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diff --git a/29343.txt b/29343.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14df284 --- /dev/null +++ b/29343.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1611 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Addresses to Girls at School, by +James Maurice Wilson + +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: Three Addresses to Girls at School + +Author: James Maurice Wilson + +Release Date: July 7, 2009 [EBook #29343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE ADDRESSES TO GIRLS AT SCHOOL *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Laura Ulibarri and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + +THREE ADDRESSES + +TO + +GIRLS AT SCHOOL + + + + +THREE ADDRESSES + +TO + +GIRLS AT SCHOOL + +BY THE + +REV. J. M. WILSON, M.A. + +HEAD MASTER OF CLIFTON COLLEGE +AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE CLIFTON HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS + +London + +PERCIVAL & CO. +_KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN_ +1890 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following addresses were printed for private circulation among those +to whom they were delivered. But they fell also into other hands; and I +have been frequently asked to publish them. I hesitated, on account of +the personal and local allusions; but I have found it impossible to +remove these allusions, and I have therefore reprinted the addresses in +their original form. + + J.M.W. + + CLIFTON COLLEGE, + + _Sept. 1890._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +I. + +EDUCATION 1 + +_October 25, 1887._ + +THE HIGH SCHOOL, CLIFTON. + + +II. + +HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 21 + +_December, 1889._ + +THE HIGH SCHOOLS AT BATH AND CLIFTON. + + +III. + +RELIGION 53 + +_April 13, 1890._ + +ST. LEONARD'S SCHOOL, ST. ANDREWS, FIFE. + + + + +THREE ADDRESSES + +TO + +GIRLS AT SCHOOL + + + + +I. + +EDUCATION. + + + + +EDUCATION.[1] + + +Now that I have given away the certificates it will be expected that I +should make a few remarks on that inexhaustible subject, Education. My +remarks will be brief. + +I take this opportunity of explaining to our visitors the nature of the +Higher Certificate examination. It is an examination instituted +originally to test the efficiency of the highest forms of our public +schools, and to enable boys to pass the earlier University examinations +while still at school. The subjects of study are divided into four +groups. In order to obtain a certificate it is necessary to pass in four +subjects taken from not less than three groups. A certificate therefore +ensures a sound and fairly wide education. The subjects of the groups +are languages, mathematics, English history, and lastly science. One +concession is made to girls which is not made to boys. They are allowed +to pass in two subjects one year, and two others the next, and thus +obtain their certificates piecemeal. Boys have to pass in all four +subjects the same year. The High School sent in seventeen candidates for +the examination in two or three of the subjects--History, Elementary +Mathematics, French, German, and Latin,--and fifteen of these passed in +two subjects at least: and, inasmuch as seven of them had in a previous +year passed in two other subjects, they obtained their certificates. The +rest carry on their two subjects, and will, we hope, obtain their +certificates next summer; six of them appear to be still in the school. +This is a very satisfactory result. The value of these certificates to +the public is the testimony they give to the very high efficiency of the +teaching. These examinations are not of the standard of the Junior or +Senior Local Examinations. They are very much harder. And all who know +about these matters see at a glance that a school that ventures to send +in its girls for this examination only is aiming very high. The +certificates for Music, given by the Harrow Music School examiners, are +also recognised by the profession as having a considerable value. But on +this subject I cannot speak with the same knowledge. + +The value of these examinations to the mistresses is that they serve as +a guide and standard for teaching. We are all of us the better for being +thus kept up to the mark. Their value to you is that they help to make +your work definite and sound: and that, if it is slipshod, you shall at +any rate know that it is slipshod. + +Therefore, speaking for the Council, and as the parent of a High School +girl, and as one of the public, I may say that we set a very high value +on these examinations and their results. They test and prove absolute +merit. Now, you may have noticed that one of the characteristics of +this school is the absence of all prizes and personal competitions +within the school itself; all that only brings out the relative merit of +individuals. I dare say you have wondered why this should be so, and +perhaps grumbled a little. "Other girls," you say, "bring home prizes: +our brothers bring home prizes; or at any rate have the chance of doing +so--why don't we?" And not only you, but some friends of the school who +would like to give prizes--for it is a great pleasure to give +prizes--have sometimes wondered why Miss Woods says "No." I will tell +you why. Miss Woods holds--and I believe she is quite right--that to +introduce the element of competition, while it would certainly stimulate +the clever and industrious to more work, would also certainly tend to +obscure and weaken the real motives for work in all, which ought to +outlive, but do not always outlive, the age at which prizes are won. + +Intelligent industry, without the inducement of prizes, is a far more +precious and far more durable habit than industry stimulated by +incessant competition. Teaching and learning are alike the better for +the absence of this element, when possible. I consider this to be one of +the most striking characteristics of our High School, and one of which +you ought to be most proud. It is a distinction of this school. And when +you speak of it, as you well may do, with some pride, you will not +forget that it is due entirely to the genius and character of your +Head-mistress. I believe that one result will be, that you will be the +more certain to continue to educate yourselves, and not to imagine that +education is over when you leave school. + +Is it necessary to say anything to you about the value of education? I +think it is; because so many of the processes of education seem at the +time to be drudgery, that any glimpses and reminders of the noble +results attained by all this drudgery are cheering and encouraging. The +reason why it is worth your while to get the best possible education +you can, to continue it as long as you can, to make the very most of it +by using all your intelligence and industry and vivacity, and by +resolving to enjoy every detail of it, and indeed of all your school +life, is that it will make you--_you yourself_--so much more of a +person. More--as being more pleasant to others, more useful to others, +in an ever-widening sphere of influence, but also more as attaining a +higher development of your own nature. + +Let us look at two or three ways in which, as you may easily see, +education helps to do some of these things. + +Education increases your interest in everything; in art, in history, in +politics, in literature, in novels, in scenery, in character, in travel, +in your relation to friends, to servants, to everybody. And it is +_interest_ in these things that is the never-failing charm in a +companion. Who could bear to live with a thoroughly uneducated woman?--a +country milkmaid, for instance, or an uneducated milliner's girl. She +would bore one to death in a week. Now, just so far as girls of your +class approach to the type of the milkmaid or the milliner, so far they +are sure to be eventually mere gossips and bores to friends, family, and +acquaintance, in spite of amiabilities of all sorts. Many-sided and +ever-growing interests, a life and aims capable of expansion--the fruits +of a trained and active mind--are the durable charms and wholesome +influences in all society. These are among the results of a really +liberal education. Education does something to overcome the prejudices +of mere ignorance. Of all sorts of massive, impenetrable obstacles, the +most hopeless and immovable is the prejudice of a thoroughly ignorant +and narrow-minded woman of a certain social position. It forms a solid +wall which bars all progress. Argument, authority, proof, experience +avail nought. And remember, that the prejudices of ignorance are +responsible for far more evils in this world than ill-nature or even +vice. Ill-nature and vice are not very common, at any rate in the rank +of ladies; they are discountenanced by society; but the prejudices of +ignorance--I am sure you wish me to tell you the truth--these are not +rare. + +Think, moreover, for a moment how much the cultivated intelligence of a +few does to render the society in which we move more enjoyable: how it +converts "the random and officious sociabilities of society" into a +quickening and enjoyable intercourse and stimulus: everybody can recall +instances of such a happy result of education. This can only be done by +educated women. How much more might be done if there were more of them! + +And think, too, how enormously a great increase of trained intelligence +in our own class--among such as you will be in a few years--would +increase the power of dealing with great social questions. All sorts of +work is brought to a standstill for want of trained intelligence. It is +not good will, it is not enthusiasm, it is not money that is wanted for +all sorts of work; it is good sense, trained intelligence, cultivated +minds. Some rather difficult piece of work has to be done; and one runs +over in one's mind who could be found to do it. One after another is +given up. One lacks the ability--another the steadiness--another the +training--another the mind awakened to see the need: and so the work is +not done. "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few." A +really liberal education, and the influence at school of cultivated and +vigorous minds, is the cure for this. + +Again, you will do little good in the world unless you have wide and +strong sympathies: wide--so as to embrace many different types of +character; strong--so as to outlast minor rebuffs and failures. Now +understanding is the first step to sympathy, and therefore education +widens and strengthens our sympathies: it delivers us from ignorant +prepossessions, and in this way alone it doubles our powers, and fits us +for far greater varieties of life, and for the unknown demands that the +future may make upon us. + +I spoke of the narrowness and immovability of ignorance. There is +another narrowness which is not due to ignorance so much as to +persistent exclusiveness in the range of ideas admitted. Fight against +this with all your might. The tendency of all uneducated people is to +view each thing as it is by itself, each part without reference to the +whole; and then increased knowledge of that part does little more than +intensify the narrowness. Education--liberal education--and the +association with many and active types of mind, among people of your own +age, as well as your teachers, is the only cure for this. Try to +understand other people's point of view. Don't think that you and a +select few have a monopoly of all truth and wisdom. "It takes all sorts +to make a world," and you must understand "all sorts" if you would +understand the world and help it. + +You are living in a great age, when changes of many kinds are in +progress in our political and social and religious ideas. There never +was a greater need of trained intelligence, clear heads, and earnest +hearts. And the part that women play is not a subordinate one. They act +directly, and still more indirectly. The best men that have ever lived +have traced their high ideals to the influence of noble women as mothers +or sisters or wives. No man who is engaged in the serious work of the +world, in the effort to purify public opinion and direct it aright, but +is helped or hindered by the women of his household. Few men can stand +the depressing and degrading influence of the uninterested and placid +amiability of women incapable of the true public spirit, incapable of a +generous or noble aim--whose whole sphere of ideas is petty and +personal. It is not only that such women do nothing themselves--they +slowly asphyxiate their friends, their brothers, or their husbands. +These are the unawakened women; and education may deliver you from this +dreadful fate, which is commoner than you think. + +In no respect is the influence of women more important than in religion. +Much might be said of the obstacles placed in the way of religious +progress by the crude and dogmatic prepossessions of ignorant women, who +will rush in with confident assertion where angels might fear to tread: +but this is neither the time nor the place for such remarks. It is +enough to remind you that in no part of your life do you more need the +width and modesty and courage of thought, and the delicacy of insight +given by culture, than when you are facing the grave religious questions +of the day, either for yourself or others. + +But let me turn to a somewhat less serious subject. We earnestly desire +that women should be highly educated. And yet is there not a type of +educated woman which we do not wholly admire? I am not going to +caricature a bluestocking, but to point out one or two real dangers. +Education is good; but perfect sanity is better still. Sanity is the +most excellent of all women's excellences. We forgive eccentricity and +one-sidedness--the want of perfect sanity--in men, and especially men +of genius; and we rather reluctantly forgive it in women of genius; but +in ordinary folk, no. These are the strong-minded women; ordinary folk, +who make a vigorous protest against one or two of the minor mistakes of +society, instead of lifting the whole: I should call these, women of +imperfect sanity. It is a small matter that you should protest against +some small maladjustment or folly; but it is a great matter that you +should be perfectly sane and well-balanced. Now education helps sanity. +It shows the proportion of things. An American essayist bids us "keep +our eyes on the fixed stars." Education helps us to do this. It helps us +to live the life we have to lead on a higher mental and spiritual level +it glorifies the actual. + +And now, seeing these things are so, what ought to be the attitude of +educated girls and women towards pleasures, the usual pleasures of +society? Certainly not the cynical one--"Life would be tolerable if it +were not for its pleasures." Pleasures do make up, and ought to make +up, a considerable portion of life. Now I have no time for an essay on +pleasures. I will only offer two remarks. One is that the pleasure open +to all cultivated women, even in the pleasures that please them least, +is the pleasure of giving pleasure. Go to give pleasure, not to get it, +and that converts anything into a pleasure. The other remark is, Pitch +your ordinary level of life on so quiet a note that simple things shall +not fail to please. If home, and children, and games, and the daily +routine of life--if the sight of October woods and the Severn sea, and +of human happy faces fail to please, then either in fact or in +imagination you are drugging yourself with some strong drink of +excitement, and spoiling the natural healthy appetite for simple +pleasures. This is one of the dangers of educated women: but it is their +danger because they are imperfectly educated: educated on one side, that +of books; and not on the other and greater side, of wide human +sympathies. Society seems to burden and narrow and dull the uneducated +woman, but it also hardens and dulls a certain sort of educated woman +too, one who refuses her sympathies to the pleasures of life. But to the +fuller nature, society brings width and fresh clearness. It gives the +larger heart and the readier sympathy, and the wider the sphere the more +does such a nature expand to fill it. + +What I am now saying amounts to this, that an educated intelligence is +good, but an educated sympathy is better. I recall certain lines written +by the late Lord Carlisle on being told that a lady was plain and +commonplace:-- + + "You say that my love is plain, + But that I can never allow, + When I look at the thought for others + That is written on her brow. + + "The eyes are not fine, I own, + She has not a well-cut nose, + But a smile for others' pleasure + And a sigh for others' woes. + + "Quick to perceive a want, + Quicker to set it right, + Quickest in overlooking + Injury, wrong, or slight. + + "Hark to her words to the sick, + Look at her patient ways, + Every word she utters + Speaks to the speaker's praise. + + "Purity, truth, and love, + Are they such common things? + If hers were a common nature + Women would all have wings. + + "Talent she may not have, + Beauty, nor wit, nor grace, + But until she's among the angels + She cannot be commonplace." + +There is something to remember: cultivate sympathy, gentleness, +forgiveness, purity, truth, love: and then, though you may have no other +gifts, "until you're among the angels, you cannot be commonplace." + +And here I might conclude. But I should not satisfy myself or you, if I +did so without paying my tribute of genuine commendation to the High +School, and of hearty respect for the Head-mistress and her staff of +teachers. Clifton owes Miss Woods a great debt for the tone of +high-mindedness and loyalty, for the moral and intellectual stamp that +she has set on the School. She has won, as we all know, the sincere +respect and attachment of her mistresses and her old pupils; and the +older and wiser you grow the more you all will learn to honour and love +her. And you will please her best by thorough loyalty to the highest +aims of the School which she puts before you by her words and by her +example. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: An Address given at the High School, Clifton, Oct. 25, +1887.] + + + + +II. + +HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR GIRLS. + + + + +HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR GIRLS.[2] + + +It is a real pleasure to find myself in Bath on an educational mission. +I have ancestral and personal educational connections with Bath of very +old standing. My father was curate of St. Michael's before I was born; +my grandfather and uncle were in succession head-masters of the Grammar +School here, fine scholars both, of the old school. My first visit to +Bath was when I was nine years old, and on that occasion I had my first +real stand-up fight with a small Bath Grammar School boy. I think that +if the old house is still standing I could find the place where we +fought, and where a master brutally interrupted us with a +walking-stick. Since those days, my relations with Bath have been rare, +but peaceful; unless, indeed, the honourable competition between Clifton +College and its brilliant daughter, Bath College, may be regarded as a +ceaseless but a friendly combat between their two head-masters whom you +see so peaceably side by side. + +I propose, first, to say a few words about the condition of schools +twenty years ago, before the present impulse towards the higher +education of women gave us High Schools and Colleges at the +Universities, and other educational movements. There is a most +interesting chapter in the report of the Endowed Schools Commission of +1868 on girls' schools, and some valuable evidence collected by the +Assistant Commissioners. It is not ancient history yet, and therein lies +its great value to us. It shows us the evils from which we are only now +escaping in our High Schools: evils which still prevail to a formidable +extent in a large section of girls' education, and from which I can +scarcely imagine Bath is wholly free. + +The report speaks of the general indifference of parents to the +education of their girls in our whole upper and middle class, both +absolutely and relatively to that of their boys. That indifference in +part remains. There was a strong prejudice that girls could not learn +the same subjects as boys, and that even if they could, such an +education was useless and even injurious. That prejudice still survives, +in face of facts. + +The right education, it was thought, for girls, was one of +accomplishments and of routine work, with conversational knowledge of +French. The ideal of a girl's character was that she was to be merely +amiable, ready to please and be pleased; it was, as was somewhat +severely said by one of the Assistant Commissioners, not to be good and +useful when married, but to _get_ married. There was no ideal for single +women. They did not realize how much of the work of the world must go +undone unless there is a large class of highly educated single women. +This view of girls' education is not yet extinct. + +Corresponding to the ideal on the part of the ordinary British parent +was, of course, the school itself. There was no high ideal of physical +health, and but little belief that it depended on physical conditions; +therefore the schools were neither large and airy, nor well provided +with recreation ground; not games and play, but an operation known as +"crocodiling" formed the daily and wearisome exercise of girls. That +defect also is common still. There was no ideal of art, or belief in the +effect of artistic surroundings, and therefore the schools were +unpretending even to ugliness and meanness. The walls were not +beautified with pictures, nor were the rooms furnished with taste. There +was no high ideal of cultivating the intelligence, and therefore most of +the lessons that were not devoted to accomplishments, such as music, +flower-painting, fancy work, hand-screen making, etc., were given to +memory work, and note-books, in which extracts were made from standard +authors and specimen sums worked with flourishes wondrous to behold. The +serious study of literature and history was almost unknown. The memory +work consisted in many schools in learning Mangnall's Questions and +Brewer's Guide to Science--fearful books. The first was miscellaneous: +What is lightning? How is sago made? What were the Sicilian Vespers, the +properties of the atmosphere, the length of the Mississippi, and the +Pelagian heresy? These are, I believe, actual specimens of the +questions; and the answers were committed to memory. About twenty-five +years ago I examined some girls in Brewer's Guide to Science. The verbal +knowledge of some of them was quite wonderful; their understanding of +the subject absolutely _nil_. They could rattle off all about positive +and negative electricity, and Leyden jars and batteries; but the words +obviously conveyed no ideas whatever, and they cheerfully talked utter +nonsense in answer to questions not in the book. + +Examinations for schools were not yet instituted; the education was +unguided, and therefore largely misguided. Do not let us imagine for an +instant that these evils have been generally cured. The secondary +education of the country is still in a deplorable condition; and it +behoves us to repeat on all occasions that it is so. The schools I am +describing from the report of twenty years ago exist and abound and +flourish still, owing to the widespread indifference of parents to the +education of their girls, to the qualifications and training of their +mistresses, and the efficiency of the schools. Untested, unguided, they +exist and even thrive, and will do so until a sounder public opinion and +the proved superiority of well-trained mistresses and well-educated +girls gradually exterminates the inefficient schools. But we are, I +fear, a long way still from this desirable consummation. + +What were the mistresses? For the most part worthy, even excellent +ladies, who had no other means of livelihood, and who had no special +education themselves, and no training whatever. Naturally they taught +what they could, and laid stress on what was called the _formation of +character_, which they usually regarded as somehow alternative with +intellectual attainments and stimulus, and progress in which could not +be submitted to obvious tests. + +I suppose most of us think that there is no more valuable assistance in +the formation of character than any pursuit that leads the mind away +from frivolous pursuits, egotistic or morbid fancies, and fills it with +memories of noble words and lives, teaches it to love our great poets +and writers, and gives it sympathies with great causes. But this was not +the prevailing opinion twenty years ago. The influence of good people, +good homes, good example--in a word truly religious influence, as we +shall all admit--is the strongest element in the formation of character; +but the next strongest is assuredly that education which teaches us to +admire "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lovely, and +whatsoever things are of good report;" and this ought to be, and is, one +of the results of the literary teaching given by well-educated +mistresses. + +I have been describing the common type of what used to be called the +"seminaries" and "establishments for young ladies" of twenty years ago. +And it may give you the impression that there was no good education to +be got in those days, and that the ladies of my generation were +therefore very ill-educated. Permit me to correct that impression. There +were homes in which the girls learned something from father or from +mother, or, perhaps, something from a not very talented governess; but +in which they educated themselves with a hunger and thirst after +knowledge, and an enjoyment of literature that is rare in any school. Do +not imagine that any school education under mistresses however skilled, +or resulting in certificates however brilliant, is really as effective +in the formation of strong intellectual tastes and clear judgment and +ability as the self-education which was won by the mothers of some of +you, by the women of my generation and those before. Such education was +rare, but it was possible, and it is possible still. Under such a system +a few are educated and the many fail altogether. The advantage of our +day is that education is offered to a much larger number. But I cannot +call it better than that which was won by a few in the generation of +your mothers. If we would combine the exceptional merits of the old +system with the high average merits of the new we must jealously +preserve the element of freedom and self-education. + +To return to the report. The indifference of parents and the public, the +inadequacy of school buildings and appliances, the low intellectual +ideals of mistresses, were the evils of twenty years ago, prevailing +very widely and lowering school education, and we must not expect to +have got rid of them altogether. An educational atmosphere is not +changed in twenty years. + +But our High Schools are a very real step in advance. The numbers of +your school show that there is a considerable and increasing fraction of +residents in Bath who do care for the intellectual quality of the +education of their girls; and the report of the examiners is a most +satisfactory guarantee that the instruction given here is thoroughly +efficient along the whole line. Bath must be congratulated on its High +School for Girls, as it must be congratulated on its College for Boys. + +But are we therefore to rest and be thankful in the complacent belief +that we have now at length attained perfection, at least in our High +Schools? I am called in to bless High School education, and I do bless +it from my heart. I know something of it. My own daughter was at such a +school; I have been vice-president of a High School for ten years. I +wish there were High Schools in every town in England. They have done +and are doing much to lift the standard of girls' education in England. +But I will again remind you that High Schools are educating but a +fraction of the population, and that the faults of twenty years ago +still characterise our girls' education as a whole. + +And now, having said this, I shall not be misunderstood if I go on to +speak of some of the deficiencies in our ideals of girls' education +which seem to me to affect High Schools as well as all other schools. +One point, in which the older education with its manifold defects had a +real merit, is that there was no over-teaching, no hurry to produce +results, and therefore no disgust aroused with learning and literature. +At any rate, the girls, or the best of them, left school or governess +"with an appetite." Now I consider this is a real test of teaching at +school or college, in science or literature: does it leave boys and +girls hungry for more, with such a love for learning that they will go +on studying of themselves? If the teaching of some science is such that +you never want to go to another science lecture as long as you live: +your lessons on literature such that your Shakespeare, your Spenser, +your Burke, your Browning will never again descend from your shelves: +then, whatever else schools may have done, they have sacrificed the +future to the present. It is on this account that the pressure of +external examinations and its effect on the teaching of mistresses must +be most carefully watched. To get immediate results is easy, but it is +sometimes at the cost of later results. Our aim should be not so much to +teach, as to make our pupils love to learn, and have methods of +learning; and every teacher should remember that our pupils can learn +far more than we can teach them; and, as Thring used to say, "hammering +is not teaching." With a system of competitive examinations for the Army +and Civil Service, boys must sometimes sacrifice the future to the +present. Girls need never do so, and therefore girls' schools need not +copy the faults as well as the excellences of boys' schools. + +I have ventured to say so much for an intellectual danger in High +Schools. I do not doubt that your head-mistress is aware of it, and on +her guard: I speak much more to the public, to the parents, and to the +Council (if I may say so), as an expert, because I know that the public +sometimes want to be satisfied that the education is good at every +stage, and they ought to be content if it is good at the final stage. +Another point on which I would venture to say a word to parents is this. +Do not take your girls away from school too early. Every schoolmaster +knows that the most valuable years, those which leave the deepest marks +in character and intellect, are those from sixteen to eighteen. It is +equally true with girls, as schoolmistresses know equally well. It is in +the later years that they get the full benefit of the higher teaching, +and that much of what may have seemed the drudgery of earlier work reaps +its natural and deserved reward. Let your children come early, so as to +be taught well from the beginning, and let them stay late. + +I do not myself know what your buildings may be; but a friend to whom I +wrote speaks of them as inadequate and somewhat unworthy of the city. +May I venture to say to a Bath public that it is worth while to have +first-rate buildings for educational purposes? No money is better spent. +If the Bath public will take this up in earnest it cannot be doubted +that the Girls' School Company would second their efforts in such an +important centre. Come over and see our Clifton High School, with its +spacious lawns and playgrounds and pleasant rooms, and you will be +discontented with a righteous discontent. + +And now I will point out another defect in High School education which +parents and mistresses may do much to remedy. There is usually--and I am +assuming without direct knowledge that it is the case here--no system by +which any one girl is known through her whole school career to any one +mistress; nothing corresponding to the tutor system of our public +schools. It follows that a girl passes from form to form, and the +relation between her and her mistress is so constantly broken that it is +morally less powerful than it might be. The friendly and permanent +relation of old days is converted into an official and temporary +relation. It will be obvious to any one who reflects that the loss is +great. The cure for it is twofold. The parents may do much by +establishing a friendly relation with the form mistresses of their +girls. I have known parents who had never taken the trouble to inquire +even the names of their girls' mistress. If parents wish to get really +the best out of a school, I would say to them (and I am speaking +specially to mothers), you are delegating to the form mistress a very +large share of the responsibility for the formation of your daughter's +character; the least you can do is to be in the most friendly and +confidential communication with her that circumstances permit. And I +would say to the mistresses that, as far as is possible, you should be +to the girls what form masters are in a good school to their +boys--friends in school and out of school, acquainted with their +tastes, companions sometimes in their games or their walks, and in all +ways breaking down the merely formal relation of teacher and pupil. The +ideally bad master, as I have often said to my young masters on a first +appointment, is one who as soon as his boys clear out of the class-room, +puts his hands in his pockets and whistles, and thanks Heaven that he +will see no more of the boys for so many hours. I do not know what the +corresponding action on the part of a mistress may be, as I believe they +have no pockets and can't whistle, but there is probably a corresponding +state of mind. I venture, therefore, to suggest that in our High Schools +there should be a greater _rapprochement_ than is usual between parents +and mistresses and girls in order to make the system more truly +educational in the best sense. + +I am now going to turn to a wholly different subject; and I am going to +talk to the girls. In the crusade against the lower type of education +that prevailed twenty years ago, and still exists, who are the most +important agents? It is the girls who are still in the High Schools, or +who are passing out of them, or who are otherwise getting the higher +education in a few private schools. "Ye are our epistle, known and read +of all men," and read of all women too, with their still keener eyes. + +There is a very real danger in our High Schools that the intellectual +side of education may be overestimated and overpressed, not by +mistresses, but by yourselves; and that the natural, human, domestic, +and family elements in it may be undervalued. What are you yourselves at +home, in society, with parents, brothers, sisters, children, friends, +schoolfellows, servants? Is the better education, that you are +undoubtedly getting, widening your sympathies, opening your heart and +mind to all the educational influences which do not consist in books or +in work? Is it giving you greater delicacy of touch? Is it opening new +channels for influences, streaming in on you or streaming out from you? +Your daily life may become a higher education, and is so to the truly +noble-minded and well-educated girl or woman. Do not regard as +interruptions, and as teasing, the calls of household, the duties to +parents, visitors, children, and the rest; it is part of the education +of life to fulfil all these duties well, delightfully, brilliantly, +joyously, enthusiastically; these things are not interruptions to life, +they are life itself. There was a pitiful magazine article written the +other day by some lady complaining that social duties, the having to see +her friends, her cook, her gardener, her dress-maker, etc., prevented +her from reading Herbert Spencer, and developing her small fragment of +soul. Social duties, rightly done, are one of the developments of soul. +Let it be seen that you girls who can enjoy your literature, and your +history, and your music, and your drawing with keen appreciation are not +made thereby selfish or unsociable; but that you are more delightful +creatures than those who have no such independent resources and joys. A +girl who gets her certificate or prize and is cross or dull at home, +and does not think it worth while to be kind and agreeable to a young +brother or an old nurse, to every creature in her household down to the +cat and the canary, is a traitor to the cause of higher education. + +Again, it has been observed that the practical and artistic elements in +school education have been, in general, more thoroughly developed of +late years since they were put into a secondary place. This is as it +should be. Such subjects as music, drawing, cooking, housekeeping, +wood-carving, nursing, needlework, when they are studied at all, are +studied more professionally and thoroughly and intelligently, and less +in the spirit of the amateur and dabbler. So I would say to you, both +now and when you leave, show that your education in intelligence has +given you wide interests and powers to master all such subjects. Take +them up all the more thoroughly. + +Closely akin to this merit of thoroughness is the large spirit of +unselfishness that ought to come, and certainly in many instances does +come, with wider interests, a more intelligent education, and a more +active imagination. Women in our class have more leisure than men; they +can actually do what is impossible by the conditions of life for us men +to do, link class to class by knowledge and sympathy and help and +kindness. They can be of immense service in this way. There is a story +in the life of an American lady, Mrs. Lynam, that occurs to me. There +was much conversation about a certain Mr. Robbins, who had lately died; +he had been such a benefactor, such a good man, and so on. A visitor +asked, "Did Mr. Robbins found a benevolent institution?" "No," was the +reply, "he _was_ a benevolent institution." Women of our class may be, +they ought to be, "benevolent institutions." And such women exist among +us; pity is there are so few of them. They can unobtrusively be centres +of happiness, and knowledge, and generous attitudes of mind. Now there +ought to be more of such women, and I look to our High Schools with +hope. They ought to make girls public-spirited and large-minded. + +There is another element in girls' education which is only imperfectly +as yet brought out, and which you yourselves can do something to +develop. I mean the better appreciation of an education which is not in +books, and not in accomplishments, and not in duties, and not in social +intercourse. How shall I describe it? Think of the old Greek education +of men. There was a large element of literature and poetry and natural +religion and imagination in it; and a large element of gymnastic also; +but besides all this it was an education of eye and ear; it was a +training that sprang from reverence for nature, as a whole, for an ideal +of complete life, in body and mind and soul; and not only for complete +individual life, but also for the city, the nation. It was a consummate +perfection of life that was ever leading the Athenian upward, by a +life-long education, to strive for a certain grace and finish in every +one of his faculties. And we see to what splendid results in literature +and art and civic and personal beauty it led them. + +This element is still wanting in our higher education; it is the ideal +of nobility of life and perfection. We lack it in our physical +education. That is still far from perfect. If we all, parents, children, +boys and girls, schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, had some of the +Greek feeling of high admiration of physical perfection of form and +grace and activity, we should not see so many boys and girls of very +imperfect gracefulness, nor should we see fashions of dress so ruinous +to all ideals of perfection and grace. We cannot make up for the want of +this national artistic ideal of beauty of figure by artificial +gymnastics, scientific posturings, and ladders and bars. They are better +than nothing, they are a protest, they certainly remedy some defects and +prevent others. But do not you be content with them. By self-respect and +self-discipline, by healthy life, early hours, open air, natural +exercise, the joyous and free use of all your powers, by dancing, +playing games, by refusal to give way to unhealthy and disfiguring +fashions, and, above all, by an aspiration after grace and perfection, +do what you can to remedy this national defect in our ideals for girls. + +Did you ever read Kingsley's "Nausicaa in London"? Do you all know who +Nausicaa was? If not, let me advise you to borrow Worsley's "Odyssey" +and read Book VI., and read Kingsley's Essay too. Nausicaa was a Greek +maiden who played at ball; and I think you are doing more to approach +the old Greek ideal when you play at lawn tennis and cricket and hockey, +and I would add rounders and many another game, than when you are going +through ordered exercises, valuable as they are, or even than when you +are learning Greek or copying Greek statues. + +This leads me to say that games contribute much to remedy another +deficiency in our ideal. There is a defective power of real enjoyment of +life, of healthy spirits among us moderns. There is more enjoyment now +than there was. I think my generation was better than the one that +preceded us in this respect; we had more games, more fun, more _abandon_ +in enjoyment than our fathers and mothers, your grandfathers and +grandmothers, had, if we may judge from letters published and +unpublished. And they too often thought we were a frivolous generation, +not so staid and decorous as we might be, and repressed and checked us; +while we on the contrary urge on you to enjoy more fully the splendour +of your youth and vitality. We desire to see you dance and sing and +laugh and bubble over with the delicious inexhaustible flow of vital +energy; we know that it need not interfere with the refinement of +perfect manners and decorum, and we know too that there is the force +which will sober down and do good work, and there is the health-giving +exercise, the geniality, and the joy that will make you stronger and +pleasanter, more patient and more persuasive to good in years to come. +So it is with boys: men are made in our playgrounds as much as in the +class-room; so, too, is it with you. I must give you a quotation from +"Fo'c's'le Yarns," that delightfullest of volumes-- + + "It's likely God has got a plan + To put a spirit in a man + That's more than you can stow away + In the heart of a child. But he'll see the day + When he'll not have a bit too much for the work + He's got to do. And the little Turk + Is good for nothing but shouting and fighting + And carrying on; and God delighting + To make him strong and bold and free + And thinking the man he's going to be-- + More beef than butter, more lean than lard, + Hard if you like, but the world is hard. + You'll see a river how it dances + From rock to rock wherever it chances: + In and out, and here and there + A regular young divil-may-care. + But, caught in the sluice, it's another case, + And it steadies down, and it flushes the race + Very deep and strong, but still + It's not too much to work the mill. + The same with hosses: kick and bite + And winch away--all right, all right, + Wait a bit and give him his ground, + And he'll win his rider a thousand pound." + +There is a word in German which has no English equivalent; it expresses +just the missing ideal I am speaking of. It is a terrible mouthful, as +German words often are--Lebensglueckseligkeit--it is the rapture and +blessedness and happiness of living. Carry the idea away with you, and +make it one of your personal ideals, and home ideals, and school ideals, +and life ideals, this Lebensglueckseligkeit. + + "'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant, + Oh life, not death, for which we pant; + More life, and fuller, that I want." + +You can carry this idea with you into society, and use it to brighten +its conventional sociabilities, and stimulate them into positive +enjoyability by more of intelligence and animation. + +We had a visit the other day from an American gentleman, Mr. Muybridge, +who came to give a lecture at Clifton College. I believe he also +lectured in Bath. He remarked to Mrs. Wilson in the lecture-room that he +was glad to see some ladies present. "I like ladies at my lectures; they +are so intelligent." "Yes," she replied, "but I fear you are +attributing to us the qualities of American ladies; we are not +particularly intelligent." "You are joking!" was his reply. "No," she +went on, "we are always told how much more intelligent American ladies +are than English." He paused for some time, and then slowly said, "Well, +I'll not deny they are smarter." + +Well, this quality that Mr. Muybridge describes as "smartness" is an +American equivalent of Lebensglueckseligkeit; it is a sort of intensity +of life, of vivacity, of willingness to take trouble, to interest and be +interested, that is a little lacking in our English ideal of young +ladies: and we must be on our guard lest any school ideals of study and +bookishness should actually increase this deficiency. Any one, mistress +or girl, who makes good education to be associated with dulness and +boredom and insipidity is again a traitor to the cause of higher +education. + +I have run to greater length than I intended, and I will conclude. + +It should be the aim of us all, Council, parents, mistresses, and girls, +to show that our ideal of education includes both the training of the +intelligence and reason, and the storing the mind with treasures of +beauty and instruments of power for opening new avenues into the +storehouse of knowledge and delight that the world contains; and also +the development of the practical ability, the benevolence and sympathy, +the vivacity, the enjoyment of life, the fulness of activity, bodily and +mental, that makes the Lebensglueckseligkeit I spoke of, and the +superadding, or rather diffusing through it all, an unobtrusive but deep +Christian faith and reverence and charity. + +The Archbishop of Canterbury lately said in his charge that "public +schools were infinitely more conducive to a strong morality than any +other institution." He was thinking of boys' schools, of which he speaks +with intimate knowledge; but I believe that, where girls' schools have +at their head one who in the spirit of Dr. Arnold recognizes the +responsibility for giving an unostentatious, unpartisan-like, but +all-pervading and intelligent religious tone to the life, the aims, and +the ideal of the school, and where the Council and parents value this +influence, there the influence of girls' High Schools may be more +conducive to strong morality and true religion in England than even that +of our great public schools. For the High Schools are training more and +more of the most influential class among the women of England, as the +public schools are training the men, and the influence of women must of +necessity be of the first importance; for it is they who determine the +religious training and the atmosphere of the home, and thus profoundly +affect the national character. Let us all alike try to keep before +ourselves from day to day and from year to year these high ideals of +education which can nowhere be so well attained, both by mistresses and +girls, as in a High School. + +And in particular let me appeal to you, the inhabitants of Bath, to be +proud of this school, to foster it, to assist it in every way, and be +assured that in so doing you are conferring a lasting benefit on your +famous city. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: An Address delivered at the High School, Bath, and the High +School, Clifton, Dec. 1889.] + + + + +III. + +RELIGION. + + + + +RELIGION.[3] + + +I am not going to preach you a sermon of quite the usual type, but +intend rather to offer a few detached remarks without attempting to +weave them into any unity of plan, or to connect them with any +particular text from the Bible. Such unity as these remarks may possess +will result not from design but from the nature of the subject. For I am +going to speak about religion. + +Now as I write this word I almost fancy I hear the rustle of an audience +composing itself to endure what it foresees must be a dull and +uninteresting address. "Religion! he can't make that interesting." Now, +why is this? What is religion, that in the eyes of so many clever and +intelligent and well-educated young people it should be thought dull? + +Of this one point I am quite sure, that it is the fault of our +misunderstanding and misrepresentation, in the past and the present, +that religion seems dull. + +Religion is, in its essence, the opening to the young mind of all the +higher regions of thought and aspiration and imagination and +spirituality. When you are quite young you are occupied of course with +the visible things and people round you; each hour brings its +amusements, its occupations and its delights, and reflection scarcely +begins. But soon questions of right and wrong spring up; a world of +ideas and imaginations opens before you; you are led by your teachers +and your books into the presence of great thoughts, the inspirations +that come from beauty in all forms, from nature, from art, from +literature, and especially from poets; you come under the influence of +friends--fathers, mothers, or other elders--who evidently have springs +of conduct and aspirations you as yet only dimly recognize; and mixed +with all these influences there is that influence on us from childhood +upward of our prayers that we have been taught, our religious services, +our Bibles, and most of all the Sacred Figure, dimly seen, but never +long absent from our thoughts, enveloped in a sort of sacred and +mysterious halo--the figure of our Lord Jesus Christ enshrined in our +hearts, and that Father in Heaven of Whom He spoke. All these are among +the religious influences; and what is their aim and object? What is it +that we should try and extract from them for ourselves? How should we +use them in our turn to better those who come after us? + +Well, I reply, they should all be regarded as the avenues by which our +human nature as a whole ought to rise, and the only avenues by which it +can rise, to its rightful and splendid heritage and its true +development. We cannot be all that we might be without straining our +efforts in this direction of aspiration towards God, towards all that +is ideal, spiritual and divine. + +We are often inert, effortless, and then the religion I have spoken of +repels us because it demands an effort; we are often selfish, and it +repels us because it calls us out of self; we are often absorbed in the +small and immediate aims for present enjoyment, interested in our own +small circles, and religion insists that these are not enough. It is for +ever calling us, as all true education calls us, as literature and +history call us, to rise higher, to see more, to widen our sympathies, +to enlarge our hearts, to open the doors of feeling and emotion. +Religion therefore may make great demands on us; it may disturb our +repose; it may shake us, and say, look, look; look up, look round; it +may be importunate, insistent, omnipresent, but it is not dull. + +There is a sham semblance of religion which you are right in regarding +as dull, for it is dull. When it is unreal and insincere it is deadly +dull; when phrases are repeated, parrotwise, by people who have either +never felt or have long lost their power and inspiration, then too it is +deadly dull. When a sharp line, moreover, is made between all the +various influences that elevate us, and place us in presence of the +ideal and spiritual world; when the common relations of life, when art, +poetry, criticism, science; when educated and refining intercourse and +conversation, and all that occupies us on our intellectual sides is +classed as secular, and the only helps to religion that are recognized +are services and creeds and traditions of our particular church, then +such religion cuts itself off from many of its springs, and from most of +its fairest fields, and _is_ barren, and unprofitable, and dull. + +You are not likely to make this error. You are perhaps more likely to +make the opposite error, by a natural reaction from this. Because, when +all the world of interest and beauty and human life is opening before +you, you cannot believe that religion is confined to the narrow sphere +of ideas in which it was once thought to consist, and is still sometimes +declared to consist, you may think that you can dispense with that +narrow but central sphere of ideas; and there you are wrong. I am quite +sure that there is no inspiring and sustaining force, which shall make +your lives worthy, comparable to the faith which Christ taught the +world, that we are verily the children of God, and sharers of His Divine +life, heirs of an eternal life in Christ towards which we may press, and +the appointed path to which lies in the highest duties that our daily +life presents and consecrates. On this inspiring power of faith in +Christ I shall not speak to-day. I mean to speak on one only of the +duties which form the path to the higher life, which you may overlook, +and yet which is inherent in religion. + +The duty which I shall speak of is the necessity of entering into the +life and needs and sympathies of others; of living not with an eye +exclusively on yourself, but with the constant thought for others. It +is the law of our being that admits of no exception. You may hope that +the law of gravitation will be suspended in your case, and leap out of +the window; but you will suffer for your mistake; and you will be +equally mistaken and equally maim your life, if you think that somehow +the law of the spiritual world would admit of exception, and that you +can win happiness, goodness, and the full tide of life; become the best +that you are capable of being, while remaining isolated, +self-absorbed--by being centripetal, not centrifugal. It cannot be. Now +this is worth saying to you, because you know here at school what a +united social life is. All girls do not know this. You do. There is +distinctly here a school life, a school feeling, a house feeling. No +casual visitor to your playing fields and hall can mistake this. And you +know that this enlarges and draws something out of your nature that +would never have been suspected had it not been for school life. But +when school life ends, what will become of this discovery that you have +made? Boys, when they leave school and have developed the passionate +feeling of love for their old school,--the strong _esprit de corps_, the +conviction that in brotherhood and union is their strength and +happiness,--contrive to find fresh united activities, and transfer to +new bodies their public spirit and power of co-operation. Their college, +their regiment, their football club, their work with young employes, +their parish, their town--something is found into which they can throw +themselves. And again and again I have watched how this has become a +religion, a binding and elevating and educating power in the mind of +young men; and again and again, too, I have noticed how without it men +lose interest, lose growth and greatness; individualism creeps on them, +half their nature is stunted. For the individual life is only half the +life; and even that cannot be the rich and full and glorious thing it +might be, unless it is enlarged on all sides, and rests on a wide social +sympathy and love. + +But how is it for girls when they leave school? It is distinctly harder +for you to find lines of united action. Society tends to individualize +young ladies; its ideal for them is elegant inaction and graceful +waiting, to an extent infinitely beyond what it is for young men. You do +not find at your homes ready-made associations to join, or even an +obvious possibility of doing anything for anybody. And so I have +witnessed generous and fine school-girl natures dwarfed, cabined, +confined; cheated of the activities which they had learned to desire to +exercise, becoming individualistic, and therefore commonplace; not +without inward fury and resistance, secret remonstrance, but concealing +it all under the impassive manner which society demands. + +Something is wrong: and your generation is finding this out, and finding +out also its cure. Year by year greater liberty of action is open to +educated women; and educated women are themselves seeing, and others are +seeing for them, that they have a part to play in the world which none +others can play; if they do not play it, then work, indispensable to the +good of society, and therefore to their own good, is undone. I say to +_their own good_, for we all want happiness: but happiness is not won by +seeking for it. Make up your minds on this point, that there are certain +things only to be got by not aiming directly at them. Aim, for example, +at being influential, and you become a prig; aim at walking and posing +gracefully, and you become an affected and ludicrous object; aim even at +breathing quite regularly, and you fail. + +So if you aim at happiness or self-culture or individualistic +completeness, the world seems to combine to frustrate you. People, +circumstances, opportunities, temper, everything goes wrong; and you lay +the blame on everything except the one thing that is the cause of it +all, the fact that you yourself are aiming at the wrong thing. But aim +at making everything go well where you are; aim at using this treasure +of life that God has given you for helping lame dogs over stiles, for +making schools, households, games, parishes, societies, sick-rooms, +girls' clubs, what not?--run more smoothly; wake every morning with the +thought what can I do to-day to oil the wheels of my little world; and +behold people, circumstances, opportunities, temper, even health, all +get into a new adjustment, and all combine to fill your life with +interests, warmth, affection, culture, and growth: you will find it +true: good measure, shaken down, heaped together, and running over, +shall men give into your bosoms. + +Ah! but _what_ can one do? It is so hard to find out the right thing. +Yes; and no possible general rule can be given. You must fix the ideal +in your mind, and be sure that in some way or other openings will arise. +I will not touch life at school; you know more about that than I do, and +perhaps need not that I should speak of public spirit, and generous +temper, and the united life. I will only say that a girl who does not +throw herself into school life with the generous wish to give pleasure +and to lift the tone around her, does not get more than a fraction of +the good that a school life like this can give, and does not do her +duty. I speak of later years alone. And in the first instance, and +always in the first place, stand the claims of home. I dare say you +remember the young lady who wanted to go and learn nursing in a +hospital, and was asked by the doctor why she desired this. "Father is +paralysed," she said, "and mother is nearly blind, and my sisters are +all married, and it is so dull at home; so I thought I should like +nursing." I don't want you to emulate that young person. Grudge no love +and care at home: no one can give such happiness to parents, brothers, +sisters, as you can, and to make people happy is in itself a worthy +mission; it is the next best thing to making them good. And remember +also, that there are many years before you: and that though it may seem +that years are spent with nothing effected except that somehow things +have gone more smoothly, you yourself will have been matured, deepened, +and consolidated by a life of duty, in a way in which no self-chosen +path of life could have trained you. And if, as is quite possible, some +of you are impatient already for the exercise of your powers in some +great work, I will preach patience to you from another motive. It is +this: that you are not yet capable of doing much that is useful, from +want of training and general ability. I remember Miss Octavia Hill once +saying that she could get any quantity of money, and any quantity of +enthusiasm, but that her difficulty was to get trained intelligence, +either in men or women. So, a few days ago, Miss Clementina Black, who +is Hon. Secretary of the Women's Trade Association, said to a friend of +my own that she had had many voluntary lady helpers of various degrees +of education and culture, and that she had found without exception that +the highly educated students were the most fitted to do the work well; +that they alone were capable of the patience, accuracy, and attention +to detail which were one essential quality to the doing of such work, +and that they alone could provide the other essentials, which can only +spring from a cultivated mind--viz., wideness of view, sense of +proportion, and capacity for general interest in other important +questions--social, literary, and intellectual. "It is this cultivation +of mind which prevents you from being crushed under the difficulty and +tedium and disappointment which must attend every effort to teach +principles and promote ideal aims among the mass of ignorant, apathetic, +uninterested, and helpless working women, who must themselves in the +last resort be the agents in bringing about a better condition of +industry." + +You may rest assured that if you set your mind on a career of splendid +usefulness for your fellows (and I hope every one of you here aims at +this), then you will need all the training that the highest and most +prolonged education can give you. Become the most perfect creature you +have it in your power to become. If Oxford or Cambridge are open to +you, welcome the opportunity, and use the extra power they will give +you. If not, then utilise the years that lie before you, in perfecting +your accomplishments, in self-education; in interesting and informing +yourself on social questions, in enlarging your horizon, while you +cheerfully, happily, brilliantly perform _all_ your home duties. + +And during this period of preparation which you all must go through, +remember that there are some things which you can do better in your +inexperience and ignorance than any other people. How is this? Tell me +why it would be more comfort, and do more good sometimes to a poor sick +woman to bring her a few primroses or daffodils than to give her any +substantial relief. The reason is the same. The very freshness and +innocence of young faces, that sympathise without having the faintest +suspicion of the sin and misery of the world, is more refreshing and +helpful than the stronger sympathy of one who really knows all the evil. +You can be primroses and daffodils, and give glimpses into a purer +world of love and gentleness and peace. + +And if a prolonged training is impossible to you, it is often possible +for you to assist in some humble capacity some lady who is so engaged in +work on a scale which you could not yourself touch. Be her handmaid and +fag and slave, and so gradually train yourself to become capable of +independent action. + +But to sum up all I am saying it amounts to this--Where there's a will +there's a way, and I want you to have the will. + +Did you ever think for what reason you should have had such a splendid +time of it in your lives? Not two girls in a thousand are getting such +an education as you are, such varied studies, such vigorous public +school life, such historic associations. And why? Because you are better +than others? I think not. It is that you play your part in the great +social organism our national life; hundreds are toiling for us, digging, +spinning, weaving, mining, building, navigating, that we may have +leisure for the thought, the love, the wisdom that shall lighten and +direct their lives. You cannot dissociate yourselves from the labouring +masses, and in particular from the women and girls of England. They are +your sisters; and a blight and a curse rests on you if you ignore them, +and grasp at all the pleasures and sweetness and cultivation of your +life with no thought or toil for them. Their lives are the foundations +on which ours rest. It is horrible in one class to live without this +consciousness of a mutual obligation, and mutual responsibility. All +that we get, we get on trust, as trustee for them. I remember that +Thring says somewhere, that "no beggar who creeps through the street +living on alms and wasting them is baser than those who idly squander at +school and afterwards the gifts received on trust." + +I know that our class education isolates us and separates us from the +uneducated and common people as we call them, makes us perhaps regard +them as uninteresting, even repellent. Part of what we hope from the +girls who come from great schools like this is, that they shall have a +larger sympathy, a truer heart. Remember all your life long a saying of +Abraham Lincoln's, when he was President of the United States. Some one +remarked in his hearing that he was quite a common-looking man. +"Friend," he replied, gently, "the Lord loves common-looking people +best; that is why He has made so many of them." + +You can all make a _few_ friends out of the lower class; you cannot do +much; but learn to know and love a few, and then you will do wider good +than you suspect. + +But you are beginning to ask--Is all this religion? You expected +something else. Let me remind you of the man who came to Jesus Christ, +and asked Him what he should do to obtain eternal life. And this +question, I may explain, means--What shall I do that I may enter on that +divine and higher life now while I live; how can I most fully develop my +spiritual nature? And the answer was--Love God; and love your neighbour +as yourself. Go outside yourself in love to all that is divine and ideal +in thought and duty; go outside yourself in love to your neighbour--and +your neighbour is every one with whom you have any relation; and then, +and then alone, does your own nature grow to its highest and best. This +is the open secret of true religion. + +Eastertide is the teacher of ideals. Its great lesson is--"If ye were +raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above." If by +calling yourself a Christian you mean that you aim at the higher, the +spiritual, the divine life, then think of things that are above. [Greek: +Ta ano phroneite], think heaven itself. And heaven lies around us in our +daily life--not in the cloister, in incense-breathing aisle, in +devotions that isolate us, and force a sentiment unreal, morbid, and +even false, but in the generous and breathing activities of our life. +Religion glorifies, because it idealizes, that very life we are each +called on to lead. Look, therefore, round in your various lives and +homes, and ask yourselves what is the ideal life for me here, in this +position, as school-girl, daughter, sister, friend, mistress, or in any +other capacity. Education ought to enable you to frame an ideal; it +ought to give you imagination, and sympathy, and intelligence, and +resource; and religion ought to give you the strong motive, the +endurance, the width of view, the nobleness of purpose, to make your +life a light and a blessing wherever you are. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: An Address given to St. Leonard's School, St. Andrews, on +Sunday, April 13, 1890.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Addresses to Girls at School, by +James Maurice Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE ADDRESSES TO GIRLS AT SCHOOL *** + +***** This file should be named 29343.txt or 29343.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/4/29343/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Laura Ulibarri and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +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. 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