those who +have to educate the young which must appeal particularly to Catholic +teachers, for they know more than others the priceless value of the +children with whom they have to do. Children, souls, freighted for +their voyage through life, vessels so frail and bound for such a port +are worthy of the devoted care of those who have necessarily a +lifelong influence over them, and the means of using that influence +for their lifelong good ought to be a matter of most earnest study. +Knowledge must come before action, and first-hand knowledge, acquired +by observation, is worth more than theoretic acquirements; the first +may supply for the second, but not the second for the first. There are +two types of educators of early childhood which no theory could +produce, and indeed no theory could tell how they are produced, but +they stand unrivalled--one is the English nurse and the other the +Irish. The English nurse is a being apart, with a profound sense of +fitness in all things, herself the slave of duty; and having certain +ideals transmitted, who can tell how, by an unwritten traditional +code, as to what _ought to be_, and a gift of authority by which she +secures that these things _shall be_, reverence for God, reverence in +prayer, reverence for parents, consideration of brothers for sisters, +unselfishness, manners, etc., her views on all these things are like +the laws of the Medes and Persians "which do not alter "--and they are +also holy and wholesome. The Irish nurse rules by the heart, and by +sympathy, by a power of self-devotion that can only be found where the +love of God is the deepest love of the heart; she has no views, +but--she knows. She does not need to observe--she sees' she has +instincts, she never lays down a law, but she wins by tact and +affection, lifting up the mind to God and subduing the will to +obedience, while appearing to do nothing but love and wait. The stamp +that she leaves on the earliest years of training is never entirely +effaced; it remains as some instinct of faith, a habit of resignation +to the will of God, and habitual recourse to prayer. Both these types +of educators rule by their gift from God, and it is hard to believe +that the most finished training in the art of nursery management can +produce anything like them, for they govern by those things that +lectures and handbooks cannot teach--faith, love, and common sense. + +Those who take up the training of the next stage have usually to learn +by their own experience, and study what is given to very few as a +natural endowment--the art of so managing the wills of children that +without provoking resistance, yet without yielding to every fancy, +they may be led by degrees to self-control and to become a law to +themselves. It must be recognized from the beginning that the work is +slow; if it is forced on too fast either a breaking point comes and +the child, too much teased into perfection, turns in reaction and +becomes self-willed and rebellious; or if, unhappily, the forcing +process succeeds, a little paragon is produced like Wordsworth's +"model child":-- + +"Full early trained to worship seemliness, +This model of a child is never known +To mix in quarrels; that were far beneath +Its dignity; with gifts he bubbles o'er +As generous as a fountain; selfishness +May not come near him, nor the little throng +Of flitting pleasures tempt him from his path; +The wandering beggars propagate his name. +Dumb creatures find him tender as a nun, +And natural or supernatural fear, +Unless it leap upon him in a dream, +Touches him not. To enhance the wonder, see +How arch his notices, how nice his sense +Of the ridiculous; not blind is he +To the broad follies of the licensed world, +Yet innocent himself withal, though shrewd, +And can read lectures upon innocence; +A miracle of scientific lore, +Ships he can guide across the pathless sea, +And tell you all their cunning; he can read +The inside of the earth, and spell the stars; +He knows the policies of foreign lands; +Can string you names of districts, cities, towns, +The whole world over, tight as beads of dew +Upon a gossamer thread; he sifts, he weighs; +All things are put to question; he must live +Knowing that he grows wiser every day +Or else not live at all, and seeing too +Each little drop of wisdom as it falls +Into the dimpling cistern of his heart: +For this unnatural growth the trainer blame, +Pity the tree,"-- + "The Prelude," Bk. V, lines 298-329. + +On the other hand if those who have to bring up children, fear too +much to cross their inclinations, and so seek always the line of least +resistance, teaching lessons in play, and smoothing over every rough +peace of the road, the result is a weak, slack will, a mind without +power of concentration, and in later life very little resourcefulness +in emergency or power of bearing up under difficulties or privations. +We are at present more inclined to produce these soft characters +than to develop paragons. But such movements go in waves and the +wave-lengths are growing shorter; we seem now to be reaching the end +of a period when, as it has been expressed, "the teacher learns the +lessons and says them to the child." We are beginning to outgrow too +fervid belief in methods, and pattern lessons, and coming back to +value more highly the habit of effort, individual work, and even the +saving discipline of drudgery. _We_ are beginning, that is those who +really care for children, and for character, and for life; it takes +the State and its departments a long time to come up with the +experience of those who actually know living children--a generation is +not too much to allow for its coming to this knowledge, as we may see +at present, when the drawbacks of the system of 1870 are becoming +apparent at last in the eyes of the official world, having been +evident for years to those whose sympathies were with the children and +not with codes. America, open-minded America, is aware of all this, +and is making generous educational experiments with the buoyant +idealism of a young nation, an idealism that is sometimes outstripping +its practical sense, quite able to face its disappointments if they +come, as undoubtedly they will, and to begin again. In one point it is +far ahead of us--in the understanding that a large measure of freedom +is necessary for teachers. Whereas we are, let us hope, at the most +acute stage of State interference in details. + +But in spite of the systems the children live, and come up year after +year, to give us fresh opportunities; and in spite of the systems +something can be done with them if we take the advice of Archbishop +Ullathorne--"trust in God and begin as you can." + +Let us begin by learning to know them, and the knowledge of their +characters is more easily gained if some cardinal points are marked, +by which the unknown country may be mapped out. The selection of these +cardinal points depends in part on the mind of the observer, which has +more or less insight into the various manifestations of possibility +and quality which may occur. It is well to observe without seeming to +do so, for as shy wild creatures fly off before a too observant eye, +but may be studied by a naturalist who does not appear to look at +them, so the real child takes to flight if it is too narrowly watched, +and leaves a self conscious little person to take its place, making +off with its true self into the backwoods of some dreamland, and +growing more and more reticent about its real thoughts as it gets +accustomed to talk to an appreciative audience. With weighing and +measuring, inspecting and reporting, exercising and rapid forcing, and +comparing, applauding and tabulating results, it is difficult to see +how children can escape self-consciousness and artificiality, and the +enthusiasts for "child study" are in danger of making the specimen of +the real child more and more rare and difficult to find, as +destructive sportsmen in a new country exterminate the choice species +of wild animals. + +Too many questions put children on their guard or make them unreal; +they cannot give an account of what they think and what they mean and +how far they have understood, and the greater the anxiety shown to get +at their real mind the less are they either able or willing to make it +known; so it is the quieter and less active observers who see the +most, and those who observe most are best aware how little can be +known. + +Yet there are some things which may serve as points of the compass, +especially in the transitional years when the features both of face +and character begin to accentuate themselves. One of these is the +level of friendships. There are some who look by instinct for the +friendship of those above them, and others habitually seek a lower +level, where there is no call to self-restraint. Boys who hang about +the stables, girls who like the conversation of servants; boys and +girls who make friends in sets at school, among the less desirable, +generally do so from a love of ease and dislike of that restraint and +effort which every higher friendship calls for; they can be _somebody_ +at a very cheap cost where the standard of talk is not exacting, +whereas to be with those who are striving for the best in any station +makes demands which call for exertion, and the taste for this higher +level, the willingness to respond to its claims, give good promise +that those who have it will in their turn draw others to the things +that are best. + +The attitude of a child towards books is also indicative of the whole +background of a mind; the very way in which a book is handled is often +a sign in itself of whether a child is a citizen born, or an alien, in +the world for which books stand. Taste in reading, both as to quality +and quantity, is so obviously a guiding line that it need scarcely be +mentioned. + +Play is another line in which character shows itself, and reveals +another background against which the scenes of life in the future will +stand out, and in school life the keenest and best spirits will +generally divide into these two groups, the readers and the players, +with a few, rarely gifted, who seem to excel in both. From the readers +will come those who are to influence the minds of others here, if they +do not let themselves be carried out too far to keep in touch with +real life. From the players will come those whose gift is readiness +and decision in action, if they on their side do not remain mere +players when life calls for something more. + +There are other groups, the born artists with their responsive minds, +the "home children" for whom everything centres in their own home-world, +and who have in them the making of another one in the future; the +critics, standing aloof, a little peevish and very self-conscious, +hardly capable of deep friendship and fastidiously dissatisfied with +people and things in general; the cheerful and helpful souls who have +no interests of their own but can devote themselves to help anyone; +the opposite class whose life is in their own moods and feelings. Many +others might be added, each observer's experience can supply them, and +will probably close the list with the same little group, the very few, +that stand a little apart, but not aloof, children of privilege, +with heaven in their eyes and a little air of mystery about them, +meditative and quiet, friends of God, friends of all, loved and +loving, and asking very little from the outer world, because they have +more than enough within. They are classed as the dreamers, but they +are really the seers. They do not ask much and they do not need much +beyond a reverent guardianship, and to be let alone and allowed to +grow; they will find their way for they are "taught of God." + +It is impossible to do more than to throw out suggestions which +any child-naturalist might multiply or improve upon. The next +consideration for all concerned is what to do with the acquired +knowledge, and how to "bring up" in the later stages of childhood and +early youth. + +What do we want to bring up? Not good nonentities, who are merely good +because they are not bad. There are too many of them already, no +trouble to anyone, only disappointing, so good that they ought to be +so much better, if only they _would_. But who can make them will to be +something more, to become, as Montalembert said, "a _fact_, instead of +remaining but a shadow, an echo, or a ruin?" Those who have to educate +them to something higher must themselves have an idea of what they +want; they must believe in the possibility of every mind and character +to be lifted up to something better than it has already attained; they +must themselves be striving for some higher excellence, and must +believe and care deeply for the things they teach. For no one can be +educated by maxim and precept; it is the life lived, and the things +loved and the ideals believed in, by which we tell, one upon another. +If we care for energy we call it out; if we believe in possibilities +of development we almost seem to create them. If we want integrity of +character, steadiness, reliability, courage, thoroughness, all the +harder qualities that serve as a backbone, we, at least, make others +want them also, and strive for them by the power of example that is +not set as deliberate good example, for that is as tame as a precept, +but the example of the life that is lived, and the truths that are +honestly believed in. + +The gentler qualities which are to adorn the harder virtues may be +more explicitly taught. It is always more easy to tone down than to +brace up; there must fist be something to moderate, before moderation +can be a virtue; there must be strength before gentleness can be +taught, as there must be some hardness in material things to make them +capable of polish. And these are qualities which are specially needed +in our unsteady times, when rapid emancipation of unknown forces makes +each one more personally responsible than in the past. It is an +impatient age: we must learn patience; it is an age of sudden social +changes: we have to make ready for adversity; it is an age of +lawlessness: each one must stand upon his own guard and be his own +defence; it is a selfish age, and never was unselfishness more +urgently needed; love of home and love of country seem to be cooling, +one as rapidly as the other: never was it more necessary to learn the +spirit of self-sacrifice both for family life and the love and honour +due to one's country which is also "piety" in its true sense. + +All these things come with our Catholic faith and practice if it is +rightly understood. Catholic family life, Catholic citizenship, +Catholic patriotism are the truest, the only really true, because the +only types of these virtues that are founded on truth. But they do not +come of themselves. Many will let themselves be carried to heaven, as +they hope, in the long-suffering arms of the Church without either +defending or adorning her by their virtues, and we shall but add to +their number if we do not kindle in the minds of children the ambition +to do something more, to devote themselves to the great Cause, by +self-sacrifice to be in some sort initiated into its spirit, and +identified with it, and thus to make it worth while for others as well +as for themselves that they have lived their life on earth. There is a +price to be paid for this, and they must face it; a good life cannot +be a soft life, and a great deal, even of innocent pleasure, has to be +given up, voluntarily, to make life worth living, if it were only as a +training in _doing without_. + +Independence is a primary need for character, and independence can +only be learnt by doing without pleasant things, even unnecessarily. +Simplicity of life is an essential for greatness of life, and the very +meaning of the simple life is the laying aside of many things which +tend to grow by habit into necessities. The habit of work is another +necessity in any life worth living, and this is only learnt by +refraining again and again from what is pleasant for the sake of what +is precious. Patience and thoroughness are requirements whose worth +and value never come home to the average mind until they are seen in +startling excellence, and it is apparent what a price must have been +paid to acquire their adamant perfection, a lesson which might be the +study of a lifetime. The value of time is another necessary lesson of +the better life, a hard lesson, but one that makes an incalculable +difference between the expert and the untried. We are apt to be always +in a hurry now, for obvious reasons which hasten the movement of life, +but not many really know how to use time to the full. Our tendency is +to alternate periods of extreme activity with intervals of complete +prostration for recovery. Perhaps our grandparents knew better in a +slower age the use of time. The old Marquise de Gramont, aged 93, +after receiving Extreme Unction, asked for her knitting, for the poor. +"Mais Madame la Marquise a ete administree, elle va mourir!" said the +maid, who thought the occupation of dying sufficient for a lady of her +age. "Ma chere, ce n'est pas une raison pour perdre son temps," +answered the indomitable Marquise. It is told of her also that when +one of her children asked for some water in summer, between meals, she +replied: "Mon enfant, vous ne serez jamais qu'un etre manque, une +pygmee, si vous prenez ces habitudes-la, pensez, mon petit coeur, au +fiel de Notre Seigneur Jesus Christ, et vous aurez le courage +d'attendre le diner." She had learned for herself the strength of +_going without_. + +One more lesson must be mentioned, the hardest of all to be +learnt--perfect sincerity. It is so hard not to pose, for all but the +very truest and simplest natures--to pose as independent, being eaten +up with human respect; to pose as indifferent though aching with the +wish to be understood; to pose as flippant while longing to be in +earnest; to hide an attraction to higher things under a little air of +something like irreverence. It is strange that this kind of pose is +considered as less insincere than the opposite class, which is rather +out of fashion for this very reason, yet to be untrue to one's better +self is surely an unworthier insincerity than to be ashamed of the +worst. Perhaps the best evidence of this is the costliness of the +effort to overcome it, and the more observation and reflection we +spend on this point the more shall we be convinced that it is very +hard to learn to be quite true, and that it entails more personal +self-sacrifice than almost any other virtue. + +In conclusion, the means for training character may be grouped under +the following headings:-- + +1. Contact with those who have themselves attained to higher levels, +either parent, or teacher, or friend. Perhaps at present the influence +of a friend is greater than that of any power officially set over us, +so jealous are we of control. So much the better chance for those +who have the gift even in mature age of winning the friendship of +children, and those who have just outgrown childhood. In these +friendships the great power of influence is hopefulness, to believe in +possibilities of good, and to expect the best. + +2. Vigilance, not the nervous vigilance, unquiet and anxious, which +rouses to mischief the sporting instinct of children and stings the +rebellious to revolt, but the vigilance which, open and confident +itself, gives confidence, nurtures fearlessness, and brings a steady +pressure to be at one's best. Vigilance over children is no insult to +their honour, it is rather the right of their royalty, for they are of +the blood royal of Christianity, and deserve the guard of honour which +for the sake of their royalty does not lose sight of them. + +3. Criticism and correction. To be used with infinite care, but never +to be neglected without grave injustice. It is not an easy thing to +reprove in the right time, in the right tone, without exasperation, +without impatience, without leaving a sting behind; to dare to give +pain for the sake of greater good; to love the truth and have courage +to tell it; to change reproof as time goes on to the frank criticism +of friendship that is ambitious for its friend. To accept criticism is +one of the greatest lessons to be learnt in life. To give it well is +an art which requires more study and more self-denial than either the +habit of being easily satisfied and requiring little, or the querulous +habit of "scolding" which is admirably described by Bishop Hedley as +"the resonance of the empty intelligence and of the hollow heart of +the man who has nothing to give, nothing to propose, nothing to +impart." + +4. Discipline and obedience. If these are to be means of training they +must be living and not dead powers, and they must lead up to gradual +self-government, not to sudden emancipation. Obedience must be +first of all to persons, prompt and unquestioning, then to laws, a +"reasonable service," then to the wider law which each one must +enforce from within--the law of love which is the law of liberty of +the kingdom of God. + +These are the means which in her own way, and through various channels +of authority, the Church makes use of, and the Church is the great +Mother who educates us all. She takes us into her confidence, as we +make ourselves worthy of it, and shows us out of her treasures things +new and old. She sets the better things always before us, prays for +us, prays with us, teaches us to pray, and so "lifts up our minds to +heavenly desires." She watches over us with un anxious, but untiring +vigilance, setting her Bishops and pastors to keep watch over the +flock, collectively and individually, "with that most perfect care" +that St. Francis of Sales describes as "that which approaches +the nearest to the care God has of us, which is a care full of +tranquillity and quietness, and which, in its highest activity, has +still no emotion, and being only one, yet condescends to make itself +all to all things." + +Criticism and correction, discipline and obedience--these things are +administered by the Church our Mother, gently but without weakness, +so careful is she in her warnings, so slow in her punishments, so +unswervingly true to what is of principle, and asking so persuasively +not for the sullen obedience of slaves, but for the free and loving +submission of sons and daughters. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CHARACTER II. + + "The Parts and Signes of Goodnesse are many. If a Man be +Gracious and Curteous to Strangers, it shewes he is a +Citizen of the World, And that his Heart is no Island cut +off from other Lands, but a Continent that joynes to them. +If he be Compassionate towards the Afflictions of others, +it shewes that his Heart is like the noble Tree, that is +wounded to selfe when it gives Balme. If he easily Pardons +and Remits Offences, it shewes that his minde is planted +above Injuries, So that he cannot be shot. If he be +Thankfull for small Benefits, it shewes that he weighes +Men's Mindes, and not their Trash. But above all, if he +have St. Paul's Perfection, that he would wish to be an +Anathema from Christ, for the Salvation of his Brethren, it +shewes much of a Divine Nature, and a kinde of Conformity +with Christ himselfe."--BACON, "Of Goodnesse." + +No one who has the good of children at heart, and the training of +their characters, can leave the subject without some grave thoughts on +the formation of their own character, which is first in order of +importance, and in order of time must go before, and accompany their +work to the very end. + +"What is developed to perfection can make other things like unto +itself." So saints develop sanctity in others, and truth and +confidence beget truth and confidence, and the spirit of enterprise +calls out the spirit of enterprise, and constancy trains to endurance +and perseverance, and wise kindness makes others kind, and courage +makes them courageous, and in its degree each good quality tends to +reproduce itself in others. Children are very delicately sensitive to +these influences, they respond unconsciously to what is expected of +them, and instinctively they imitate the models set before them. They +catch a tone, a gesture, a trick of manner with a quickness that is +startling. The influence of mind and thought on mind and thought +cannot be so quickly recognized, but tells with as much certainty, and +enters more deeply into the character for life. The consideration of +this is a great incentive to the acquirement of self-knowledge and +self-discipline by those who have to do with children. The old codes +of conventionality in education, which stood for a certain system in +their time, are disappearing, and the worth of the individual becomes +of greater importance. This is true of those who educate and of those +whom they bring up. As the methods of modern warfare call for more +individual resourcefulness, so do the methods of the spiritual +warfare, now that we are not supported by big battalions, but each one +is thrown back on conscience and personal responsibility. Girls as +well as boys have to be trained to take care of themselves and be +responsible for themselves, and if they are not so trained, no one can +now be responsible for them or protect them in spite of themselves. +Therefore, the first duty of those who are bringing up Catholic +girls is to be themselves such as Catholic girls must be later on. +This example is a discourse "in the vulgar tongue" which cannot +be misunderstood, and example is not resented unless it seems +self-conscious and presented of set purpose. The one thing necessary +is to be that which we ought to be, and that is to say, in other +words, that the fundamental virtue in teaching children is a great and +resolute sincerity. Sincerity is a difficult virtue to practise and is +too easily taken for granted. It has more enemies than appear at first +sight. Inertness of mind, the desire to do things cheaply, dislike of +mental effort, the tendency to be satisfied with appearances, the wish +to shine, impatience for results, all foster intellectual insincerity; +just as, in conduct, the wish to please, the spirit of accommodation +and expediency, the fear of blame, the instinct of concealment, which +is inborn in many girls, destroy frankness of character and make +people untrue who would not willingly be untruthful. Yet even +truthfulness is not such a matter of course as many would be willing +to assume. To be inaccurate through thoughtless laziness in the use of +words is extremely common, to exaggerate according to the mood of the +moment, to say more than one means and cover one's retreat with "I +didn't mean it," to pull facts into shape to suit particular ends, are +demoralizing forms of untruthfulness, common, but often unrecognized. +If a teacher could only excel in one high quality for training girls, +probably the best in which she could excel would be a great sincerity, +which would train them in frankness, and in the knowledge that to be +entirely frank means to lay down a great price for that costly +attainment, a perfectly honourable and fearless life. [1--"A woman, +if it be once known that she is deficient in truth, has no resource. +Have, by a misuse of language, injured or lost her only means of +persuasion, nothing can preserve her from falling into contempt of +nonentity. When she is no longer to be believed no on will take the +trouble to listen to her...no one can depend on her, no on rests +any hope on her, the words of which she makes use have no meaning." +--Madame Necker de Saussure, "Progressive Education."] + +It sometimes happens that the realization of this truth comes +comparatively late in life to those who ought to have recognized it +years before. Thinking along the surface of things, and in particular +repeating catchwords and platitudes and trite maxims on the subject of +sincerity, is apt to make us believe that we possess the quality we +talk about, and as it is impossible to have anything to do with the +education of children without treating of sincerity and truthfulness, +it is comparatively easy to slip into the happy assumption that one is +truthful, because one would not deliberately be otherwise. But it +takes far more than this to acquire real sincerity of life in the +complexity and artificiality of the conditions in which we live. + +"And we have been on many thousand lines, +And we have shown, on each, spirit and power; +But hardly have we, for one little hour, +Been on our own line, have we been ourselves. + + * * * * + +"Our hidden self, and what we say and do +Is eloquent, is well--but 'tis not true!" + MATTHEW ARNOLD, "The Buried Life." + +Sincerity requires the recognition that to be honestly oneself is more +impressive for good than to be a very superior person by imitation. It +requires the renunciation of some claims to consideration and esteem, +and the acceptance of limitations (a different thing from acquiescence +in them, for it means the acceptance of a lifelong effort to be what +we aspire to be, with a knowledge that we shall never fully attain +it). It requires that we should bear the confusion of defeat without +desisting from the struggle, that we should accept the progressive +illumination of what is still unaccomplished, and keep the habitual +lowliness of a beginner with the unconquerable hopefulness which comes +of a fixed resolution to win what is worth winning. Let those who have +tried say whether this is easy. + +But in guiding children along this difficult way it is not wise to +call direct attention to it, lest their inexperience and sensitiveness +should turn to scrupulosity and their spontaneity be paralysed. It is +both more acceptable and healthier to present it as a feat of courage, +a habit of fearlessness to be acquired, of hardihood and strength of +character. The more subtle forms of self-knowledge belong to a later +period in life. + +Another quality to be desired in those who have to do with children +is what may--for want of a better word--be called vitality, not +the fatiguing artificial animation which is sometimes assumed +professionally by teachers, but the keenness which shows forth a +settled conviction that life is worth living. The expression of this +is not self asserting or controversial, for it is not like a garment +put on, but a living grace of soul, coming from within, born of +straight thinking and resolution, and so strongly confirmed by faith +and hope that nothing can discourage it or make it let go. It is a +bulwark against the faults which sink below the normal line of life, +dullness, depression, timidity, procrastination, sloth and sadness, +moodiness, unsociability--all these it tends to dispel, by its quiet +and confident gift of encouragement. And though so contrary to the +spirit of childhood, these faults are found in children--often in +delicate children who have lost confidence in themselves from being +habitually outdone by stronger brothers and sisters, or in slow minds +which seem "stupid" to others and to themselves, or in natures too +sensitive to risk themselves in the melee. To these, one who brings +the gift of encouragement comes as a deliverer and often changes the +course of their life, leading them to believe in themselves and their +own good endowments, making them taste success which rouses them to +better efforts, giving them the strong comfort of knowing that +something is expected of them, and that if they will only try, in one +way if not in another, they need not be behind the best. At some +stage in life, and especially in the years of rapid growth, we all +need encouragement, and often characters that seem to require only +repression are merely singing out of tune from the effort to hold out +against blank discouragement at their failures to "be good," or to +divert their mind forcibly from their fits of depression. To be +scolded accentuates their trouble and tends to harden them; to grow +a shell of hardness seems for the moment their only defence; but if +some one will meet their efforts half-way, believing in them with a +tranquil conviction that they will live through these difficulties and +_find themselves_ in due time, they can be saved from much unhappiness +of their own making, though not of their own fault, and their growth +will not be arrested behind an unnatural shell of defence. + +The strong vitality and gift of encouragement which can give this +help are also of value in saving from the morbid and exaggerated +friendships which sometimes spoil the best years of a girl's +education. If the character of those who teach them has force enough +not only to inspire admiration but to call out effort, it may rouse +the mind and will to a higher plane and make the things of which it +disapproves seem worthless. There are moments when the leading mind +must have strength enough for two, but this must not last. Its glory +is to raise the mind of the learner to equality with itself, not to +keep it in leading strings, but to make it grow so that, as the master +has often been outstripped by the scholar, the efforts of the younger +may even stimulate the achievements of the elder, and thus a noble +friendship be formed in the pursuit of what is best. + +Educators of youth are exposed to certain professional dangers, which +lie very close to professional excellences of character. There is the +danger of remaining young for the sake of children, so that something +of mature development will be lacking. If there is not a stimulus from +outside, and it is not supplied for by an inward determination to +grow, the mental development may be arrested and contented-ness at a +low level be mistaken for the limit of capacity. A great many people +are mentally lazy, and only too ready to believe that they can do no +more. + +Many teachers are yoked to an examination programme sufficiently +loaded to call for a great deal of pressure along a low level, and +they may easily mistake this harassing activity for real mental work, +and either be indeed hindered, or consider themselves absolved from +anything more. The penalty of it is a gradual decline of the unused +powers, growing difficulty of sustained attention, dislike for what +requires effort of mind, loss of wider interests, restlessness and +superficiality in reading, and other indications of diminution of +power in the years when it ought to be on the increase. Is this the +fault of those who so decline in power? It would be hard to say that +it is so universally, for some no doubt are pressed through necessity +to the very limits of their time and of their endurance. Yet +experience goes to prove that if a mental awakening really takes +place the most unfavourable circumstances will not hinder a rapid +development of power. Abundance of books and leisure and fostering +conditions are helps but not essentials for mental growth. If few +books can be had, but these are of the best, they will do more for the +mind by continued reading than abundance for those who have not yet +learned to use it. If there is little leisure the value of the +hardly-spared moments is enhanced; we may convince ourselves of this +in the lives of those who have reached eminence in learning, through +circumstances apparently hopeless. If the conditions of life are +unfavourable, it is generally possible to find one like-minded friend +who will double our power by quickening enthusiasm or by setting the +pace at which we must travel, and leading the way. There may be side +by side in the same calling in life persons doing similar work in like +circumstances, with like resources, of whom one is contentedly +stagnating, feeling satisfied all the time that duty is done and +nothing neglected--and this may be true up to a certain point--while +the other is haunted by a blessed dissatisfaction, urged from within +to seek always something better, and compelling circumstances to +minister to the growth of the mind. One who would meet these two again +after the interval of a few months would be astonished at the distance +which has been left between them by the stagnation of one and the +advance of the other. + +Another danger is that of becoming dogmatic and dictatorial from the +habit of dealing with less mature intelligences, from the absence of +contradiction and friction among equals, and the want of that most +perfect discipline of the mind--intercourse with intellectual +superiors. Of course it is a mark of ignorance to become oracular and +self-assured, but it needs watchfulness to guard against the tendency +if one is always obliged to take the lead. Teaching likewise exposes +to faults perhaps less in themselves but far reaching in their effect +upon children; a little observation will show how the smallest +peculiarities tell upon them, either by affecting their dispositions +or being caught by them and reproduced. To take one example among +many, the pitch and intonation of the voice often impress more than +the words. A nurse with a querulous tone has a restless nursery; she +makes the high-spirited contradictory and the delicate fretful. In +teaching, a high-pitched voice is exciting and wearing to children; +certain cadences that end on a high note rouse opposition, a +monotonous intonation wearies, deeper and more ample tones are +quieting and reassuring, but if their solemnity becomes exaggerated +they provoke a reaction. Most people have a certain cadence which +constantly recurs in their speaking and is characteristic of them, and +the satisfaction of listening to them depends largely upon this +characteristic cadence. It is also a help in the understanding of +their characters. Much trouble of mind is saved by recognizing that a +certain cadence which sounds indignant is only intended to be +convincing, and that another which sounds defiant is only giving to +itself the signal for retreat. Again, for the teacher's own sake, +it is good to observe that there are tones which dispose towards +obedience, and others which provoke remonstrance and, as Mme. +Necker de Saussure remarks: "It is of great consequence to prevent +remonstrances and not allow girls to form a habit of contradicting and +cavilling, or to prolong useless opposition which annoys others and +disturbs their own peace of mind." + +There are "teacher's manners" in many varieties, often spoiling +admirable gifts and qualities, for the professional touch in this is +not a grace but puts both children and "grown-ups" on the defensive. +There is the head mistress's manner which is a signal to proceed with +caution, the modern "form mistress's" or class mistress's manner, with +an off-hand tone destined to reassure by showing that there is nothing +to be afraid of, the science mistress's manner with a studied +quietness and determination that the knife-edge of the balance shall +be the standard of truthfulness, the professionally encouraging +manner, the "stimulating" manner, the manner of those whose ambition +is to be "an earnest teacher," the strained tone of one whose ideal +is to to be overworked, the kindergarten manner, scientifically +"awakening," giving the call of the decoy-duck, confidentially +inviting co operation and revealing secrets--these are types, but +there are many others. + +Such mannerisms would seem to be developed by reliance on books of +method, by professional training imparted to those who have not enough +originality to break through the mould, and instead of following out +principles as lines for personal experiment and discovery, deaden them +into rules and abide by them. The teacher's manner is much more +noticeable among those who have been trained than among the now +vanishing class of those who have had to stand or fall by their own +merits, and find out their own methods. The advantage is not always +with the trained teacher even now, and the question of manner is not +one of minor importance. The true instinct of children and the +sensitiveness of youth detect very quickly and resent a professional +tone; a child looks for freedom and simplicity, and feels cramped if +it meets with something even a little artificial. Children like to +find _real people_, not anxiously careful to improve them, but able +to take life with a certain spontaneity as they like to take it +themselves. They are frightened by those who take themselves too +seriously, who are too acute, too convincing or too brilliant; they do +not like people who appear to be always on the alert, nor those of +extreme temperatures, very ardent or very frigid. The people whom they +like and trust are usually quiet, simple people, who have not +startling ways, and do not manifest those strenuous ideals which +destroy all sense of leisure in life. + +Not only little children but those who are growing up resent these +mannerisms and professional ways. They, too, ask for a certain +spontaneity and like to find a _real person_ whom they can understand. +Abstract principles do not appeal to them, but they can understand and +appreciate character, not in one type and pattern alone, for every +character that has life and truth commands their respect and is +acceptable in one way if not in another. It is not the bright colours +of character alone which attract them, they often keep a lifelong +remembrance of those whose qualities are anything but showy. They look +for fairness in those who govern them, but if they find this they +can accept a good measure of severity. They respect unflinching +uprightness and are quick to detect the least deviation from it. They +prefer to be taken seriously on their own ground; things in general +are so incomprehensible that it only makes matters worse to be +approached with playful methods and facetious invitations into +the unknown, for who can tell what educational ambush for their +improvement may be concealed behind these demonstrations. They give +their confidence more readily to grave and quiet people who do not +show too rapturous delight in their performances, or surprise at their +opinions, or--especially--distress at their ignorance. They admire +with lasting admiration those who are hard on themselves and take +their troubles without comment or complaint. They admire courage, and +they can appreciate patience if it does not seem to be conscious of +itself. But they do not look up to a character in which mildness so +predominates that it cannot be roused to indignation and even anger in +a good cause. A power of being roused is felt as a force in reserve, +and the knowledge that it is there is often enough to maintain peace +and order without any need for interference or remonstrance. They are +offended by a patience which looks like weariness, determined if it +were at the last gasp to "improve the occasion" and say something of +educational profit. To "improve the occasion" really destroys the +opportunity; it is like a too expansive invitation to birds to come +and feed, which drives them off in a nutter. Birds come most willingly +when crumbs are thrown as it were by accident while the benefactor +looks another way; and young minds pick up gratefully a suggestion +which seems to fall by the way, a mere hint that things are understood +and cared about, that there is safety beyond the thin ice if one +trusts and believes, that "all shall be well" if people will be true +to their best thoughts. They can understand these assurances and +accept them when something more explicit would drive them back to bar +the door against intruders. All these are truisms to those who have +observed children. The misfortune is that in spite of the prominence +given to training of teachers, of the new name of "Child Study" and +its manuals, there are many who teach children without reaching their +real selves. If the children could combine the result of their +observations and bring out a manual of "Teacher Study" we should have +strange revelations as to how it looks from the other side. We should +be astonished at the shrewdness of the small juries that deliberate, +and the insight of the judges that pronounce sentence upon us, and we +should be convinced that to obtain a favourable verdict we needed very +little subtlety, and not too much theory, but as much as possible of +the very things we look for as the result and crown of our work. We +labour to produce character, we must have it. We look for courage and +uprightness, we must bring them with us. We want honest work, we have +to give proof of it ourselves. And so with the Christian qualities +which we hope to build on these foundations. We care for the faith of +the children, it must abound in us. We care for the innocence of their +life, we must ourselves be heavenly minded, we want them to be +unworldly and ready to make sacrifices for their religion, they must +understand that it is more than all the world to us. We want to secure +them as they grow up against the spirit of pessimism, our own +imperturbable hope in God and confidence in the Church will be more +convincing than our arguments. We want them to grow into the fulness +of charity, we must make charity the most lovable and lovely thing in +the world to them. + +The Church possesses the secrets of these things; she is the great +teacher of all nations and brings out of her treasury things new and +old for the training of her children. A succession of teaching orders +of religious, representing different patterns of education, has gone +forth with her blessing to supply the needs of succeeding generations +in each class of the Christian community. When children cannot be +brought up in their own homes, religious seem to be designated as +their natural guardians, independent as they are by their profession +from the claims of personal interest and self-advancement, and +therefore free to give their full sympathy and devotion to the +children under their charge. They have also the independence of their +corporate life, a great power behind the service of the schoolroom in +which they find mutual support, an "Upper Boom" to which they can +withdraw and build up again in prayer and intercourse with one another +their ideals of life and duty in an atmosphere which gives a more +spiritual re-renewal of energy than a holiday of entire forgetfulness. + +It is striking to observe that while the so-called Catholic countries +are banishing religious from their schools, there is more and more +inclination among non-Catholic parents who have had experience of +other systems to place their children under the care of religious. And +it was strange to hear one of His Majesty's Inspectors express his +conviction that "it would be ideal if all England could be taught by +nuns!" Thus indirect testimony comes from friendly or hostile sources +to the fact that the Church holds the secret of education, and every +Catholic teacher may gain courage from the knowledge of having that +which is beyond all price in the education of children, that which all +the world is seeking for, and which the Church alone knows that she +possesses in its fulness. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY. + +"E quosto ti sia sempre piombo ai piedi, + Per farti mover lento, com' uom lasso, + Ed al si ed al no, che tu non vedi; +Che quegli e tra gli stolti bene abbasso, + Che senza disfcinzion afferma o nega, + Nell' un cosi come nell' altro passo; +Perch' egl' incontra che piu volte piega + L' opinion corrente in falsa parte, + E poi l' affetto lo intelletto lega. +Vie piu che indarno da riva si parte, + Perche non toma tal qual ei si move, + Chi pesca per lo vero e noil ha l' arte." + DANTE, "Paradiso," Canto XIII. + +The elements of Catholic philosophy may no longer be looked upon as +out of place in the education of our girls, or as being reserved for +the use of learned women and girlish oddities. They belong to every +well-grounded Catholic education, and the need for them will be felt +more and more. They are wanted to balance on the one hand the +unthinking impulse of living for the day, which asks no questions so +long as the "fun" holds out, and on the other to meet the urgency of +problems which press upon the minds of the more thoughtful as they +grow up. When this teaching has been long established as part of an +educational plan it has been found to give steadiness and unity to the +whole; something to aim at from the beginning, and in the later years +of a girl's education something which will serve as foundation for all +branches of future study, so that each will find its place among the +first principles, not isolated from the others but as part of a whole. +The value of these elements for the practical guidance of life is +likewise very great. A hold is given in the mind to the teaching of +religion and conduct which welds into one defence the best wisdom of +this world and of the next. For instance, the connexion between reason +and faith being once established, the fear of permanent disagreement +between the two, which causes so much panic and disturbance of mind, +is set at rest. + +There is a certain risk at the outset of these studies that girls +will take the pose of philosophical students, and talk logic and +metaphysics, to the confusion of their friends and of their own +feelings later on, when they come to years of discretion and realize +the absurdity of these "lively sallies," as they would have been +called in early Victorian times--the name alone might serve as +a warning to the incautious! They may perhaps go through an +argumentative period and trample severely upon the opinions of those +who are not ready to have their majors "distinguished" and their +minors "conceded," and, especially, their conclusions denied. But +these phases will be outlived and the hot-and-cold remembrance of them +will be sufficient expiation, with the realization that they did not +know much when they had taken in the "beggarly elements" which dazzled +them for a moment. The more thoughtful minds will escape the painful +phase altogether. + +There are three special classes among girls whose difficulties of mind +call for attention. There are those who frisk playfully along, taking +the good things of life as they come--"the more the better"--whom, as +children, it is hard to call to account. They are lightly impressed +and only for a moment by the things they feel, and scarcely moved +at all by the things they understand. The only side which seems +troublesome in their early life is that there is so little hold upon +it. They are unembarrassed and quite candid about their choice; it is +the enjoyable good, life on its pleasantest side. And this disposition +is in the mind as well as in the will; they cannot see it in any other +way. Restraint galls them, and their inclination is not to resist but +to evade it. These are kitten-like children in the beginning, and they +appear charming. But when the kitten in them is overgrown, its playful +evasiveness takes an ugly contour and shows itself as want of +principle. The tendency to snatch at enjoyment hardens into a grasping +sense of market values, and conscience, instead of growing inexorable, +learns to be pliant to circumstances. Debts weigh lightly, and duties +scarcely weigh at all. Concealment and un-truthfulness come in very +easily to save the situation in a difficulty, and once the conduct of +life is on the down-grade it slides quickly and far, for the sense of +responsibility is lacking and these natures own no bond of obligation. +They have their touch of piety in childhood, but it soon wears off, +and in its best days cannot stand the demands made upon it by duty; it +fails of its hold upon the soul, like a religion without a sacrifice. +In these minds some notions of ethics leave a barbed arrow of remorse +which penetrates further than piety. They may soothe themselves with +the thought that God will easily forgive, later on, but they cannot +quite lose consciousness of the law which does not forgive, of the +responsibility of human acts and the inevitable punishment of +wrong-doing which works itself out, till it calls for payment of the +last farthing. And by this rough way of remorse they may come back to +God. Pope Leo XIII spoke of it as their best hope, an almost certain +means of return. The beautiful also may make its appeal to these +natures on their best side, and save them preventively from +themselves, but only if the time of study is prolonged enough for the +laws of order and beauty to be made comprehensible to them, so that if +they admire the best, remorse may have another hold and reproach them +with a lowered ideal. + +In opposition to these are the minds to which, as soon as they become +able to think for themselves, all life is a puzzle, and on every side, +wherever they turn, they are baffled by unanswerable questions. These +questions are often more insistent and more troublesome because they +cannot be asked, they have not even taken shape in the mind. But they +haunt and perplex it. Are they the only ones who do not know? Is it +clear to every one else? This doubt makes it difficult even to hint at +the perplexity. These are often naturally religious minds, and outside +the guidance of the Catholic Church, in search of truth, they easily +fall under the influence of different schools of thought which take +them out of their depth, and lead them further and further from the +reasonable certainty about first principles which they are in search +of. Within the Church, of course, they can never stray so far, and the +truths of faith supply their deepest needs. But if they want to know +more, to know something of themselves, and to have at least some +rational knowledge of the universe, then to give them a hold on the +elements of philosophical knowledge is indeed a mental if not a +spiritual work of mercy, for it enables them to set their ideas in +order by the light of a few first principles, it shows them on what +plane their questions lie, it enables them to see how all knowledge +and new experience have connexions with what has gone before, and +belong to a whole with a certain fitness and proportion. They learn +also thus to take themselves in hand in a reasonable way; they gain +some power of attributing effects to their true causes, so as neither +to be unduly alarmed nor elated at the various experiences through +which they will pass. + +Between these two divisions lies a large group, that of the "average +person," not specially flighty and not particularly thoughtful. But +the average person is of very great importance. The greatest share in +the work of the world is probably done by "average" people, not only +for the obvious reason that there are more of them, but also because +they are more accessible, more reliable, and more available for all +kinds of responsibility than those who have made themselves useless by +want of principle, or those whose genius carries them away from the +ordinary line. They are accessible because their fellow-creatures are +not afraid of them; they are not too fine for ordinary wear, nor too +original to be able to follow a line laid down for them, and if they +take a line of their own it is usually intelligible to others. + +To these valuable "average" persons the importance of some study of +the elements of philosophy is very great. They can hardly go through +an elementary course of mental science without wishing to learn more, +and being lifted to a higher plane. The weak point in the average +person is a tendency to sink into the commonplace, because the +consciousness of not being brilliant induces timidity, and timidity +leads to giving up effort and accepting a fancied impossibility of +development which from being supposed, assumed, and not disturbed, +becomes in the end real. + +On the other hand the strong point of the average person is very often +common sense, that singular, priceless gift which gives a touch of +likeness among those who possess it in all classes, high or low--in +the sovereign, the judge, the ploughman, or the washerwoman, a +likeness that is somewhat like a common language among them and makes +them almost like a class apart. Minds endowed with common sense are an +aristocracy among the "average," and if this quality of theirs is +lifted above the ordinary round of business and trained in the domain +of thought it becomes a sound and wide practical judgment. It will +observe a great sobriety in its dealings with the abstract; the +concrete is its kingdom, but it will rule the better for having its +ideas systematized, and its critical power developed. Self-diffidence +tends to check this unduly, and it has to be strengthened in +reasonably supporting its own opinion which is often instinctively +true, but fails to find utterance. It is a help to such persons if +they can learn to follow the workings of their own mind and gain +confidence in their power to understand, and find some intellectual +interest in the drudgery which in every order of things, high or low, +is so willingly handed over to their good management. These results +may not be showy, but it is a great thing to strengthen an "average" +person, and the reward of doing so is sometimes the satisfaction of +seeing that average mind rise in later years quite above the average +and become a tower of steady reflection; while to itself it is a new +life to gain a view of things as a whole, to find that nothing stands +alone, but that the details which it grasps in so masterly a manner +have their place and meaning in the scheme of the universe. + +It is evident that even this elementary knowledge cannot be given in +the earliest years of the education of girls, and that it is only +possible to attempt it in schools and school-rooms where they can be +kept on for a longer time of study. Every year that can be added to +the usual course is of better value, and more appreciated, except by +those who are restless to come out as soon as possible. No reference +is made here to those exceptional cases in which girls are allowed to +begin a course of study at a time when the majority have been obliged +to finish their school life. + +As the elements of philosophy are not ordinarily found in the +curriculum of girls' schools or schoolroom plans, it may not be out of +place to say a few words on the method of bringing the subject within +their reach. + +In the first place it should be kept in view from the beginning, and +some preparation be made for it even in teaching the elements of +subjects which are most elementary. Thus the study of any grammar may +serve remotely as an introduction to logic, even English grammar +which, beyond a few rudiments, is a most disinterested study, valuable +for its by-products more than for its actual worth. But the practice +of grammatical analysis is certainly a preparation for logic, as logic +is a preparation for the various branches of philosophy. Again some +preliminary exercises in definition, and any work of the like kind +which gives precision in the use of language, or clear ideas of the +meanings of words, is preparatory work which trains the mind in the +right direction. In the same way the elements of natural science may +at least set the thoughts and inquiries of children on the right track +for what will later on be shown to them as the "disciplines" of +cosmology and pyschology. + +To make preparatory subjects serve such a purpose it is obviously +required that the teachers of even young children should have been +themselves trained in these studies, so far at least as to know what +they are aiming at, to be able to lay foundations which will not +require to be reconstructed. It is not the matter so much as the +habits of mind and work that are remotely prepared in the early +stages, but without some knowledge of what is coming afterwards this +preparation cannot be made. In order of arrangement it is not possible +for the different branches to be taught to girls according to their +normal sequence; they have to be adapted to the capacity of the minds +and their degree of development. Some branches cannot even be +attempted during the school-room years, except so far as to prepare +the mind incidentally during the study of other branches. The +explanation of certain terms and fundamental notions will serve as +points of departure when opportunities for development are accessible +later on, as architects set "toothings" at the angles of buildings +that they may be bonded into later constructions. By this means the +names of the more abstruse branches are kept out of sight, and it is +emphasized that the barest elements alone are within reach at present, +so that the permanent impression may be--not "how much I have +learned," but "how little I know and how much there is to learn." This +secures at least a fitting attitude of mind in those who will never go +further, and increases the thirst of those who really want more. + +The most valuable parts of philosophy in the education of +girls are:-- + +1. Those which belong to the practical side--logic, for thought; +ethics, for conduct; aesthetics, for the study of the arts. + +2. In speculative philosophy the "disciplines" which are most +accessible and most necessary are psychology, and natural theology +which is the very crown of all that they are able to learn. + +General metaphysics and cosmology, and in pyschology the subordinate +treatises of criteriology and idealogy are beyond their scope. + +Logic, as a science, is not a suitable introduction, though some +general notions on the subject are necessary as preliminary +instructions. Cardinal Mercier presents these under "propaedeutics," +even for his grown-up scholars, placing logic properly so called in +its own rank as the complement of the other treatises of speculative +philosophy, seen in retrospect, a science of rational order amongst +sciences. + +The "notions of logic" with which he introduces the other branches +are, says the Cardinal, so plain that it is almost superfluous to +enumerate them, "_tant elles sont de simple bon sens_," [1--"Traite +Elfementaire de Philosophie," Vol. I, Introduction.] and he disposes +of them in two pages of his textbook. Obviously this is not so simple +when it comes to preparing the fallow ground of a girl's mind; but it +gives some idea of the proportion to be observed in the use of this +instrument at the outset, and may save both the teacher and the child +from beguiling themselves to little purpose among the moods and +figures of the syllogism. The preliminary notions of logic must be +developed, extended, and supplemented through the whole course as +necessity arises, just as they have been already anticipated through +the preparatory work done in every elementary subject. This method is +not strictly scientific nor in accordance with the full-grown course +of philosophy; it only claims to have "_le simple bon sens_" in its +favour, and the testimony of experience to prove that it is of use. +And it cannot be said to be wholly out of rational order if it follows +the normal development of a growing mind, and answers questions as +they arise and call for solution. It may be a rustic way of learning +the elements of philosophy, but it answers its purpose, and does not +interfere with more scientific and complete methods which may come +later in order of time. + +The importance of the "discipline" of psychology can scarcely be +over-estimated. With that of ethics it gives to the minds of women +that which they most need for the happy attainment of their destiny in +any sphere of life and for the fulfilment of its obligations. They +must know themselves and their own powers in order to exercise control +and direction on the current of their lives. The complaint made of +many women is that they are wanting in self-control, creatures of +impulse, erratic, irresponsible, at the mercy of chance influences +that assume control of their lives for the moment, subject to +"nerves," carried away by emotional enthusiasm beyond all bounds, and +using a blind tenacity of will to land themselves with the cause they +have embraced in a dead-lock of absurdity. + +Such is the complaint. It would seem more pardonable if this tendency +to extremes and impulsiveness were owned to as a defect. But +to be erratic is almost assumed as a pose. It is taken up as if +self-discipline were dull, and control reduced vitality and killed +the interest of life. The phase may not last, stronger counsels may +prevail again. In a few years it may be hoped that this school of +"impressionism" in conduct will be out of vogue, but for the moment it +would seem as if its weakness and mobility, and restlessness were +rather admired. It has created a kind of automobilism--if the word may +be allowed--of mind and manners, an inclination to be perpetually "on +the move," too much pressed for time to do anything at all, +permanently unsettled, in fact to be _unsettled_ is its habitual +condition if not its recognized plan of life. + +It is not contended that psychology and ethics would of themselves +cure this tendency, but they would undoubtedly aid in doing so, for +the confusion of wanting to do better and yet not knowing what to do +is a most pathetic form of helplessness. A little knowledge of +psychology would at least give an idea of the resources which the +human soul has at its command when it seeks to take itself in hand. It +would allow of some response to a reasonable appeal from outside. And +all the time the first principles of ethics would refuse to be killed +in the mind, and would continue to bear witness against the waste of +existence and the diversion of life from its true end. + +Rational principles of aesthetics belong very intimately to the +education of women. Their ideas of beauty, their taste in art, +influence very powerfully their own lives and those of others, and may +transfigure many things which are otherwise liable to fall into the +commonplace and the vulgar. If woman's taste is trained to choose +the best, it upholds a standard which may save a generation from +decadence. This concerns the beautiful and the fitting in all things +where the power of art makes itself felt as "the expression of +an ideal in a concrete work capable of producing an impression +and attaching the beholder to that ideal which it presents for +admiration." [1--Cardinal Mercier, "General Metaphysics," Part iv., +Ch. iv.] It touches on all questions of taste, not only in the fine +arts but in fiction, and furniture, and dress, and all the minor arts +of life and adaptation of human skill to the external conditions of +living. The importance of all these in their effect on the happiness +and goodness of a whole people is a plea for not leaving out the +principles of aesthetics, as well as the practice of some form of art +from the education of girls. + +The last and most glorious treatise in philosophy of which some +knowledge can be given at the end of a school course is that of +natural theology. If it is true, as they say, that St. Thomas Aquinas +at the age of five years used to go round to the monks of Monte +Cassino pulling them down by the sleeve to whisper his inquiry, "quid +est Deus"? it may be hoped that older children are not incapable of +appreciating some of the first notions that may be drawn from reason +about the Creator, those truths "concerning the existence of God which +are the supreme conclusion and crown of the department of physics, and +those concerning His nature which apply the truths of general +metaphysics to a determinate being, the Absolutely Perfect." +[1--Cardinal Mercier, "Natural Theology," Introduction.] It is in the +domain of natural theology that they will often find a safeguard +against difficulties which may occur later in life, when they meet +inquirers whose questions about God are not so ingenuous as that of +the infant St. Thomas. The armour of their faith will not be so easily +pierced by chance shots as if they were without preparation, and at +the same time they will know enough of the greatness of the subject +not to challenge "any unbeliever" to single combat, and undertake to +prove against all opponents the existence and perfections of God. + +For instruction as well as for defence the relation of philosophy to +revealed truth should be explained. It is necessary to point out that +while science has its own sphere within which it is independent, +having its own principles and methods and means of certitude, [1--De +Bonald and others were condemned and reproved by Gregory XVI for +teaching that reason drew its first principles and grounds of +certitude from revelation.] yet the Church as the guardian of revealed +truth is obliged to prosecute for trespass those who in teaching any +science encroach by affirmation or contradiction on the domain of +revelation. + +To sum up, therefore, logic can train the students to discriminate +between good and bad arguments, which few ordinary readers can do, and +not even every writer. Ethics teaches the rational basis of morals +which it is useful for all to know, and psychology can teach to +discriminate between the acts of intellect and will on the one hand +and imagination and emotion on the other, and so furnish the key to +many a puzzle of thought that has led to false and dangerous +theorizing. + +The method of giving instruction in the different branches of +philosophy will depend so much on the preparation of the particular +pupils, and also on the cast of mind of the teachers, that it is +difficult to offer suggestions, except to point out this very fact +that each mind needs to be met just where it is--with its own mental +images, vocabulary, habit of thought and attention, all calling for +consideration and adaptation of the subject to their particular case. +It depends on the degree of preparation of the teachers to decide +whether the form of a lecture is safest, or whether they can risk +themselves in the arena of question and answer, the most useful in +itself but requiring a far more complete training in preparation. If +it can be obtained that the pupils state their own questions and +difficulties in writing, a great deal will have been gained, for a +good statement of a question is half-way to the right solution. If, +after hearing a lecture or oral lesson, they can answer in writing +Borne simple questions carefully stated, it will be a further advance. +It is something to grasp accurately the scope of a question. The +plague of girls' answers is usually irrelevancy from want of thought +as to the scope of questions or even from inattention to their +wording. If they can be patient in face of unanswered difficulties, +and wait for the solution to come later on in its natural course, then +at least one small fruit of their studies will have been brought to +maturity; and if at the end of their elementary course they are +convinced of their own ignorance, and want to know more, it may be +said that the course has not been unsuccessful. + +It is not, however, complete unless they know something of the history +of philosophy, the great schools, and the names which have been held +in honour from the beginning down to our own days. They will realize +that it is good to have been born in their own time, and to learn such +lessons now that the revival of scholastic philosophy under Leo XIII +and the development of the neo-scholastic teaching have brought fresh +life into the philosophy of tradition, which although it appears to +put new wine into old bottles, seems able to preserve the wine and the +bottles together. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE REALITIES OF LIFE. + +"He fixed thee mid this dance +Of plastic circumstance, +This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: +Machinery just meant +To give thy soul its bent, +Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed." + BROWNING, "Rabbi Ben Ezra." +"Eh, Dieu! nous marchons trop en enfants--cela me fache!" + ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL. + +One of the problems which beset school education, and especially +education in boarding schools, is the difficulty of combining the good +things it can give with the best preparation for after life. This +preparation has to be made under circumstances which necessarily keep +children away from many of the realities that have to be faced in the +future. + +To be a small member of a large organization has an excellent effect +upon the mind. From the presence of numbers a certain dignity gathers +round many things that would in themselves be insignificant. Ideas of +corporate life with its obligations and responsibilities are gained. +Honoured traditions and ideals are handed down if the school has a +history and spirit of its own. There are impressive and solemn moments +in the life of a large school which remain in the memory as something +beautiful and great. The close of a year, with its retrospect and +anticipation, its restrained emotion from the pathos which attends all +endings and beginnings in life, fills even the younger children with +some transient realization of the meaning of it all, and lifts them +up to a dim sense of the significance of existence, while for the +elder ones such days leave engraven upon the mind thoughts which +can never be effaced. These deep impressions belong especially to +old-established schools, and are bound up with their past, with their +traditional tone, and the aims that are specially theirs. In this they +cannot be rivalled. The school-room at home is always the school-room, +it has no higher moods, no sentiment of its own. + +There are diversities of gifts for school and for home education; for +impressiveness a large school has the advantage. It is also, in +general, better off in the quality of its teachers, and it can turn +their rifts to better account. A modern governess would require to be +a host in herself to supply the varied demands of a girl's education, +in the subjects to be taught, in companionship and personal influence, +in the training of character, in watching over physical development, +and even if she should possess in herself all that would be needed, +there is the risk of "incompatibility of temperament" which makes a +_tete-a-tete_ life in the school-room trying on both sides. School has +the advantage of bringing the influence of many minds to bear, so that +it is rare that a child should pass through a school course without +coming in contact with some who awaken and understand and influence +her for good. It offers too the chance of making friends, and though +"sets" and cliques, plagues of school life, may give trouble and +unsettle the weaker minds from time to time, yet if the current of the +school is healthy it will set against them, and on the other hand the +choicest and best friendships often begin and grow to maturity in the +common life of school. The sodalities and congregations in Catholic +schools are training grounds within the general system of training, in +which higher ideals are aimed at, the obligation of using influence +for good is pressed home, and the instincts of leadership turned to +account for the common good. Lastly, among the advantages of school +may be counted a general purpose and plan in the curriculum, and +better appliances for methodical teaching than are usually available +in private school-rooms, and where out-door games are in honour they +add a great zest to school life. + +But, as in all human things, there are drawbacks to school education, +and because it is in the power of those who direct its organization to +counteract some of these drawbacks, it is worth while to examine them +and consider the possible remedies. + +In the first place it will probably be agreed that boarding-school +life is not desirable for very young children, as their well-being +requires more elasticity in rule and occupations than is possible if +they are together in numbers. Little children, out of control and +excited, are a misery to themselves and to each other, and if they are +kept in hand enough to protect the weaker ones from the exuberant +energy of the stronger, then the strictness chafes them all, and +spontaneity is too much checked. The informal play which is possible +at home, with the opportunities for quiet and even solitude, are much +better for young children than the atmosphere of school, though a +day-school, with the hours of home life in between, is sometimes +successfully adapted to their wants. But the special cases which +justify parents in sending young children to boarding schools are +numerous, now that established home life is growing more rare, and +they have to be counted with in any large school. It can only be said +that the yoke ought to be made as light as possible--short lessons, +long sleep, very short intervals of real application of mind, as much +open air as possible, bright rooms, and a mental atmosphere that tends +to calm rather than to excite them. They should be saved from the +petting of the elder girls, in whom this apparent kindness is often a +selfish pleasure, bad on both sides. + +For older children the difficulties are not quite the same, and +instead of forcing them on too fast, school life may even keep them +back. When children are assembled together in considerable numbers the +intellectual level is that of the middle class of mind and does not +favour the best, the outlook and conversation are those of the +average, the language and vocabulary are on the same level, with a +tendency to sink rather than to rise, and though emulation may urge on +the leading spirits and keep them at racing speed, this does not +quicken the interest in knowledge for its own sake, and the work is +apt to slacken when the stimulus is withdrawn. And all the time there +is comfort to the easy-going average in the consciousness of how many +there are behind them. + +The necessity for organization and foresight in detail among large +numbers is also unfavourable to individual development. For children +to find everything prepared for them, to feel no friction in the +working of the machinery, so that all happens as it ought to, without +effort and personal trouble on their part, to be told what to do, and +only have to follow the bells for the ordering of their time--all this +tends to diminish their resourcefulness and their patience with the +unforeseen checks and cross-purposes and mistakes that they will have +to put up with on leaving school. As a matter of fact the more perfect +the school machinery, the smoother its working, the less does it +prepare for the rutty road afterwards, and in this there is some +consolation when school machinery jars from time to time in the +working; if it teaches patience it is not altogether regrettable, and +the little trouble which may arise in the material order is perhaps +more educating than the regularity which has been disturbed. + +We are beginning to believe what has never ceased to be said, that +lessons in lesson-books are not the whole of education. The whole system +of teaching in the elementary schools has been thrown off its balance by +too many lesson-books, but it is righting itself again, and some of the +memoranda on teaching, issued by the Board of Education within the last +few years, are quite admirable in their practical suggestions for +promoting a more efficient preparation for life. The Board now insists +on the teaching of handicrafts, training of the senses in observation, +development of knowledge, taste, and skill in various departments which +are useful for life, and for girls especially on things which make the +home. The same thing is wanted in middle-class education, though parents +of the middle-class still look a little askance at household employments +for their daughters. But children of the wealthier and upper classes +take to them as a birthright, with the cordial assent of their parents +and the applause of the doctors. It is for these children, so +well-disposed for a practical education, and able to carry its influence +so far, that we may consider what can be done in school life. + +We ourselves who have to do with children must first appreciate the +realities of life before we can communicate this understanding to others +or give the right spirit to those we teach. And "the realities of life" +may stand as a name for all those things which have to be learned in +order to live, and which lesson-books do not teach. The realities of +life are not material things, but they are very deeply wrought in with +material things. There are things to be done, and things to be made, and +things to be ordered and controlled, belonging to the primitive wants of +human life, and to all those fundamental cares which have to support it. +They are best learned in the actual doing from those who know how to do +them; for although manuals and treatises exist for every possible +department of skill and activity, yet the human voice and hand go much +further in making knowledge acceptable than the textbook with diagrams. +The dignity of manual labour comes home from seeing it well done, it is +shown to be worth doing and deserving of honour. + +Something which cannot be shown to children, but it will come to them +later on as an inheritance, is the effect of manual work upon their +whole being. Manual work gives balance and harmony in the development of +the growing creature. A child does not attain its full power unless +every faculty is exercised in turn, and to think that hard mental work +alternated with hard physical exercise will give it full and wholesome +development is to ignore whole provinces of its possessions. Generally +speaking, children have to take the value of their mental work on the +faith of our word. They must go through a great deal in mastering the +rudiments of, say, Latin grammar (for the honey is not yet spread so +thickly over this as it is now over the elements of modern languages). +They must wonder why "grown-ups" have such an infatuation for things +that seem out of place and inappropriate in life as they consider it +worth living. Probably it is on this account that so many artificial +rewards and inducements have had to be brought in to sustain their +efforts. Physical exercise is a joy to healthy children, but it leaves +nothing behind as a result. Children are proud of what they have done +and made themselves. They lean upon the concrete, and to see as the +result of their efforts something which lasts, especially something +useful, as a witness to their power and skill, this is a reward in +itself and needs no artificial stimulus, though to measure their own +work in comparative excellence with that of others adds an element that +quickens the desire to do well. Children will go quietly back again and +again to look, without saying anything, at something they have made with +their own hands, their eyes telling all that it means to them, beyond +what they can express. + +With its power of ministering to harmonious development of the faculties +manual work has a direct influence on fitness for home and social life. +It greatly develops good sense and aptitude for dealing with ordinary +difficulties as they arise. In common emergencies it is the "handy" +member of the household whose judgment and help are called upon, not the +brilliant person or one who has specialized in any branch, but the one +who can do common things and can invent resources when experience fails. +When the specialist is at fault and the artist waits for inspiration, +the handy person conies in and saves the situation, unprofessionally, +like the bone-setter, without much credit, but to the great comfort of +every one concerned. + +Manual work likewise saves from eccentricity or helps to correct it. +Eccentricity may appear harmless and even interesting, but in practice +it is found to be a drawback, enfeebling some sides of a character, +throwing the judgment at least on some points out of focus. In children +it ought to be recognized as a defect to be counteracted. When people +have an overmastering genius which of itself marks out for them a +special way of excellence, some degree of eccentricity is easily +pardoned, and almost allowable. But eccentricity unaccompanied by genius +is mere uncorrected selfishness, or want of mental balance. It is +selfishness if it could be corrected and is not, because it makes +exactions from others without return. It will not adapt itself to them +but insists on being taken as it is, whether acceptable or not. At best, +eccentricity is a morbid tendency liable to run into extremes when its +habits are undisturbed. An excuse sometimes made for eccentricity is +that it is a security against any further mental aberration, perhaps on +the same principle that inoculation producing a mild form of diseases is +sometimes a safeguard against their attacks. But if the mind and habits +of life can be brought under control, so as to take part in ordinary +affairs without attracting attention or having exemptions and allowance +made for them, a result of a far higher order will have been attained. +To recognize eccentricity as selfishness is a first step to its cure, +and to make oneself serviceable to others is the simplest corrective. +Whatever else they may be, "eccentrics" are not generally serviceable. + +Children of vivid imagination, nervously excitable and fragile in +constitution, rather easily fall into little eccentric ways which grow +very rapidly and are hard to overcome. One of the commonest of these is +talking to themselves. Sitting still, making efforts to apply their +minds to lessons for more than a short time, accentuates the tendency by +nerve fatigue. In reaction against fatigue the mind falls into a vacant +state and that is the best condition for the growth of eccentricities +and other mental troubles. If their attention is diverted from +themselves, and yet fixed with the less exhausting concentration which +belongs to manual work, this diversion into another channel, with its +accompany bodily movement, will restore the normal balance, and the +little eccentric pose will be forgotten; this is better than being +noticed and laughed at and formally corrected. + +Manual employments, especially if varied, and household occupations +afford a great variety, give to children a sense of power in knowing +what to do in a number of circumstances; they take pleasure in this, for +it is a thing which they admire in others. Domestic occupations also +form in them a habit of decision, from the necessity of getting through +things which will not wait. For domestic duties do not allow of waiting +for a moment of inspiration or delaying until a mood of depression or +indifference has passed. They have a quiet, imperious way of commanding, +and an automatic system of punishing when they are neglected, which are +more convincing that exhortations. Perhaps in this particular point lies +their saving influence against nerves and moodiness and the +demoralization of "giving way." Those who have no obligations, whose +work will wait for their convenience, and who can if they please let +everything go for a time, are more easily broken down by trouble than +those whose household duties still have to be done, in the midst of +sorrow and trial. There is something in homely material duties which +heals and calms the mind and gives it power to come back to itself. And +in sudden calamities those who know how to make use of their hands do +not helplessly wring them, or make trouble worse by clinging to others +for support. + +Again, circumstances sometimes arise in school life which make light +household duties an untold boon for particular children. Accidental +causes, troubles of eyesight, or too rapid growth, etc., may make +regular study for a time impossible to them. These children become +_exempt_ persons, and even if they are able to take some part in the +class work the time of preparation is heavy on their hands. Exempt +persons easily develop undesirable qualities, and their apparent +privileges are liable to unsettle others. As a matter of fact those who +are able to keep the common life have the best of it, but they are apt +to look upon the exemption of others as enviable, as they long for gipsy +life when a caravan passes by. With the resource of household employment +to give occupation it becomes apparent that exemption does not mean +holiday, but the substitution of one duty or lesson for another, and +this is a principle which holds good in after life--that except in case +of real illness no one is justified in having nothing to do. + +Lastly, the work of the body is good for the soul, it drives out +silliness as effectually as the rod, since that which was of old +considered as the instrument for exterminating the "folly bound up in +the heart of a child," has been laid aside in the education of girls. It +is a great weapon against the seven devils of whom one is Sloth and +another Pride, and it prepares a sane mind in a sound body for the +discipline of after life. + +Experience bears its own testimony to the failure of an education which +is out of touch with the material requirements of life. It leaves an +incomplete power of expression, and some dead points in the mind from +which no response can be awakened. To taste of many experiences seems to +be necessary for complete development. When on the material side all is +provided without forethought, and people are exempt from all care and +obligation, a whole side of development is wanting, and on that side the +mind remains childish, inexperienced, and unreal. The best mental +development is accomplished under the stress of many demands. One claim +balances the other; a touch of hardness and privation gives strength of +mind and makes self-denial a reality; a little anxiety teaches foresight +and draws out resourcefulness, and the tendency to fret about trifles is +corrected by the contact of the realities of life. + +To come to practice--What can be done for girls during their years at +school? + +In the first place the teaching of the fundamental handicraft of women, +needlework, deserves a place of honour. In many schools it has almost +perished by neglect, or the thorns of the examination programme have +grown up and choked it. This misfortune has been fairly common where the +English "University Locals" and the Irish "Intermediate" held sway. +There literally was not time for it, and the loss became so general that +it was taken as a matter of course, scarcely regretted; to the children +themselves, so easily carried off by _vogue_, it became almost a matter +for self-complacency, "not to be able to hold a needle" was accepted as +an indication of something superior in attainments. And it must be owned +that there were certain antiquated methods of teaching the art which +made it quite excusable to "hate needlework." One "went through so much +to learn so little"; and the results depending so often upon help from +others to bring them to any conclusion, there was no sense of personal +achievement in a work accomplished. Others planned, cut out and prepared +the work, and the child came in as an unwilling and imperfect sewing +machine merely to put in the stitches. The sense of mastery over +material was not developed, yet that is the only way in which a child's +attainment of skill can be linked on to the future. What cannot be done +without help always at hand drops out of life, and likewise that which +calls for no application of mind. + +To reach independence in the practical arts of life is an aim that will +awaken interests and keep up efforts, and teachers have only a right to +be satisfied when their pupils can do without them. This is not the +finishing point of a course of teaching, it is a whole system, beginning +in the first steps and continuing progressively to the end. It entails +upon teachers much labour, much thought, and the sacrifice of showy +results. The first look of finish depends more upon the help of the +teacher than upon the efforts of children. Their results must be waited +for, and they will in the early years have a humbler, more rough-hewn +look than those in which expert help has been given. But the educational +advantages are not to be compared. + +A four years' course, two hours per week, gives a thorough grounding +in plain needlework, and girls are then capable of beginning +dressmaking, in they can reach a very reasonable proficiency when they +leave school. Whether they turn this to practical account in their own +homes, or make use of it in Clothing Societies and Needlework Guilds for +the poor, the knowledge is of real value. If fortune deals hardly with +them, and they are thrown on their own resources later in life, it is +evident that to make their own clothes is a form of independence for +which they will be very thankful. Another branch of needlework that +ought to form part of every Catholic girl's education is that of work +for the Church in which there is room for every capacity, from the +hemming of the humblest _lavabo_ towel to priceless works of art +embroidered by queens for the popes and bishops of their time. + +"First aid," and a few practical principles of nursing, can sometimes be +profitably taught in school, if time is made for a few lessons, perhaps +during one term. The difficulty of finding time even adds to the +educational value, since the conditions of life outside do not admit of +uniform intervals between two bells. Enough can be taught to make girls +able to take their share helpfully in cases of illness in their homes, +and it is a branch of usefulness in which a few sensible notions go a +long way. + +General self-help is difficult to define or describe, but it can be +taught at school more than would appear at first sight, if only those +engaged in the education of children will bear in mind that the triumph +of their devotedness is to enable children to do without them. This is +much more laborious than to do things efficiently and admirably for +them, but it is real education. They can be taught as mothers would +teach them at home, to mend and keep their things in order, to prepare +for journeys, pack their own boxes, be responsible for their labels and +keys, write orders to shops, to make their own beds, dust their private +rooms, and many other things which will readily occur to those who have +seen the pitiful sight of girls unable to do them. + +Finally, simple and elementary cooking comes well within the scope of +the education of elder girls at school. But it must be taught seriously +to make it worth while, and as in the teaching of needlework, the +foundations must be plain. To begin by fancy-work in one case and +bonbons in the other turns the whole instruction into a farce. In this +subject especially, the satisfaction of producing good work, well done, +without help, is a result which justifies all the trouble that may be +spent upon it. When girls have, by themselves, brought to a happy +conclusion the preparation of a complete meal, their very faces bear +witness to the educational value of the success. They are not elated nor +excited, but wear the look of quiet contentment which seems to come from +contact with primitive things. This look alone on a girl's face gives a +beauty of its own, something becoming, and fitting, and full of promise. +No expression is equal to it in the truest charm, for quiet contentment +is the atmosphere which in the future, whatever may be her lot, ought to +be diffused by her presence, an atmosphere of security and rest. + +Perhaps at first sight it seems an exaggeration to link so closely +together the highest natural graces of a woman with those lowliest +occupations, but let the effects be compared by those who have examined +other systems of instruction. If they have considered the outcome of an +exclusively intellectual education for girls, especially one loaded with +subjects in sections to be "got up" for purposes of examination, and +compared it with one into which the practical has largely entered, they +can hardly fail to agree that the latter is the best preparation for +life, not only physically and morally but mentally. During the stress of +examinations lined foreheads, tired eyes, shallow breathing, angular +movements tell their own story of strain, and when it is over a want of +resourcefulness in finding occupation shows that a whole side has +remained undeveloped. The possibility of turning to some household +employments would give rest without idleness; it would save from two +excesses in a time of reaction, from the exceeding weariness of having +nothing to do, the real misery of an idle life, and on the other hand +from craving for excitement and constant change through fear of this +unoccupied vacancy. + +One other point is worth consideration. The "servant question" is one +which looms larger and larger as a household difficulty. There are +stories of great and even royal households being left in critical +moments at the mercy of servants' tempers, of head cooks "on strike" or +negligent personal attendants. And from these down to the humblest +employers of a general servant the complaint is the same--servants so +independent, so exacting, good servants not to be had, so difficult to +get things properly done, etc. These complaints give very strong warning +that helpless dependence on servants is too great a risk to be accepted, +and that every one in ordinary stations of life should be at least able +to be independent of personal service. The expansion of colonial life +points in the same direction. The "simple life" is talked of at home, +but it is really lived in the colonies. Those who brace themselves to +its hardness find a vigour and resourcefulness within them which they +had never suspected, and the pride of personal achievement in making a +home brings out possibilities which in softer circumstances might have +remained for ever dormant, with their treasure of happiness and hardy +virtues. It is possible, no doubt, in that severe and plain life to lose +many things which are not replaced by its self-reliance and hardihood. +It is possible to drop into merely material preoccupation in the +struggle for existence. But it is also possible not to do so, and the +difference lies in having an ideal. + +To Catholics even work in the wilderness and life in the backwoods are +not dissociated from the most spiritual ideals. The pioneers of the +Church, St. Benedict's monks, have gone before in the very same labour +of civilization when Europe was to a great extent still in backwoods. +And, when they sanctified their days in prayer and hard labour, poetry +did not forsake them, and learning even took refuge with them in their +solitude to wait for better times. It was religion which attracted both. +Without their daily service of prayer, the _Opus Dei_, and the assiduous +copying of books, and the desire to build worthy churches for the +worship of God, arts and learning would not have followed the monks into +the wilderness, but their life would have dropped to the dead level of +the squatter's existence. In the same way family life, if toilsome, +either at home or in a new country, may be inspired by the example of +the Holy Family in Nazareth; and in lonely and hard conditions, as well +as in the stress of our crowded ways of living, the influence of that +ideal reaches down to the foundations and transfigures the very humblest +service of the household. + +These primitive services which are at the foundation of all home life +are in themselves the same in all places and times. There is in them +something almost sacred; they are sane, wholesome, stable, amid the +weary perpetual change of artificial additions which add much to the +cares but little to the joys of life. There is a long distance between +the labours of Benedictine monks and the domestic work possible for +school girls, but the principles fundamental to both are the +same--happiness in willing work, honour to manual labour, service of God +in humble offices. The work of lay-sisters in some religious houses, +where they understand the happiness of their lot, links the two extremes +together across the centuries. The jubilant onset of their company in +some laborious work is like an anthem rising to God, bearing witness to +the happiness of labour where it is part of His service. They are the +envy of the choir religious, and in the precincts of such religious +houses children unconsciously learn the dignity of manual labour, and +feel themselves honoured by having any share in it. Such labour can be +had for love, but not for money. + +One word must be added before leaving the subject of the realities of +life. Worn time to time a rather emphatic school lifts up its voice in +the name of plain speaking and asks for something beyond reality--for +realism, for anticipated instruction on the duties and especially on the +dangers of grown-up life. It will be sufficient to suggest three points +for consideration in this matter: (1) That these demands are not made by +fathers and mothers, but appear to come from those whose interest in +children is indirect and not immediately or personally responsible. This +may be supposed from the fact that they find fault with what is omitted, +but do not give their personal experience of how the want may be +supplied. (2) Those priests who have made a special study of children do +not seem to favour the view, or to urge that any change should be made +in the direction of plain speaking. (3) The answer given by a great +educational authority, Miss Dorothea Beale, the late Principal of +Cheltenham College, may appeal to those who are struck by the theory if +they do not advocate it in practice. When this difficulty was laid +before her she was not in favour of departing from the usual course, or +insisting on the knowledge of grown-up life before its time, and she +pointed out that in case of accidents or surgical operations it was not +the doctors nor the nurses actively engaged who turned faint and sick, +but those who had nothing to do, and in the same way she thought that +such instruction, cut off from the duties and needs of the present, was +not likely to be of any real benefit, but rather to be harmful. +Considering how wide was her experience of educational work this opinion +carries great weight. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +LESSONS AND PLAY. + + "What think we of thy soul? + + * * * * + +"Born of full stature, lineal to control; + And yet a pigmy's yoke must undergo. +Yet must keep pace and tarry, patient, kind, +With its unwilling scholar, the dull, tardy mind; +Must be obsequious to the body's powers, +Whose low hands mete its paths, set ope and close its ways, + Must do obeisance to the days, +And wait the little pleasure of the hours; + Yea, ripe for kingship, yet must be +Captive in statuted minority!" + "Sister Songs," by FRANCIS THOMPSON. + +Lessons and play used to be as clearly marked off one from the other as +land and water on the older maps. Now we see some contour maps in which +the land below so many feet and the sea within so many fathoms' depth +are represented by the same marking, or left blank. In the same way the +tendency in education at present is almost to obliterate the line of +demarcation, at least for younger children, so that lessons become a +particular form of play, "with a purpose," and play becomes a sublimated +form of lessons, as the druggists used to say, "an elegant preparation" +of something bitter. If the Board of Education were to name a commission +composed of children, and require it to look into the system, it is +doubtful whether they would give a completely satisfactory report. They +would probably judge it to be too uniform in tone, poor in colour and +contrast, deficient in sparkle. They like the exhilaration of bright +colour, and the crispness of contrast. Of course they would judge it +from the standpoint of play, not of lessons. But play which is not quite +play, coming after something which has been not quite lessons, loses the +tingling delight of contrast. The funereal tolling of a bell for real +lessons made a dark background against which the rapture of release for +real play shone out with a brilliancy which more than made up for it. At +home, the system of ten minutes' lessons at short intervals seems to +answer well for young children; it exerts just enough pressure to give +rebound in the intervals of play. Of course this is not possible at +school. + +But the illusion that lessons are play cannot be indefinitely kept up, +or if the illusion remains it is fraught with trouble. Duty and +endurance, the power to go through drudgery, the strength of mind to +persist in taking trouble, even where no interest is felt, the +satisfaction of holding on to the end in doing something arduous, these +things must be learned at some time during the years of education. If +they are not learned then, in all probability they will never be +acquired at all; examples to prove the contrary are rare. The question +is how--and when. If pressed too soon with obligations of lessons, +especially with prolonged attention, little anxious faces and round +shoulders protest. If too long delayed the discovery comes as a shock, +and the less energetic fall out at once and declare that they "can't +learn"--"never could." + +Perhaps in one way the elementary schools with their large classes have +a certain advantage in this, because the pressure is more self-adjusting +than in higher class education, where the smaller numbers give to each +child a greater share in the general work, for better or for worse. In +home education this share becomes even greater when sometimes one child +alone enjoys or endures the undivided attention of the governess. In +that case the pressure does not relax. But out of large classes of +infants in elementary schools it is easy to see on many vacant restful +faces that after a short exertion in "qualifying to their teacher" they +are taking their well-earned rest. They do not allow themselves to be +strung up to the highest pitch of attention all through the lesson, but +take and leave as they will or as they can, and so they are carried +through a fairly long period of lessons without distress. As they grow +older and more independent in their work the same cause operates in a +different way. They can go on by themselves and to a certain extent they +must do so, as o n account of the numbers teachers can give less time +and less individual help to each, and the habit of self-reliance is +gradually acquired, with a certain amount of drudgery, leading to +results proportionate to the teacher's personal power of stimulating +work. The old race of Scottish schoolmaster in the rural schools +produced--perhaps still produces--good types of such self-reliant +scholars, urged on by his personal enthusiasm for knowledge. Having no +assistant, his own personality was the soul of the school, both boys and +girls responding in a spirit which was worthy of it. But the boys had +the best of it; "lassies" were not deemed worthy to touch the classics, +and the classics were everything to him. In America it is reported that +the best specimens of university students often come from remote schools +in which no external advantages have been available; but the tough +unyielding habit of study has been developed in grappling with +difficulties without much support from a teacher. + +With those who are more gently brought up the problem is how to obtain +this habit of independent work, that is practically--how to get the will +to act. There is drudgery to be gone through, however it may be +disguised, and as a permanent acquisition the power of going through it +is one of the most lasting educational results that can be looked for. +Drudgery is labour with toil and fatigue. It is the long penitential +exercise of the whole human race, not limited to one class or +occupation, but accompanying every work of man from the lowest +mechanical factory hand or domestic "drudge" up to the Sovereign +Pontiff, who has to spend so many hours in merely receiving, +encouraging, blessing, and dismissing the unending processions of his +people as they pass before him, imparting to them graces of which he can +never see the fruit, and then returning to longer hours of listening to +complaints and hearing of troubles which often admit of no remedy: truly +a life of labour with toil and fatigue, in comparison with which most +lives are easy, though each has to bear in its measure the same stamp. +Pius X has borne the yoke of labour from his youth. His predecessor took +it up with an enthusiasm that burned within him, and accepted training +in a service where the drudgery is as severe though generally kept out +of sight. The acceptance of it is the great matter, whatever may be the +form it takes. + +Spurs and bait, punishment and reward, have been used from time +immemorial to set the will in motion, and the results have been +variable--no one has appeared to be thoroughly satisfied with either, or +even with a combination of the two. Some authorities have stood on an +eminence, and said that neither punishment nor reward should be used, +that knowledge should be loved for its own sake. But if it was not +loved, after many invitations, the problem remained. As usual the real +solution seems to be attainable only by one who really loves both +knowledge and children, or one who loves knowledge and can love +children, as Vittorino da Feltre loved them both, and also Blessed +Thomas More. These two affections mingled together produce great +educators--great in the proportion in which the two are possessed--as +either one or the other declines the educational power diminishes, till +it dwindles down to offer trained substitutes and presentable +mediocrities for living teachers. The fundamental principle reasserts +itself, that "love feels no labour, or if it does it loves the labour." + +Here is one of our Catholic secrets of strength. We have received so +much, we have so much to give, we know so well what we want to obtain. +We have the Church, the great teacher of the world, as our prototype, +and by some instinct a certain unconscious imitation of her finds its +way into the mind and heart of Catholic teachers, so that, though often +out of poorer material, we can produce teachers who excel in personal +hold over children, and influence for good by their great affection and +the value which they set on souls. Their power of obtaining work is +proportioned to their own love of knowledge, and here--let it be owned--we +more often fail. Various theories are offered in explanation of this; +people take one or other according to their personal point of view. Some +say we feel so sure of the other world that our hold on this is slack. +Some that in these countries we have not yet made up for the check of +three centuries when education was made almost impossible for us. And +others say it is not true at all. Perhaps they know best. + +Next to the personal power of the teacher to influence children in +learning lessons comes an essential condition to make it possible, and +that is a simple life with quiet regular hours and unexciting pleasures. +Amid a round of amusements lessons must go to the wall, no child can +stand the demands of both at a time. All that can be asked of them is +that they should live through the excitement without too much weariness +or serious damage. The place to consider this is in London at the +children's hour for riding in the park, contrasting the prime condition +of the ponies with the "illustrious pallor" of so many of their riders. +They have courage enough left to sit up straight in their saddles, but +it would take a heart of stone to think of lesson books. This extreme of +artificial life is of course the portion of the few. Those few, however, +are very important people, influential in the future for good or evil, +but a protest from a distance would not reach their schoolrooms, any +more than legislation for the protection of children; they may be +protected from work, but not from amusement. The conditions of simple +living which are favourable for children have been so often enumerated +that it is unnecessary to go over them again; they may even be procured +in tabular form or graphical representation for those to whom these +figures and curves carry conviction. + +But a point that is of more practical interest to children and teachers, +struggling together in the business of education, and one that is often +overlooked, is that children do not know how to learn lessons when the +books are before them, and that there is a great waste of good power, +and a great deal of unnecessary weariness from this cause. If the cause +of imperfectly learned lessons is examined it will usually be found +there, and also the cause of so much dislike to the work of preparation. +Children do not know by instinct how to set about learning a lesson from +a book, nor do they spontaneously recognize that there are different +ways of learning, adapted to different lessons. It is a help to them to +know that there is one way for the multiplication table and another for +history and another for poetry, as the end of the lesson is different. +They can understand this if it is put before them that one is learnt +most quickly by mere repetition, until it becomes a sing-song in the +memory that cannot go wrong, and that afterwards in practice it will +allow itself to be taken to pieces; they will see that they can grasp a +chapter of history more intelligently if they prepare for themselves +questions upon it which might be asked of another, than in trying by +mechanical devices of memory to associate facts with something to hold +them by; that poetry is different from both, having a body and a soul, +each of which has to be taken account of in learning it, one of them +being the song and the other the singer. Obviously there is not one only +way for each of these or for other matters which have to be learnt, but +one of the greatest difficulties is removed when it is understood that +there is something intelligible to be done in the learning of lessons +beyond reading them over and over with the hope that they will go in. + +The hearing of lessons is a subject that deserves a great deal of +consideration. It is an old formal name for what has been often an +antiquated mechanical exercise. A great deal more trouble is expended +now on the manner of questioning and "hearing" the lessons; but even yet +it may be done too formally, as a mere function, or in a way that kills +the interest, or in a manner that alarms--with a mysterious face as if +setting traps, or with questions that are easy and obvious to ask, but +for children almost impossible to answer. Children do not usually give +direct answers to simple questions. Experience seems to have taught them +that appearances are deceptive in this matter, and they look about for +the spring by which the trap works before they will touch the bait. It +is a pity to set traps, because it destroys confidence, and children's +confidence in such matters as lessons is hard to win. + +The question of aids to study by stimulants is a difficult one. On the +one hand it seems to some educators a fundamental law that reward should +follow right-doing and effort, and so no doubt it is; but the reward +within one's own mind and soul is one thing and the calf-bound book is +another--scarcely even a symbol of the first, because they are not +always obtained by the same students. This is a fruitful subject for +discourse or reflection at distributions of prizes. Those who are behind +the scenes know that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the +strong, and the children know it themselves, and prize-winners often +become the object of the "word in season," pointing out how rarely they +will be found to distinguish themselves in after life; while the steady +advance of the plodding and slow mind is dwelt upon, and those who have +failed through idleness drink up the encouragement which was not +intended for them, and feel that they are the hope of the future because +they have won no prizes. It is difficult on those occasions to make the +conflicting conclusions clear to everybody. + +Yet the system of prize distributions is time honoured and traditional, +and every country is not yet so disinterested in study as to be able to +do without it; under its sway a great deal of honest effort is put out, +and the taste of success which is the great stimulant of youth is first +experienced. + +There is also the system of certificates, which has the advantage of +being open to many instead of to one. It is likewise a less material +testimonial, approaching more nearly to the merited word of approval +which is in itself the highest human reward, and the one nearest to the +heart of things, because it is the one which belongs to home. For if the +home authorities interest themselves in lessons at all, their grown-up +standard and the paramount weight of their opinion gives to one word of +their praise a dignity and worth which goes beyond all prizes. Beyond +this there is no natural satisfaction to equal the inner consciousness +of having done one's best, a very intimate prize distribution in which +we ourselves make the discourse, and deliver the certificate to +ourselves. This is the culminating point at which educators aim; they +are all agreed that prizes in the end are meant to lead up to it, but +the way is long between them. And both one and the other are good in so +far as they lead us on to the highest judgment that is day by day passed +on our work. When prizes, and even the honour of well-deserved praise, +fail to attract, the thought of God the witness of our efforts, and of +the value in His sight of striving which is never destined to meet with +success, is a support that keeps up endurance, and seals with an evident +mark of privilege the lives of many who have made those dutiful efforts +not for themselves but in the sight of God. + +The subject of play has to be considered from two points of view, that +of the children and ours. Theirs is concerned chiefly with the present +and ours with the future, far although we do not want every play-hour to +be haunted with a spectral presence that speaks of improvement and +advancement, yet we cannot lose sight of the fact that every hour of +play is telling on the future, deepening the mark of the character, +strengthening the habits, and guiding the lines of after life into this +or that channel. + +Looking at it from this point of view of the future, there seems to be +something radically wrong at present with the play provided for children +of nursery age. In a very few years we shall surely look back and wonder +how we could have endured, for the children, the perverse reign of the +Golliwog dynasty and the despotism of Teddy-bears. More than that, it is +pitiful to hear of nurseries for Catholic children sometimes without +shrine or altar or picture of the Mother of God, and with one of these +monsters on every chair. Something even deeper than the artistic sense +must revolt before long against this barbarous rule. The Teddy-bear, if +he has anything to impart, suggests his own methods of life and defence, +and the Golliwog, far worse--limp, hideous, without one characteristic +grace, or spark of humour--suggests the last extremity of what is +embodied in the expression "letting oneself go." And these things are +loved! Pity the beautiful soul of the child, made for beautiful things. +_II y a toujours en nous quelque chose qui veut ramper_, said Pere de +Ravignan, and to this the Golliwog makes strong appeal. It is only too +easy to _let go_, and the Golliwog playfellow says that it is quite +right to do so--he does it himself. It takes a great deal to make him +able to sit up at all--only in the most comfortable chair can it be +accomplished--if the least obstacle is encountered he can only give way. +And yet this pitiable being makes no appeal to the spirit of +helpfulness. Do what you can for him it is impossible to raise him up, +the only thing is to go down with him to his own level and stay there. +The Golliwog is at heart a pessimist. + +In contrast with this the presence of an altar or nursery shrine, though +not a plaything, gives a different tone to play--a tone of joy and +heavenliness that go down into the soul and take root there to grow into +something lasting and beautiful. There are flowers to be brought, and +lights, and small processions, and evening recollection with quietness +of devotion, with security in the sense of heavenly protection, with the +realization of the "great cloud of witnesses" who are around to make +play safe and holy, and there is through it all the gracious call to +things higher, to be strong, to be unselfish, to be self-controlled, to +be worthy of these protectors and friends in heaven. + +There is another side also to the question of nursery play, and that is +what may be called the play-values of the things provided. Mechanical +toys are wonderful, but beyond an artificial interest which comes mostly +from the elders, there is very little lasting delight in them for +children. They belong to the system of over-indulgence and +over-stimulation which measures the value of things by their price. +Their worst fault is that they do all there is to be done, while the +child looks on and has nothing to do. The train or motor rushes round +and round, the doll struts about and bleats "papa," "mama," the +Teddy-bear growls and dances, and the owner has but to wind them up, +which is very poor amusement. Probably they are better after they have +been over-wound and the mechanical part has given way, and they have +come to the hard use that belongs to their proper position as +playthings. If a distinction may be drawn between toys and playthings, +toys are of very little play-value, they stand for fancy play, to be +fiddled with; while playthings stand as symbols of real life, the harder +and more primitive side of life taking the highest rank, and all that +they do is really done by the child. This is the real play-value. Even +things that are not playthings at all, sticks and stones and shells, +have this possibility in them. Things which have been found have a +history of their own, which gives them precedence over what comes from a +shop; but the highest value of all belongs to the things which children +have made entirely themselves--bows and arrows, catapults, clay marbles, +though imperfectly round, home-made boats and kites. The play-value +grows in direct proportion to the amount of personal share which +children have in the making and in the use of their playthings. And in +this we ought cordially to agree with them. + +After the nursery age, in the school or school-room, play divides into +two lines--organized games, of which we hear a great deal in school at +present, and home play. They are not at all the same thing. Both have +something in their favour. So much has been written of late about the +value of organized games, how they bring out unselfishness, prompt and +unquestioning obedience, playing for one's side and not for oneself, +etc., that it seems as if all has been said better than it could be said +again, except perhaps to point out that there is little relaxation in +the battle of life for children who do their best at books indoors and +at games out of doors--so that in self-defence a good many choose an +"elective course" between the two lines of advantages that school +offers, and do not attempt to serve two masters; they will do well at +books or games, but not at both. If the interest in games is keen, they +require a great deal of will-energy, as well as physical activity, a +great deal of self-control and subordination of personal interest to the +good of the whole. In return for these requirements they give a great +deal, this or that, more or less, according to the character of the +game; they give physical control of movement, quickness of eye and hand, +promptitude in decision, observance of right moments, command of temper, +and many other things. In fact, for some games the only adverse +criticism to offer is that they are more of a discipline than real play, +and that certainly for younger children who have no other form of +recreation than play, something more restful to the mind and less +definite in purpose is desirable. + +For these during playtime some semblance of solitude is exceedingly +desirable at school where the great want is to be sometimes alone. It is +good for them not to be always under the pressure of competition--going +along a made road to a definite end--but to have their little moments of +even comparative solitude, little times of silence and complete freedom, +if they cannot be by themselves. Hoops and skipping-ropes without races +or counted competitions will give this, with the possibility of a moment +or two to do nothing but live and breathe and rejoice in air and +sunshine. Without these moments of rest the conditions of life at +present and the constitutions for which the new word "nervy" has had to +be invented, will give us tempers and temperaments incapable of repose +and solitude. A child alone in a swing, kicking itself backwards and +forwards, is at rest; alone in its little garden it has complete rest of +mind with the joy of seeing its own plants grow; alone in a field +picking wild flowers it is as near to the heart of primitive existence +as it is possible to be. Although these joys of solitude are only +attainable in their perfection by children at home, yet if their value +is understood, those who have charge of them at school can do something +to give them breathing spaces free from the pressure of corporate life, +and will probably find them much calmer and more manageable than if they +have nothing but organized play. + +There are plenty of indoor occupations too for little girls which may +give the same taste of solitude and silence, approaching to those +simpler forms of home play which have no definite aim, no beginning and +ending, no rules. The fighting instinct is very near the surface in +ambitious and energetic children, and in the play-grounds it asserts +itself all the more in reaction after indoor discipline, then excitement +grows, and the weaker suffer, and the stronger are exasperated by +friction. If unselfish, they feel the effort to control themselves; if +selfish, they exhaust themselves and others in the battle to impose +their own will. In these moods solitude and silence, with a hoop or +skipping-rope, are a saving system, and restore calmness of mind. All +that is wanted is freedom, fresh air, and spontaneous movement. This is +more evident in the case of younger children, but if it can be obtained +for elder girls it is just as great a relief. They have usually acquired +more self-control, and the need does not assert itself so loudly, but it +is perhaps all the greater; and in whatever way it can best be +ministered to, it will repay attention and the provision that may be +made for it. + +One word may be merely suggested for consideration concerning games in +girls' schools, and that is the comparative value of them as to physical +development. The influence of the game in vogue in each country will +always be felt, but it is worth attention that some games, as hockey, +conduce to all the attitudes and movements which are least to be +desired, and that others, as basket-ball, on the contrary tend--if +played with strict regard to rules--to attitudes which are in themselves +beautiful and tending to grace of movement. This word belongs to our +side of the question, not that of the children. It belongs to our side +also to see that hoops are large, and driven with a stick, not a hook, +for the sake of straight backs, which are so easily bent crooked in +driving a small hoop with a hook. + +In connexion with movement comes the question of dancing. Dancing comes, +officially, under the heading of lessons, most earnest lessons if the +professor has profound convictions of its significance. But dancing +belongs afterwards to the playtime of life. We have outlived the grim +puritanical prejudice which condemned it as wrong, and it is generally +agreed that there is almost a natural need for dancing as the expression +of something very deep in human nature, which seems to be demonstrated +by its appearance in one form or another, amongst all races of mankind. +There is something in co-ordinated rhythmical movement, in the grace of +steps, in the buoyancy of beautiful dancing which seems to make it a +very perfect exercise for children and young people. But there are +dances and dances, steps and steps, and about the really beautiful there +is always a touch of the severe, and a hint of the ideal. Without these, +dancing drops at once to the level of the commonplace and below it. In +general, dances which embody some characteristics of a national life +have more beauty than cosmopolitan dances, but they are only seen in +their perfection when performed by dancers of the race to whom their +spirit belongs, or by the class for whom they are intended: which is +meant as a suggestion that little girls should not dance the hornpipe. + +In conclusion, the question of play, and playtime and recreation is +absorbing more and more attention in grown-up life. We have heard it +said over and over again of late years that we tire a nation at play, +and that "the athletic craze" has gone beyond all bounds. Many facts are +brought forward in support of this criticism from schools, from +newspapers, from general surveys of our national life at present. And +those who study more closely the Catholic body say that we too are +sharing in this extreme, and that the Catholic body though small in +number is more responsible and more deserving of reproof if it falls +from its ideals, for it has ideals. It is only Catholic girls who +concern us here, but our girls among other girls, and Catholic women +among other women have the privilege as well as the duty of upholding +what is highest. We belong by right to the graver side of the human +race, for those who know must be in an emergency graver, less reckless +on the one hand, less panic-stricken on the other, than those who do not +know. We can never be entirely "at play." And if some of us should be +for a time carried away by the current, and momentarily completely "at +play," it must be in a wave of reaction from the long grinding of +endurance under the penal times. Cardinal Newman's reminiscences of the +life and ways of "the Roman Catholics" in his youth showy the temper of +mind against which our present excess of play is a reaction. + +"A few adherents of the Old Religion, moving silently and sorrowfully +about, as memorials of what had been. 'The Roman Catholics'--not a sect, +not even an interest, as men conceived of it--not a body, however small, +representative of the Great Communion abroad, but a mere handful of +individuals, who might be counted, like the pebbles and detritus of the +great deluge, and who, forsooth, merely happened to retain a creed +which, in its day indeed, was the profession of a Church. Here a set of +poor Irishmen, coining and going at harvest time, or a colony of them +lodged in a miserable quarter of the vast metropolis. There, perhaps, an +elderly person, seen walking in the streets, grave and solitary, and +strange, though noble in bearing, and said to be of good family, and 'a +Roman Catholic.' An old-fashioned house of gloomy appearance, closed in +with high walls, with an iron gate, and yews, and the report attaching +to it that 'Roman Catholics' lived there; but who they were, or what +they did, or what was meant by calling them Roman Catholics, no one +could tell, though it had an unpleasant sound, and told of form and +superstition. And then, perhaps, as we went to and fro, looking with a +boy's curious eyes through the great city, we might come to-day upon +some Moravian chapel, or Quaker's meeting-house, and to-morrow on a +chapel of the 'Roman Catholics': but nothing was to be gathered from it, +except that there were lights burning there, and some boys in white, +swinging censers: and what it all meant could only be learned from +books, from Protestant histories and sermons; but they did not report +well of the 'Roman Catholics,' but, on the contrary, deposed that they +had once had power and had abused it. ... Such were the Catholics in +England, found in corners, and alleys, and cellars, and the housetops, +or in the recesses of the country; cut off from the populous world +around them, and dimly seen, as if through a mist or in twilight, as +ghosts flitting to and fro, by the high Protestants, the lords of the +earth." ("The Second Spring.") + +This it is from which we are keeping holiday; but for us it can be only +a half holiday, the sifting process is always at work, the opposition of +the world to the Church only sleeps for a moment, and there are many who +tell us that the signs of the times point to new forms of older +conflicts likely to recur, and that we may have to go, as they went on +the day of Waterloo, straight from the dance to the battlefield. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MATHEMATICS, NATURAL SCIENCE, AND NATURE STUDY. + + "The Arab told me that the stone +(To give it in the language of the dream) +Was "Euclid's Elements"; and "This," said he, +"Is something of more worth"; and at the word +Stretched forth the shell, so beautiful in shape, +In colour so resplendent, with command +That I should hold it to my ear. I did so, +And heard that instant in an unknown tongue, +Which yet I understood, articulate sounds, +A loud prophetic blast of harmony." + WORDSWORTH, "The Prelude," Bk. V. + +Mathematics, natural science, and nature study may be conveniently +grouped together, because in a study of educational aims, in so far as +they concern Catholic girls, there is not much that is distinctive which +practically affects these branches; during the years of school life they +stand, more or less, on common ground with others. More advanced studies +of natural science open up burning questions, and as to these, it is the +last counsel of wisdom for girls leaving school or school-room to +remember that they have no right to have any opinion at all. It is well +to make them understand that after years of specialized study the really +great men of science, in very gentle tones and with careful utterance, +give to the world their formed opinions, keeping them ever open to +readjustment as the results of fresh observations come in year after +year, and new discoveries call for correction and rearrangement of what +has been previously taught. It is also well that they should know that +by the time the newest theory reaches the school-room and textbook it +may be already antiquated and perhaps superseded in the observatory and +laboratory, so that in scientific matters the school-room must always be +a little "behind the times." And likewise that when scientific +teaching has to be brought within the compass of a text-book for young +students, it is mere baby talk, as much like the original theory as a +toy engine is like an express locomotive. From which they may conclude +that it is wiser to be listeners or to ask deferential questions than to +have light-hearted opinions of their own on burning questions such as we +sometimes hear: "Do you believe in evolution?--I do." "No, I don't, I +think there is very little evidence for it." And that if they are +introduced to a man of science it is better not to ask his opinion about +the latest skeleton that has been discovered, or let him see that they +are alarmed lest there might be something wrong with our pedigree after +all, or with the book of Genesis. One would be glad, however, that they +should know the names and something of the works and reputation of the +Catholic men of science, as Ampere, Pasteur, and Wassmann, etc., I Who +have been or are European authorities in special aches of study, so that +they may at least be ready with an answer to the frequent assertion that +"Catholics have done nothing for science." + +But in connexion with these three subjects, not as to the teaching of +them but as to their place in the education of girls, some points +regarding education in general are worth considering:-- + +1. Mathematics in the curriculum of girls' schools has been the subject +of much debate. Cool and colourless as mathematics are in themselves, +they have produced in discussion a good deal of heat, being put forward +to bear the brunt of the controversy as to whether girls were equal to +boys in understanding and capable of following the same course of study, +and to enter into competition with them in all departments of learning. +Even taking into consideration many brilliant achievements and an +immense amount of creditable, and even distinguished work, the answer of +those who have no personal bias in the matter for the sake of a Cause--is +generally that they are not. Facts would seem to speak for themselves if +only on the ground that the strain of equal studies is too great for the +weaker physical organization. Girls are willing workers, exceedingly +intense when their heart is set upon success; but their staying power is +not equal to their eagerness, and the demands made upon them sometimes +leave a mortgage on their mental and physical estate which cannot be +paid off in the course of a whole lifetime. In support of this, +reference may be made to the [1 Appendix to "Final Report of the +Commissioners (Irish Intermediate Education)," Pt. I, 1899.] report of a +commission of Dublin physicians on the effects of the Intermediate +Education system in Ireland, which has broken down many more girls than +boys. + +Apart from the question of over-pressure it is generally recognized--let +it be said again, by those who have not a position to defend or a theory +to advance in the matter--that the aptitude of girls for mathematical +work is generally less than that of boys, and unless one has some +particular view or plan at stake in the matter there is no grievance in +recognizing this. There is more to be gained in recognizing diversities +of gifts than in striving to establish a level of uniformity, and life +is richer, not poorer for the setting forth of varied types of +excellence. Competition destroys cooperation, and in striving to prove +ability to reach an equal standard in competition, the wider and more +lasting interests which are at stake may be lost sight of, and in the +end sacrificed to limited temporary success. + +The success of girls in the field of mathematics is, in general, +temporary and limited, it means much less in their after life than in +that of boys. For the few whose calling in life is teaching, mathematics +have some after use; for those, still fewer, who take a real interest in +them, they keep a place in later life; but for the many into whose +life-work they do not enter, beyond the mental discipline which is +sometimes evaded, very little remains. The end of school means for them +the end of mathematical study, and the Complete forgetfulness in which +the whole subject is soon buried gives the impression that too much may +have been sacrificed to it. From the point of view of practical value it +proves of little use, and as mental discipline something of more +permanent worth might have taken its place to strengthen the reasoning +powers. The mathematical teacher of girls has generally to seek +consolation in very rare success for much habitual disappointment. + +The whole controversy about equality in education involves less +bitterness to Catholics than to others, for this reason, that we have +less difficulty than those of other persuasions in accepting a +fundamental difference of ideals for girls and boys. Our ideals of +family life, of spheres of action which co-operate and complete each +other, without interference or competition, our masculine and feminine +types of holiness amongst canonized saints, give a calmer outlook upon +the questions involved in the discussion. The Church puts equality and +inequality upon such a different footing that the result is harmony +without clash of interests, and if in some countries we are drawn into +the arena now, and forced into competition, the very slackness of +interest which is sometimes complained of is an indirect testimony to +the truth that we know of better things. And as those who know of better +things are more injured by following the less good than those who know +them not, so our Catholic girls seem to be either more indifferent about +their work or more damaged by the spirit of competition if they enter +into it, than those who consider it from a different plane. + +2. Natural science has of late years assumed a title to which it has no +claim, and calls itself simply "_Science_"--presumably "_for short,_" but +to the great confusion of young minds, or rather with the effect of +contracting their range of vision within very narrow limits, as if +theology and Biblical study, and mental and moral, and historical and +political science, had no place of mention in the rational order where +things are studied in their causes. + +Inquiry was made in several schools where natural science was taught +according to the syllabuses of the Board of Education. The question was +asked, "What is science?"--and without exception the answers indicated +that science was understood to mean the study of the phenomena of the +physical world in their causes. The name "Science" used by itself has +been the cause of this, and has led to the usual consequences of the +assumption of unauthorized titles. + +Things had been working up in England during the last few years towards +this misconception in the schools. On the one hand there was the great +impetus given to physical research and experimental science in recent +years, so that its discoveries absorbed more and more attention, and +this filtered down to the school books. + +On the other hand, especially since the South African war, there had +been a great stir in reaction against mere lessons from books, and it +was seen that we wanted more personal initiative and thought, and +resourcefulness, and self-reliance, and many other qualities which our +education had not tended to develop. It was seen that we were +unpractical in our Instruction, that minds passed under the discipline +of school and came out again, still slovenly, unobservant, unscientific +in temper, impatient, flippant, inaccurate, tending to guess and to jump +at conclusions, to generalize hastily, etc. It was observed that many +unskilful hands came out of the schools, clumsy ringers, wanting in +neatness, untidy in work, inept in measuring and weighing, incapable of +handling things intelligently. There had come an awakening from the +dreams of 1870, when we felt so certain that all England was to be made +good and happy through books. A remedy was sought in natural science, +and the next educational wave which was to roll over us began to rise. +It was thought that the temper of the really scientific man, so patient +in research, so accurate and conscientious, so slow to dogmatize, so +deferential to others, might be fostered by experimental science in the +schools, acquiring "knowledge at first hand," making experiments, +looking with great respect at balances, weighing and measuring, and +giving an account of results. So laboratories were fitted up at great +expense, and teachers with university degrees in science were sought +after. The height of the tide seemed to be reached in 1904 and 1905--to +judge by the tone of Regulations for the Curricula of Secondary Schools +issued by the Board of Education--for in these years it is most insistent +and exacting for girls as well as boys, as to time and scope of the +syllabus in this branch. Then disillusion seems to have set in and the +tide began to ebb. It appeared that the results were small and poor in +proportion to expectation and to the outlay on laboratories. The +desirable qualities did not seem to develop as had been hoped, the +temper of mind fostered was not entirely what had been desired. The +conscientious accuracy that was to come of measuring a millimetre and +weighing a milligramme was disappointing, and also the fluent readiness +to give an account of observations made, the desired accuracy of +expression, the caution in drawing inferences. The links between this +teaching and after life did not seem to be satisfactorily established. +The Board of Education showed the first signs of a change of outlook by +the readjustment in the curriculum giving an alternative syllabus for +girls, and the latitude in this direction is widening by degrees. It +begins to be whispered that even in some boys' schools the laboratory is +only used under compulsion or by exceptional students, and the wave +seems likely to go down as rapidly as it rose. + +Probably for girls the strongest argument against experimental science +taught in laboratories is that it has so little connexion with after +life. As a discipline the remedy did not go deeply enough into the +realities of life to reach the mental defects of girls; it was +artificial, and they laid it aside as a part of school life when they +went home. Latitude is now given by the Board of Education for "an +approved course in a combination of the following subjects: needlework, +cooking, laundry-work, housekeeping, and household hygiene for girls +over fifteen years of age, to be substituted partially or wholly for +science and for mathematics other than arithmetic." Comparing this with +the regulations of five or six years ago when the only alternative for +girls was a "biological subject" instead of physics, and elementary +hygiene as a substitute for chemistry, it would seem as if the Board of +Education had had reason to be dissatisfied with the "science" teaching +for girls, and was determined to seek a more practical system. + +This practical aspect of things is penetrating into every department, +and when it is combined with some study of first principles nothing +better can be desired. For instance, in the teaching of geography, of +botany, etc., there is a growing inclination to follow the line of +reality, the middle course between the book alone and the laboratory +alone, so that these subjects gather living interest from their many +points of contact with human life, and give more play to the powers of +children. As the text-book of geography is more and more superseded by +the use of the atlas alone, and the botanical chart by the children's +own drawings, and by the beautiful illustrations in books prepared +especially for them, the way is opened before them to worlds of beauty +and wonder which they may have for their own possession by the use of +their eyes and ears and thoughts and reasonings. + +3. But better than all new apparatus and books of delight is the +informal study of the world around us which has grown up by the side of +organized teaching of natural science. The name of "nature study" is the +least attractive point about it; the reality escapes from all +conventionalities of instruction, and looks and listens and learns +without the rules and boundaries which belong to real lessons. Its range +is not restricted within formal limits; it is neither botany, nor +natural history, nor physics; neither instruction on light nor heat nor +sound, but it wanders on a voyage of discovery into all these domains. +And in so far as it does this, it appeals very strongly to children. +Children usually delight in flowers and dislike botany, are fond of +animals and rather indifferent to natural history. Life is what awakens +their interest; they love the living thing as a whole and do not care +much for analysis or classification; these interests grow up later. + +The object of informal nature study is to put children directly in touch +with the beautiful and wonderful things which are within their reach. +Its lesson-book is everywhere, its time is every time, its spirit is +wonder and delight. This is for the children. Those who teach it have to +look beyond, and it is not so easy to teach as it is to learn. It +cannot, properly speaking, be learned by teachers out of books, though +books can do a great deal. But a long-used quiet habit of observation +gives it life and the stored-up sweetness of years--"the old is better." +The most charming books on nature study necessarily give a second-hand +tone to the teaching. But the point of it all is knowledge at +first-hand; yet, for children knowledge at first-hand is so limited that +some one to refer to, and some one to guide them is a necessity, some +one who will say at the right moment "look" and "listen," and who has +looked and listened for years. Perhaps the requirement of knowledge at +firsthand for children has sometimes been pushed a little too far, with +a deadening effect, for the progress of such knowledge is very slow and +laborious. How little we should know if we only admitted first-hand +knowledge, but the stories of wonder from those who have seen urge us on +to see for ourselves; and so we swing backwards and forwards, from the +world outside to the books, to find out more, from the books to the +world outside to see for ourselves. And a good teacher, who is an +evergreen learner, goes backwards and forwards, too, sharing the work +and heightening the delight. All the stages come in turn, over and over +again, observation, experiment, inquiry from others whether orally or in +books, and in this subject books abound more fascinating than fairy +tales, and their latest charm is that they are laying aside the pose of +a fairy tale and tell the simple truth. + +The love of nature, awakened early, is a great estate with which to +endow a child, but it needs education, that the proprietor of the estate +may know how to manage it, and not--with the manners of a _parvenu_--miss +either the inner spirit or the outward behaviour belonging to the +property. This right manner and spirit of possession is what the +informal "nature study" aims at; it is a point of view. Now the point of +view as to the outside world means a great deal in life. Countrymen do +not love nature as townsmen love it. Their affection is deeper but less +emotional, like old friendships, undemonstrative but everlasting. +Countrymen see without looking, and say very little about it. Townsmen +in the country look long and say what they have seen, but they miss many +things. A farmer stands stolidly among the graces of his frisky lambs +and seems to miss their meaning, but this is because the manners +cultivated in his calling do not allow the expression of feeling. It is +all in his soul somewhere, deeply at home, but impossible to utter. The +townsman looks eagerly, expresses a great deal, expresses it well, but +misses the spirit from want of a background to his picture. One must +know the whole round of the year in the country to catch the spirit of +any season and perceive whence it comes and whither it goes. + +On the other hand, the countryman in town thinks that there is no beauty +of the world left for him to see, because the spirit there is a spirit +of the hour and not of the season, and natural beauty has to be caught +in evanescent appearances--a florist's window full of orchids in place of +his woodlands--and his mind is too slow to catch these. This too quick or +too slow habit of seeing belongs to minds as well as to callings; and +when children are learning to look around them at the world outside, it +has to be taken into account. Some will see without looking and be +satisfied slowly to drink in impressions, and they are really glad to +learn to express what they see. Others, the quick, so-called "clever" +children, look, and judge, and comment, and overshoot the mark many +times before they really see. These may learn patience in waiting for +their garden seeds, and quietness from watching birds and beasts, and +deliberation, to a certain extent, from their constant mistakes. To have +the care of plants may teach them a good deal of watchfulness and +patience; it is of greater value to a child to have grown one perfect +flower than to have pulled many to pieces to examine their structure. +And the care of animals may teach a great deal more if it learns to keep +the balance between silly idolatry of pets and cruel negligence--the hot +and cold extremes of selfishness. + +Little gardens of their own are perhaps the best gifts which can be +given to children. To work in them stores up not only health but joy. +Every flower in their garden stands for so much happiness, and with that +happiness an instinct for home life and simple pleasures will strike +deep roots. From growing the humblest annual out of a seed-packet to +grafting roses there is work for every age, and even in the dead season +of the year the interest of a garden never dies. + +In new countries gardens take new aspects. A literal version of a +_garden party_ in the Transvaal suggests possibilities of emancipation +from the conventionalities which weary the older forms of entertainment +with us. Its object was not to play in a garden, but to plant one. +Guests came from afar, each one bringing a contribution of plants. The +afternoon was spent in laying out the beds and planting the offerings, +in hard, honest, dirty work. And all the guests went home feeling that +they had really lived a day that was worth living, for a garden had been +made, in the rough, it is true; but even in the rough in such a new +country a garden is a great possession. + +The outcome of these considerations is that the love of nature is a +great source of happiness for children, happiness of the best kind in +taking possession of a world that seems to be in many ways designed +especially for them. It brings their minds to a place where many ways +meet; to the confines of science, for they want to know the reasons of +things; to the confines of art, for what they can understand they will +strive to interpret and express; to the confines of worship, for a +child's soul, hushed in wonder, is very near to God. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ENGLISH. + + "If Chaucer, as has been said, is Spring, it is a modern, premature +Spring, followed by an interval of doubtful weather. Sidney is the very +Spring--the later May. And in prose he is the authentic, only Spring. It +is a prose full of young joy, and young power, and young inexperience, +and young melancholy, which is the wilfulness of joy; . . . + + "Sidney's prose is treasureable, not only for its absolute merits, but +as the bud from which English prose, that gorgeous and varied flower, +has unfolded."--FRANCIS THOMPSON, "The Prose of Poets." + +The study of one's own language is the very heart of a modern education; +to the study of English, therefore, belongs a central place in the +education of English-speaking girls. It has two functions: one is to +become the instrument by which almost all the other subjects are +apprehended; the other, more characteristically its own, is to give that +particular tone to the mind which distinguishes it from others. This is +a function that is always in process of further development; for the +mind of a nation elaborates its language, and the language gives tone to +the mind of the new generation. The influences at work upon the English +language at present are very complex, and play on it with great force, +so that the changes are startling in their rapidity. English is not only +the language of a nation or of a race, not even of an empire; and the +inflowing elements affirm this. We have kindred beyond the empire, and +their speech is more and more impressing ours, forging from the common +stock, which they had from us, whole armouries full of expressive words, +words with edge and point and keen directness which never miss the mark. +Some are unquestionably an acquisition, those which come from States +where the language is honoured and studied with a carefulness that puts +to shame all except our very best. They have kept some gracious and rare +expressions, now quaint to our ear, preserved out of Elizabethan English +in the current speech of to-day. These have a fragrance of the olden +time, but we cannot absorb them again into our own spoken language. Then +they have their incisive modern expressions so perfectly adapted for +their end that they are irresistible even to those who cling by +tradition to the more stable element in English. These also come from +States in which language is conscious of itself and looks carefully to +literary use, and they do us good rather than harm. Other importations +from younger States are too evidently unauthorized to be in any way +beautiful, and are blamed on both sides of the ocean as debasing the +coinage. But these, too, are making their way, so cheap and convenient +are they, and so expressive. + +It is needful in educating children to remember that this strong +inflowing current must be taken into account, and also to remember that +it does not belong to them. They must first be trained in the use of the +more lasting elements of English; later on they may use their discretion +in catching the new words which are afloat in the air, but the +foundations must be laid otherwise. It takes the bloom off the freshness +of young writers if they are determined to exhibit the last new words +that are in, or out of season. New words have a doubtful position at +first. They float here and there like thistle-down, and their future +depends upon where they settle. But until they are established and +accepted they are out of place for children's use. They are contrary to +the perfect manner for children. We ask that their English should be +simple and unaffected, not that it should glitter with the newest +importations, brilliant as they may be. It is from the more permanent +element in the language that they will acquire what they ought to have, +the characteristic traits of thought and manner which belong to it. It +is not too much to look for such things in children's writing and +speaking. The first shoots and leaves may come up early though the full +growth and flower may be long waited for. These characteristics are +often better put into words by foreign critics than by ourselves, for we +are inclined to take them as a whole and to take them for granted; hence +the trouble experienced by educated foreigners in catching the +characteristics of English style, and their surprise in finding that we +have no authentic guides to English composition, fend that the court of +final appeal is only the standard Of the best use. The words of a German +critic on a Collection of English portraits in Berlin are very happily +pointed and might be as aptly applied to writing as to painting. + +"English, utterly English! Nothing on God's earth could be more English +than this whole collection. The personality of the artist (_it happened +that he was an Irishman_), the countenances of the subjects, their +dress, the discreetly suggestive backgrounds, all have the +characteristic touch of British culture, very refined, very high-bred, +very quiet, very much clarified, very confident, very neat, very +well-appointed, a little dreamy and just a little wearisome--the precise +qualities which at the same time impress and annoy us in the English." + +This is exactly what might be said of Pater's writing, but that is +full-grown English. Pater is not a model for children, they would find +him more than "just a little wearisome." If anyone could put into words +what Sir Joshua Reynolds' portraits of children express, that would be +exactly what we want for the model of their English. They can write and +they can speak in a beautiful way of their own if they are allowed a +little liberty to grow wild, and trained a little to climb. Their charm +is candour, as it is the charm of Sir Joshua's portraits, with a quiet +confidence that all is well in the world they know, and that everyone is +kind; this gives the look of trustful innocence and unconcern. Their +writing and talking have this charm, as long as nothing has happened to +make them conscious of themselves. But these first blossoms drop off, +and there is generally an intermediate stage in which they can neither +speak nor write, but keep their thoughts close, and will not give +themselves away. Only when that stage is past do they really and with +full consciousness seek to express themselves, and pay some attention to +the self-expression of others. This third stage has its May-day, when +the things which have become hackneyed to our minds from long use come +to them with the full force of revelations, and they astonish us by +their exuberant delight. But they have a right to their May-day and it +ought not to be cut short; the sun will go down of itself, and then June +will come in its own time and ripen the green wood, and after that will +come pruning time, in another season, and then the phase of severity and +fastidiousness, and after that--if they continue to write--they will be +truly themselves. + +In every stage we have our duty to do, encouraging and pruning by turns, +and, as in everything else, we must begin with ourselves and go on with +ourselves that there may be always something living to give, and some +growth; for in this we need never cease to grow, in knowledge, in taste, +and in critical power. The means are not far to seek; if we really care +about these things, the means are everywhere, in reading the best +things, in taking notes, in criticising independently and comparing with +the best criticism, in forming our own views and yet keeping a +willingness to modify them, in an attitude of mind that is always +learning, always striving, always raising its standard, never impatient +but permanently dissatisfied. + +We have three spheres of action in the use of the language--there is +English to speak, English to write, And the wide field of English to +read, and there are vital interests bound up in each for the after life +of children. As they speak, so will be the tone of their intercourse; as +they write, so will be the standard of their habits of thought; and as +they read so will be the atmosphere of their life, and the preparation +of their judgment for those critical moments of choice which are the +pivots upon which its whole action moves. + +If practice alone would develop it to perfection, speaking ought to be +easy to learn, but it does not prove so, and especially when children +are together in schools the weeds grow faster than the crop, and the +crop is apt to be thin. The language of the majority holds its own; +children among children can express with a very small vocabulary what +they want to say to each other, whereas an only child who lives with its +elders has usually a larger vocabulary than it can manage, which makes +the sayings of only children quaint and almost weird, as the perfection +of the instrument persuades us that there is a full-grown thought within +it, and a child's fancy suddenly laughs at us from under the disguise. + +There is general lamentation at present because the art of conversation +has fallen to a very low ebb; there is, in particular, much complaint of +the conversation of girls whose education is supposed to have been +careful. The subjects they care to talk of are found to be few and poor, +their power of expressing themselves very imperfect, the scanty words at +their command worked to death in supplying for all kinds of things to +which they are not appropriate. We know that we have a great deal of +minted gold in the English language, but little of it finds its way into +our general conversation, most of our intercourse is carried on with +small change, a good deal of it even in coppers, and the worst trouble +of all is that so few seem to care or to regret it. Perhaps the young +generation will do so later in life, but unless something is done for +them during the years of their education it does not seem probable, +except in the case of the few who are driven by their professional work +to think of it, or drawn to it by some influence that compels them to +exert themselves in earnest. + +Listening to the conversation of girls whose thoughts and language are +still in a fluid state, say from the age of 17 to 25, gives a great deal +of matter for thought to those who are interested in education, and this +point of language is of particular interest. There are the new +catch-words of each year; they had probably a great _piquancy_ in the +mouth of the originator but they very soon become flat by repetition, +then they grow jaded, are more and more neglected and pass away +altogether. From their rising to their setting the arc is very +short--about five years seems to be the limit of their existence, and no +one regrets them. We do not seem to be in a happy vein of development at +present as to the use of words, and these short-lived catch-words are +generally poor in quality. Our girl talkers are neither rich nor +independent in their language, they lay themselves under obligations to +anyone who will furnish a new catch-word, and especially to boys from +whom they take rather than accept contributions of a different kind. It +is an old-fashioned regret that girls should copy boys instead of +developing themselves independently in language and manners; but though +old-fashioned, it will never cease to be true that what was made to be +beautiful on its own line is dwarfed and crippled by straining it into +imitation of something else which it can never be. + +What can be done for the girls to give them first more independence in +their language and then more power to express themselves? Probably the +best cure, food and tonic in one, is reading; a taste for the best +reading alters the whole condition of mental life, and without being +directly attacked the defects in conversation will correct themselves. +But we could do more than is often done for the younger children, not by +talking directly about these things, but by being a little harder to +please, and giving when it is possible the cordial commendation which +makes them feel that what they have done was worth working for. + +Recitation and reading aloud, besides all their other uses, have this +use that they accustom children to the sound of their own voices +uttering beautiful words, which takes away the odd shyness which some of +them feel in going beyond their usual round of expressions and extending +their vocabulary. We owe it to our language as well as to each +individual child to make recitation and reading aloud as beautiful as +possible. Perhaps one of the causes of our conversational slovenliness +is the neglect of these; critics of an older generation have not ceased +to lament their decay, but it seems as if better times were coming +again, and that as the fundamentals of breathing and voice-production +are taught, we shall increase the scope of the power acquired and give +it more importance. There is a great deal underlying all this, beyond +the acquirement of voice and pronunciation. If recitation is cultivated +there is an inducement to learn by heart; this in its turn ministers to +the love of reading and to the formation of literary taste, and enriches +the whole life of the mind. There is an indirect but far-reaching gain +of self-possession, from the need for outward composure and inward +concentration of mind in reciting before others. But it is a matter of +importance to choose recitations so that nothing should be learnt which +must be thrown away, nothing which is not worth remembering for life. It +is a pity to make children acquire what they will soon despise when they +might learn something that they will grow up to and prize as long as +they live. There are beautiful things that they can understand, if +something is wanted for to-day, which have at the same time a life that +will never be outgrown. There are poems with two aspects, one of which +is acceptable to a child and the other to the grown-up mind; these, one +is glad to find in anthologies for children. But there are many poems +about children of which the interest is so subtle as to be quite +unsuitable for their collection. Such a poem is "We are seven." Children +can be taught to say it, even with feeling, but their own genuine +impression of it seems to be that the little girl was rather weak in +intellect for eight years old, or a little perverse. Whereas Browning's +"An incident of the French camp" appeals to them by pride of courage as +it does to us by pathos. It may not be a gem, poetically speaking, but +it lives. As children grow older it is only fair to allow them some +choice in what they learn and recite, to give room for their taste to +follow its own bent; there are a few things which it is well that every +one should know by heart, but beyond these the field is practically +without limits. + +Perfect recitation or reading aloud is very rare and difficult to +acquire. For a few years there was a tendency to over-emphasis in both, +and, in recitation, to teach gesture, for which as a nation we are +singularly inapt. This is happily disappearing, simplicity and restraint +are regaining their own, at least in the best teaching for girls. As to +reading aloud to children it begins to be recognized that it should not +be too explicit, nor too emphatic, nor too pointed; that it must leave +something for the natural grace of the listener's intelligence to supply +and to feel. There is a didactic tone in reading which says, "you are +most unintelligent, but listen to ME and there may yet be hope that you +will understand." This leaves the "poor creatures" of the class still +unmoved and unenlightened; "the child is not awakened," while the more +sensitive minds are irritated; they can feel it as an impertinence +without quite knowing why they are hurt. It is a question of manners and +consideration which is perceptible to them, for they like what is +best--sympathy and suggestiveness rather than hammering in. They can help +each other by their simple insight into these things when they read +aloud, and if a reading lesson in class is conducted as an exercise in +criticism it is full of interest. The frank good-nature and gravity of +twelve-year-old critics makes their operations quite painless, and they +are accepted with equal good humour and gravity, no one wasting any +emotion and a great deal of good sense being exchanged. + +Conversation, as conversation, is hard to teach, we can only lead the +way and lay down a few principles which keep it in the right path. These +commonplaces of warning, as old as civilization itself, belong to +manners and to fundamental unselfishness, but obvious as they are they +have to be said and to be repeated and enforced until they become +matters of course. Not to seem bored, not to interrupt, not to +contradict, not to make personal remarks, not to talk of oneself (some +one was naive enough to say "then what is there to talk of"), not to get +heated and not to look cold, not to do all the talking and not to be +silent, not to advance if the ground seems uncertain, and to be +sensitively attentive to what jars--all these and other things are +troublesome to obtain, but exceedingly necessary. And even observing +them all we may be just as far from conversation as before; how often +among English people, through shyness or otherwise, it simply faints +from inanition. We can at least teach that a first essential is to have +something to say, and that the best preparation of mind is thought and +reading and observation, to be interested in many things, and to give +enough personal application to a few things as to have something worth +saying about them. + +By testing in writing every step of an educational course a great deal +of command over all acquired materials may be secured. As our girls grow +older, essay-writing becomes the most powerful means for fashioning +their minds and bringing out their individual characteristics. + +It is customary now to begin with oral composition,--quite rightly, for +one difficulty at a time is enough. But when children have to write for +themselves the most natural beginning is by letters. A great difference +in thought and power is observable in their first attempts, but in the +main the structure of their letters is similar, like the houses and the +moonfaced persons which they draw in the same symbolic way. Perhaps both +are accepted conventions to which they conform--handed down through +generations of the nursery tradition--though students of children are +inclined to believe that these symbolical drawings represent their real +mind in the representation of material things. Their communications move +in little bounds, a succession of happy thoughts, the kind of things +which birds in conversation might impart to one another, turning their +heads quickly from side to side and catching sight of many things +unrelated amongst themselves. It is a pity that this manner is often +allowed to last too long, for in these stages of mental training it is +better to be on the stretch to reach the full stature of one's age +rather than to linger behind it, and early promise in composition means +a great deal. + +To write of the things which belong to one's age in a manner that is +fully up to their worth or even a little beyond it, is better than to +strain after something to say in a subject that is beyond the mental +grasp. The first thing to learn is how to write pleasantly about the +most simple and ordinary things. But a common fault in children's +writing is to wait for an event, "something to write about," and to +dispose of it in three or four sentences like telegrams. + +The influences which determine these early steps are, first, the natural +habit of mind, for thoughtful children see most interesting and strange +things in their surroundings; secondly, the tone of their ordinary +conversation, but especially a disposition that is unselfish and +affectionate. Warm-hearted children who are gifted with sympathy have an +intuition of what will give pleasure, and that is one of the great +secrets of letter-writing. But the letters they write will always depend +in a great measure on the letters they receive, and a family gift for +letter-writing is generally the outcome of a happy home-life in which +all the members are of interest to each other and their doings of +importance. + +What sympathy gives to letter-writing, imagination gives to the first +essays of children in longer compositions. Imagination puts them in +sympathy with all the world, with things as well as persons, as +affection keeps them in touch with every detail of the home world. But +its work is not so simple. Home affection is true and is a law to +itself; if it is present it holds all the little child's world in a +right proportion, because all heavenly affection is bound up with it. +But the awakening and the rapid development of imagination as girls grow +up needs a great deal of guidance and training. Fancy may overgrow +itself, and take an undue predominance, so that life is tuned to the +pitch of imagination and not imagination to the pitch of life. It is +hardly possible and hardly to be desired that it should never overflow +the limits of perfect moderation; if it is to be controlled, there must +be something to control, in pruning there must be some strong shoots to +cut back, and in toning down there must be some over-gaudy colours to +subdue. It is better that there should be too much life than too little, +and better that criticism should find something vigorous enough to lay +hold of, rather than something which cannot be felt at all. This is the +time to teach children to begin their essays without preamble, by +something that they really want to say, and to finish them leaving +something still unsaid that they would like to have expressed, so as not +to pour out to the last drop their mind or their fancy on any subject. +This discipline of promptitude in beginning and restraint at the end +will tell for good upon the quality of their writing. + +But the work of the imagination may also betray something unreal and +morbid--this is a more serious fault and means trouble coming. It +generally points to a want of focus in the mind; because self +predominates in the affections feeling and interest are self-centred. +Then the whole development of mind comes to a disappointing check--the +mental power remains on the level of unstable sixteen years old, and the +selfish side develops either emotionally or frivolously--according to +taste, faster than it can be controlled. + +There are cross-roads at about sixteen in a girl's life. After two or +three troublesome years she is going to make her choice, not always +consciously and deliberately, but those who are alive to what is going +on may expect to hear about this time her speech from the throne, +announcing what the direction of her life is going to be. It is not +necessarily the choice of a vocation in life, that belongs to an order +of things that has neither day nor hour determined for it, but it is +when the mental outlook takes a direction of its own, literary, or +artistic, or philosophical, or worldly, or turning towards home; it may +sometimes be the moment of decisive vocation to leave all things for +God, or, as has so often happened in the lives of the Saints, the time +when a child's first desire, forgotten for a while, asserts itself +again. In any case it is generally a period of new awakenings, and if +things are as they ought to be, generally a time of deep happiness--the +ideal hour in the day of our early youth. All this is faithfully +rendered in the essays of that time; we unsuspectingly give ourselves +away. + +After this, for those who are going to write at all, comes the "viewy" +stage, and this is full of interest. We are so dogmatic, so defiant, so +secure in our persuasions. It is impossible to believe that they will +ever alter. Yet who has lived through this phase of abounding activity +and has not found that, at first with the shock of disappointment, and +afterwards without regret, a memorial cross had to be set by our +wayside, here and there, marking the place of rest for our most +enthusiastic convictions. In the end one comes to be glad of it, for if +it means anything it means a growth in the truth. + +The criticism of essays is one of the choice opportunities which +education offers, for then the contact of mind with mind is so close +that truth can be told under form of criticism, which as exhortation +would have been less easily accepted. It is evident that increasing +freedom must be allowed as the years go on, and that girls have a right +to their own taste and manner--and within the limits of their knowledge +to form their own opinions; but it is in this period of their +development that they are most sensitive to the mental influence of +those who are training them, and their quick responsiveness to the best +is a constant stimulus to go on for their sakes, discovering and tasting +and training one's discernment in what is most excellent. + +From this point we may pass to what is first in the order of things--but +first and last in this department of an English education--and that is +reading, with the great field of literature before us, and the duty of +making the precious inheritance all that it ought to be to this young +generation of ours--heiresses to all its best. + +English literature will be to children as they grow up, what we have +made it to them in the beginning. There will always be the exceptional +few, privileged ones, who seem to have received the key to it as a +personal gift. They will find their way without us, but if we have the +honour of rendering them service we may do a great deal even for them in +showing where the best things lie, and the way to make them one's own. +But the greater number have to be taken through the first steps with +much thought and discernment, for taste in literature is not always easy +to develop, and may be spoiled by bad management at the beginning. We +are not very teachable as a nation in this matter--our young taste is +wayward, and sometimes contradictory, it will not give account of +itself, very likely it cannot. We have inarticulate convictions that +this is right, and suits us, and something else is wrong as far as our +taste is concerned, and that we have rights to like what we like and +condemn what we do not like, and we have gone a considerable way along +the road before we can stop and look about us and see the reason of our +choice. English literature itself fosters this independent spirit of +criticism by its extraordinary abundance, its own wide liberty of +spirit, its surpassing truthfulness. Our greatest poets and our truest +do not sing to an audience but to their Maker and to His world, and let +anyone who can understand it catch the song, and sing it after them. No +doubt many have fallen from the truth and piped an artificial tune, and +they have had their following. But love for the real and true is very +deep and in the end it prevails, and as far as we can obtain it with +children it must prevail. + +Their first acquaintance with beautiful things is best established by +reading aloud to them, and this need not be limited entirely to what +they can understand at the time. Even if we read something that is +beyond them, they have listened to the cadences, they have heard the +song without the words, the words will come to them later. If there is +good ground for the seed to fall upon, and we sow good seed, it will +come up with its thirtyfold or more, as seed sown in the mind seems +always to come up, whether it be good or bad, and even if it has lain +dormant for years. There are good moments laid up in store for the +future when the words, which have been familiar for years, suddenly +awake to life, and their meaning, full-grown, at the moment when we need +it, or at the moment when we are able to understand its value, dawns +upon the mind. Then we are grateful to those who invested these revenues +for us though we knew it not. We are not grateful to those who give us +the less good though pleasant and easy to enjoy. A little severity and +fastidiousness render us better service. And this is especially true for +girls, since for them it is above all important that there should be a +touch of the severe in their taste, and that they should be a little +exacting, for if they once let themselves go to what is too +light-heartedly popular they do not know where to draw the line and they +go very far, with great loss to themselves and others. + +One of the beautiful things of to-day in England is the wealth of +children's literature. It is a peculiar grace of our time that we are +all trying to give the best to the children, and this is most of all +remarkable in the books published for them. We had rather a silly moment +in which we kept them babies too long and thought that rhymes without +reason would please them, and another moment when we were just a little +morbid about them; but now we have struck a very happy vein, free from +all morbidness, very innocent and very happy, abounding in life and in +no way unfitting for the experiences that have to be lived through +afterwards. No one thinks it waste of time to write and illustrate books +for children, and to do their very best in both, and the result of +historical research and the most critical care of texts is put within +the children's reach with a real understanding of what they can care +for. A true appreciation of the English classics must result from this, +and the mere reading of what is choice is an early safeguard against the +less good. + +Reading, without commentary, is what is best accepted; we are beginning +to come back to this belief. It is agreed almost generally that there +has been too much comment and especially too much analysis in our +teaching of literature, and that the majesty or the loveliness of our +great writers' works have not been allowed to speak for themselves. We +have not trusted them enough, and we have not trusted the children so +much as they deserved. The little boy who said he could understand if +only they would not explain has become historical, and his word of +warning, though it may not have sounded quite respectful, has been taken +into account. We have now fewer of the literary Baedeker's guides who +stopped us at particular points, to look back for the view, and gave the +history and date of the work with its surrounding circumstances, and the +meaning of every word, while they took away the soul of the poem, and +robbed us of our whole impression. We realize now that by reading and +reading again, until they have mastered the music, and the meaning dawns +of itself, children gain more than the best annotations can give them; +these will be wanted later on, but in the beginning they set the +attitude of mind completely wrong for early literary study in which +reverence and receptiveness and delight are of more account than +criticism. The memory of these things is so much to us in after life, +and if the living forms of beautiful poems have been torn to pieces to +show us the structure within, and the matter has been shaken out into +ungainly paraphrase and pursued with relentless analysis until it has +given up the last secret of its meaning, the remembrance of this +destructive process will remain and the spirit will never be the same +again. The best hope for beautiful memories is in perfect reading aloud, +with that reverence of mind and reticence of feeling which keeps itself +in the background, not imposing a marked per-Bonal interpretation, but +holding up the poem with enough support to make it speak for itself and +no more. There is a vexed question about the reading allowed to girls +which cannot be entirely passed over. It is a point on which authorities +differ widely among themselves, according to the standard of their +family, the whole early training which has given their mind a particular +bent, the quality of their own taste and their degree of sensitiveness +and insight, the views which they hold about the character of girls, +their ideas of the world and the probable future surroundings of those +whom they advise, as well as many other considerations. It is quite +impossible to arrive at a uniform standard, or at particular precepts or +at lists of books or authors which should or should not be allowed. Even +if these could be drawn up, it would be more and more difficult to +enforce them or to keep the rules abreast of the requirements of each +publishing season. In reading, as in conduct, each one must bear more +and more of their own personal responsibility, and unless the law is +within themselves there is no possibility of enforcing it. + +The present Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, when rector of St. +John's Seminary, Wonersh, used to lay down the following rules for his +students, and on condition of their adhering to these rules he allowed +them great freedom in their reading, but if they were disregarded, it +was understood that the rector took no responsibility about the books +they read:-- + +1. "Be perfectly conscientious, and if you find a book is doing you harm +stop reading it at once. If you know you cannot stop you must be most +careful not to read anything you don't know about." + +2. "Be perfectly frank with your confessor and other superiors. Don't +keep anything hidden from them." + +3. "Don't recommend books to others which, although they may do no harm +to you, might do harm to them." + +These rules are very short but they call for a great deal of +self-control, frankness, and discretion. They set up an inward standard +for the conscience, and, if honestly followed, they answer in practice +any difficulty that is likely to arise as to choice of reading. [1--In +the Appendix will be found a pastoral letter by Cardinal Bourne, +Archbishop of Westminster, then Bishop of Southwark, bearing on this +subject and full of instruction for all who have to deal with it.] + +But the application of these rules presupposes a degree of judgment and +self-restraint which are hardly to be found in girls of school-room +years, and before they can adjust themselves to the relative standard +and use the curb for themselves, it is necessary to set before them some +fixed rules by which to judge. While life is young and character plastic +and personal valuations still in formation, the difficulty is to know +what is harmful. "How am I to know," such a one may ask, "whether what +seems harmful to me may not be really a gain, giving me a richer life, a +greater expansion of spirit, a more independent and human character? May +not this effect which I take to be harm, be no more than necessary +growing pains; may it not be bringing me into truer relation with life +as it is, and as a whole?" + +There will always be on one side timid and mediocre minds, satisfied to +shut themselves up and safeguard what they already have; and on the +other more daring and able spirits who are tempted beyond the line of +safety in a thirst for discovery and adventure, and are thus swept out +beyond their own immature control. Books that foster the spirit of +rebellion, of doubt and discontent concerning the essentials and +inevitable elements of human life, that tend to sap the sense of +personal responsibility, and to disparage the cardinal virtues and the +duty of self-restraint as against impulse, are emphatically bad. They +are particularly bad for girls with their impressionable minds and +tendency to imitation, and inclination to be led on by the glamour of +the old temptation; "Your eyes shall be opened; you shall be as gods, +knowing good and evil." + +To follow a doubt or a lie or a by-way of conduct with the curiosity to +see what comes of it in the end, is to prepare their own minds for +similar lines of thought and action, and in the crises of life, when +they have to choose for themselves, often unadvised and without time to +deliberate, they are more likely to fall by the doubt or the lie or the +spirit of revolt which has become familiar to them in thought and +sympathy. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MODERN LANGUAGES. + +"All nations have their message from on high, +Each the messiah of some central thought, +For the fulfilment and delight of Man: +One has to teach that Labour is divine; +Another Freedom and another Mind; +And all, that God is open-eyed and just, +The happy centre and calm heart of all." + JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. + +We cannot have a perfect knowledge even of our own language without some +acquaintance with more than one other, either classical or modern. This +is especially true of English because it has drawn its strength and +wealth from so many sources, and absorbed them into itself. But this +value is usually taken indirectly, by the way, and the understanding of +it only comes to us after years as an appreciable good. It is, however, +recognized that no education corresponding to the needs of our own time +can be perfected or even adequately completed in one language alone. Not +only do the actual conditions of life make it imperative to have more +than one tongue at our command from the rapid extension of facilities +for travelling, and increased intercourse with other nations; but in +proportion to the cooling down of our extreme ardour for experimental +science in the school-room we are returning to recognize in language a +means of education more adapted to prepare children for life, by fitting +them for intercourse with their fellow-creatures and giving them some +appreciative understanding of the works of man's mind. Thus languages, +and especially modern languages, are assuming more and more importance +in the education of children, not only with us, but in most other +countries of Europe. In some of them the methods are distinctly in +advance of ours. + +Much has been written of late years in the course of educational +discussions as to the value of classical studies in education. As the +best authorities are not yet in agreement among themselves it would be +obviously out of place to add anything here on the subject. But the +controversy principally belongs to classics in boys' schools; as to the +study of Latin by girls, and in particular to its position in Catholic +schools, there is perhaps something yet to be said. + +In non-Catholic schools for girls Latin has not, even now, a great hold. +It is studied for certain examinations, but except for the few students +whose life takes a professional turn it scarcely outlives the +school-room. Girl students at universities cannot compete on equal terms +with men in a classical course, and the fact is very generally +acknowledged by their choosing another. Except in the rarest +instances--let us not be afraid to own it--our Latin is that of amateurs, +brilliant amateurs perhaps, but unmistakable. Latin, for girls, is a +source of delight, a beautiful enrichment of their mental life, most +precious in itself and in its influence, but it is not a living power, +nor a familiar instrument, nor a great discipline; it is deficient in +hardness and closeness of grain, so that it cannot take polish; it is +apt to betray by unexpected transgressions the want of that long, +detailed, severe training which alone can make classical scholarship. It +is usually a little tremulous, not quite sure of itself, and indeed its +best adornment is generally the sobriety induced by an overshadowing +sense of paternal correction and solicitude always present to check +rashness and desultoriness, and make it at least "gang warily" with a +finger on its lip; and their attainments in Latin are, at the best, +receptively rather than actively of value. + +In Catholic girls' schools, however, the elements of Latin are almost +necessity. It is wanting in courtesy, it is almost uncouth for us to +grow up without any knowledge of the language of Holy Church. It is +almost impossible for educated Catholics to have right taste in +devotion, the "love and relish" of the most excellent things, without +some knowledge of our great liturgical prayers and hymns in the +original. We never can really know them if we only hear them halting and +plunging and splashing through translations, wasting their strength in +many words as they must unavoidably do in English, and at best only +reaching an approximation to the sense. The use of them in the original +is discipline and devotion in one, and it strengthens the Catholic +historical hold on the past, with a sense of nearness, when we dwell +with some understanding on the very words which have been sung in the +Church subsisting in all ages and teaching all nations. This is our +birthright, but it is not truly ours unless we can in some degree make +use of what we own. + +It has often been pointed out that even to the most uneducated amongst +our people Latin is never a dead language to Catholics, and that the +familiar prayers at Mass and public devotions make them at home in the +furthest countries of the earth as soon as they are within the church +doors. So far as this, it is a universal language for us, and even if it +went no further than the world-wide home feeling of the poor in our +churches it would make us grateful for every word of Latin that has a +familiar sound to them, and this alone might make us anxious to teach +Catholic children at school, for the use of prayer and devotion, as much +Latin as they can learn even if they never touch a classic. + +Our attitude towards the study of modern languages has had its high and +low tides within the last century. We have had our submissive and our +obstinate moods; at present we are rather well and affably disposed. +French used to be acknowledged without a rival as the universal +language; it was a necessity, and in general the older generation +learned it carefully and spoke it well. At that time Italian was learned +from taste and German was exceptional. Queen Victoria's German marriage +and all the close connexion that followed from it pressed the study of +German to the front; the influence of Carlyle told in the same +direction, and the study of Italian declined. Then in our enthusiasm for +physical sciences for a time we read more German, but not German of the +best quality, and in another line we were influenced by German literary +criticism. Now, the balance of things has altered again. For scholarship +and criticism German is in great request; in commercial education it is +being outrun by Spanish; for the intercourse of ordinary life Germans +are learning English much more eagerly than we are learning German. We +have had a fit of--let us call it--shyness, but we are trying to do +better. We recognize that these fits of shyness are not altogether to +our credit, not wholly reasonable, and that we are not incapable of +learning foreign languages well. We know the story of the little boy +reprimanded by the magistrate for his folly in running away from home +because he was obliged to learn French, and his haughty reply that if +foreigners wished to speak to him they might learn his language. But our +children have outgrown him, as to his declaration if not as to his want +of diligence, and we are in general reforming our methods of teaching so +much that it will soon be inexcusable not to speak one or two languages +well, besides our own. + +The question of pronunciation and accent has been haunted by curious +prejudices. An English accent in a foreign tongue has been for some +speakers a refuge for their shyness, and for others a stronghold of +their patriotism. The first of these feared that they would not be truly +themselves unless their personality could take shelter beneath an accent +that was unmistakably from England, and the others felt that it was like +hauling down the British flag to renounce the long-drawn English +"A-o-o." And, curiously, at the other extreme, the slightest tinge of an +English accent is rather liked in Paris, perhaps only among those +touched with Anglomania. But now we ought to be able to acquire whatever +accent we choose, even when living far away from every instructor, +having the gramophone to repeat to us untiringly the true Spanish +"manana" and the French "ennui." And the study of phonetics, so much +developed within the last few years, makes it unpardonable for teachers +of modern languages to let the old English faults prevail. + +We have had our succession of methods too. The old method of learning +French, with a _bonne_ in the nursery first, and then a severely +academic governess or tutor, produced French of unsurpassed quality-But +it belonged to home education, it required a great deal of leisure, it +did not adapt itself to school curricula in which each child, to use the +expressive American phrase, "carries" so many subjects that the hours +and minutes for each have to be jealously counted out. There have been a +series of methods succeeding one another which can scarcely be called +more than quack methods of learning languages, claiming to be the +natural method, the maternal method, the only rational method, etc. +Educational advertisements of these have been magnificent in their +promise, but opinions are not entirely at one as to the results. + +The conclusions which suggest themselves after seeing several of these +methods at work are:-- + +1. That good teachers can make use of almost any method with excellent +results but that they generally evolve one of their own. + +2. That if the teachers and the children take a great deal of trouble +the progress will be very remarkable, whatever method is employed, and +that without this both the classical and the "natural" methods can +accomplish very little. + +3. That teachers with fixed ideas about children and about methods +arrest development. + +4. That the self-instruction courses which "work out at a penny a +lesson" (the lesson lasts ten minutes and is especially recommended for +use in trams), and the gramophone with the most elaborate records, still +bear witness to the old doctrine that there is no royal road to the +learning of languages, and that it is not cheap in the end. In +proportion to the value we set upon perfect acquirement of them will be +our willingness to spend much labour upon foundations. By this road we +arrive again at the fundamentals of an educator's calling, love and +labour. + +The value to the mind of acquiring languages is so great that all our +trouble is repaid. It is not utilitarian value: what is merely for +usefulness can be easily acquired, it has very little beauty. It is not +for the sake of that commonplace usefulness that we should care to spend +trouble upon permanent foundations in any tongue. The mind is satisfied +only by the genius of the language, its choicest forms, its +characteristic movement, and, most of all, the possession of its +literature from within, that is to say of the spirit as it speaks to its +own, and in which the language is most completely itself. + +The special fitness of modern languages in a girl's education does not +appear on the surface, and it requires more than a superficial, +conversational knowledge to reap the fruit of their study. The social, +and at present the commercial values are obvious to every one, and of +these the commercial value is growing very loud in its assertions, and +appears very exacting in its demands. For this the quack methods promise +the short and easy way, and perhaps they are sufficient for it. A +knowledge sufficient for business correspondence is not what belongs to +a liberal education; it has a very limited range, hard, plain, brief +communications, supported on cast-iron frames, inelastic forms and +crudest courtesies, a mere formula for each particular case, and a small +vocabulary suited to the dealings of every branch of business. We know +the parallel forms of correspondence in English, which give a means of +communication but not properly a language. Even the social values of +languages are less than they used to be, as the finer art of +conversation has declined. A little goes a long way; the rush of the +motor has cut it short; there is not time to exchange more than a few +commonplaces, and for these a very limited number of words is enough. + +But let our girls give themselves time, or let time be allowed them, to +give a year or two to the real study of languages, not in the threadbare +phrases of the tourist and motorist, nor to mere drawing-room small +talk; not with "matriculation standard" as an object, but to read the +best that has been written, and try to speak according to the best that +can be said now, and to write according to the standard of what is +really excellent to-day; then the study of modern languages is lifted +quite on to another plane. The particular advantage of this plane is +that there is a view from it, wider in proportion to the number of +languages known and to the grasp that is acquired of each, and the +particular educational gift to be found there is width of sympathy and +understanding. Defective sympathies, national and racial prejudices +thrive upon a lower level. The _elect_ of all nations understand one +another, and are strangely alike; the lower we go down in the various +grades of each nation the more is the divergency accentuated between one +and another. Corresponding to this is mutual understanding through +language; the better we possess the language of any nation the closer +touch we can acquire with all that is theirs, with their best. + +A superficial knowledge of languages rather accentuates than removes +limitations, multiplies mistakes and embitters them. With a +half-knowledge we misunderstand each other's ideals, we lose the point +of the best things that are said, we fail to catch the aroma of the +spices and the spirit of the living word; in fact, we are mere tourists +in each other's mental world, and what word could better express the +attitude of mind of one who is a stranger, but not a pilgrim, a tramp of +a rather more civilized kind, having neither ties nor sympathies nor +obligations, nothing to give, and more inclined to take than to receive. +To create ties, sympathies, and obligations in the mental life, is a +grace belonging to the study of languages, and makes it possible to give +and receive hospitality on the best terms with the minds of those of +other nations than our own. This is particularly a gift for the +education of girls, since all graces of hospitality ought to be +peculiarly theirs. To lift them above prejudices, to make them love +other beauties than those of their own mental kindred, to afford them a +wider possibility of giving happiness to others, and of making +themselves at home in many countries, is to give them a power over the +conditions of life which reaches very far into their own mental +well-being and that of others, and makes them in the best meaning of the +word cosmopolitan. + +The choice of languages to be learnt must depend upon many +considerations, but the widest good for English girls, though not the +most easy to attain, is to give them perfect French. German is easier to +learn from its kinship with our own language, but its grammar is of less +educational value than French, and it does not help as French does to +the acquirement of the most attractive of other European languages. + +As a second language, however, and for a great deal that is not +otherwise attainable, German is in general the best that can be chosen. +Italian and Spanish have their special claims, but at present in England +their appeal is not to the many. German gives the feeling of kindred +minds near to us, ourselves yet not ourselves; with primitive Teutonic +strength and directness, with a sweet freshness of spring in its more +delicate poetry, and both of these elements blended at times in an +atmosphere as of German forests in June. In some writers the flicker of +French brilliancy illumines the depth of these Teutonic woods, producing +a German which, in spite of the condemnation of the Emperor, we should +like to write ourselves if the choice were offered to us. + +But, notwithstanding the depth and strength of German, it is generally +agreed that as an instrument of thought French prose in a master-hand is +unrivalled, by its subtlety and precision, and its epigrammatic force. +Every one knows and laments the decadent style which is eating into it; +and every one knows that the deplorable tone of much of its contemporary +literature makes discernment in French reading a matter not only of +education but of conscience and sanity; but this does not make the +danger to be inherent in the French language; obliging translators are +ready to furnish us, in our own language and according to taste, with +the very worst taken, from everywhere. And these faults do not affect +the beauty of the instrument, nor its marvellous aptitude for training +the mind to precision of expression. The logical bent of the French +mind, its love of rule, the elaborateness of its conventions in +literature, its ceremonial observances dating from by-gone times, the +custom of giving account of everything, of letting no nuance pass +unchallenged or uncommented, have given it a power of expression and +definiteness which holds together as a complete code of written and +unwritten laws, and makes a perfect instrument of its kind. But the very +completeness of it has seemed to some writers a fetter, and when they +revolt against and break through it, their extravagance passes beyond +all ordinary bounds. French represents the two extremes, unheard-of +goodness, unequalled perfection, or indescribable badness and +unrestraint. Unfortunately the unrestraint is making its way, and as +with ourselves in England, the magazine literature in France grows more +and more undesirable. + +Yet there is unlimited room for reading, and for Catholics a great +choice of what is excellent. The modern manner of writing the lives of +the Saints has been very successfully cultivated of late years in +France, making them living human beings "interesting as fiction," to use +an accepted standard of measurement, more appealingly credible and more +imitable than those older works in which they walked remote from the +life of to-day, angelic rather than human. There are studies in +criticism, too, and essays in practical psychology and social science, +which bring within the scope of ordinary readers a great deal which with +us can only be reached over rough roads and by-ways. No doubt each +method has its advantages; the laboriously acquired knowledge becomes +more completely a part of ourselves, but along the metalled way it is +obvious that we cover more ground. + +The comparison of these values leads to the practical question of +translations. The Italian saying which identifies the translator with +the traitor ought to give way to a more grateful and hopeful modern +recognition of the services done by conscientious translations. We have +undoubtedly suffered in England in the past by well-meaning but +incompetent translators, especially of spiritual books, who have given +us such impressions as to mislead us about the minds of the writers or +even turned us against them altogether, to our own great loss. But at +present more care is exercised, and conscientious critical exactitude in +translating important spiritual works has given us English versions that +are not unworthy of their originals. [1--An example of this is the late +Canon Mackey's edition of the complete works of St. Francis of Sales, +which has, unfortunately, to be completed without him.] + +There is good service to be done to the Church in England by this work +of translation, and it is one in which grown-up girls, if they have been +sufficiently trained, might give valuable help. It must be borne in mind +that not every book which is beautiful or useful in its own language, is +desirable to translate. Some depend so much upon the genius of the +language and the mentality of their native country that they simply +evaporate in translation; others appeal so markedly to national points +of view that they seem anomalous in other languages, as a good deal of +our present-day English writing would appear in French. It has also to +be impressed on translators that their responsibility is great; that it +takes laborious persistence to make a really good translation, doing +justice to both sides, giving the spirit of the author as well as his +literal meaning, and not straining the language of the translation into +unnatural forms to make it carry a sense that it does not easily bear. + +The beauty of a translator's work is in the perfect accord of conscience +and freedom, and this is not attained without unwearied search for the +right word, the only right word which will give the true meaning and the +true expression of any idea. To believe that this right word exists is +one of the delights of translating; to be a lover of choice and +beautiful words is an attraction in itself, leading to the love of +things more beautiful still, the love of truth, and fitness, and +transparency; the exercise of thought, and discrimination, and balance, +and especially of a quality most rare and precious in women--mental +patience. It is said that we excel in moral patience, but that when we +approach anything intellectual this enduring virtue disappears, and we +must "reach the goal in a bound or never arrive there at all." The +sustained search for the perfect word would do much to correct this +impatience, and if the search is aided by a knowledge of several modern +languages so that comparative meanings and uses may be balanced against +one another, it will be found not only to open rich veins of thought, +but to give an ever-increasing power of working the mines and extracting +the gold. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HISTORY. + +"We have heard, O God, with our ears: our fathers have declared to us, +'The work thou hast wrought in their days, and in the days of +old.'"--Psalm XLIII. + +"Thus independent of times and places, the Popes have never found any +difficulty, when the proper moment came, of following out a new and +daring line of policy (as their astonished foes have called it), of +leaving the old world to shift for itself and to disappear from the +scene in its due season, and of fastening on and establishing themselves +in the new. + +"I am led to this line of thought by St. Gregory's behaviour to the +Anglo-Saxon race, on the break-up of the old civilisation."--Cardinal +Newman, "Historical Sketches," III, "A Characteristic of the Popes." + +Of the so-called secular subjects history is the one which depends most +for its value upon the honour in which it is held and upon the +standpoint from which it is taught. Not that history can be truly a +secular subject if it is taught as a whole--isolated periods 01 +subdivisions may be separated from the rest and studied in a purely +secular spirit, or with no spirit at all--for the animating principle is +not in the subdivided parts but in the whole, and only if it is taught +as a whole can it receive the honour which belongs to it as the "study +of kings," the school of experience and judgment, and one of the +greatest teachers of truth. + +In modern times, since the fall of the Western Empire, European history +has centred, whether for love or for hatred, round the Church; and it is +thus that Catholic education comes to its own in this study, and the +Catholic mind is more at home among the phenomena and problems of +history than other minds for whom the ages of faith are only vaults of +superstition, or periods of mental servitude, or at best, ages of high +romance. Without the Church what are the ideals of the Crusades, of the +Holy Roman Empire, of the religious spirit of chivalry, or the struggle +concerning Investitures, the temporal power of the Popes and their +temporal sovereignty, the misery of the "Babylonian Captivity," the +development of the religious orders--in contemporary history--the Italian +question during the last fifty years, or the present position of the +Church in France? These are incomprehensible phenomena without the +Church to give the key to the controversies and meaning to the ideals. +Without knowing the Catholic Church from within, it is impossible to +conceive of all these things as realities affecting conscience and the +purpose and direction of life; their significance is lost if they have +to be explained as the mere human struggle for supremacy of persons or +classes, mere ecclesiastical disputes, or dreams of imperialism in +Church matters. Take away the Church and try to draw up a course of +lessons satisfactory to the minds even of girls under eighteen, and at +every turn a thoughtful question may be critical, and the explanations +in the hands of a non-Catholic teacher scarcely less futile than the +efforts of old Kaspar to satisfy "young Peterkin" about the battle of +Blenheim. + +What about Investitures? + + "Now tell us all about the war, + And what they fought each other for?" + +What about Canossa? + + "What they fought each other for, + I could not well make out. + But everybody said" quoth he, + "That 'twas a famous victory." + +What about Mentana or Castel-Fidardo? + "What good came of it at last?" + Quoth little Peterkin. + "Why that I cannot tell," said he, + "But 'twas a famous victory." + +The difficulty is tacitly acknowledged by the rare appearance of +European history in the curriculum for non-Catholic girls' schools. But +in any school where the studies are set to meet the requirements of +examinations, the teaching of history is of necessity dethroned from the +place which belongs to it by right. History deserves a position that is +central and commanding, a scheme that is impressive when seen as a whole +in retrospect, it deserves to be taught from a point of view which has +not to be reconsidered in later years, and this is to be found with all +the stability possible, and with every facility for later extension in +the natural arrangement of all modern history round the history of the +Church. + +During the great development which has taken place in the study of +history within the last century, and especially within the last fifty +years, the mass of materials has grown so enormous and the list of +authors of eminence so imposing that one might almost despair of +adapting the subject in any way to a child's world if it were not for +this central point of view, in which the Incarnation and the Church are +the controlling facts dominating all others and giving them their due +place and proportion. On this commanding point of observation the child +and the historian may stand side by side, each seeing truth according to +their capacity, and if the child should grow into a historian it would +be with an unbroken development--there would not be anything to unlearn. +The method of "concentric" teaching against which there is so much to be +said when applied to national history or to other branches of teaching +is entirely appropriate here, because no wider vision of the world can +be attained than from the point whence the Church views it, in her +warfare to make the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of God and +His Christ that He may reign for ever and ever. The Church beholds the +_rational_ not the _sensible_ horizon of history, and standing at her +point of view, the great ones and the little ones of the earth, +historians and children, can look at the same heavens, one with the +scientific instruments of his observatory, the other with the naked eye +of a child's faith and understanding. + +But the teaching of history as it has been carried on for some years, +would have to travel a long way to arrive at this central point of view. +As an educational subject a great deal has been done to destroy its +value, by what was intended to give it assistance and stimulus. The +history syllabus and requirements for University Local and other +examinations have produced specially adapted text-books, in which facts +and summaries have been arranged in order with wonderful care and +forethought, to "meet all requirements"; but the kind intention with +which every possible need has been foreseen between the covers of one +text-book has defeated its own purpose, the living thing is no longer +there--its skeleton remains, and after handling the dry bones and putting +them in order and giving an account of them to the examining body, the +children escape with relief to something more real, to the people of +fiction who, however impossible to believe in, are at least flesh and +blood, and have some points of contact with their own lives. "Of course +as we go up for examinations here," wrote a child from a new school, "we +only learn the summaries and genealogies of history and other subjects." +A sidelight on the fruit of such a plan is often cast in the +appreciations of its pupils. "Did you like history?" "No I hated it, I +can't bear names and dates." "What did you think of so and so?" "He +wasn't in my period." So history has become names and dates, genealogies +and summaries, hard pebbles instead of bread. It is unfair to children +thus to prejudice them against a subject which thrills with human +interest, and touches human life at every turn, it is unfair to history +to present it thus, it is misleading to give development to a particular +period without any general scheme against which it may show in due +proportion, as misleading as the old picture-books for children in which +the bat on one page and the man on the other were of the same size. + +There must necessarily be a principle of selection, but one of the +elements to be considered in making choice ought always to be that of +proportion and of fitness in adaptation to a general scheme. It was +pointed out by Sir Joshua Fitch in his "Lessons on Teaching" (an +old-fashioned book now, since it was published before the deluge of +"Pedagogics," but still valuable) that an ideal plan of teaching history +to children might be found in the historical books of Holy Scripture, +and in practice the idea is useful, suggesting that one aim should be +kept in view, that at times the guiding line should contract to a mere +clue of direction, and at others expand into very full and vivid +narrative chiefly in biographical form. The principle may be applied in +the teaching of any history that may be given to children, that is to +say, in general, to Sacred history which has its own place in connexion +with religious teaching, to ancient history within very small limits, to +Greek and Roman history in such proportion as the years of education may +allow, and to the two most prominent and most necessary for children, +the history of their own country and that of modern Europe directed +along the lines of the history of the Church. + +There are periods and degrees of development in the minds of children to +which correspond different manners of teaching and even different +objects, as we make appeal to one or other of the growing faculties. The +first stage is imaginative, the second calls not only upon the +imagination and memory but upon the understanding, and the third, which +is the beginning of a period of fruition, begins to exercise the +judgment, and to give some ideas concerning principles of research and +criticism. + +The first is the period of romance, when by means of the best myths of +many nations, from their heroic legends and later stories, the minds of +children are turned to what is high and beautiful in the traditions of +the past, and they learn those truths concerning human life and destiny +which transcend the more limited truths of literal records of fact. In +the beginning they are, to children, only stories, but we know ourselves +that we can never exhaust the value of what came to us through the story +of the wanderings of Ulysses, or the mysterious beauty of the Northern +and Western myths, as the story of Balder or the children of Lir. The +art of telling stories is beginning to be taught with wonderful power +and beauty, the storyteller is turning into the pioneer of the +historian, coming in advance to occupy the land, so that history may +have "staked out a claim" before the examining bodies can arrive, in the +dry season, to tread down the young growth. + +The second period makes appeal to the intelligence, as well as to the +imagination, and to this stage belongs particularly the study of the +national history, the history of their own race and country; for English +girls the history of England, not yet constitutional history, but the +history of the Constitution with that of the kings and people, and +further the history of the Empire. To this period of education belong +the great lessons of loyalty and patriotism, that piety towards our own +country which is so much on the decline as the home tie grows feebler. +We do not want to teach the narrow patriotism which only finds +expression in antagonism to and disparagement of other countries, but +that which is shown by self-denial and self-sacrifice for the good of +our own. The time to teach it is in that unsettled "middle age" of +childhood when its exuberant feeling is in search of an ideal, when +large moral effects can be appreciated, when there is some opening +understanding of the value of character. + +If the first period of childhood delights in what is strange, this +second period gives its allegiance to what is strong, by preference to +primitive and simple strength, to uncomplex aims and marked characters; +it appreciates courage and endurance, and can bear to hear of sufferings +which daunt the fastidiousness of those who are a few years older; +perhaps it can endure so much because it realizes so little, but the +fact remains true. This age exults in the sufferings of the martyrs and +cannot bear the suggestion that plain duties may be heroic before God. +There is a great deal that may be done for minds in this period of +development by the teaching of history if it is not crippled in its +programme. To make concrete their ideals of greatness in the right +personalities--a work which is as easily spoiled by a word out of season +as a fine porcelain vase is cracked in a furnace--to direct their ideas +of the aims of life towards worthy and unselfish ends, to foster true +loyalty because of God from whom all authority comes--and this lesson has +its pathetic poignancy for us in the history of our English martyrs--to +show the claims that our country has upon the devotion of its sons and +daughters, and to inspire some feeling of responsibility for its honour, +especially to show the supreme worth of character and self-sacrifice, +all these things may and must be taught in this middle period of +children's education if they are to have any strong hold upon them in +after life. It is a stubborn age in which teaching has to be on strong +lines and deep ones; when the evolution of character is in the critical +period that is to make or mar its future, it needs a strong hand over +it, with power both to control and to support, a strong mind to command +its respect, strong convictions to impress it, and strong principles on +which to test its own young strength; and all those who have the +privilege of teaching history to children of this age have an +incomparable opportunity of training mind and character. The strength of +our own convictions, the brightness of our own ideals, the fibre of our +patriotism and loyalty will tell in the measure of two endowments, our +own spirit of self-sacrifice and our tact. Children will detect the +least false note if self-sacrifice is preached without experimental +knowledge; and as it is the most contradictory of all ages, it takes +every resource of tact to pilot it through channels for which there is +no chart. The masterpieces of educators are wrought in this difficult +but most interesting material. + +Those who come after them will see what they have done, they cannot see +it themselves. With less difficulty perhaps, because reason is more +developed and the hot-headed and irritable phase of character is passing +away, they will be able to apply the principles which have been laid +down. With less difficulty, that is to say against less resistance, but +not with less responsibility or even with less anxiety. For the nearer +the work approaches to its completion and the more perfectly it has been +begun, the more deeply must anyone approaching to lay hand upon it feel +the need for great reverence, and self-restraint, and patience, and +vigilance, not to spoil by careless interference that which is ready to +receive and to give all that is best in youth, not to be unworthy of the +confidence which a young mind is willing to place in its guidance. + +For although so much stress is laid upon the impressionability of first +childhood and the ineffaceable marks that are engraven on it, yet as to +all that belongs to the mind and judgment this third period, in the +early years of adolescence, is more sensitive still, because real +criticism is just beginning to be possible and appreciation is in its +spring-tide, now for the first time fully alive and awake. A transition +line has been passed, and the study of history, like everything else, +enters upon a new phase. The elementary teaching which has been +sufficient up to this, which has in fact been the only possible +teaching, must widen out in the third period, and the relative +importance of aims is the line on which the change to more advanced +teaching is felt. + +The exercise of judgment becomes the chief object, and to direct this +aright is the principal duty of those who teach at this age. It is not +easy to give a right discernment and true views. To begin with one must +have them oneself, and be able to support them with facts and arguments, +they must have the weight of patient work behind them, and have settled +themselves deeply in the mind; opinions freshly gathered that very day +from an article or an essay are attractive and interesting and they +appeal very strongly to young minds looking out for theories and clues, +but they only give superficial help; in general, essay-writers and +journalists do not expect to be taken too seriously, they intend to be +suggestive rather than convincing, and it is a great matter to have the +principle understood by girls, that it is not to the journalists that +they must look for the last word in a controversy, nor for a permanent +presentment of contemporary history. Again, it is necessary to remember +the waywardness of girls' minds, and that it is conviction, not +submission of views that we must aim at. A show of authority is out of +place, the tone that "you must think as I do," tends without any bad +will on the part of children to exasperate them and rouse the spirit of +opposition, whereas a patient and even deferential hearing of their +views and admission of their difficulties ensures at least a mind free +from irritation and impatience, to listen and to take into account what +we have to say. They are not to be blamed for having difficulties in +accepting what we put before them; on the contrary we must welcome their +independent thought even if it seems aggressive and conceited; their +positive assurance that they see to the end of things is characteristic +of their age, but it is better that they should show themselves thus, +than through want of thought or courage fall in with everything that is +set before them, or, worse still, take that pose of impartiality which +allows no views at all, and in the end obliterates the line between +right and wrong. The too submissive minds which give no trouble now, are +laying it all up for the future. They accept what we tell them without +opposition, others will come later on, telling them something different, +and they will accept it in the same way, and correct their views day by +day to the readings of the daily paper, or of the _vogue_ of their own +particular set. These are the minds which in the end are absorbed by the +world: the Church receives neither love nor service from them. + +Judgment may be passed upon actions as right or wrong in themselves, or +as practically adapting means to end; the first is of great interest +even to young children, but for them it is all black or white, and +characters are to them entirely good or entirely bad, deserving of +unmixed admiration or of their most excellent hatred, which they pour +out simply and vehemently, rejoicing without qualms of pity when +punishment overtakes the wrongdoer and retributive justice is done to +the wicked. This is perhaps what makes them seem bloodthirsty in their +vengeance; they feel that so it ought to be, and that the affirmation of +principle is of more account than the individual. They detest +half-measures and compromise. For the elder girls it is not so simple, +and the nearer they come to our own times the more necessary is it to +put before them that good is not always unaccompanied by evil nor evil +by good. + +In the last two or three years of a girl's education all the time that +can be spared may be most profitably spent on the study of modern +history, since it is there that the more complex problems are found, and +there also that they will understand how contemporary questions have +their springs in the past, and see the rise of the forces which are at +work now, disintegrating the nations of Europe and shaking the +foundations of every government. There are grave lessons to be learnt, +not in gloomy or threatening forecasts but in showing the direction of +cause and effect and the renewal of the same struggle which has been +from the beginning, in ever fresh phases. The outcome of historical +teaching to Catholics can never be discouragement or depression, +whatever the forecast. The past gives confidence, and, when the glories +of bygone ages are weighed against their troubles, and the Church's +troubles now against her inward strength and her new horizons of hope, +there is great reason for gratitude that we live in our own much-abused +time. In every age the Church has, with her roots in the past, some buds +and blossoms in the present and some fruit coming on for the future. +Hailstorms may cut off both blossoms and fruit, but all will not be +lost. We can always hold up our heads; there are buds on the fig-tree +and we know in whom we have believed. + +In bringing home to children these grounds for thankfulness, the quality +of one's own mind and views tells very strongly, and this leads to the +consideration of what is chiefly required in teaching history to +children, and to girls growing up. The first and most essential point is +that we ourselves should care about what we teach, not that we should +merely like history as a school subject, but that it should be real to +us, that we should feel something about it, joy or triumph or +indignation, things which are not found in text-books, and we should +believe that it all matters very much to the children and to ourselves. +Lessons of the text-book type, facts, dates, summaries, and synopses +matter very little to children, but people are of great importance, and +if they grasp what often they only half believe, that what they are +repeating as a mere lesson really took place among people who saw and +felt it as vividly as they would themselves, then their sympathies and +understanding are carried beyond the bounds of their school-rooms and +respond to the touch of the great doings and sufferings of the race. + +It is above all in the history of the Church that this sympathetic +understanding becomes real. The interest of olden times in secular +history is more dramatic and picturesque than real to children; but in +the history of the Church and especially of the personalities of the +popes the continuity of her life is very keenly felt; the popes are all +of to-day, they transcend the boundaries of their times because in a +number of ways they did and had to do and bear the very same things that +are done and have to be borne by the popes of our own day. If we give to +girls some vivid realization, say, of the troubled Pontificate of +Boniface VIII, with the violence and tragedy and pathos in which it +ended, after the dust and jarring and weariness of battle in which it +was spent; if they have entered into something of the anguish of Pius +VII, they will more fully understand and feel deeper love and sympathy +for the living, suffering successor now in the same chair, in another +phase of the same conflict, with the Gentiles and peoples of the rising +democracies taking counsel together against him, as kings and rulers did +in the past, all imagining the same "vain thing," that they can overcome +Christ and His Vicar. + +Besides this living sympathy with what we teach, we must be able to +speak truth without being afraid of its consequences. There was at one +time a fear in the minds of Catholic teachers that by admitting that any +of the popes had been unworthy of their charge, or that there had ever +been abuses which called for reforms among clergy and religious and +Catholic laity, they would be giving away the case for the Church and +imperilling the faith and loyalty of children; that it was better they +should only hear these things later, with the hope that they would never +hear them at all. The real peril is in the course thus adopted. +Surrounded as we are by non-Catholics, and in a time when no Catholic +escapes from questions and attacks, open or covert, upon what we +believe, the greatest injustice to the girls themselves, and to the +honour of the faith, was to send them out unarmed against what they must +necessarily meet. The first challenge would be met with a flat denial of +facts, loyal-heartedly and confidently given; then would come a +suspicion that there might be something in it, the inquiry which would +show that this was really the case; then a certain right indignation, +"Why was I not told the truth?" and a sense of insecurity vaguely +disturbing the foundations which ought to be on immovable bed-rock. At +the best, such an experience produces what builders call a "settlement," +not dangerous to the fabric but unsightly in its consequences; it may, +however, go much further, first to shake and then to loosen the whole +spiritual building by the insinuation of doubt everywhere. It is +impossible to forewarn children against all the charges which they may +hear against the Church, but two points well established in their minds +will give them confidence. + +1. That the evidence which is brought to light year after year from +access to State papers and documents tells on the side of the Church, as +we say in England, of "the old religion," and not against it. Books by +non-Catholics are more convincing than others in this matter, since they +are free from the suspicion of partisanship; for instance, Gairdner's +"Lollardy and the Reformation" which disposes of many mythical monsters +of Protestant history. + +2. That even if the facts were still more authentic to justify personal +attacks on some of the popes, even if the abuses in the Church had not +been grossly exaggerated, even putting facts at their worst, granting +all that is assumed, it tends to strengthen faith rather than to +undermine it, for the existence of the Church and the Papacy as they are +to-day is a wonder only enhanced by every proof that it ought to have +perished long ago according to all human probability. With that +confidence and assurance even our little girls may hold their heads +high, with their faith and trust in the Church quite unabashed, and wait +for an answer if they cannot give it to others or to themselves at the +moment. "We have no occasion to answer thee concerning this matter," +said the three holy children to Nabuchodonosor, and so may our own +children say if they are hard pressed, "your charges do but confirm our +faith, we have no occasion to answer." + +It is impossible to leave so great a subject as history without saying a +word on the manner of teaching it (for in this a manner is needed rather +than a method), when it is emancipated from the fetters of prescribed +periods and programmes which attach it entirely to text-books. +Text-books are not useless but they are very hard to find, and many +Catholic text-books, much to be desired, are still unwritten, especially +in England. America has made more effort in this direction than we. But +the strength of historical teaching for children and girls at school +lies in oral lessons, and of these it would seem that the most effective +form is not the conversational lesson which is so valuable in other +subjects, nor the formal lesson with "steps," but the form of a story +for little ones; for older children the narrative leading up to a point +of view, with conversational intervals, and encouragement for thoughtful +questions, especially at the end of the lesson; and in the last years an +informal kind of lecture, a transition from school-room methods to the +style of formal lectures which maybe attended later. + +Lessons in history are often spoiled by futile questions put in as it +were for conscience' sake, to satisfy the obligation of questioning, or +to rouse the flagging attention of a child, but this is too great a +sacrifice. It is artistically a fault to jar the whole movement of a +good narrative for the sake of running after one truant mind. It is also +artistically wrong and jarring to go abruptly from the climax of a +story, or narrative, or lecture which has stirred some deep thought or +emotion, and call with a sudden change of tone for recapitulation, or +summary, or discussion. Silence is best; the greater lessons of history +ought to transcend the limits of mere lessons, they are part of life, +and they tell more upon the mind if they are dissociated from the +harness and trappings of school work. Written papers for younger +students and essays for seniors are the best means of calling for their +results, and of guiding the line of reading by which all oral teaching +of history and study of text-books must be supplemented. + +When school-room education is finished what we may look for is that +girls should be ready and inclined to take up some further study of +history, by private reading or following lectures with intelligence, and +that they should be able to express themselves clearly in writing, +either in the form of notes, papers, or essays, so as to give an account +of their work and their opinions to those who may direct these later +studies. We may hope that what they have learned of European history +will enable them to travel with understanding and appreciation, that +places with a history will mean something to them, and that the great +impression of a living past may set a deep mark upon them with its +discipline of proportion that makes them personally so small and yet so +great, small in proportion to all that has been, great in their +inheritance from the whole past and in expectation of all that is yet to +be. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +ART. + + "Give honour unto Luke Evangelist: + For he it was (the aged legends say) + Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray. +Scarcely at once she dared to rend the mist +Of devious symbols: but soon having wist + How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day + Are symbols also in some deeper way, +She looked through these to God, and was God's priest. + +"And if, past noon, her toil began to irk, +And she sought talismans, and turned in vain + To soulless self-reflections of man's skill, + Yet now, in this the twilight, she might still +Kneel in the latter grass to pray again, +Ere the night cometh and she may not work." + DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. + +When we consider how much of the direction of life depends upon the +quality of our taste, upon right discernment in what we like and +dislike, it is evident that few things can be more important in +education than to direct this directing force, and both to learn and +teach the taste for what is best as far as possible in all things. For +in the matter of taste nothing is unimportant. Taste influences us in +every department of life, as our tastes are, so are we. The whole +quality of our inner and outer life takes its tone from the things in +which we find pleasure, from our standard of taste. If we are severe in +our requirements, hard to please, and at least honest with ourselves, it +will mean that a spur of continual dissatisfaction pricks us, in all we +do, into habitual striving for an excellence which remains beyond our +reach. But on the other hand we shall have to guard against that peevish +fastidiousness which narrows itself down until it can see nothing but +defects and faults, and loses the power of humbly and genuinely +admiring. This passive dissatisfaction which attempts nothing of its +own, and only finds fault with what is done by others, grows very fast +if it is allowed to take hold, and produces a mental habit of merely +destructive criticism or perpetual scolding. Safe in attempting nothing +itself, unassailable and self-righteous as a Pharisee, this spirit can +only pull down but not build up again. In children it is often the +outcome of a little jealousy and want of personal courage; they can be +helped to overcome it, but if it is allowed to grow up, dissatisfaction +allied to pusillanimity are very difficult to correct. + +On the other hand, if we are amiably and cheerfully inclined to admire +things in general in a popular way, easily pleased and not exacting, we +shall both receive and give a great deal of pleasure, but it will be all +in a second and third and fourth-rate order of delight, and although +this comfortable turn of mind is saved from much that is painful and +jarring, it is not exempt from the danger of itself jarring continually +upon the feelings of others, of pandering to the downward tendency in +what is popular, and, in education, of debasing the standard of taste +and discrimination for children. To be swayed by popularity in matters +of taste is to accept mediocrity wholesale. We have left too far behind +the ages when the taste of the people could give sound and true judgment +in matters of art; we have left them at a distance which can be measured +by what lies between the greatest Greek tragedies and contemporary +popular plays. Consternation is frequently expressed at seeing how +theatres of every grade are crowded with children of all classes in +life, so it is from these popular plays that they must be learning the +first lessons of dramatic criticism. + +There are only rare instances of taste which is instinctively true, and +the process of educational pressure tends to level down original thought +in children, as the excess of magazine and newspaper reading works in +the same direction for older minds, so that true, independent taste +becomes more rare; the result does not seem favourable to the +development of the best discernment in those who ought to sway the taste +of their generation. If taste in art is entirely guided by that of +others, and especially by fashion, it cannot attain to the possession of +an independent point of view; yet this in a modest degree every one with +some training might aspire to. But under the sway of fashion taste is +cowed; it becomes conventional, and falls under the dominion of the +current price of works of art. On the other hand it is more unfortunate +to be self-taught in matters of taste than in any other order of things. +In this point taste ranks with manners, which are, after all, a +department of the same region of right feeling and discernment. If taste +is untaught and spontaneous, it is generally unreliable and without +consistency. If self-taught it can hardly help becoming dogmatic and +oracular, as some highly gifted minds have become, making themselves the +supreme court of appeal for their own day. + +But trained taste is grounded in reverence and discipleship, a lowly and +firm basis for departure, from which it may, if it has the power to do +or to discern, rise in its strength, and leave behind those who have +shown the way, or soar in great flights beyond their view. So it has +often been seen in the history of art, and such is the right order of +growth. It needs the living voice and the attentive mind, the influence +of trained and experienced judgment to guide us in the beginning, but +the guide must let us go at last and we must rely upon ourselves. + +The bad effect of being either self-taught or conventional is +exclusiveness; in one case the personal bias is too marked, in the other +the temporary aspect appeals too strongly. In the education of taste it +is needful that the child should "eat butter and honey," not only so as +to refuse the evil and choose the good, but also to judge between good +and good, and to know butter from honey and honey from butter. This is +the principal end of the study of art in early education. The _doing_ is +very elementary, but the principles of discernment are something for +life, feeding the springs of choice and delight, and making sure that +they shall run clear and untroubled. + +Teaching concerning art which can be given to girls has to be approached +with a sense of responsibility from conviction of the importance of its +bearing on character as a whole. Let anyone who has tried it pass in +review a number of girls as they grow up, and judge whether their +instinct in art does not give a key to their character, always supposing +that they have some inclination to reflect on matters of beauty, for +there are some who are candidly indifferent to beauty if they can have +excitement. They have probably been spoiled as children and find it hard +to recover. Excitement has worn the senses so that their report grows +dull and feeble. Imagination runs on other lines and requires +stimulants; there is no stillness of mind in which the perception of +beauty and harmony and fitness can grow up. + +There are others--may they be few--in whose minds there is little room for +anything but success. Utilitarians in social life, their determination +is to get on, and this spirit pervades all they do; it has the making of +the hardest-grained worldliness: to these art has nothing to say. But +there are others to whom it has a definite message, and their response +to it corresponds to various schools or stages of art. There are some +who are daring and explicit in their taste; they resent the curb, and +rush into what is extravagant with a very feeble protest against it from +within themselves. Beside them are simpler minds, merely exuberant, for +whom there can never be enough light or colour in their picture of life. +If they are gifted with enough intelligence to steady their joyful +constitution of mind, these will often develop a taste that is fine and +true. In the background of the group are generally a few silent members +of sensitive temperament and deeper intuition, who see with marvellous +quickness, but see too much to be happy and content, almost too much to +be true. They incline towards another extreme, an ideal so high-pitched +as to become unreal, and it meets with the penalty of unreality in +over-balancing itself. Children nearly always pull to one side or the +other; it is a work of long patience even to make them accept that there +should be a golden mean. Did they ever need it so much as they do now? +Probably each generation in turn, from Solomon's time onward, has asked +the same question. But in the modern world there can hardly have been a +time in which the principle of moderation needed to be more sustained, +for there has never been a time when circumstances made man more daring +in face of the forces of nature, and this same daring in other +directions, less beautiful, is apt to become defiant and unashamed of +excess. It asserts itself most loudly in modern French art, but we are +following close behind, less logical and with more remaining traditions +of correctness, but influenced beyond what we like to own. + +In the education of girls, which is subject to so many limitations, very +often short in itself, always too short for what would be desirable to +attain, the best way to harmonize aesthetic teaching is not to treat it +in different departments, but to centre all round the general history of +art. This leaves in every stage the possibility of taking up particular +branches of art study, whether historical, or technical, or practical, +and these will find their right place, not dissociated from their +antecedents and causes, not paramount but subordinate, and thus rightly +proportioned and true in their relation to the whole progress of mankind +in striving after beauty and the expression of it. + +The history of art in connexion with the general history of the human +race is a complement to it, ministering to the understanding of what is +most intimate, stamping the expression of the dominant emotion on the +countenance of every succeeding age. This is what its art has left to +us, a more confidential record than its annals and chronicles, and more +accessible to the young, who can often understand feelings before they +can take account of facts in their historical importance. In any case +the facts are clothed in living forms there where belief and aspiration +and feeling have expressed themselves in works of art. If we value for +children the whole impression of the centuries, especially in European +history, more than the mere record of changes, the history of art will +allow them to apprehend it almost as the biographies of great persons +who have set their signature upon the age in which they lived. + +As each of the fine arts has its own history which moves along divergent +or parallel lines in different countries and periods, and as each +development or check is bound up with the history of the country or +period and bears its impress, the interpretation of one is assisted and +enriched by the other, and both are linked together to illuminate the +truth. It is only necessary to consider the position of Christian art in +the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the changes wrought by the +Renaissance, to estimate the value of some knowledge of it in giving to +children a right understanding of those times and of what they have left +to the world. Again, the inferences to be drawn from the varied +developments of Gothic architecture in France, Spain, and England are +roads indicated to what is possible to explore in later studies, both in +history and in art. And so the schools of painting studied in their +history make ready the way for closer study in after years. Pugin's +"Book of Contrasts" is an illustration full of suggestive power as to +the service which may be rendered in teaching by comparing the art of +one century with that of another, as expressive of the spirit of each +period, and a means of reading below the surface. + +Without Pugin's bitterness the same method of contrast has been used +most effectively to put before children by means of lantern slides and +lectures the manner in which art renders truth according to the various +ideals and convictions of the artists. It is a lesson in itself, a +lesson in faith, in devotion, as well as in art and in the history of +man's mind, to show in succession, or even side by side, though the +shock is painful, works of art in which the Christian mysteries are +rendered in an age of faith or in one of unbelief. They can see in the +great works of Catholic art how faith exults in setting them forth, with +undoubting assurance, with a theological grasp of their bearings and +conclusions, with plenitude of conviction and devotion that has no +afterthoughts; and in contrasting with these the strained efforts to +represent the same subjects without the illumination of theology they +will learn to measure the distance downwards in art from faith to +unbelief. + +The conclusions may carry them further, to judge from the most modern +paintings of the tone of mind of their own time, of its impatience and +restlessness and want of hope. Let them compare the patient finish, the +complete thought given to every detail in the works of the greatest +painters, the accumulated light and depth, the abounding life, with the +hasty, jagged, contemporary manner of painting, straining into harshness +from want of patience, tense and angular from want of real vitality, +exhausted from the absence of inward repose. They will comment for +themselves upon the pessimism to which so many surrender themselves, +taking with them their religious art, with its feeble Madonnas and +haggard saints, without hope or courage or help, painted out of the +abundance of their own heart's sadness. This contrast carries much +teaching to the children of to-day if they can understand it, for each +one who sets value upon faith and hope and resolution and courage in art +is a unit adding strength to the line of defence against the invasions +of sadness and dejection of spirit. + +These considerations belong to the moral and spiritual value of the +study of art, in the early years of an education intended to be general. +They are of primary importance although in themselves only indirect +results of the study. As to its direct results, it may be said in +general that two things must be aimed at during the years of school +life, appreciation of the beautiful in the whole realm of art, and some +very elementary execution in one or other branch, some doing or making +according to the gift of each one. + +The work on both sides is and can be only preparation, only the +establishment of principles and the laying of foundations; if anything +further is attempted during school life it is apt to throw the rest of +the education out of proportion, for in nothing whatever can a girl +leaving the school-room be looked upon as having finished. It is a great +deal if she is well-grounded and ready to begin. Even the very branches +of study to which a disproportioned space has been allowed will suffer +the penalty of it later on, for the narrow basis of incomplete +foundations tends to make an ill-balanced superstructure which cannot +bear the stress of effort required for perfection without falling into +eccentricity or wearing itself out. Both misfortunes have been seen +before now when infant prodigies have been allowed to grow on one side +only. Restraint and control and general building up tend to strengthen +even the talent which has apparently to be checked, by giving it space +and equilibrium and the power of repose. Even if art should be their +profession or their life-work in any form, the sacrifices made for +general education will be compensated in the mental and moral balance of +their work. + +If general principles of art have been kept before the minds of +children, and the history of art has given them some true ideas of its +evolution, they are ready to learn the technique and practice of any +branch to which they may be attracted. But as music and painting are +more within their reach than other arts, it is reasonable that they +should be provided for in the education of every child, so that each +should have at least the offer and invitation of an entrance into those +worlds, and latent talents be given the opportunity of declaring +themselves. Poetry has its place apart, or rather it has two places, its +own in the field of literature, and another, as an inspiration pervading +all the domain of the fine arts, allied with music by a natural +affinity, connected with painting on the side of imagination, related in +one way or another to all that is expressive of the beautiful. Children +will feel its influence before they can account for it, and it is well +that they should do so--to feel it is in the direction of refusing the +evil and choosing the good. + +Music is coming into a more important place among educational influences +now that the old superstition of making every child play the piano is +passing away. It was an injustice both to the right reason of a child +and to the honour of music when it was forced upon those who were +unwilling and unfit to attain any degree of excellence in it. We are +renouncing these superstitions and turning to something more widely +possible--to cultivate the audience and teach them to listen with +intelligence to that which without instruction is scarcely more than +pleasant noise, or at best the expression of emotion. The intellectual +aspect of music is beginning to be brought forward in teaching children, +and with this awakening the whole effect of music in education is +indefinitely raised. It has scarcely had time to tell yet, but as it +extends more widely and makes its way through the whole of our +educational system it may be hoped that the old complaints, too well +founded, against the indifference and carelessness of English audiences, +will be heard no more. We shall never attain to the kind of religious +awe which falls upon a German audience, or to its moods of emotion, but +we may reach some means of expression which the national character does +not forbid, showing at least that we understand, even though we must not +admit that we feel. + +It is impossible to suggest what may be attained by girls of exceptional +talent, but in practice if the average child-students, with fair musical +ability, can at the end of their school course read and sing at sight +fairly easy music, and have a good beginning of intelligent playing on +one or two instruments, they will have brought their foundations in +musical practice up to the level of their general education. If with +some help they can understand the structure of a great musical work, and +perhaps by themselves analyse an easy sonata, they will be in a position +to appreciate the best of what they will hear afterwards, and if they +have learnt something of the history of music and of the works of the +great composers, their musical education will have gone as far as +proportion allows before they are grown up. Some notions of harmony, +enough to harmonize by the most elementary methods a simple melody, will +be of the greatest service to those whose music has any future in it. + +Catholic girls have a right and even a duty to learn something of the +Church's own music; and in this also there are two things to be +learnt--appreciation and execution. And amongst the practical +applications of the art of music to life there is nothing more +honourable than the acquired knowledge of ecclesiastical music to be +used in the service of the Church. When the love and understanding of +its spirit are acquired the diffusion of a right tone in Church music is +a means of doing good, as true and as much within the reach of many +girls as the spread of good literature; and in a small and indirect way +it allows them the privilege of ministering to the beauty of Catholic +worship and devotion. + +The scope of drawing and painting in early education has been most ably +treated of in many general and special works, and does not concern us +here except in so far as it is connected with the training of taste in +art which is of more importance to Catholics than to others, as has been +considered above, in its relation to the springs of spiritual life, to +faith and devotion, and also in so far as taste in art serves to +strengthen or to undermine the principles on which conduct is based. We +have to brace our children's wills to face restraint, to know that they +cannot cast themselves at random and adrift in the pursuit of art, that +their ideals must be more severe than those of others, and that they +have less excuse than others if they allow these ideals to be debased. +They ought to learn to be proud of this restraint, not to believe +themselves thwarted or feel themselves galled by it, but to understand +that it stands for a higher freedom by the side of which ease and +unrestraint are more like servitude than liberty; it stands for the +power to refuse the evil and choose the good; it stands for intellectual +and moral freedom of choice, holding in check the impulse and +inclination that are prompted from within and invited from without to +escape from control. + +The best teaching in this is to show what is best, and to give the +principles by which it is to be judged. To talk of what is bad, or less +good, even by way of warning, is less persuasive and calculated even to +do harm to girls whose temper of mind is often "quite contrary." +Warnings are wearisome to them, and when they refer to remote dangers, +partly guessed at, mostly unknown, they even excite the spirit of +adventure to go and find out for themselves, just as in childhood +repeated warnings and threats of the nursery-maids and maiden aunts are +the very things which set the spirit of enterprise off on the voyage of +discovery, a fact which the head nurse and the mother have found out +long ago, and so have learnt to refrain from these attractive +advertisements of danger. So it is with teachers. We learn by experience +that a trumpet blast of warning wakes the echoes at first and rouses all +that is to be roused, but also that if it is often repeated it dulls the +ear and calls forth no response at all. Quiet positive teaching +convinces children; to show them the best things attracts them, and once +their true allegiance is given to the best, they have more security +within themselves than in many danger signals set up for their safety. +What is most persuasive of all is a whole-hearted love for real truth +and beauty in those who teach them. Their own glow of enthusiasm is +caught, light from light, and taste from taste, and ideal from ideal; +warning may be lost sight of, but this is living spirit and will last. + +What children can accomplish by the excellent methods of teaching +drawing and painting which are coming into use now, it is difficult to +say. Talent as well as circumstances and conditions of education differ +very widely in this. But as preparation for intelligent appreciation +they should acquire some elementary principles of criticism, and some +knowledge of the history and of the different schools of painting, +indications of what to look for here and there in Europe and likewise of +how to look at it; this is what they can take with them as a foundation, +and in some degree all can acquire enough to continue their own +education according to their opportunities. Matter-of-fact minds can +learn enough not to be intolerable, the average enough to guide and +safeguard their taste. They are important, for they will be in general +the multitude, the public, whose judgment is of consequence by its +weight of numbers; they will by their demand make art go upwards or +downwards according to their pleasure. For the few, the precious few who +are chosen and gifted to have a more definite influence, all the love +they can acquire in their early years for the best in art will attach +them for life to what is sane and true and lovely and of good fame. + +The foundations of all this lie very deep in human nature, and taste +will be consistent with itself throughout the whole of life. It +manifests itself in early sensitiveness and responsiveness to artistic +beauty. It determines the choice in what to love as well as what to +like. It will assert itself in friendship, and estrangement in matters +of taste is often the first indication of a divergence in ideals which +continues and grows more marked until at some crossroads one takes the +higher path and the other the lower and their ways never meet again. +That higher path, the disinterested love of beauty, calls for much +sacrifice; it must seek its pleasure on ly in the highest, and not look +for a first taste of delight, but a second, when the power of criticism +has been schooled by a kind of asceticism to detect the choice from the +vulgar and the true from the insincere. This spirit of sacrifice must +enter into every form of training for life, but above all into the +training of the Catholic mind. It has a wide range and asks much of its +disciples, a certain renunciation and self-restraint in all things which +never completely lets itself go. Catholic art bears witness to this: +"Where a man seeks himself there he falls from love," says a Kempis, and +this is proved not only in the love of God, but in what makes the glory +of Christian art, the love of beauty and truth in the service of faith. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MANNERS. + +"Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each--once--a stroke of +genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into usage."--EMERSON. + +The late Queen Victoria had a profound sense of the importance of +manners and of certain conventionalities, and the singular gift of +common sense, which stood for so much in her, stands also for the +significance of those things on which she laid so much stress. + +Conventionality has a bad name at present, and manners are on the +decline, this is a fact quite undisputed. As to conventionalities it is +assumed that they represent an artificial and hollow code, from the +pressure of which all, and especially the young, should be emancipated. +And it may well be that there is something to be said in favour of +modifying them--in fact it must be so, for all human things need at times +to be revised and readapted to special and local conditions. To attempt +to enforce the same code of conventions on human society in different +countries, or at different stages of development, is necessarily +artificial, and if pressed too far it provokes reaction, and in reaction +we almost inevitably go to extreme lengths. So in reaction against too +rigid conventionalities and a social ritual which was perhaps +over-exacting, we are swinging out beyond control in the direction of +complete spontaneity. And yet there is need for a code of +conventions--for some established defence against the instincts of +selfishness which find their way back by a short cut to barbarism if +they are not kept in check. + +Civilized selfishness leads to a worse kind of barbarism than that of +rude and primitive states of society, because it has more resources at +its command, as cruelty with refinement has more resources for +inflicting pain than cruelty which can only strike hard. Civilized +selfishness is worse also in that it has let go of better things; it is +not in progress towards a higher plane of life, but has turned its back +upon ideals and is slipping on the down-grade without a check. We can +see the complete expression of life without conventions in the +unrestraint of "hooliganism" with us, and its equivalents in other +countries. In this we observe the characteristic product of bringing up +without either religion, or conventions, or teaching in good manners +which are inseparable from religion. We see the demoralization of the +very forces which make both the strength and the weakness of youth and a +great part of its charm, the impetuosity, the fearlessness of +consequence, the lightheartedness, the exuberance which would have been +so strong for good if rightly turned, become through want of this right +impetus and control not strong but violent, uncontrollable and reckless +to a degree which terrifies the very authorities who are responsible for +them, in that system which is bringing up children with nothing to hold +by, and nothing to which they can appeal. Girls are inclined to go even +further than boys in this unrestraint through their greater excitability +and recklessness, and their having less instinct of self-preservation. +It is a problem for the local authorities. Their lavish expenditure upon +sanitation, adornment, and--to use the favourite word--"equipment" of +their schools does not seem to touch it; in fact it cannot reach the +real difficulty, for it makes appeal to the senses and neglects the +soul, and the souls of children are hungry for faith and love and +something higher to look for, beyond the well-being of to-day in the +schools, and the struggle for life, in the streets, to-morrow. + +It is not only in the elementary schools that such types of formidable +selfishness are produced. In any class of life, in school or home, +wherever a child is growing up without control and "handling," without +the discipline of religion and manners, without the yoke of obligations +enforcing respect and consideration for others, there a rough is being +brought up, not so loud-voiced or so uncouth as the street-rough, but as +much out of tune with goodness and honour, with as little to hold by and +appeal to, as troublesome and dangerous either at home or in society, as +uncertain and unreliable in a party or a ministry, and in any +association that makes demand upon self-control in the name of duty. + +This is very generally recognized and deplored, but except within the +Church, which has kept the key to these questions, the remedy is hard to +find. Inspectors of elementary schools have been heard to say that, even +in districts where the Catholic school was composed of the poorest and +roughest elements, the manners were better than those of the well-to-do +children in the neighbouring Council schools. They could not account for +it, but we can; the precious hour of religious teaching for which we +have had to fight so hard, influences the whole day and helps to create +the "Catholic atmosphere" which in its own way tells perhaps more widely +than the teaching. Faith tells of the presence of God and this underlies +the rest, while the sense of friendly protection, the love of Our Lady, +the angels, and saints, the love of the priest who administers all that +Catholic children most value, who blesses and absolves them in God's +name, all these carry them out of what is wretched and depressing in +their surroundings to a different world in which they give and receive +love and respect as children of God. No wonder their manners are gentler +and their intercourse more disposed to friendliness, there is something +to appeal to and uphold, something to love. + +The Protestant Reformation breaking up these relations and all the +ceremonial observance in which they found expression, necessarily +produced deterioration of manners. As soon as anyone, especially a +child, becomes--not rightly but aggressively--independent, argumentatively +preoccupied in asserting that "I am as good as you are, and I can do +without you"--he falls from the right proportion of things, becomes less +instead of greater, because he stands alone, and from this to warfare +against all order and control the step is short. So it has proved. The +principles of Protestantism worked out to the principles of the +Revolution, and to their natural outcome, seen at its worst in the Reign +of Terror and the Commune of 1871 in Paris. + +Again the influence of the Church on manners was dominant in the age of +chivalry. At that time religion and manners were known to be +inseparable, and it was the Church that handled the rough vigour of her +sons to make them gentle as knights. This is so well known that it needs +no more than calling to mind, and, turning attention to the fact that +all the handling was fundamental, it is handling that makes manners. +Even the derivation of the word does not let us forget this--_manners_ +from _manieres_, from _manier_, from _main_, from _manus_, the touch of +the human hand upon the art of living worthily in human society, without +offence and without contention, with the gentleness of a race, the +_gens_, that owns a common origin, the urbanity of those who have +learned to dwell in a city "compact together," the respect of those who +have some one to look to for approval and control, either above them in +dignity, or beneath them in strength, and therefore to be considered +with due reverence. + +The handling began early in days of chivalry, no time was lost, because +there would necessarily be checks on the way. Knighthood was far off, +but it could not be caught sight of too early as an ideal, and it was +characteristic of the consideration of the Church that, in the scheme of +manners over which she held sway, the first training of her knights was +intrusted to women. For women set the standard of manners in every age, +if a child has not learnt by seven years old how to behave towards them +it is scarcely possible for him to learn it at all, and it is by women +only that it can be taught. The little _damoiseaux_ would have perfect +and accomplished manners for their age when they left the apartments of +the ladies at seven years old; it was a matter of course that they would +fall off a good deal in their next stage. They would become "pert," as +pages were supposed to be, and diffident as esquires, but as knights +they would come back of themselves to the perfect ways of their +childhood with a grace that became well the strength and self-possession +of their knighthood. We have no longer the same formal and ceremonial +training; it is not possible in our own times under the altered +conditions of life, yet it commands attention for those who have at +heart the future well-being of the boys and girls of to-day. The +fundamental facts upon which manners are grounded remain the same. These +are, some of them, worth consideration:-- + +1. That manners represent a great deal more than mere social +observances; they stand as the outward expression of some of the deepest +springs of conduct, and none of the modern magic of philanthropy-- +altruism, culture, the freedom and good-fellowship of democracy, +replaces them, because, in their spirit, manners belong to religion. + +2. That manners are a matter of individual training, so that they could +never be learnt from a book. They can scarcely be taught, except in +their simplest elements, to a class or school as a whole, but the +authority which stands nearest in responsibility to each child, either +in the home circle or at school, has to make a special study of it in +order to teach it manners. The reason of this is evident. In each nature +selfishness crops out on one side rather than another, and it is this +which has to be studied, that the forward may be repressed, the shy or +indolent stimulated, the dreamy quickened into attention, and all the +other defective sides recognized and taken, literally, _in hand_, to be +modelled to a better form. + +3. That training in manners is not a short course but a long course of +study, a work of patience on both sides, of gentle and most insistent +handling on one side and of long endurance on the other. There are a +very few exquisite natures with whom the grace of manners seems to be +inborn. They are not very vigorous, not physically robust; their own +sensitiveness serves as a private tutor or monitor to tell them at the +right moment what others feel, and what they should say or do. They have +a great gift, but they lay down their price for it, and suffer for +others as well as in themselves more than their share. But in general, +the average boy and girl needs a "daily exercise" which in most cases +amounts to "nagging," and in the best hands is only saved from nagging +by its absence of peevishness, and the patience with which it reminds +and urges and teases into perfect observance. The teasing thing, and yet +the most necessary one, is the constant check upon the preoccupying +interests of children, so that in presence of their elders they can +never completely let themselves go, but have to be attentive to every +service of consideration or mark of respect that occasion calls for. It +is very wearisome, but when it has been acquired through laborious +years--there it is, like a special sense superadded to the ordinary +endowments of nature, giving presence of mind and self-possession, +arming the whole being against surprise or awkwardness or indiscretion, +and controlling what has so long appeared to exercise control over +it--the conditions of social intercourse. + +How shall we persuade the children of to-day that manners and +conventions have not come to an end as part of the old regime which +appears to them an elaborate unreality V It is exceedingly difficult to +do so, at school especially, as in many cases their whole family +consents to regard them as extinct, and only when startled at the +over-growth of their girls' unmannerly roughness and self-assertion they +send them to school "to have their manners attended to"; but then it is +too late. The only way to form manners is to teach them from the +beginning as a part of religion, as indeed they are. Devotion to Our +Lady will give to the manners both of boys and girls something which +stamps them as Christian and Catholic, something above the world's +level. And, as has been so often pointed out, the Church's ritual is the +court ceremonial of the most perfect manners, in which every least +detail has its significance, and applies some principle of inward faith +and devotion to outward service. + +If we could get to the root of all that the older codes of manners +required, and even the conventionalities of modern life--these remnants, +in so far as they are based on the older codes--it would be found that, +as in the Church's ceremonial, not one of them was without its meaning, +but that all represented some principle of Christian conduct, even if +they have developed into expressions which seem trivial. Human things +tend to exaggeration and to "sport," as gardeners say, from their type +into strange varieties, and so the manners which were the outcome of +chivalry--exquisite, idealized, and restrained in their best period, grew +artificial in later times and elaborated themselves into an etiquette +which grew tyrannical and even ridiculous, and added violence to the +inevitable reaction which followed. But if we look beyond the outward +form to the spirit of such prescriptions as are left in force, there is +something noble in their origin, either the laws of hospitality +regulating all the relations of host and guest, or reverence for +innocence and weakness which surrounded the dignity of both with lines +of chivalrous defence, or the sensitiveness of personal honour, the +instinct of what was due to oneself, an inward law that compelled a line +of conduct that was unselfish and honourable. So the relics of these +lofty conventions are deserving of all respect, and they cannot be +disregarded without tampering with foundations which it is not safe to +touch. They are falling into disrepute, but for the love of the children +let us maintain them as far as we can. The experience of past ages has +laid up lessons for us, and if we can take them in let us do so, if only +as a training for children in self-control, for which they will find +other uses a few years hence. + +But in doing this we must take account of all that has changed. There +are some antique forms, beautiful and full of dignity, which it is +useless to attempt to revive; they cannot live again, they are too +massive for our mobile manner of life to-day. And on the other hand +there are some which are too high-pitched, or too delicate. We are +living in a democratic age, and must be able to stand against its +stress. So in the education of girls a greater measure of independence +must necessarily be given to them, and they must learn to use it, to +become self-reliant and self-protecting. They have to grow more +conscious, less trustful, a little harder in outline; one kind of young +dignity has to be exchanged for another, an attitude of self-defence is +necessary. There is perhaps a certain loss in it, but it is inevitable. +The real misfortune is that the first line of defence is often +surrendered before the second is ready, and a sudden relaxation of +control tends to yield too much; in fact girls are apt to lose their +heads and abandon their self-control further than they are able to +resume it. Once they have "let themselves go"--it is the favourite +phrase, and for once a phrase that completely conveys its meaning--it is +exceedingly difficult for them to stop themselves, impossible for others +to stop them by force, for the daring ones are quite ready to break with +their friends, and the others can elude control with very little +difficulty. The only security is a complete armour of self-control based +on faith, and a home tie which is a guarantee for happiness. Girls who +are not happy in their own homes live in an atmosphere of temptation +which they can scarcely resist, and the happiness of home is dependent +in a great measure upon the manners of home, "there is no surer +dissolvant of home affections than discourtesy." [1--D. Urquhart.] It +is useless to insist on this, it is known and admitted by almost all, +but the remedy or the preventive is hard to apply, demanding such +constant self-sacrifice on the part of parents that all are not ready to +practise it; it is so much easier and it looks at first sight so kind to +let children have their way. So kind at first, so unselfish in +appearance, the parents giving way, abdicating their authority, while +the young democracy in the nursery or school-room takes the reins in +hand so willingly, makes the laws, or rather rules without them, by its +sovereign moods, and then outgrows the "establishment" altogether, +requires more scope, snaps the link with home, scarcely regretting, and +goes off on its own account to elbow its way in the world. It is +obviously necessary and perhaps desirable that many girls should have to +make their own way in the world who would formerly have lived at home, +but often the way in which it is done is all wrong, and leaves behind on +both sides recollections with a touch of soreness. + +For those who are practically concerned with the education of girls the +question is how to attain what we want for them, while the force of the +current is set so strongly against us. We have to make up our minds as +to what conventions can survive and fix in some way the high and +low-water marks, for there must be both, the highest that we can attain, +and the lowest that we can accept. All material is not alike; some +cannot take polish at all. It is well if it can be made tolerable; if it +does not fall below that level of manners which are at least the +safeguard of conduct; if it can impose upon itself and accept at least +so much restraint as to make it inoffensive, not aggressively selfish. +Perhaps the low-water mark might be fixed at the remembrance that other +people have rights and the observance of their claims. This would secure +at least the common marks of respect and the necessary conventionalities +of intercourse. For ordinary use the high-water mark might attain to the +remembrance that other people have feelings, and to taking them into +account, and as an ordinary guide of conduct this includes a great deal +and requires training and watchfulness to establish it, even where there +is no exceptional selfishness or bluntness of sense to be overcome. The +nature of an ordinary healthy energetic child, high-spirited and +boisterous, full of a hundred interests of its own, finds the mere +attention to these things a heavy yoke, and the constant self-denial +needed to carry them out is a laborious work indeed. + +The slow process of polishing marble has more than one point of +resemblance with the training of manners; it is satisfactory to think +that the resemblance goes further than the process, that as only by +polishing can the concealed beauties of the marble be brought out, so +only in the perfecting of manners will the finer grain of character and +feeling be revealed. Polishing is a process which may reach different +degrees of brilliancy according to the material on which it is +performed; and so in the teaching of manners a great deal depends upon +the quality of the nature, and the amount of expression which it is +capable of acquiring. It is useless to press for what cannot be given, +at the same time it is unfair not to exact the best that every one is +able to give. As in all that has to do with character, example is better +than precept. + +But in the matter of manners example alone is by no means enough; +precept is formally necessary, and precept has to be enforced by +exercise. It is necessary because the origin of established +conventionalities is remote; they do not speak for themselves, they are +the outcome of a general habit of thought, they have come into being +through a long succession of precedents. We cannot explain them fully to +children; they can only have the summary and results of them, and these +are dry and grinding, opposed to the unpremeditated spontaneous ways of +acting in which they delight. Manners are almost fatally opposed to the +sudden happy thoughts of doing something original, which occur to +children's minds. No wonder they dislike them; we must be prepared for +this. They are almost grown up before they can understand the value of +what they have gone through in acquiring these habits of unselfishness, +but unlike many other subjects to which they are obliged to give time +and labour, they will not leave this behind in the schoolroom. It is +then that they will begin to exercise with ease and precision of long +practice the art of the best and most expressive conduct in every +situation which their circumstances may create. + +In connexion with this question of circumstances in life and the +situations which arise out of them, there is one thing which ought to be +taught to children as a fundamental principle, and that is the relation +of manners to class of life, and what is meant by vulgarity. For +vulgarity is not--what it is too often assumed to be--a matter of class, +but in itself a matter of insincerity, the effort to appear or to be +something that one is not. The contrary of vulgarity, by the word, is +preciousness or distinction, and in conduct or act it is the perfect +preciousness and distinction of truthfulness. Truthfulness in manners +gives distinction and dignity in all classes of society; truthfulness +gives that simplicity of manners which is one of the special graces of +royalty, and also of an unspoiled and especially a Catholic peasantry. +Vulgarity has an element of restless unreality and pretentious striving, +an affectation or assumption of ways which do not belong to it, and in +particular an unwillingness to serve, and a dread of owning any +obligation of service. Yet service perfects manners and dignity, from +the highest to the lowest, and the manners of perfect servants either +public or private are models of dignity and fitness. The manners of the +best servants often put to shame those of their employers, for their +self-possession and complete knowledge of what they are and ought to be +raises them above the unquietness of those who have a suspicion that +they are not quite what might be expected of them. It is on this +uncertain ground that all the blunders of manners occur; when simplicity +is lost disaster follows, with loss of dignity and self-respect, and +pretentiousness forces its way through to claim the respect which it is +conscious of not deserving. + +Truth, then, is the foundation of distinction in manners for every +class, and the manners of children are beautiful and perfect when +simplicity bears witness to inward truthfulness and consideration for +others, when it expresses modesty as to themselves and kindness of heart +towards every one. It does not require much display or much ceremonial +for their manners to be perfect according to the requirements of life at +present; the ritual of society is a variable thing, sometimes very +exacting, at others disposed to every concession, but these things do +not vary--truth, modesty, reverence, kindness are of all times, and these +are the bases of our teaching. + +The personal contribution of those who teach, the influence of their +companionship is that which establishes the standard, their patience is +the measure which determines the limits of attainment, for it is only +patience which makes a perfect work, whether the attainment be high or +low. It takes more patience to bring poor material up to a presentable +standard than to direct the quick intuitions of those who are more +responsive; in one case efforts meet with resistance, in the other, +generally with correspondence. But our own practice is for ourselves the +important thing, for the inward standard is the point of departure, and +our own sincerity is a light as well as a rule, or rather it is a rule +because it is a light; it prevents the standard of manners from being +double, one for use and one for ornament; it imposes respect to be +observed with children as well as exacted from them, and it keeps up the +consciousness that manners represent faith and, in a sense, duty to God +rather than to one's neighbour. + +This, too, belongs not to the fleeting things of social observance but +to the deep springs of conduct, and its teaching may be summed up in one +question. Is not well-instructed devotion to Our Lady and the +understanding of the Church's ceremonies a school of manners in which we +may learn how human intercourse may be carried on with the most perfect +external expressiveness? Is not all inattention of mind to the +courtesies of life, all roughness and slovenliness, all crude +unconventionality which is proud of its self-assertion, a "falling from +love" in seeking self? Will not the instinct of devotion and imitation +teach within, all those things which must otherwise be learned by +painful reiteration from without; the perpetual _give up, give way, give +thanks, make a fitting answer, pause, think of others, don't get +excited, wait, serve_, which require watchfulness and self-sacrifice? + +Perhaps in the last year or two of education, when our best +opportunities occur, some insight will be gained into the deeper meaning +of all these things. It may then be understood that they are something +more than arbitrary rules; there may come the understanding of what is +beautiful in human intercourse, of the excellence of self-restraint, the +loveliness of perfect service. If this can be seen it will tone down all +that is too uncontrolled and make self-restraint acceptable, and will +deal with the conventions of life as with symbols, poor and inarticulate +indeed, but profoundly significant, of things as they ought to be. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN. + +"In die Erd' isi's aufgenommen, +Glucklich ist die Form gefullt; +Wird's auch schon zu Tage kommen, +Dass es Fleiss und Kunst vergilt? + Wenn der Guss misslang? + Wenn die Form zersprang? +Ach, vielleicht, indem wir hoffen, +Hat uns Unheil schon getroffen." + SCHILLER, "Das Lied von der Gloeke." + +So far in these pages the education of girls has only been considered up +to the age of eighteen or so, that is to the end of the ordinary +school-room course. At eighteen, some say that it is just time to go to +school, and others consider that it is more than time to leave it. They +look at life from different points of view. Some are eager to experience +everything for themselves, and as early as possible to snatch at this +good thing, life, which is theirs, and make what they can of it, +believing that its only interest is in what lies beyond the bounds of +childhood and a life of regulated studies; they want to begin to _live_. +Others feel that life is such a good thing that every year of longer +preparation fits them better to make the most of its opportunities, and +others again are anxious--for a particular purpose, sometimes, and very +rarely for the disinterested love of it--to undertake a course of more +advanced studies and take active part in the movement "for the higher +education of women." The first will advance as far as possible the date +of their coming out; the second will delay it as long as they are +allowed, to give themselves in quiet to the studies and thought which +grow in value to them month by month; the third, energetic and decided, +buckle on their armour and enter themselves at universities for degrees +or certificates according to the facilities offered. + +There can be no doubt that important changes were necessary in the +education of women. About the middle of the last century it had reached +a condition of stagnation from the passing away of the old system of +instruction before anything was ready to take its place. With very few +exceptions, and those depended entirely on the families from which they +carae, girls were scarcely educated at all. The old system had given +them few things but these were of value; manners, languages, a little +music and domestic training would include it all, with perhaps a few +notions of "the use of the globes" and arithmetic. But when it dwindled +into a book called "Hangnail's Questions," and manners declined into +primness, and domestic training lost its vigour, then artificiality laid +hold of it and lethargy followed, and there was no more education for +"young ladies." + +In a characteristically English way it was individual effort which came +to change the face of things, and honour is due to the pioneers who went +first, facing opposition and believing in the possibilities of better +things. In some other countries the State would have taken the +initiative and has done so, but we have our own ways of working out +things, "l'aveugle et tatonnante infaillibilite de l'Angleterre," as +some one has called it, in which the individual goes first, and makes +trial of the land, and often experiences failure in the first attempts. +From the closing years of the eighteenth century, when the "Vindication +of the Rights of Women" was published by Mary Wollstonecraft, the +question has been more or less in agitation. But in 1848, with the +opening of Queen's College in London, it took its first decided step +forward in the direction of provision for the higher education of women, +and in literature it was much in the air. Tennyson's "Princess" came in +1847, and "Aurora Leigh" from Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1851, and +things moved onward with increasing rapidity until at one moment it +seemed like a rush to new goldfields. One university after another has +granted degrees to women or degree certificates in place of the degrees +which were refused; women are resident students at some universities and +at others present themselves on equal terms with men for examination. +The way has been opened to them in some professions and in many spheres +of activity from which they had been formerly excluded. + +One advantage of the English mode of proceeding in these great questions +is that the situation can be reconsidered from time to time without the +discordant contentions which surround any proclamation of non-success in +State concerns. We feel our way and try this and that, and readjust +ourselves, and a great deal of experimental knowledge has been gained +before any great interests or the prestige of the State have been +involved. These questions which affect a whole people directly or +indirectly require, for us at least, a great deal of experimenting +before we know what suits us. We are not very amenable to systems, or +theories, or ready-made schemes. And the phenomenon of tides is very +marked in all that we undertake. There is a period of advance and then a +pause and a period of decline, and after another pause the tide rises +again. It may perhaps be accounted for in part by the very fact that we +do so much for ourselves in England, and look askance at anything which +curtails the freedom of our movements, when we are in earnest about a +question; but this independence is rapidly diminishing under the more +elaborate administration of recent years, and the increase of State +control in education. Whatever may be the effect of this in the future, +it seems as if there were at present a moment of reconsideration as to +whether we have been quite on the right track in the pursuit of higher +education for women, and a certain discontent with what has been +achieved so far. There are at all events not many who are cordially +pleased with the results. Some dissatisfaction is felt as to the +position of the girl students in residence at the universities. They +cannot share in any true sense in the life of the universities, but only +exist on their outskirts, outside the tradition of the past, a modern +growth tolerated rather than fostered or valued by the authorities. This +creates a position scarcely enviable in itself, or likely to communicate +that particular tone which is the gift of the oldest English +universities to their sons. Some girl students have undoubtedly +distinguished themselves, especially at Cambridge; in the line of +studies they attained what they sought, but that particular gift of the +university they could not attain. It is lamented that the number of +really disinterested students attending Girton and Newnham is small; the +same complaint is heard from the Halls for women at Oxford; there is a +certain want of confidence as to the future and what it is all leading +to. To women with a professional career before them the degree +certificates are of value, but the course of studies itself and its +mental effect is conceded by many to be disappointing. One reason may be +that the characteristics of girls' work affect in a way the whole +movement. They are very eager and impetuous students, but in general the +staying power is short; an excessive energy is put out in one direction, +then it flags, and a new beginning is made towards another quarter. So +in this general movement there have been successive stages of activity. + +The higher education movement has gone on its own course. The first +pioneers had clear and noble ideals; Bedford College, the growth of +Cheltenham, the beginnings of Newnham and Girton Colleges, the North of +England Ladies' "Council of Education" represented them. Now that the +movement has left the port and gone beyond what they foresaw, it has met +the difficulties of the open sea. + +Nursing was another sphere opened about the same time, to meet the +urgent needs felt during the Crimean War; it was admirably planned out +by Florence Nightingale, again a pioneer with loftiest ideals. There +followed a rush for that opening; it has continued, and now the same +complaint is made that it is an outlet for those whose lives are not to +their liking at home, rather than those who are conscious of a special +fitness for it or recognized as having the particular qualities which it +calls for. And then came the development of a new variety among the +unemployed of the wealthier classes, the "athletic girl." Not every one +could aspire to be an athletic girl, it requires some means, and much +time; but it is there, and it is part of the emancipation movement. The +latest in the field are the movements towards organization of effort, +association on the lines of the German _Frauenbund_, and the French +_Mouvement Feministe_, and beside them, around them, with or without +them, the Women's Suffrage Movement, militant or non-militant. These are +of the rising tide, and each tide makes a difference to our coast-line, +in some places the sea gains, in others the land, and so the thinkers, +for and against, register their victories and defeats, and the face of +things continues to change more and more rapidly. + +It seems an ungracious task, unfair--perhaps it seems above all +retrograde and ignorant--to express doubt and not to think hopefully +of a cause in which so many lives have been spent with singular +disinterestedness and self-devotion. Yet these adverse thoughts are in +the air, not only amongst those who are unable to win in the race, but +amongst those who have won, and also amongst those who look out upon +it all with undistracted and unbiassed interest; older men, who look +to the end and outcome of things, to the ultimate direction when +the forces have adjusted themselves. Those who think of the next +generation are not quite satisfied with what is being done for our +girls or by them. + +Catholics have been spurred hotly into the movement by those who are +keenly anxious that we should not be left behind, but should show +ourselves able to be with the best in all these things. Perhaps at the +stage which has been reached we have more reason than others to be +dissatisfied with the results of success, since we are more beset than +others by the haunting question--_what then_? For those who have to +devote themselves to the cause of Catholic education it is often and +increasingly necessary to win degrees or their equivalents, not +altogether for their own value, but as the key that fits the lock, for +the gates to the domain of education are kept locked by the State. And +so in other spheres of Catholic usefulness the key may become more and +more necessary. But--may it be suggested--in their own education, a degree +for a man and a degree for a girl mean very different things, even if +the degree is the same. For a girl it is the certificate of a course of +studies. For a man an Oxford or Cambridge degree means atmosphere unique +in character, immemorial tradition, association, all kinds of interests +and subtle influences out of the past, the impressiveness of numbers, +among which the individual shows in very modest proportions indeed +whatever may be his gifts. The difference is that of two worlds. Bat +even at other universities the degree means more to a man if it is +anything beyond a mere gate-key. It is his initial effort, after which +comes the full stress of his life's work. For a girl, except in the +rarest cases, it is either a gate-key or a final effort, either her +life's work takes a different turn, or she thinks she has had enough. +The line of common studies is adapted for man's work and programme of +life. It has been made to fit woman's professional work, but the fit is +not perfect. It has a marked unfitness in its adaptation for women to +the real end of higher education, or university education, which is the +perfecting of the individual mind, according to its kind, in +surroundings favourable to its complete development. + +Atmosphere is a most important element at all periods of education, and +in the education of girls all-important, and an atmosphere for the +higher education of girls has not yet been created in the universities. +The girl students are few, their position is not unassailable, their +aims not very well defined, and the thing which is above all required +for the intellectual development of girls--quiet of mind--is not assured. +It is obvious that there can never be great tradition and a past to look +back to, unless there is a present, and a beginning, and a long period +of growth. But everything for the future consists in having a noble +beginning, however lowly, true foundations and clear aims, and this we +have not yet secured. It seems almost as if we had begun at the wrong +end, that the foundations of character were not made strong enough, +before the intellectual superstructure began to be raised--and that this +gives the sense of insecurity. An unusual strength of character would be +required to lead the way in living worthily under such difficult +circumstances as have been created, a great self-restraint to walk +without swerving or losing the track, without the controlling machinery +of university rules and traditions, without experience, at the most +adventurous age of life, and except in preparation for professional work +without the steadying power of definite duties and obligations. A few +could do it, but not many, and those chosen few would have found their +way in any case. The past bears witness to this. + +But the past as a whole bears other testimony which is worth considering +here. Through every vicissitude of women's education there have always +been the few who were exceptional in mental and moral strength, and they +have held on their way, and achieved a great deal, and left behind them +names deserving of honour. Such were Maria Gaetana Agnesi, who was +invited by the Pope and the university to lecture in mathematics at +Bologna (and declined the invitation to give herself to the service of +the poor), and Lucretia Helena Gomaro Piscopia, who taught philosophy +and theology! and Laura Bassi who lectured in physics, and Clara von +Schur-man who became proficient in Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, and Chaldaic +in order to study Scripture "with greater independence and judgment," +and the Pirk-heimer family of Nuremberg, Caritas and Clara and others, +whose attainments were conspicuous in their day. But there is something +unfamiliar about all these names; they do not belong so much to the +history of the world as to the curiosities of literature and learning. +The world has not felt their touch upon it; we should scarcely miss them +in the galleries of history if their portraits were taken down. + +The women who have been really great, whom we could not spare out of +their place in history, have not been the student women or the +remarkably learned. The greatest women have taken their place in the +life of the world, not in its libraries; their strength has been in +their character, their mission civilization in its widest and loftiest +sense. They have ruled not with the "Divine right of kings," but with +the Divine right of queens, which is quite a different title, undisputed +and secure to them, if they do not abdicate it of themselves or drag it +into the field of controversy to be matched and measured against the +Divine or human rights of kings. "The heaven of heavens is the Lord's, +but the earth He has given to the children of men," and to woman He +seems to have assigned the borderland between the two, to fit the one +for the other and weld the links. Hers are the first steps in training +the souls of children, the nurseries of the kingdom of heaven (the +mothers of saints would fill a portrait gallery of their own); hers the +special missions of peace and reconciliation and encouragement, the +hidden germs of such great enterprises as the Propagation of the Faith, +and the trust of such great devotions as that of the Blessed Sacrament +and the Sacred Heart to be brought within the reach of the faithful. The +names of Matilda of Tuscany, of St. Catherine of Siena, of Blessed Joan +of Arc, of Isabella the Catholic, of St. Theresa are representative, +amongst others, of women who have fulfilled public missions for the +service of the Church, and of Christian people, and for the realization +of religious ideals: true queens of the borderland between both worlds. +Others have reigned in their own spheres, in families or solitudes, or +cloistered enclosures--as the two Saints Elizabeth, Paula and Eustochium +and all their group of friends, the great Abbesses Hildegarde, Hilda, +Gertrude and others, and the chosen line of foundresses of religious +orders--these too have ruled the borderland, and their influence, direct +or indirect, has all been in the same direction, for pacification and +not for strife, for high aspiration and heavenly-mindedness, for faith +and hope and love and self-devotion, and all those things for want of +which the world is sick to death. + +But the kingdom of woman is on that borderland, and if she comes down to +earth to claim its lowland provinces she exposes herself to lose both +worlds, not securing real freedom or permanent equality in one, and +losing hold of some of the highest prerogatives of the other. These may +seem to be cloudy and visionary views, and this does not in any sense +pretend to be a controversial defence of them, but only a suggestion +that both history and present experience have something to say on this +side of the question, a suggestion also that there are two spheres of +influence, requiring different qualities for their perfect use, as there +are two forces in a planetary system. If these forces attempted to work +on one line the result would be the wreck of the whole, but in their +balance one against the other, apparently contrary, in reality at one, +the equilibrium of the whole is secured. One is for motor force and the +other for central control; both working in concert establish the harmony +of planetary motion and give permanent conditions of unity. Here, as +elsewhere, uniformity tends to ultimate loosening of unity; diversity +establishes that balance which combines freedom with stability. + +Once more it must be said that only the Catholic Church can give perfect +adjustment to the two forces, as she holds up on both sides ideals which +make for unity. And when the higher education of women has flowered +under Catholic influence, it has had a strong basis of moral worth, of +discipline and control to sustain the expansion of intellectual life; +and without the Church the higher education of women has tended to +one-sidedness, to nonconformity of manners, of character, and of mind, +to extremes, to want of balance, and to loss of equilibrium in the +social order, by straining after uniformity of rights and aims and +occupations. + +So with regard to the general question of women's higher education may +it be suggested that the moral training, the strengthening of character, +is the side which must have precedence and must accompany every step of +their education, making them fit to bear heavier responsibilities, to +control their own larger independence, to stand against the current of +disintegrating influences that will play upon them. To be fit for higher +education calls for much acquired self-restraint, and unfortunately it +is on the contrary sometimes sought as an opening for speedier +emancipation from control. Those who seek it in this spirit are of all +others least fitted to receive it, for the aim is false, and it gives a +false movement to the whole being. Again, when it is entirely +dissociated from the realities of life, it tends to unfit girls for any +but a professional career in which they will have--at great cost to their +own well-being--to renounce their contact with those primeval teachers of +experience. + +In some countries they have found means of combining both in a modified +form of university life for girls, and in this they are wiser than we. +Buds of the same tree have been introduced into England, but they are +nipped by want of appreciation. We have still to look to our +foundations, and even to make up our minds as to what we want. Perhaps +the next few years will make things clearer. But in the meantime there +is a great deal to be done; there is one lesson that every one concerned +with girls must teach them, and induce them to learn, that is the lesson +of self-command and decision. Our girls are in danger of drifting and +floating along the current of the hour, passive in critical moments, +wanting in perseverance to carry out anything that requires steady +effort. They are often forced to walk upon slippery ground; temptations +sometimes creep on insensibly, and at others make such sudden attacks +that the thing all others to be dreaded for girls is want of courage and +decision of character. Those render them the best service who train them +early to decide for themselves, to say yes or no definitely, to make up +their mind promptly, not because they "feel like it" but for a reason +which they know, and to keep in the same mind which they have reasonably +made up. Thus they may be fitted by higher moral education to receive +higher mental training according to their gifts; but in any case they +will be prepared by it to take up whatever responsibilities life may +throw upon them. + +The future of girls necessarily remains indeterminate, at least until +the last years of their education, but the long indeterminate time is +not lost if it has been spent in preparatory training of mind, and +especially in giving some resistance to their pliant or wayward +characters. Thus, whether they devote themselves to the well-being of +their own families, or give themselves to volunteer work in any +department, social or particular, or advance in the direction of higher +studies, or receive any special call from God to dedicate their gifts to +His particular service, they will at least have something to give; their +education will have been "higher" in that it has raised them above the +dead level of mediocre character and will-power, which is only +responsive to the inclination or stimulus of the moment, but has no +definite plan of life. It may be that as far as exterior work goes, or +anything that has a name to it, no specified life-work will be offered +to many, but it is a pity if they regard their lives as a failure on +that account. + +There are lives whose occupations could not be expressed in a formula, +yet they are precious to their surroundings and precious in themselves, +requiring more steady self-sacrifice than those which give the stimulus +of something definite to do. These need not feel themselves cut off from +what is highest in woman's education, if they realize that the mind has +a life in itself and makes its own existence there, not selfishly, but +indeed in a peculiarly selfless way, because it has nothing to show for +itself but some small round of unimpressive occupations; some perpetual +call upon its sympathies and devotion, not enough to fill a life, but +just enough to prevent it from turning to anything else. Then the higher +life has to be almost entirely within itself, and no one is there to see +the value of it all, least of all the one who lives it. There is no +stimulus, no success, no brilliancy; it is perhaps of all lives the +hardest to accept, yet what perfect workmanship it sometimes shows. Its +disappearance often reveals a whole tissue of indirect influences which +had gone forth from it; and who can tell how far this unregistered, +uncertificated higher education of a woman, without a degree and with an +exceedingly unassuming opinion of itself, may have extended. It is a +life hard to accept, difficult to put into words with any due proportion +to its worth, but good and beautiful to know, surely "rich in the sight +of God," + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +CONCLUSION. + +"Far out the strange ships go: + Their broad sails flashing red +As flame, or white as snow: + The ships, as David said. +'Winds rush and waters roll: + Their strength, their beauty, brings +Into mine heart the whole + Magnificence of things.'" + LIONEL JOHNSON. + +The conclusion is only an opportunity for repeating how much there is +still to be said, and even more to be thought of and to be done, in the +great problem and work of educating girls. Every generation has to face +the same problem, and deals with it in a characteristic way. For us it +presents particular features of interest, of hope and likewise of +anxious concern. The interest of education never flags; year after year +the material is new, the children come up from the nursery to the +school-room, with their life before them, their unbounded possibilities +for good, their confidence and expectant hopefulness as to what the +future will bring them. We have our splendid opportunity and are greatly +responsible for its use. Each precious result of education when the girl +has grown up and leaves our hands is thrown into the furnace to be +tried--fired--like glass or fine porcelain. Those who educate have, at a +given moment, to let go of their control, and however solicitously they +may have foreseen and prepared for it by gradually obliging children to +act without coercion and be responsible for themselves, yet the critical +moment must come at last and "every man's work shall be manifest," "the +fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is" (1 Cor. III). +Life tries the work of education, "of what sort it is." If it stands the +test it is more beautiful than before, its colours are fixed. If it +breaks, and some will inevitably break in the trial, a Catholic +education has left in the soul a way to recovery. Nothing, with us, is +hopelessly shattered, we always know how to make things right again. But +if we can we must secure the character against breaking, our effort in +education must be to make something that will last, and for this we must +often sacrifice present success in consideration of the future, we must +not want to see results. A small finished building is a more sightly +object than one which is only beginning to rise above its foundations, +yet we should choose that our educational work should be like the second +rather than the first, even though it has reached "the ugly stage," +though it has its disappointments and troubles before it, with its daily +risks and the uncertainty of ultimate success. But it is a truer work, +and a better introduction to the realities of life. + +A "finished education" is an illusion or else a lasting disappointment; +the very word implies a condition of mind which is opposed to any +further development, a condition of self-satisfaction. What then shall +we call a well-educated girl, whom we consider ready for the +opportunities and responsibilities of her new life? An equal degree of +fitness cannot be expected from all, the difference between those who +have ten talents and those who have only two will always be felt. Those +who have less will be well educated if they have acquired spirit enough +not to be discontented or disheartened at feeling that their resources +are small; if we have been able to inspire them with hope and plodding +patience it will be a great thing, for this unconquerable spirit of +perseverance does not fail in the end, it attains to something worthy of +all honour, it gives us people of trust whose character is equal to +their responsibilities, and that is no little thing in any position of +life; and, if to this steadiness of will is added a contented mind, it +will always be superior to its circumstances and will not cease to +develop in the line of its best qualities. + +It is not these who disappoint--in fact they often give more than was +expected of them. It is those of great promise who are more often +disappointing in failing to realize what they might do with their richer +endowments; they fail in strength of will. + +Now if we want a girl to grow to the best that a woman ought to be it is +in two things that we must establish her fundamentally--quiet of mind and +firmness of will. Quiet of mind equally removed from stagnation and from +excitement. In stagnation her mind is open to the seven evil spirits who +came into the house that was empty and swept; under excitement it is +carried to extremes in any direction which occupies its attention at the +time. The best minds of women are quiet, intuitive, and full of +intellectual sympathies. They are not in general made for initiation and +creation, but initiation and creation lean upon them for understanding +and support. And their support must be moral as well as mental, for this +they need firmness of will. Support cannot be given to others without an +inward support which does not fail towards itself in critical moments. +The great victories of women have been won by this inward support, this +firmness and perseverance of will based upon faith. The will of a woman +is strong, not in the measure of what it manifests without, as of what +it reserves within, that is to say in the moderation of its own +impulsiveness and emotional tendency, in the self-discipline of +perseverance, the subordination of personal interest to the good of +whatever depends upon it for support. It is great in self-devotion, and +in this is found its only lasting independence. + +To give much and ask little in personal return is independence of the +highest kind. But faith alone can make it possible. The Catholic Faith +gives that particular orientation of mind which is independent of this +world, knowing the account which it must give to God. To some it is duty +and the reign of conscience, to others it is detachment and the reign of +the love of God, the joyful flight of the soul towards heavenly things. +The particular name matters little, it has a centre of gravity. "As +everlasting foundations upon a solid rock, so the commandments of God in +the heart of a holy woman." [1--Ecclus. XXVI. 24.] + + + + +APPENDIX I. + +EXTRACT FROM "THE BLESSED SACRAMENT" +BY FATHER FABER. + +BOOK III. SEC. VII. + +Let us put aside the curtain of vindicative fire, and see what this pain +of loss is like; I say, what it is like, for it fortunately surpasses +human imagination to conceive its dire reality. Suppose that we could +see the huge planets and the ponderous stars whirling their terrific +masses with awful, and if it might be so, clamorous velocity, and +thundering through the fields of unresisting space with furious gigantic +momentum, such as the mighty avalanche most feebly figures, and thus +describing with chafing eccentricities and frightful deflections, their +mighty centre-seeking and centre-flying circles, we should behold in the +nakedness of its tremendous operations the Divine law of gravitation. +Thus in like manner should we see the true relations between God and +ourselves, the true meaning and worth of His beneficent presence, if we +could behold a lost soul at the moment of its final and judicial +reprobation, a few moments after its separation from the body and in all +the strength of its disembodied vigour and the fierceness of its penal +immortality. + +No beast of the jungle, no chimera of heathen imagination, could be so +appalling. No sooner is the impassable bar placed between God and itself +than what theologians call the creature's radical love of the Creator +breaks out in a perfect tempest of undying efforts. It seeks its centre +and it cannot reach it. It bounds up towards God, and is dashed down +again. It thrusts and beats against the granite walls of its prison with +such incredible force, that the planet must be strong indeed whose +equilibrium is not disturbed by the weight of that spiritual violence. +Yet the great law of gravitation is stronger still, and the planet +swings smoothly through its beautiful ether. Nothing can madden the +reason of the disembodied soul, else the view of the desirableness of +God and the inefficacious attractions of the glorious Divinity would do +so. + +Up and down its burning cage the many-facultied and mightily +intelligenced spirit wastes its excruciating immortality in varying and +ever varying still, always beginning and monotonously completing, like a +caged beast upon its iron tether, a threefold movement, which is not +three movements successively, but one triple movement all at once. In +rage it would fain get at God to seize Him, dethrone Him, murder Him, +and destroy Him; in agony it would fain suffocate its own interior +thirst for God, which parches and burns it with all the frantic horrors +of a perfectly self-possessed frenzy; and in fury it would fain break +its tight fetters of gnawing fire which pin down its radical love of the +beautiful Sovereign Good, and drag it ever back with cruel wrench from +its desperate propension to its uncreated Centre. In the mingling of +these three efforts it lives its life of endless horrors. Portentous as +is the vehemence with which it shoots forth its imprecations against +God, they fall faint and harmless, far short of His tranquil, +song-surrounded throne. + +Pour views of its own hideous state revolve around the lost soul, like +the pictures of some ghastly show. One while it sees the million times +ten million genera and species of pains of sense which meet and form a +loathsome union with this vast central pain of loss. Another while all +the multitude of graces, the countless kind providences, which it has +wasted pass before it, and generate that undying worm of remorse of +which Our Saviour speaks. Then comes a keen but joyless view, a +calculation, but only a bankrupt's calculation, of the possibility of +gains for ever forfeited, of all the grandeur and ocean-like vastness of +the bliss which it has lost. Last of all comes before it the immensity +of God, to it so unconsoling and so unprofitable; it is not a picture, +it is only a formless shadow, yet it knows instinctively that it is God. +With a cry that should be heard creation through, it rushes upon Him, +and it knocks itself, spirit as it is, against material terrors. It +clasps the shadow of God, and, lo! it embraces keen flames. It runs up +to Him but it has encountered only fearful demons. It leaps the length +of its chain after Him, but it has only dashed into an affrighting crowd +of lost and cursed souls. Thus is it ever writhing under the sense of +being its own executioner. Thus there is not an hour of our summer +sunshine, not a moment of our sweet starlight, not a vibration of our +moonlit groves, not an undulation of odorous air from our flowerbeds, +not a pulse of delicious sound from music or song to us, but that +hapless unpitiable soul is ever falling sick afresh of the overwhelming +sense that all around it is eternal. + +EXTRACT FROM "THE CREATOR AND THE CREATURE." +BY FATHER FABER. + +BOOK II. CH. V. + +Yet the heavenly joys of the illuminated understanding far transcend the +thrills of the glorified senses. The contemplation of heavenly beauty +and of heavenly truth must indeed be beyond all our earthly standards of +comparison. The clearness and instantaneousness of all the mental +processes, the complete exclusion of error, the unbroken serenity of the +vision, the facility of embracing whole worlds and systems in one calm, +searching, exhausting glance, the Divine character and utter holiness of +all the truths presented to the view--these are broken words which serve +at least to show what we may even 'now indistinctly covet in that bright +abode of everlasting bliss. Intelligent intercourse with the angelic +choirs, and the incessant transmission of the Divine splendours through +them to our minds, cannot be thought of without our perceiving that the +keen pleasures and deep sensibilities of the intellectual world on earth +are but poor, thin, unsubstantial shadows of the exulting immortal life +of our glorified minds above. + +The very expansion of the faculties of the soul, and the probable +disclosure in it of many new faculties which have no object of exercise +in this land of exile, are in themselves pleasures which we can hardly +picture to ourselves. To be rescued from all narrowness, and for ever; +to possess at all times a perfect consciousness of our whole undying +selves, and to possess and retain that self-consciousness in the bright +light of God; to feel the supernatural corroborations of the light of +glory, securing to us powers of contemplation such as the highest +mystical theology can only faintly and feebly imitate; to expatiate in +God, delivered from the monotony of human things; to be securely poised +in the highest flights of our immense capacities, without any sense of +weariness, or any chance of a reaction; who can think out for himself +the realities of a life like this? + +Yet what is all this compared with one hour, one of earth's short hours, +of the magnificences of celestial love? Oh to turn our whole souls upon +God, and souls thus expanded and thus glorified; to have our affections +multiplied and magnified a thousandfold, and then girded up and +strengthened by immortality to bear the beauty of God to be unveiled +before us; and even so strengthened, to be rapt by it into a sublime +amazement which has no similitude on earth; to be carried away by the +inebriating torrents of love, and yet be firm in the most steadfast +adoration; to have passionate desire, yet without tumult or disturbance; +to have the most bewildering intensity along with an unearthly calmness; +to lose ourselves in God, and then find ourselves there more our own +than ever; to love rapturously and to be loved again still more +rapturously, and then for our love to grow more rapturous still, and +again the return of our love to be still outstripping what we gave, and +then for us to love even yet more and more and more rapturously, and +again, and again, and again to have it so returned, and still the great +waters of God's love to flow over us and overwhelm us until the +vehemence of our impassioned peace and the daring vigour of our yearning +adoration reach beyond the sight of our most venturous imagining; what +is all this but for our souls to live a life of the most intelligent +entrancing ecstasy, and yet not be shivered by the fiery heat? There +have been times on earth when we have caught our own hearts loving God, +and there was a flash of light, and then a tear, and after that we lay +down to rest. O happy that we were! Worlds could not purchase from us +even the memory of those moments. And yet when we think of heaven, we +may own that we know not yet what manner of thing it is to love the Lord +Our God. + + + + +APPENDIX II + +_From a Pastoral Letter of His Eminence Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of +Westminster, written when Bishop of Southwark. Quinquagesima Sunday,_ +1901. + +...Every age has its own difficulties and dangers. At the present day we +are exposed to temptations which at the beginning of the last century +were of comparatively small account. It will be so always. Every new +development of human activity, every invention of human ingenuity, is +meant by God to serve to His honour, and to the good of His creatures. +We must accept them all gratefully as the results of the intelligence +which He has been pleased to bestow upon us. At the same time the +experience of every age teaches us that the weakness and perversity of +many wrest to evil purposes these gifts, which in the Divine intention +should serve only for good. It is against the perverted use of two of +God's gifts that we would very earnestly warn you to-day. + +During the last century the power that men have of conveying their +thoughts to others has been multiplied incredibly by the facility of the +printed word. Thoughts uttered in speech or sermon were given but to a +few hundreds who came within the reach of the human voice. Even when +they were communicated to manuscript they came to the knowledge of very +few. What a complete change has now been wrought. In the shortest space +of time men's ideas are conveyed all over the world, and they may become +at once a power for good or for evil in every place, and millions who +have never seen or heard him whose thoughts they read, are brought to +some extent under his influence. + +Again, at the present day all men read, more or less. The number of +those who are unable to do so is rapidly diminishing, and a man who +cannot read will soon be practically unknown. As a matter of fact men +read a great deal, and they are very largely influenced by what they +read. + +Thus the multiplicity of printed matter, and the widespread power of +reading have created a situation fraught with immense possibilities for +good, but no less exposed to distinct occasions of evil and of sin. It +is to such occasions of sin, dear children in Jesus Christ, that we +desire to direct your attention this Lent. + +Every gift of God brings with it responsibility on our part in the use +that we make of it. The supreme gift of intelligence and free-will are +powers to enable us to love and serve God, but we are able to use them +to dishonour and outrage Him. So with all the other faculties that flow +from these two great gifts. Beading and books have brought many souls +nearer to their Creator. Many souls, on the other hand, have been ruined +eternally by the books which they have read. It is dearly, therefore, of +importance to us to know how to use wisely these gifts that we possess. + +The Holy Catholic Church, the Guardian of God's Truth, and the +unflinching upholder of the moral law, has been always alive to her duty +in this matter, and from the earliest times has claimed and exercised +the right of pointing out to her children books that are dangerous to +faith or virtue. This is one of the duties of bishops, and, in a most +special manner, of the Sacred Congregation of the Index. And, though at +the present day, owing to the decay of religious belief, this authority +cannot be exercised in the same way as of old, it is on that very +account all the more necessary for us to bear well in mind, and to carry +out fully in practice, the great unchanging principles on which the +legislation of the Church in this matter has been ever based. + +You are bound, dear children in Jesus Christ, to guard yourselves +against all those things which may be a source of danger to your faith +or purity of heart. You have no right to tamper with the one or the +other. Therefore, in the first place, it is the duty of Catholics to +abstain from reading all such books as are written directly with the +object of attacking the Christian Faith, or undermining the foundations +of morality. If men of learning and position are called upon to read +such works in order to refute them, they must do so with the fear of God +before their eyes. They must fortify themselves by prayer and spiritual +reading, even as men protect themselves from contagion, where they have +to enter a poisonous atmosphere. Mere curiosity, still less the desire +to pass as well informed in every newest theory, will not suffice to +justify us in exposing ourselves to so grave a risk. + +Again, there are many books, especially works of fiction, in which false +principles are often indirectly conveyed, and by which the imagination +may be dangerously excited. With regard to such reading, it is very hard +to give one definite rule, for its effect on different characters varies +so much. A book most dangerous to one may be almost without harm to +another, on account of the latter's want of vivid imagination. Again, a +book full of danger to the youth or girl may be absolutely without +effect on one of maturer years. The one and only rule is to be +absolutely loyal and true to our conscience, and if the voice of +conscience is not sufficiently distinct, to seek guidance and advice +from those upon whom we can rely, and above all, from the director of +our souls. If we take up a book, and we find that, without foolish +scruple, it is raising doubts in our mind or exciting our imagination in +perilous directions, then we must be brave enough to close it, and not +open it again. If our weakness is such that we cannot resist temptation, +which unforeseen may come upon us, then it is our duty not to read any +book the character of which is quite unknown to us. If any such book is +a source of temptation to us, we must shun it, if we wish to do our duty +to God. If our reading makes us discontented with the lot in life which +Divine Providence has assigned to us, if it leads us to neglect or do +ill the duties of our position, if we find that our trust in God is +lessening and our love of this world growing, in all these cases we must +examine ourselves with the greatest care, and banish from ourselves any +book which is having these evil effects upon us. + +Lastly there is an immense amount of literature, mostly of an ephemeral +character, which almost of necessity enters very largely into our lives +at the present day. We cannot characterize it as wholly bad, though its +influence is not entirely good, but it is hopeless to attempt to +counteract what is harmful in it by any direct means. The newspapers and +magazines of the hour are often without apparent harm, and yet very +often their arguments are based on principles which are unsound, and +their spirit is frankly worldly, and entirely opposed to the teaching of +Jesus Christ and of the Gospel. Still more when the Catholic Church and +the Holy See are in question, we know full well, and the most recent +experience has proved it, that they are often consciously or +unconsciously untruthful. Even when their misrepresentations have been +exposed, in spite of the boasted fairness of our country, we know that +we must not always expect a withdrawal of false news, still less +adequate apology. Constant reading of this character cannot but weaken +the Catholic sense and instinct, and engender in their place a worldly +and critical spirit most harmful in every way, unless we take means to +counteract it. What are these means? A place must be found in your +lives, dear children in Jesus Christ, for reading of a distinctly +Catholic character. You must endeavour to know the actual life and +doings of the Catholic Church at home and abroad by the reading of +Catholic periodical literature. You must have at hand books of +instruction in the Catholic Faith, for at least occasional reading, so +as to keep alive in your minds the full teaching of the Church. You must +give due place to strictly spiritual reading, such as the "Holy +Gospels," "The Following of Christ," "The Introduction to a Devout Life" +by St. Francis of Sales, and the lives of the Saints, which are now +published in every form and at every price. It is not your duty to +abstain from reading all the current literature of the day, but it is +your duty to nourish your Catholic mental life by purely Catholic +literature. The more you read of secular works, the more urgent is your +duty to give a sufficient place to those also, which will directly serve +you in doing your duty to God and in saving your soul. Assuredly one of +the most pressing duties at the present day is to recognize fully our +personal and individual responsibility in this matter of reading, and to +examine our conscience closely to see how we are acquitting ourselves of +it. + +Before we leave this subject, we wish to ask all those among you dear +children in Jesus Christ, who, whether as fathers and mothers, or as +members of religious institutes, or masters and mistresses in schools, +are charged with the education of the young, to do all in your power to +train those committed to you to a wise and full understanding of this +matter of reading, and to a realization of its enormous power for good +and harm, and, therefore, to a sense of the extreme responsibility +attaching to it. Make them understand that, while all are able to read, +all things are not to be read by all; that this power, like every power, +may be abused, and that we have to learn how to use it with due +restraint. While they are with you and gladly subject to your influence, +train their judgment and their taste in reading, so that they may know +what is good and true, and know how to turn from what is evil and false. +Such a trained and cultivated judgment is the best protection that you +can bestow upon them. Some dangers must be overcome by flight, but there +are far more, especially at the present day, which must be faced, and +then overcome. It is part of your great vocation to prepare and equip +these children to be brave and to conquer in this fight. Gradually, +therefore, accustom them to the dangers they may meet in reading. Train +their judgment, strengthen their wills, make them loyal to conscience, +and then, trusting in God's grace, give them to their work in life. + + + + +INDEX. + +Abbesses, the great, 224. +Accent and pronunciation, 154. +Adolescence, impressionability of children in, 173. +Aesthetics, 68; principles of, 71-2; teaching of, 187. +Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, 222. +Aids to study, 103-4. +A Kempls on self-seeking, 197. +America: educational experiments in, 84; text-books in, 180. +American view on character, 22. + --expressive phrases, 128,155. +Ampere, Catholic scientist, 115. +Amusements and lessons, 100. +Animals, care of, in education of children, 125. +Answers, irrelevancy in girls', 74. +Aquinas, St. Thomas, 72. +Architecture, Gothic, inferences from, 189. +Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 48. +Art, character and, 186-7; Christian, 188, 189, 197; for children, + 191-2; contrasts in works of, 189-90; in education of girls, 72, 187; + French art, 187; history of, 188-9; study of, 190-1; aims of study in + early education, 185, 196. +Assenting mind, the, 25. +Assentors, great, 26. +Athletic craze, the, 111. + --girl, the, 219. +Atmosphere in education, 321-2. +Audience, English and German, contrasted, 193. +"Aurora Leigh," 216. +Average person, the, 64-6. + +"Babylonian Captivity," the. 165. +Bacon, "Of Goodnesse," 45. +Balder, the story of, 170. +Barbarism, selfishness and, 199. +Basilicas, the Christian, 19-20. +Basket-ball for girls, 110. +Bassi, Laura, 222. +Beale, Dorothea, cited, 94. +Bedford College, 218. +Benedictine monks, cited, 92-8. +Boarding schools, 76; young children in, 78. +Boniface VIII, 177. +Books, attitude of child towards, 36; wealth of children's literature in + England, 144-5 + --reaction against mere lessons from, 80, 119-20. + --Sacred, jewels of prayer and devotion in, IS. + --to avoid, 148. +Botany, 122-3. +British oulturs, characteristics of, 139. +Browning, E. B., cited, 216. + --R., quoted, 76; "An incident of the French camp," cited, 136. + +Calvinism, 4, 26. +Candour, charm of, in children, 130. +Carlyle, cited, 153. +Catch-words, abuse of, 133. +Catherine, St., of Siena, 223. +Catholic-- + Art, 189, 197. + Atmosphere, effect on manners, 201. + Body, at play, 111; and religious education, 1. + Characteristics: belong to graver side of human race, 112, + Child, the, characteristics of, 29, 30; source of courage in, 9-10; + in Protestant surroundings, 24; prerogative of, 9, 30. + Children, and relationship with Jeaus and His Mother, 8; and religion, + 16-18; under influence of Sacraments, 29. + Church, ideals for man and woman in, 118, 225. + Citizenship, 39. + Disabilities, Newman quoted, 112-3. + Education, 220, 225, 230; and character, 39; and history, 116. + Faith, gives particular orientation of mind, 232. + Family life, 89, 93. + Girls, and work for the Church, 89; and Church music, 193. + Historical hold on the past, 152. + Literature, 240. + Men of science, 116. + Mental life, 242. + Mind: training of the, 197; and history, 165. + Patriotism, 39. + Peasantry, 211. + Philosophy, 60-76; value of, in education, 61. + Schools: manners in, 201; sodalities in, 78. + Secrets of strength, 99. + Teachers, 100; and truth in history, 178. + Text-books, need of, 180. + Women, duty and privilege of, 112. +Catholics and-- + Equality of education, 118; higher education, 220; duty In ing, 240; + historical teaching, 176; Latin, 163; taste in art, 194 + --disabilities of, Newman quoted, 112-8. +Celts of N. Europe, types of character among, 97. +Certificates as aids to study, 1084. +Character, 21-3; essentials of, 40-1; evolution of, 60,179-3; study of, + 22, 29, 34-9; training of, 22, 29-34, 38-42, 46, 49-51, 58, 148, 210, + 221, 225-6, 230; means of training 42-4; types of, 26-9, 37. + --influence of art on, 186. + --in the teacher, 38, 46-59. + --manners and, 209. + --religion and, 6-7, 29. + --the strength of great women, 228. + --value of, appreciated by children, 56-8, 171. +Characters, modern, 26, 83; cardinal points in study of children's, + 34-7. +Characteristic cadence in speaking, 54. Characteristics, of the age, 39; + of British culture, 130; of English style, 129-30; of girls' work, + 218. +Charges against the Church, 179. +Chaucer, 127. +Cheltenham College, 94, 218. +Child, attitude of, towards books, 36. + --martyrs, 10. + --study, 35, 57. + --vocabulary of an "only," 132. + --Wordsworth's "model child," 32-3. + _See also_ Catholic Child. +Childhood, friendships formed in, 11. + --impressionability of, 173. +Childishness in piety, 10. +Childlike spirit of Catholic child, 29. +Children, 30. + --books for, 144-6; attitude to books, 36. + --characteristics of, 36, 66, 56, 82-3, 109-10, 123; candour, 180; + habits of mind, 126; sensitive to influences, 46; as critics, 136; + like _real people_, 56-6; dislike compromise, 175. + --delicate, 9, 50, 84, 86. + --development of, 82; mental development, 140-1, 169-73. + --eccentric ways in, 84. + --groups observable among, 23, 26-8, 87, 62,125. + --and lessons; a simple life essential, 100; do not know how to learn, + 101; answers, 102. + --letters of, 188-9. + --and love of nature, 124,126. + --no orphans within the Church, 80. + --and playtime solitude, 108-9. souls of, 200. + --training of, 32-3. +Chivalry: age of, 202; religious spirit of, 165. +Choleric temperament, the, 26. +Church, the-- + Abuses in, exaggerated, 179. + Ceremonial of, 205-6. + Characterised as the Great Master who educates us all, 434; as the + Guardian of Truth, 239; the Teacher of all nations, 58-9, 99. + Example of, as teacher, 43; influence on Catholic taachers, 99-100. + in France, 165. + and history, 165. + Ideals for man and woman in, 118, 225. + Music of, 193-4. + Needlework for, 89. + the pioneers of, 92. + as a teacher of manners, 200-3, 205. + testimony to, from Non-Catholic sources, 59, 178. +Classes, advantages of large, 97. +Classical studies, 151-2 +Classics, English, for the young, 145. +"Clever" children, the so-called, 125. +Colonial life, 92. +Common sense, 65. +Communion, First, 29. +Composition, oral, 138; written, 137, 139-42. +Concentric method in teaching, 167. +Confirmation, 29. +Contentment, 90. +Contrasts, method of, in teaching of art, 189. +Control and "handling" in training children, 200. +Controversies. _See_ Educational Controversies. +Conventionality, 198-9. +Conventions, code of, 199. +Conversation, 132-7; of girls, 182-4; principles in, 137. +Cooking, 90, 121. Correction, value of, 42. Cosmology, 68. +Countrymen and nature, 124-5. +Crimean War and women's work, 219. +Criticism and correction, 42-3; administered by the Church, 44. + --evils of merely destructive, 183; reading lesson as an exercise in, + 136; of essays, 142. +Critics, gravity of children as, 136. +Cross-roads in a girl's life, 140. +Cruelty, 199. +Crusades, ideals of the, 165. +Curiosity concerning evil, 14; evil of curiosity in reading, 149. + +Dalgairns, Fr., cited, 12. +Damoiseaux, in days of chivalry, 203 +Dancing, 110-11. +Dante, "Paradiso," quoted, 60. +Death, right thoughts of, 7. +De Bonald, cited, 73. +De Ghantal, St. Jane F., quoted, 76. +De Gramont, Marquise, quoted, 41. +Degrees, different significance of, for man and woman, 220-1. +Democratic age, 5, 207. +Democracy in the nursery, 208. +De Ravignan, Pere, quoted, 105. +Devotion: requirements of, 10; to our Lady, 205, 218. _And see_ + Self-devotion. +Devotions of Blessed Sacrament and Sacred Heart entrusted to women, + 223. + --to the Saints, 10. +Difficulties of mind, 61-6. +Discipline and obedience, 42. +Dogmatism in teaching, 53. +Domestic occupations, 81, 85-92, 93, 121. +Doubts and difficulties as to faith, 14. +Dressmaking, 88. +Drudgery, need of, 96, 98. +Duty and endurance, 96. + +Eccentricity, 83-5. +Educated, a well-educated girl, 231. +Education-- + Aims in, 88, 89, 159, 230-1. + Board of, 80-1, 95, 119, 120, 121. + and character, 21, 231. + Demands of girls', 77. + A "finished," 230-1. + Higher Education of women, 214-28. + Home education, 77, 96, 97, 155. + Intermediate, 87,116. + Intellectual and practical, contrasted, 91. + Last years of, 213. + and lesson books, 80. + Life the test of, 230. + and material requirements of life, 86. + Middle class, and practical work, 81. + Mistakes in English, 119-21. + the opportunity of the teacher, 229, + Practical, 81, 91; practical aspect of, 122. + Problems in, 76 _et seq_. + Religious, 1-20. + and religious orders, 58-9. + State control in, 217. + System of 1870, 34, 120. + "Ugly stage" in, 230. + of women, changes in, 215. + of young children, 78-9, 96-7. +Educational advantages of personal work, 88. +Educational controversies, 1, 99, 116, 118, 151, 218. + --experiments in America, 34. + --pressure levels original thought, 184. +Educators, qualities in great, 99; fundamental principles of, 99, 156. + --of early childhood, types of, 31-2. +Elementary schools, 97. +Elizabeth, the two Saints, 224. +Emerson on manners, 198. +Encouragement, need of, 50. +English characteristics, 180, 137, 216-7. + --language, 128, 150; study of, 127-49; mathod in study, 131; + characteristics of style, 129-30; American influences on, 127-8; + traces of Elizabethan, in America, 128; new words in, 129; children's + English, 129-31. _And see_ Composition, Conversation, Literature, + Reading. + --martyrs, 172. + --portraits in Berlin, 129-30. +Essay writing, 138-42. +Ethics, 68, 70, 71, 73. +European history, 165, 166. +Eustoohium, St., 224. +Examination programme, a professional danger, 61. +Example, power of, 38, 46. +Excitement, evil of, 100, 231. +_Exempt_ persons, 86. + +Faber, Father, on hell and heaven, 8, 233-7. +Fairness, children look for, 56. +Faith, and art, 189-90, 194. + --Catholic, things which come with, 39. + --child's soul hungry for, 200. + --children as confessors of, 10. + --dangers to, 11-14, 178, 240. + --difficulties and doubts as to, 14-15. + --mysteries in, 2, 15. + --philosophy, a help and support to, 61, 72. + --the Propagation of the, 228. + --responsibility with regard to, 16-17. + --right thoughts of, 10. + --thoughts of, inspiring life, 6, 98, 104. +Family life, Catholic, 39, 93. +Fathers and mothers, symbols of God's love, 3. +Faults contrary to spirit of childhood, 50. +Feltre, Vittorino da, 99. +Fighting instinct in child, 109. +First aid, 89. +Fitch, Sir J., "Lessons on Teaching," cited 169. +Fitness, sense of, 19. +Flowers and children, 109, 128, 125-6. +Four last things, right thoughts of, 7-8. +France, literature in, 161. +Francis of Sales, St., cited, 12,17, 26; on care of the Church, 44; + works of, 162 _n_., 242. +Frauenbund, 219. +Freemason, Jewish, in Rome, 11. +French: art, 187; language, study of, 163, 150, 169-60; litarature + 160-1; mind, bent of, 160; Revolution, 202. +Friend, the influence of a, 42. +Friendship and character forming, 42, 43. +Friendships, as indications of character, 86; a safeguard against + morbid, 51; with the saints, 11. + +Gairdner's "Lollardy and the Reformation" cited, 179. +Games, value of organized, 78, 107-8, 110. +Gardens for children, 125. + --in a new country, 126. +Genesis, Book of, 115. +Geography, 122. +German, language, study of, 153-4, 169-60. + --musical audience, 193. +Girl students at universities, 217-8, 226. +Girls' and higher moral education, 226-7. + --answers, irrelevancy in, 74. + --views of life at age of 18, 214; mental outlook at 16, 141. + --work, characteristics of, 218. +Girton, 218. +"Giving way," 85. +God, child's soul near to, 126. + --duty to, 1, 218, 241. + --Fatherhood of, 3, 6. + --on conveying right thought of, to children, 1-8. + --truths concerning existence of, 72. +God's care for us, 44. + --priest, Art, 182. +Golliwogg, the, 105-6. +Gothic architecture, 189. +Governess, a modern, 77. +Grammar, 67. +Gramophone in language teaching, 156. +Greek history, 169. + --tragedies, 184. +Gregory XVI and De Bonald, 73. +Grown-up life, on anticipated instruction in, 94. + +Habit of work, 40, 98. +Habits, 21, 22. +Handicrafts, teaching of, 81. +"Handling " in training in manners, 200-2. +Handy member of family, the, 83. +Hearing of lessons, 101. +Hedley, Bp., quoted, 43. +Hell and heaven, 8, 238-7. +Hidden lives, 227-8. +Higher education of women, 214-8; atmosphere for, non-existent 221, 226; + and Catholic influence, 225; false aims in, 226; and realities of + life, 226. + --life, the, 228. +Historical teaching to Catholics, 176. +History, 164; position in curriculum, 166-7; value in education, 181. + --European, centres round the Church, 165-7. + --study, and the examination syllabus, 166, 168. + --teaching: and periods in development of children, 170-6; aims in + teaching, 172; method, 102, 167-9, 180-1; concentric method, 167; + truth in teaching, 178; requirements in the teacher, 176-9. + --text-books, defects of, 168. +Hockey, 110. +Holy family, the, 98. + --Roman Empire, 165. +Home education, 77, 96, 97, 155. + --happiness dependent on manners, 208. +Hooliganism, 199-200. + +Imagination, 189-40. +Impressionism in conduct, 70. +Independence, 40, 92, 207, 232. +Influence. _See_ Example. +Insincerity, 47-8; in teaching, 14,178. +Inspectors on teaching by nuns, 59. +Investitures, struggle concerning, 166. +Irish Intermediate education, 87, 116. +Isabella the Catholic, 224. +Italian humanism, 25. + --language, study of, 153, 159. + --question, 166. + +Jansenism, spirit of, 4. +Jesus Christ, right views of, 8-9. +Joan of Arc, Blessed, 223. +Johnson, Lionel, quoted, xiii, 229. +Judgment, right thoughts of, 7-8. + +Keble, J., quoted, 1. +Kingdom of woman, 224. +Knighthood, training for, 202-3 +Knowledge: at first hand, 123; before action, 31; love of, and influence + of teacher, 99-100. + +Laboratory science, 120-1. +Language. _See_ English. +Languages, modern, place and value in education, 150-1,156-8; social and + commercial values of, 157-8; evil of superficial knowledge of, 158; + attitude towards study of, 153, 154; choice of, 159-61; + pronunciation, 154; methods in study, 155-7; self-instruction + courses, 156; translation, 161-3. Latin, 161-3; grammar, 82. + --races, temperaments among, 27. Learning by heart, 135. + --of lessons, 100-2. +Leo XIII, 17, 63, 74. +Lesson books and education, 80, 81, 119. +Lessons and play, 83,95-6,100. + --from history, 176. + --hearing of, 102; learning of, 100-2. +Letter-writing, 138-9. +Lir, children of, 170. +Literature, 142-6; wealth of children's books, 144-5. +Logic, 67, 68-9, 73; has no place in English religious system, 24. +Lowell, J. Russell, quoted, 150. +Loyalty and patriotism, 170. + +Mackey, Canon, cited, 162. +"Mangnall's Questions," 215. +Mannerisms in teachers, 54-6. +Manners, 198-203, 210, 213; codes of, 205-6; derivation of word, 202; + acquiring of, wearisome, 204-5, 210; neglect of, 205-6; effect of + neglect to teach, 199-200; fundamentals of, 208-4; high and low + watermarks in, 208-9; standard of, 203, 212; training in, 204-5, + 207-9; example not enough, 210; personal element in training in, 212; + mistakes in training in, 208; truthfulness in, 211-2. +Manners and-- + Class of life, 211; home ties, 207-8; religion, 200-2, 205-6, 211; + service, 211, 213; the life of to-day, 207. +Manual work, value of, in education, 82-3, 85, 86; a corrective to + eccentricity, 83; domestic occupations, 85-93. +Mathematics, 114, 116-8, 121. +Matilda of Tuscany, 223. +Mechanical toys, 106-7. +Melancholic temperament, the, 26, 28. +Mercier, Cardinal, quoted, 69, 71, 72. +Metaphysics, 68. +Middle-class education, 81. +Mind, quiet of, 221, 231-2; habits of mind in children, 125; development + of, 140-1, 169-73. +Minds: the best of, in women, 231-2; 5; classes of, 61-6. +Modernism, 13. +Montalembert, quoted, 88. +More, Blessed Thomas, 26, 99. +_Mouvement Feministe_, 219. +Music, place of, in education, 191-4; aims of study in, 193; + intellectual aspect of, 192. +Myths, value in teaching history, 170. + +Nagging, in teaching manners, 204. +Natural Science, 67, 114-6, 118-22. + --Theology, 68, 72-3. +Nature Study, 114, 122-6; aims of, 122; books, 123-4. +Neoker de Saussure, Mme., quoted, 47-8, 54. +Needlework, 87-9, 121. +Nervs fatigue, 84. +"Nerves," women subject to, 70. +Newman, Cardinal, quoted, 112, 164. +Newnham College, 218. +Nightingale, Florence, 219. +Non-Catholic parents, and schools held by Religious, 59. + --schools, 151, 166. +Nonconformist type of character, 23-6. +Nonentities, good, 38-40. +North of England Ladies' "Council of Education," 218. +Nuremberg, Pirkheimer family of, 222. +Nurse, the English and the Irish, 31-2. +Nursery shrine, the, 105, 106. +Nursing, 89, 218-9. + +Obedience, training in, 43. +Observation of children, 35. + --training in, 81, 119-26. +Oral composition, 138; oral lessons, 74, 180. +Organization and development, 80, 87. +Our Lady, right thoughts of, 8-10. +Oxford and Cambridge Degrees, 220. + --girl students at, 218. + +Painting and drawing, 191-6. +Parents: and teaching about God, 3; and teaching of manners, 208. +Pasteur, 115. +Pater, Walter, cited, 130. +Patience, value of, 40, 212; mental and moral, in women, 163. +Patriotism, 39, 170-1. +Paula, St., 224. +Peasantry, Catholic, simplicity of manners in, 211. +Penance, Sacrament of, 29. +People of great promise, 231. +Personal work, educational advantages of, 88. +Piety, childishness in, 10. +Philosophy, 60-75; method of study in, 66-74; relation to revealed + truth, 73. +Phonetics, 155. +Physical exercise, 82. +Pico de Mirandola, 26. +Pirkheimer family of Nuremberg, 222. +Piscopia, Lucretia, 222. +Pius VII, 177. +Pius X, life of labour of, 99. +Plants, care of, for chilflren, 126. +Play, 104-5, 111, 112; and character, 86, 105, 107; of the nursery, + 105-6; and organized games, 107-8, 110; and solitude, 108-10; toys + and playthings, 107; hoops, 110. +Poetry, 102; place of, 192; for children's recitation, 186. +Popes, the: in history, 177, 178, 179; of Renaissance, 26; temporal + power of, 165; life of labour of, 98-9. +Popularity in matters of taste, 188-4. +Portraits, criticism of English, in Berlin, 129-30. +Pose, temptation to, 41; of being erratic, 70. +Practical education, 81. +Pressure in education, 97, 116-7. +Prize distribution, system of, 103-4. +Professional dangers in teaching, 61-7. +Pronunciation and accent, 154. +Proportion in studies, 191. +Protestant Reformation, effect on manners, 201. + --school, Catholic child in, 24. +Protestantism, 25; and French Revolution, 202. +Psychology, 68, 70-1, 73. +Pugin's "Book of Contrasts," cited, 189. +Punishment, 99. + +"Quack" methods in learning languages, 155. +Queen Victoria, 153, 198. +Queen's College, London, opening of, 216. +Querdeo, Y Le, quoted, 21. +Querulous tone, in the nursery, 53. +Question and answer lessons, 75, 180. +Questioning, manner of, 102; effect of too many questions, 36. +Quiet of mind, 221, 231-2. + +Reading: Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster on, 147, 238-43; and + character, 36; for girls, 146, 148; without commentary, 145; value + of, in education, 182-42. + --aloud, 134, 136, 146; the best introduction to literature, 143. +Realities of life, 81, 87 _et seq_., 226. +Recitation, 134-6; gesture in, 136. +Recreation. _See_ Play. +Reformation, the Protestant, 201. +Religion, the teaching of, 1-20; aims in, 11, 17-18; periods in, 8. +Religious houses, foundresses of, 224; and manual labour, 98. + --minds, difficulties of, 63. + --orders, development of, 165. + --teaching: qualifications for, 4; and manners, 201. +Renaissance, the, 25; Popes of the, 26. +Rewards, 99, 103, 104. +Reynolds, Sir Joshua, cited, 130. +Roman Catholics, disabilities of, 112-3. + --history, 169. +Rossettl, D. G., quoted, 182. + +Sacraments, the, as modifying temperamant, 29. +Sacred books, jewels of prayer in, 15. +Saints, devotions to the, 10-11. +Savonarola, 26. Schiller, quoted, 214. Scholastic philosophy, 74. +School: and home education, contrasted, 77-8; and preparation for life, + 76, 80, 91 _et seq_,; organization and individual development, 80. + --education, drawbacks to, 78-9. + --life, impressiveness of, 76-7. +Sohurman, Clara von, 222. +Science, experimental, 120-2, 151; misuse of the term, 118-9. +Scolding, 43, 60. +Scottish schoolmasters, old race of, 97-8. +Scriptural knowledge examinations, 16. +Scripture, devotional study of, 15. +Self-consciousness in children, 35. +Self-devotion, 31, 219, 224, 228. +Self-help, 89-90. +Selfishness, 84,199-200. +Servant question, 91. +Servants, manners in the best, 211. +Shrines, nursery, 105, 106. +Sidney, Sir Philip, 127. +Silliness, driven out by manual work, 86. +Simple life, the, 40, 92; for children, 100. +Sin and evil, right thoughts of, 6-7. +Sincerity, 41, 47-9. +Sodalities in Catholic schools, 78. +Solitude, value of, to children, 108-9. +South African War, reaction in education since, 119-20. +Spanish, study of, 154, 159. +Spiritualism, 13. +Sporting instinct in children, 42. +Stagnation of mind, 231. +Story-telling, 170; in teaching history, 180-1. +Strength, Catholic secrets of, 99. +Study, aids to, 103. +Suffrage movement, women's, 219. + +Taste, 182, 196-7; and character, 182-4; independent, 184; self-taught, + 184, 185; trained, 185. +"Teacher Study," from child's point of view, 58. +Teacher's manners, 54-6. +Teachers, a large measure of freedom for, 34, +Teaching, a great stewardship, 3-4, 80; reality in, 122; qualifications + in religious, 4. + --orders of Eeligious, 58-9. +"Teddy Bears," 105, 106. +Temperament, 21-9; difficulties of, 32; division and classification of, + 23, 26-9; in religion, 28-5. +Tennyson, quoted, 216. +Teutons, types of character among, 97. +Text-books, 180. +Theatres and children, 184. +Theology: not for girls, 18; parallel with a great Basilica, 19-20; + Natural, 72. +Theresa, Saint, 224. +Thompson, Francis, quoted, 95, 127. +Time, value of, 40. +Townsman, the, in the country, 124-5. +Toys, 107. +Translation from foreign languages, 161-3. +Transvaal, a garden party in the, 126. +Truthfulness, 47, 211. + +Ullathorne, Archbishop, quoted, 34. +Ulysses, the wanderings of, 170. +University life for girls, 217-8, 226. + --locals, 87, 168. +Urquhart, D., quoted, 208. Utilitarians in social life, 186. + +Victoria, Queen, 153,198. +Vigilance, 42. +Vitality in teacher, 49. +Vocabulary of children, 132. +Vocation, choice of a, 141. +Voice, influence of tone of, 63; cadences in, 68-4; production, 184-0. +Vulgarity, 211. + +Wassmann, Catholic scientist, 116. +Ways of learning lessons, 101-2. +Westminster, Cardinal Archbishop of, on reading, 147, 188-48. +Will of a woman, strength of, 282. +Wisdom, the beginning of, 19. +Wollstonecraft, Mary, cited, 216. Woman, the kingdom of, 224; the + mission of, 288. +Women, higher education of, 214-28; changes In education of, 316. + --and manners, 203. + --direction of influence of, 224. + --mental characteristics of the best, 232. + --tendency of, to impressionism in conduct, 70. + --the really great, 223; conspicuous in learning, 222; conspicuous in + religion, 224. +Women's suffrage movement, 219. +Wordsworth, quoted, 32, 114, 135. Work, habit of, 40, 98. + +Young ladies, education for, 215. + +Aberdeen: The University Press + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS*** + + +******* This file should be named 15892.txt or 15892.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/8/9/15892 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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