diff options
Diffstat (limited to '37299.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 37299.txt | 1437 |
1 files changed, 1437 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/37299.txt b/37299.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1de2b84 --- /dev/null +++ b/37299.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1437 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Talks to Freshman Girls, by Helen Dawes Brown + +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: Talks to Freshman Girls + +Author: Helen Dawes Brown + +Release Date: September 3, 2011 [EBook #37299] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALKS TO FRESHMAN GIRLS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from images made available by the HathiTrust +Digital Library.) + + + + + + + + + + By Helen Dawes Brown + + TALKS TO FRESHMAN GIRLS. + + HOW PHOEBE FOUND HERSELF. + With frontispiece. + + ORPHANS. + + MR. TUCKERMAN'S NIECES. Illustrated. + + A BOOK OF LITTLE BOYS. Illustrated. + + THE PETRIE ESTATE. Also in paper binding. + + TWO COLLEGE GIRLS. + + LITTLE MISS PHOEBE GAY. Illustrated. + + HER SIXTEENTH YEAR. A Sequel to + "Little Miss Phoebe Gay." + + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + Boston and New York + + + + + TALKS TO + FRESHMAN GIRLS + + BY + + HELEN DAWES BROWN + + _Author of "Two College Girls"_ + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + The Riverside Press Cambridge + 1914 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY HELEN DAWES BROWN + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + _Published September 1914_ + + + + +TALKS TO FRESHMAN GIRLS + + + + +I--"STUDIES SERVE FOR DELIGHT, FOR ORNAMENT, AND FOR ABILITY" + + +No man could have written this sentence with more authority than Francis +Bacon, for no man ever loved Studies better. In his youth he had +declared passionately that he took all knowledge for his province, and +it was his lifelong teaching that "the sovereignty of man lieth hid in +knowledge." + +"Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability." I imagine +Bacon writing these words with fervor, out of his own happy experience. +At the age of thirty-five, he could determine what Studies had been +worth to him. They had been his delight, his ornament, and the means to +his usefulness. + +For "delight" he wrote in his first edition "pastimes," as he wrote +"ornaments" and "abilities," then wisely changed his sentence. His +beautiful old word "delight" means, I take it, a heightened pleasure, a +pleasure touched with imagination, full of suggestion and invitation. + +I have a far glimpse of its meaning when I hear a young person say that +she is going to college "to have a good time"; a good time for the rest +of her life is what, I believe, Studies will secure to her. You are so +young, I may speak to you of age. There is a new old age for women, with +enlightened care of health and increasing intellectual interests. As for +you freshmen, I have a vision of your erect forms and of your bright +faces at seventy-five,--of your health and your gayety and your wisdom, +you charming old ladies of 1970! Age cannot wither you, nor custom stale +your infinite variety, you women whom Studies have served for delight. + +And you are so happy that I may speak to you of unhappiness. We need +three things to meet life with: a religion, an education, and a sense of +humor. The pursuit of Studies is a refuge as well as a delight. Studies +will fortify one to encounter loneliness, or ill-health, or losses of +any kind soever. The chances of life are such that I believe a woman +suffers from lack of an education more than a man does. He has a wider +world to draw from; she has need of more within herself. When Bacon +writes of the care of the body, he says that for our very health, we +should "entertain studies that fill the mind with splendid and +illustrious objects." + +In order that knowledge should be a delight, I submit that knowledge +should be remembered. A certain man George Eliot describes, who had a +sense of having had a liberal education until he tried to remember +something! The "culture" of some people seems to consist in having heard +a large number of proper names. "Oh, yes, I've _heard_ of him"--the rest +a blank. In our day, "mental training" has neglected the training of the +memory. I even urge a considerable amount of old-fashioned memorizing. +Lay up for yourselves treasure: possess for your own a sonnet of +Shakespeare, a poem of Wordsworth, a passage of Bacon. Lay up also a +good store of facts, such facts as will make the reading of the daily +paper profitable. There is no surer test of your outfit of information. +Shall we say that an educated person should be able to spell, pronounce, +and reasonably explain about two thousand proper nouns? + +When I dwell on the delight of Studies, I take no thought of ease. Let +us have no royal road to learning, but meet valiantly all the hardships +of the way. No girl of stamina is looking for "soft courses." I trust +that in your freshman year you are having just what Schiller meant when +he talked of "sport in art"; I hope you are having sport in education, +the spirited conquest of difficulty! Do you not feel the great adventure +of education, the romance of the quest of knowledge? + +You should know the keen delight of competition, not so much with one +another as with yourselves. The determination to equal yourself, to +surpass yourself, is a fine incitement. "Set before thee thine own +example," says Bacon again. + +On the other hand, you have not discovered all the delight of Studies +unless you have secured repose as well as excitement in your +intellectual life. It is "the world's sweet inn from pain and wearisome +turmoil." Only in quiet can you practice the abstraction and +concentration that give you power as a thinker. I dare to say that +education goes on with far too much chatter and sociability in all our +colleges. True enough, you are not getting the complete delight of your +studies unless you have the intellectual stimulus of companionship,--the +friendship "that maketh daylight in the understanding." (Bacon again!) +But you must have also the silence and the solitude in which to brood, +and in which to give your imagination its chance for flight. Have you +freshmen any long, dreaming twilights? Or have we all grown too busy--or +too frivolous--to pause "between the dark and the daylight"? Sane, +strong minds we want, but beautiful, poetic minds as well. The final +delight of education is in that culture of the imagination that makes an +idealist of every fine college girl. + +Bacon himself said of Studies, "Their chief use for delight is in +privateness and retiring." When he caused his essays to be translated +into Latin, to get them safely out of perishable English, delight was +there rendered "meditationum voluptas." That our twentieth-century girl +should know an harmonious, well-balanced life, I would see her +delighting in her joyous athletics, but acquiring also the _meditationum +voluptas_, for which Studies have furnished her mind. + +In my youth the word "ornament" was the word of dread in education. We +earliest college girls scoffed at "accomplishments." Ornament stood to +us for all that was smattering and frivolous in education. _We_ were of +the new order! + +Since the day when ornament was the bugbear of woman's education, we +have grown somewhat wiser. "Studies should serve for delight and for +ornament," we now say gladly; education should make you a delight to +yourself and it should make you a delight to other people. Said Poor +Richard: "Hast thou virtue? Acquire also the graces and beauties of +virtue." "Hast thou education? Acquire also the graces and beauties of +education. Your common sense will save you from pedantry." You will not +"make your knowledge a discomfort to your families," as Mr. Taft once +gently expressed it in talking to college girls. + +Shall ornament mean "accomplishments"? Why not? If I were you, I would +do some one interesting, amusing, agreeable thing so well as to make a +small art of it. Have some accomplishment that will render you +interesting in your own home, entertaining to children and to +grandmothers, and that will make you welcome in your own set. + +I take ornament as including all the externals of education, and I ask, +where does education show on the outside? One of its most exposed points +is the letter that a woman writes. "A good address," in the +old-fashioned phrase, is about the most valuable of worldly possessions. +It should include a good address--a good manner and presence--upon +paper. As for the letter, all your education leads up to it: its +clearness, brevity, point, and grace. "Good sense brightly delivered," +should describe a college girl's letter as well as one by Lady Mary +Wortley Montagu. + +In Bacon's opinion, the chief ornament bestowed by Studies was that of +conversation (_orationis ornamentum_). In the matter and manner of +discourse, education achieves its utmost. It tells upon conversation in +obvious ways. Studies furnish the mind with matter worth talking about, +and they give an appetite for ideas. It may be hoped that they give the +sense of proportion in conversation, and prevent the educated woman from +ever becoming that object of dread, "a talker." Most American women talk +too much, perhaps because they are so bright, and think of so many +things to say! One hears the criticism: "She is a brilliant woman; she +talks well; but she doesn't give the other person a chance." Does this +pauseless talker forget what a delight is the educated listener, quick, +responsive, eager for the other's thought? One of the finest ornaments +education can bestow is the social grace of good listening. + +Alas that it so often fails to bestow the ornament of good speech! The +failure of the colleges in this matter is lamentable. Its importance is +not brought home to individuals with sufficient severity. They are left +in their carelessness and laziness, with the social stigma of bad speech +upon them for life. The colleges should help to make ladies and +gentlemen as well as scholars. "What a bright girl!" said the woman who +sat next a college freshman at dinner, "but can the college do nothing +to cure her abominable speech?" + +I believe that whatever his early associations, the speech of an +educated person lies within his choice. If he be a person of will, and +of the right energy and ambition, he can conquer provincialism or +inherited faults of speech. It means _caring_ and _trying_. It takes +character, in short. One of the best instances of achievement of +cultivated speech is that of George Eliot, who by birth would have +spoken a rich dialect. + +Perhaps the subtlest ornament that education may confer is that which we +call distinction. After the refining process of the four years in close +association with noble things, "commonness" ought to be impossible. The +beginning of distinction is simplicity and sincerity, all absence of +affectation, pedantry, or the desire to make an impression. Education is +an immense simplifier; it does away with so many unnecessary pretences. + +Bacon sent a copy of the "Advancement of Learning" to a man whom he +addressed thus: "Since you are one that was excellently bred in all +learning, which I have ever noted to shine in all your speeches and +behaviors." Such is Bacon's way of saying, "Abeunt studia in mores." +Educated perceptions and a quickened imagination should make for +intelligence in conduct, and for beauty in all human relations. The +reasonableness of goodness appeals to one's intellect, while, on the +other hand, one must have character to make his intellect tell. + +When they praised Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the great lady of +her time, they said of her, "Every one that knew her loved her, and +everything that she said or did became her." That is the woman of +distinction, whether countess or college girl. "Every one that knew her +loved her." Distinction is of a poor, cold quality which has not +sympathy for its final charm. + +If Studies give us delight within ourselves, and add to us, we fondly +hope, such ornament without, what more may we expect from them? They fit +us to take our share in the day's work. Studies serve us for ability. +Says Kipling, "Knowledge gives us control of life, as the fish controls +the water he swims in." The utilitarian view of education is very well, +if kept in its proper place; but education, we all know, is for the +making of a life as well as of a living. Some mothers used to say, "But +my daughter isn't going to support herself; why should she go to +college?" "For delight, for ornament, madam"; and I would add, "for +ability and usefulness in any sphere whatever." + +Bacon's exposition of his own text shows that he means by "ability" much +what our New England aunts meant by "judgment." He says education is of +use in "the plotting and marshalling of affairs." How does this planning +and organizing go on? How does business move? By constant wise +decisions. Good judgment, you say, is a matter of inborn common sense, +and you don't get common sense by going to college. I am not so sure of +that, though I grant it is better to inherit it from a grandmother. But +certainly you are learning all the time at college "sense of +proportion," "the fitness of things," "sweet reasonableness," which come +near to being names for refined common sense. + +Life is lived by innumerable decisions, great and small; and a person's +happiness and success will depend much on making these decisions +quickly, firmly, and wisely. The helpfulness and comfort that a woman +may give to others will consist more in her love and wisdom than in any +material benefits she may be able to confer. + +One field for the ability of the educated woman of our day is the making +of a good home on a small income. She is the woman who will not, +consciously or unconsciously, goad her husband to money-making. I should +like a fresh sermon preached upon the text, "Blessed are the +peacemakers." This time it should be of those blessed peacemakers who +create the harmony, calm, and love of a happy home. That is the great +task, the first task of women. + +She has no doubt her civic duties, and again her education puts the edge +on her abilities: she is a more valuable helper in the world's work. She +may be a bread-winner, for herself and for others; and herein, perhaps, +is the most simple and popular argument for a woman's pursuit of +Studies, one so self-evident that I need not dwell upon it. + +I have been speaking of an ideal education and of an ideal woman, but +where should we consider them both if not in this very place? A college +like yours aims at nothing less! + + + + +II--REAL READERS + + +"Do we make real readers of our students?" was the anxious question of a +college president. I remembered his phrase when I read his annual +report. "Most of these young people," he said, "are to go out into +ordinary life, into general pursuits, where the one chance of their +maintaining their intellectual growth will come through stimulating them +in these years to interest in some particular line which they may +continue, in the midst of the general pressure of social, domestic, or +professional life. Unless a student learn to read and love books, she +will, in a large majority of cases, be thrown out of all relation to +resources that are in any fair sense of the word intellectual." He +pleaded that to make a girl a real reader is to safeguard her +intellectual life. + +A student leaves college, not perhaps having read much, but knowing what +she wants to read. Her education has been an appetizer; now she is +invited to partake of the banquet. + + "May good digestion wait on appetite, + And health on both." + +The hunger for books no doubt began with many of you as soon as you had +learned your alphabet. It was very likely hereditary. Indeed, the ideal +way to become a lover of books is to be, like Mary Lamb, "tumbled at an +early age into a spacious closet of good old English reading." Fortunate +for you, if you have had a grandfather who reluctantly puts off his +reading-glasses as dinner is announced, or a grandmother who hides a +book in her work-basket. For the real reader has a book close by; he +does not walk across the room for it. If your busy father and mother +still find time to read a new book and talk about it, then you and your +brother Dick will be readers, and you will never know why. Reading is +the most catching thing in the world. When school and college shall have +added their stimulus, the prospect is good for a "full-blooded reader." + +If a girl should not come out of a reading home, it may be hoped that +she will fall into the hands of a book-loving teacher. There are two +women in the American town who are to be envied for their opportunity: +one is the teacher of "Literature" in the High School, and the other is +the librarian of the Public Library. Both may say, in words of the +Oriental proverb, "I will make thee to love literature, thy mother; I +will make its beauties to pass before thee." + +"Greedy of books,"--so Petrarch described himself; and he himself was +the first great reader of modern times. I like these metaphors of the +body applied to reading. The books that feed the mind, the nourishing +books, are they not the ones that last and live? The hunger for books +has its rhythm like the hunger for meat. Observe that the real reader +reads regularly,--he has to. The regularity is unconscious: a healthy +appetite does not keep one eye on the clock. The healthy reader feels +faint and hollow for lack of nourishment: he seeks a book and he is +content. + +He reads from the simplest motives: in fact, he is a rather +irresponsible person. He reads for the sense of life: he eats to live, +he reads to live. He is not fiercely following up a subject; he is not +pursuing references. That is another field of reading, which has its +necessary and stimulating part in the intellectual life. Reading to +order is indispensable to a student's work; but the fear is, lest +"reading up" may leave no time for reading. "I get no time to read," is +about the most disheartening thing I hear from college boys and girls. A +university librarian said the other day that in their freshman year, +students drew books from the library for general reading, but after that +year no student entered the library unless obliged to. I found a high +school boy working out a problem about pressures and resistances; he +looked up gleefully, "This isn't for _school_; this is for myself!" It +is reading for yourself, reading for fun, that I am pleading for. + +Yet you, too, say that there is no time in college for reading. I assure +you there is a great deal more time than you think there is. What are +the things that you might just as well _not_ have done to-day? One of +the busiest of men, Matthew Arnold, wrote: "The plea that this or that +man has no time for culture will vanish as soon as we desire culture so +much that we begin to examine seriously our present use of our time. +Give to any man all the time that he now wastes, on useless business, +wearisome or deteriorating amusements, trivial letter-writing, random +reading, and he will have plenty of time for culture. Some of us waste +all our time, most of us waste much of it, but all of us waste some." + +Culture was in my youth a word to conjure with. Somehow of late it has +become separated from education and almost opposed to it. Culture is +suspected by one of being dilettante, by another, of being selfish. Let +us have a reconciliation of education and culture, and see that they go +on together. + +The real reader is active, not passive. There are people who look upon a +book as that which best brings on an afternoon nap: something for the +dull hours of the day, to quiet one's nerves, "to take one's mind off." +Much writing does appear to have been done for tired people. Real +reading, however, is not a stop-gap. We should take up a book while the +mind has a good grip and can do its part. + +As you who are city-bred ride from end to end of this country, through +prairie villages, mountain hamlets, valley towns, you wonder what makes +these out-of-the-world places habitable. But I assure you, that prairie +town is not so dead a level as it looks, for there is a woman's club, +and there is a public library, and there are young people going to +college. It is books that make such places habitable. + +The real reader is fortified against solitude, even that worst of +solitudes, a company in which he dare not speak of a book. Books prepare +you to live in strange places, as often falls to the lot of the American +woman. You may marry a missionary or an army officer; you may go to the +Klondike or the Philippines. "You could set that woman down anywhere," +said a mourning widower, in praise of his departed wife. You can set the +real reader down anywhere. For one small matter, it is something to be +made independent of weather! + +The reader, grown old, has youth at his beck and can forget the passage +of years. Place is no more to him than time; he is master of his fate. +Reading, also, is "the poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release." + +Our reader is patient; he will put up with a good deal from his +author,--as for instance, when he reads Meredith or Browning. He is +patient of dullness as well as of eccentricity. Lowell's "dogged +reading" has to go to the ripened experience of the trained reader: it +is required of him that he do a certain amount of unprofitable reading +in the forming of his critical judgment. + +He must be patient and he must be calm. Quick and complete absorption is +the mark of the happy reader. He is sincere and he is modest; his +reading is not for show. + +Common sense tells the reader when and where he may talk about books. +Happy the family that read the same books: happier still the family that +can talk about them! Love of reading is the best safeguard against +gossip, and against excessive talking. One woman of your acquaintance +fills every gap with talk; another fills the pauses of the day with +reading. + +In this country that boasts no class distinctions, we, nevertheless, +have a class at the very top: the privileged caste of readers. What a +freemasonry there is among them! They "speak the same language"; they +toss about allusions; they dare to quote to one another; they take +worlds for granted. But if you belong to this aristocracy, beware of +snobbishness. The snobbishness of culture is the most contemptible of +all, for culture knows better. The other "snobbishness" is based on pure +ignorance of the true values of life, and has so far excuse. + +People of moderate means probably make the best readers, because they +have the largest share of rational leisure. The very poor and the very +rich know not leisure, and its graces and benefactions. "Give me neither +poverty nor riches"--such would be the best condition for the +intellectual life. Miss Jeannette Gilder once drew a pleasant picture: +as she passed along a Boston street of a winter evening, she noted the +friendly custom of leaving up the window shades, and letting the light +and cheer of the home shine forth upon the wayfarer. But to her New York +eyes it was a striking fact that these Boston families sat reading by +the evening lamp; that appeared to be their regular nightly occupation. +She carried away the feeling that the good old Boston of Emerson and +Lowell and Longfellow was not altogether vanished. + +A bookless home! Was ever such suggestion of dreariness! The reader, if +he own anything, will own some books. They need not be many. Some of the +greatest readers have had but a modest number. Those few volumes go far +to furnish your home. No wall covering is so rich. When the western +light strikes across your bookshelves,--and no library should be without +its western window,--the blended colors of those goodly volumes convey +the charm of even the outside of literature. I like Montaigne's way of +saying, "As soon as I was able, I hired a spacious house in the city, +for myself and books; where I again, with rapture, resumed my literary +pursuits." "A house for myself and books!" + +No; your books need not be many. They will be more to you if you have +made sacrifices for their sake,--as Charles Lamb did in the days when +his purchase was not merely a purchase, but nothing short of a victory. +If you own but few books, you will know the pleasures of re-reading. You +will find the second reading fixes a book, gives you its essence and its +true proportions. Yet it is rather the intimacies and friendships among +books re-read that I have in mind, when they become all interwoven with +endearing memories and associations. Every ten years you become a wiser +reader and turn a new light upon your author. I imagine three tests of a +book: do you read it aloud?--do you give it away?--but above all, do you +read it a second time? + +Your reading should have much variety, ranging from the newspapers to +the great poets. Of course we must know what the great world is about +and must live in our own age; but the little world of the newspapers let +us waste no time upon. Said Matthew Arnold again: "Reading a good book +is a discipline such as no reading of even good newspapers can ever +give." Scrappy reading makes scrappy minds, for it destroys power of +attention. + +I believe that there should be a backbone of History throughout your +lifetime of reading. Be sure to choose first-rate historical books; +never waste yourself upon second-rate histories. Biography, I am aware, +is middle-aged reading; and I can only promise you immense pleasure from +it when you are past forty. Those large, heavy volumes in dull bindings, +which did not invite your youth, will become alive and significant, and +full of good society. + +I have never a seen college girl who did not enjoy reading essays, +whatever her sentiment about writing them. Essays, too, are good +society, the companionship of fine minds giving you their best. This +literary form, with its modest, careless name, has yet the widest range +in all literature. Nothing human is alien to it. If you read "for the +sense of life," a good essay will give you precisely that. + +Books of travel are especially good to read after you have traveled. One +glimpse of the Old World, for example, gives you the clue, the key, +which makes books and pictures intelligible to the imagination ever +after. When once you have this clue, you can read far beyond your own +travels. And while you are on the road, do a little reading day by +day,--Henry James's "Little Tour in France" while you are making that +very tour; Hawthorne's "Our Old Home," while you, too, are in England. +In foreign lands read a newspaper of the country, and read a novel by +its best writer of fiction. + +Said that fine old novel-reader, Professor Jowett, of Baliol, when he +was writing to a young lady, "Have you thoroughly made yourself up in +Miss Austen and the 'Vicar of Wakefield'? No person is educated who +doesn't know them." Good fiction educates not only the intellect but the +heart. It enriches the imagination and the sympathies, and "teaches us +to walk not by sight but by insight." This is fiction fair, and with +fiction foul, why should we concern ourselves? + +"Who reads poetry nowadays?" people are asking miserably. My real +reader, I answer with confidence. He must have poetry, and why he must, +Richard Crashaw's friend said once for all in the quaint preface to the +poet's verses: "Maist thou take a poem hence and tune thy soul by it +into a heavenly pitch." + +Another old writer once described the four classes of readers: "Sponges +which attract all without distinguishing; hour-glasses which receive and +pour out as fast; bags which only retain the dregs, and let the wine +escape; and sieves which retain the best only." I am now, of course, +addressing the sieves. Real readers need not take high moral ground +about trash; they are simply bored by it. A publisher said the other day +that he must publish a certain amount of trash in order to be able to +publish some good books. He needs a body of better readers. Mediocre +readers make mediocre books. + +Superior people, however, are often disloyal to their own standards. You +are, for example, untrue to yourself, if you sit at a theater +assisting--admirable French word!--at a play that your whole soul +rejects. It is like a breach of faith to read a book which is moral +trash or literary trash. No mind is safe from the suggestion of such +plays or such books. Said Fielding, "We are as liable to be corrupted by +books as by companions." Happily it is just as true that we are as +liable to be purified by books as by companions. + +To be quite fair, we must acknowledge some dangers of reading. You +remember Kipling's bank clerk, who in a previous incarnation had been a +Viking, and who might have written tales as good as Kipling's own had he +not been so steeped in English literature. I have known people who had +plainly been dulled by over-reading: they were the "sponges" of our old +writer. Over every book we should think at least as long a time as we +spend in the reading. I notice the real reader frequently looks up and +off from his book, to think the better. + +Ask from your book not only ideas, but style. Careless readers have +permitted slipshod books. The writer says to himself, "This is quite +good enough for the people who are likely to read it." He is fond of the +simile of the pearls and the swine, confident that it is the swine who +have thwarted his genius. Real readers help to make real writers. + +Who are some of the real readers we have known? There is Chaucer's Clerk +of Oxenford. He owned books, poor as he was; he kept them at the head of +his bed; and there you have two unfailing marks of the real reader. (I +even like that dash of color,--the "black or red" of his bindings; for +the real reader loves the outside of his book as well.) + +I think of Milton, who made the most beautiful definition of a book I +know--"the precious life-blood of a master spirit, treasured up on +purpose to a Life beyond Life." None but a real reader could have so +nobly imagined the book and its author. + +When Keats read Chapman's Homer and said that a new planet swam into his +ken, he expressed for all readers the sense of surprise, of discovery, +and of acquisition when they have found a real book. + +Into this noble fellowship you and I are allowed to enter, as we leave +our college. + + + + +III--THE USE OF THE PEN + + +Says the census-taker once in ten years, "Can you write English?" We are +a bit startled by the question: "_Can_ we?" we ask ourselves humbly. It +is the question I ask you freshmen. + +The educated person has the implements of writing at hand and in order: +his inkstand is filled and his pen does not scratch. The uneducated man +searches for a penholder, and keeps the ink-bottle on the top shelf; and +the difference signifies much in the lives of the two people. + +You live pen in hand during your four years in college. You acquire the +useful art of note-taking,--by itself no mean intellectual exercise. The +untrained note-taker brings from a lecture a rare muddle of senseless, +half-caught remarks. But a good mind soon shows itself in its taking of +"points" and getting them quickly to paper. And who does not know that +"a note taken on the spot is worth a cartload of recollections"? + +That a notebook should be attractive and convenient for reference is its +_raison d'etre_. One secret of comfort in notebooks is variety in +covers, that there may be no exasperating searches for the right one. +"Buy only good-looking notebooks," sounds like frivolous advice; but it +is in the interests of scholarship that your notebooks should have an +honorable place on your bookshelves. I would make a handsome page, with +wide margins, large type, generous spacing. Paragraph freely, and drop a +line often. Underline profusely, that you may catch the meaning quickly, +and preserve the emphasis of the lecturer. Use parentheses, brackets, +numerals, letters, and thus organize your matter as you go along and +make it easy to glance at. Have divisions or pigeonholes at the back of +your book, where you can put away and classify all sorts of memoranda. + +With these mechanical devices, the use of the pen becomes the easier. It +will be able to shape sentences on the wing, and capture the thought and +much of the language of a lecturer in full flight. It is a strenuous +exercise, and good mental athletics. + +Yet for all education to be carried on in this way would not be well. +There should be variety in the conduct of classes. That comes of itself, +through the varied personality of teachers. The next man may make of his +hour a quiz. Does anything remain of a quiz that can be written down? A +good exercise for the pen to shape something out of the flying questions +and answers! + +You live pen in hand in the classroom, and also in the preparation of +your work. Note-taking in a library is a fine process in education. +Unless your book is a masterpiece of style, paraphrase and condense for +your notebook. Add your own thoughts, in brackets. A book thus read is +twice yours. I would date every piece of note-taking; for the +autobiography of your mind is writing itself. + +In these college exercises your pen has acquired practice, and to turn +it next to use for artistic purposes should be natural. For it is the +literary art that you are set to study. When you are asked to write your +first freshman essay, you are asked to turn life into literature. +Shakespeare did no more than that. This single, exalted aim should be +yours: and you should remember in your humblest writing Ruskin's +definition of the artist. He is "a person who has submitted in his work +to a law which was painful to obey, that he may bestow by his work a +delight which it is gracious to bestow." + +The literary art as practiced in college goes by the excellent name +"essay-writing": a comprehensive, modest, dignified word. It gives you +liberty to write about anything; and if you happen to have the literary +instinct, everything will present itself to you as waiting to be written +about. To turn into words is the impulse of the born writer, like +Irving, or Emerson, or Stevenson. There is probably one such person in +this company, possibly there are two. But it is to the average young +essay-writer that I address myself. + +As to the matter of which you make your essays, only let it be "the real +thing": a piece of yourself, one of your own interests. You have active +minds, or you would never be here: to you "the world is so full of a +number of things" that subjects can never fail you. The fact that you +expect to write much during your college life is stimulating to your +observation. You are "out after ideas," as a college girl expressed it. +You look and listen and read with an eye on your next essay. Once set up +a subject in your mind, and it gathers material as a magnet draws steel. +Everybody is conspiring to help you with fresh points of view and apt +illustrations. You have heard of Madame de Stael's method: when +preparing to write, she gave a dinner-party and led up the conversation +of her guests to the subject she had chosen. Your essay will also +require solitude and brooding, long walks alone, and possibly hours in +the library. + +When you begin to write, write rapidly, even if you leave many gaps and +many crudities. You will then have something to work upon. Moreover, the +mere act of writing is stimulating to thought. _Movendo move_: move by +moving. By writing, write. "I stared at the page an hour before I had a +thought," says one miserable young woman. Keep on looking at your paper. +Things will come to you, you know not whence; but you must prepare the +way for them, by thinking and feeling and dreaming, by reading and +listening and observing, with every part of you alive and receptive. +Then wait for yourself patiently. + +It is for most people unprofitable to correct their work as they write, +because the productive state of mind and the critical state of mind are +quite apart. There should be the hot writing and the cool writing. The +fatal thing is to cool off in the first writing: you will soon be +"grinding out" your essay. When the time comes for the critical +re-writing, remember what Schiller said, "By what he omits, show me the +artist." There is a hard saying, "Art is the rejection of the almost +right." + +Yet when you subject your work to pitiless cutting, see that you do not +destroy its flow and rhythm. Look carefully to the little connectives +that bind up the thought, words that are only too rare in our English +language. The delicate _nuances_ of meaning are indicated and the +harmony of the sentence is preserved by the judicious placing of these +little words. In revision study to improve the diction. Insert trial +words each time that you read your paper. Use every means to enrich your +vocabulary and to widen your choice of words. Be able to run your +fingers over that loved instrument, the English language, as a musician +lets his hands play over his keys. + +Precision in diction is the mark of intellect, but also of patient +labor. Stevenson said the man not willing to spend the whole afternoon +in search of the right word was unfit for the business of literature. Be +unsparing of your time. The silliest boast is of the short time a writer +has spent upon his work. Authors' vanity is peculiarly distasteful, +because they are the people from whom one might expect more +intelligence. + +The force, that is, the interest, of your writing, will depend much on +the freshness of your choice of words, and on the freshness of your +phrasing. Yet in the pursuit of freshness, beware of affected or +far-fetched words, or words too old, as "gotten"; or too new, as +"viewpoint," "foreword," words that, for mere ugliness, should not be +allowed to exist. + +Write with words, not phrases. Commonplace writing is composed of +"bromidic" phrases. They are very catching. Excessive reading, +unaccompanied by thinking, is sure to produce a stilted, conventional +style. I wonder if college girls know how often they are, even in +conversation, stilted in their language, though often with a +half-humorous intent. I have noticed one who uses a Latin participial +construction even at the breakfast table. + +In order to be vigorous, your writing must be brief, simple, and clear. +Yet in our cult of simplicity, let us not be content with the clear and +simple commonplace. Some books nowadays, though written by the cleverest +of men, have a commonness of style that is a mere coming down to their +inferiors. It will never make literature. + +Put into your notebook what writers have said about their craft. You +will find in Shakespeare some admirable hints about his art, though +people often tell us he gave no account of himself. Modern +self-consciousness has made authors more and more aware of themselves +and their processes. Mark what Goethe, Emerson, and all our later +writers have said of their work. In my college days, we read the old +writers upon these subjects: the incomparable "Ars Poetica" of Horace, +and the pleasant pages of Quintilian. Do you read them now? + +How reading should help writing is a question. I have heard it said that +a professional writer should read some other more excellent writer one +hour a day! How far we should take another writer for master is very +doubtful. Said a Michigan man to Mr. Emerson, as he came out from a +lecture, "Mr. Emerson, I see you never learned to write from a book." It +goes without saying that we want only original, first-hand work from our +writer; nevertheless, it is true that he may learn something about his +art from nearly every book he reads. You yourselves are observing +readers; observe, among other things, how the thing is done. + +Beyond and out of college, the educated woman should live pen in hand. +Power of expression is power itself, and expression with the pen will +add much to a woman's efficiency as a member of society. With many +business careers opening to her, success depends not a little on the +ability to write an admirable business letter. Her usefulness as a +secretary hangs on the efficiency of her pen. A teacher's letter of +application often settles her fate. The librarian will introduce books +to readers all the more effectively if she hold the pen of the ready +writer. The college woman should be valuable in many branches of +journalism. In philanthropic work, occasions arise for wise, tactful, +brief, effective composition, in letters, reports, and public addresses. +The pen is not enough used in preparation for speaking. We should be +spared many a rambling discourse if the orator had first submitted to +its discipline. + +The club paper has a place in many women's lives. Few of them take it +seriously enough. If they have possession of an hour's time of fifty +women, they should give their utmost as an equivalent for fifty hours of +human life. To make her club paper worth while, a woman should have +lived pen in hand for a year, reading, thinking, taking notes. The paper +of the educated woman should be reasoned, ordered, and shapely, while +every sentence should have its meaning. As John Synge said of a play: +"Every speech should be as fully flavored as a nut or an apple." This is +not the club paper of the lady who rises with smiling apology, "I have +had very little time to prepare this paper. I really did not begin to +write it until night before last." + +Whether women desire it or not, they are destined to take more and more +part in public life, and whatever they may be called upon to do, they +will find that "Have it in writing" is one of the best maxims of the +great world they are entering. + +I would, however, have you first regard the use of the pen in +letter-writing, in preserving the unity and love of the family, in +cherishing friendship, in sweetening human intercourse. It makes society +of solitude for the lonely woman, or for the invalid, or for the aged. +Reading and writing together are proof against loneliness. + +By all means, use the pen as a means of efficiency and of happiness, but +I would even cultivate writing for writing's sake. I would dabble in it +as an amateur! It is worth while to draw and sketch for the training of +the eye, and for the greater appreciation of others' work. Write, and +you will be a far better reader. You help to create a literary +atmosphere in which some one else can write better than without you, as +musicians say that an orchestra must have players in the audience. +Writers need the understanding reader. We have not yet in our country a +large enough body of eager, expectant readers, of literary sympathies. +Moreover, it seems a law of Nature that, if many are writing and keenly +interested in literature, out of such an environment a great writer is +sure in time to emerge. + +By writing you may discover yourself. The call may come to you, and +nothing then can stop you. You will say, like Carlyle, "Had I but two +potatoes in the world and one true idea, I should hold it my duty to +part with one potato for pen and ink, and live upon the other till I got +it written." + +The woman of letters is a type sure to develop from the present +intellectual training of women. Such a vocation should not take her +apart from the great experiences of womanhood: these should but make her +the better writer. Her career of writer will be a higher education in +itself, a steady intellectual and moral development. I urge you to write +because it will hold you to the ideal; it will develop the philosophic +mind; it will stimulate character and intellect. It opens vistas of +happiness, as the practice of every art does. To know the joys of the +creative artist one needs not to write a novel or a drama. He can know +them from a letter, happily written, or even from a fortunate phrase +that has come to him. + +Whether or not such writing bring you fame and money, it will have given +you something no one can take away from you. The modest person of a +quiet mind who does her best and thinks not much about the consequences, +this person shares some of the sweets of authorship with those she knows +to be her betters. The perquisites of the writer are many: the good +society; the sympathy, sometimes the love, of strangers; the mysterious +and fascinating communication with one's fellow-men. + +People ask why college women have not distinguished themselves in +literature. Colleges for women began as our great literary period in +America was drawing to a close. If women have not been notable in our +literature in the last fifty years, neither have we had another Emerson +or Hawthorne. American intellect has expressed itself in other and +wonderful ways, but not in great poetry or prose. + +Women have not yet had a long enough trial of education to be adjusted +to the new conditions it has made for them. They have had culture +sufficient to make them critical, but not creative; to make them modest +and distrustful of their own work, but not greatly daring in any art. +They do small things delicately and delightfully, but the great works +are still to come. Women need more power to the elbow. They need a +richer tradition, and growth from a deeper soil; for a writer oftenest +ripens through generations of readers and thinkers. + +Do not let this discourage you. Each of us may in our day contribute to +the progress of American literature; for we are helping to make the +tastes and traditions out of which in a later generation a great poet +may arise. + + + + +IV--EVERYDAY LIVING + + +The freshman girl is happy who, in her preparation for college, has +included some knowledge of the art of living with others. Miss Ellen +Emerson once read aloud to our Sunday-School class an essay by Sir +Arthur Helps on this very subject. One sentence I remember: "A thorough +conviction of the difference of men is the great thing to be assured of +in social knowledge: it is to life what Newton's law is to astronomy." +Miss Ellen paused, and bade us not forget that saying. The girl who goes +to college prepared to find people "different" has a mastery of the +situation. + +I would have assigned her, as a piece of college preparation, a few good +magazine articles about the United States, with three or four of the +best new books about her country. These would make her glad to talk with +a student from Oregon on her right and a girl from Boston on her left at +that first homesick supper-time. She is, perhaps, a provincial New York +City girl, who has never seen anything but Europe and her own town. Her +horizon will at once widen at college. + +Not that open-mindedness requires you to abandon your own beliefs. +College preparation should include Convictions. Truth and honesty there +cannot be two opinions about; and in the art of living with others truth +and honesty bear a great part. Said Oliver Cromwell, "Give me a man that +hath principle--I know where to have him." + +A girl should have had some preparation in business habits for living +with others in college. Plain business honesty is a "college +requirement." Borrowing is, I fear, one of the sins of student life. +Girls of your breeding do not borrow wearing apparel or personal +belongings. But a borrowed postage stamp or a car-fare is a matter of +business honor. So is punctuality; the robbery of other people's time is +petty larceny. Integrity, uprightness, enter into the art of living with +others, every hour of the day. The girl who is scrupulously delicate +about other persons' rights and possessions is the girl you find easy to +live with. + +Teachableness is a charming quality in a freshman, in or out of class: a +little wonder and awe become her. A newcomer who "knows it all" is +unbearable. Meekness is an old-fashioned virtue, not enough appreciated +in these days. Yet who does not feel its charm in the unassuming woman, +ready to learn, and to reverence superiority? + +Prepare yourself to be at first of not much importance, to be outshone +in recitation, to work hard without much recognition; but you will find +soon that a teacher will grow to rely on you, will meet your eye, will +welcome your response; and before you are aware, you and she will have +laid the foundation of a lifelong sympathy and friendship. And, when all +is said, the art of living with others is the art of making friends. + +Do not forget your old friends. When you travel abroad, one of the most +important subjects you learn about is America; when you go to college, +you learn to know your home. The first ache of homesickness will teach +you much. It would mean something very sad if you did not feel it. You +would lose one of the tenderest experiences. When the pain softens, you +find you understand your home and your dear ones as you never did +before. That is the reward of the freshman's homesickness. + +There will quickly come new interests, but do not become so absorbed in +them as to lose this new relation to your home. Much as the friends +there miss you, your college life may be made a constant pleasure to +them. Let us hope that your "preparatory English" has made you a good +letter-writer. Write clearly and legibly, with loving care, that your +father may not say, "Am I wasting a college education on a girl that +can't even spell?" and that your mother need not sigh, "There is a word +I shall have to give up." The illiteracy of collegians of both sexes I +know to be a source of pain to parents who sit deciphering their letters +by the evening lamp. It is all a question of your taking trouble, and of +your thoughtful consideration for others. + +Literacy attained, see that your letter gives pleasure, and that it +share with your parents the fun and interest of your college life. See +that it "make old hearts young." Don't send home a letter without a +laugh in it. And pray write occasionally to an uncle or an aunt! + +Do not drop your old acquaintance when you go away from home. Perhaps +you have some humble village friends, to whom it seems a fine, romantic +thing that you have "gone off to college." Every person whom you know +may be in some way pleased and benefited by your experience. There are +little girls who are examining you as only a little girl can, and are +making up their minds whether they, too, will go to college some day. +When you see this bright child peering at you,--there is your chance to +be something adorable! + +No one follows you with more sympathy than the teachers who have fitted +you for college. They have a share in you, remember; for teachers have a +reward beyond money in the futures of their pupils. + +We speak of college girls as if they had departed for the cloister; but +reckoning by weeks, how large a proportion of their time is spent at +home! In short vacations the unselfish mother plans all sorts of +pleasures for her daughter, and perhaps says sadly at the end, "I saw +little of Ruth. She made or received visits all the fortnight." The +short vacations should, I think, belong to your parents: the summer +gives time for other friends. Some day you will understand what it has +cost your father and mother to send you out of their sight just as you +have become most companionable to them. + +In the case of some of you there are sacrifices made at home that you +may go to college; and you will bravely share with your parents the +"doing without" that is making your liberal education possible. Your +social position in these next four years does not depend on money: it +does depend on intellect and character; on taste, not expense, in dress +and belongings; and on the traditions that you bring with you. "To him +that hath shall be given." The girl who takes something to college gets +more, as, when she travels, she gains in proportion to what she carries +with her. For example, if you take to college the family tradition of +reading, your college lot is a happier one. + +The poor girl in college has certain advantages: she is respected for +the effort she has made to get there; she at once excites the interest +of her teachers; she finds herself in an atmosphere of sympathy and +encouragement. She is generously praised, and is made happy by the +appreciation of her gifts. Let her guard against vanity and +priggishness. The poor and brilliant girl has her own temptations. + +If she suffer in some things because of her poverty, it does not matter +much. Privations, if they do not injure health, are bracing and tonic. A +girl will learn at college, if anywhere, how to be rich though poor. She +could be placed in no situation where she could more successfully ignore +poverty. Simplicity in dress is "good form" in college. The fatal word +"vulgar" is fixed by the initiated upon display, or extremes of fashion. +Taste and neatness are luxuries within the reach of girls of small +means. + +The rich girl has her difficulties. She is often handicapped by poor +preparation, which is not so much the fault of her fitting school as of +her social life too soon begun. She has had many distractions, with less +serious labor of preparation. College routine will be at first irksome +to her; but if she has chosen to go to college, she has stuff in her, +and she can make of herself the finest type of student. Her money will +be "means," and she will learn noble ways of spending it. Many is the +rich girl who is secretly helping a poor girl to get her education. + +Rich appointments make a girl's way harder at college, on the whole. +Scholars are distrustful of the appearances of wealth, sometimes +unjustly. The wise college girl will cultivate simplicity, that she may +be in harmony with her surroundings, and that she may have a free mind. + +The girl of wealth may lack the element of the heroic and the romantic +in the college career of the poor girl, but her compensations are that +she can command all means of culture; she can travel, buy books, visit +cities, and meet significant people. Her wealth buys her a wider life; +while the girl of small means has one more concentrated and intense. Her +pleasures may be keener because they are conquests; she relies on +herself and develops her own resources. We will wait to judge the two +until they are forty. + +Health is one of your "college duties"; so is happiness. + + "If I have faltered more or less + In my great task of happiness,"-- + +wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. He was a master of gallant living. He +really had something to whine about, but he lived with all his colors +flying. + +However, I shall not deny that there are "blues" peculiar to college +life. Occasionally they will be part of your education. There will be +wounds to your vanity; and years afterwards you will remember the snub +of some brusque, brilliant professor and will smile to think how much +you learned by it. You will see another girl surpass you, and envy will +give you a fit of the blues; for envy always punishes itself. The +college has, on the whole, an atmosphere of noble feeling, of +"admiration, hope, and love"; but a sin that some college girls have to +fight is the ugly sin of envy. Jealousy is akin to it, and is sure to +enter into narrow, intense friendships. The remedy is many friends and +many interests. + +A genuine source of blues is disappointment in one's self. I wonder if +you will believe an old college girl's experience that an occasional +bracing failure is the best thing that can happen to you. It will help +you to keep your balance, and to know yourself. Moreover, it will rouse +you as nothing else will. + +Trifles loom large in college life, its critics say. A freshman's world +looks black to-day because of a bad recitation or a neglectful friend. I +do not reason away her troubles: I only remind her of Abraham Lincoln's +remedy for the blues (and he knew well what they were). "Remember," he +said, "that they don't _last_." Also I would set her to some absorbing +task: "work is good company," and compels her to think about what she is +doing and not of her troubles. + +It was recorded upon the tomb of a Roman lady long ago, "She made nobody +sad." Make nobody sad with your woes, or your face, or your voice. And +if you wish to cheer yourself, cheer somebody else. You very likely need +rest for your nerves. College girls wear upon themselves and upon one +another by too much talking. Their minds are so mutually stimulating +that they need rest from their own company. One of the first conditions +for a satisfactory intellectual life is a room to one's self. The +college girl who cannot command it should spend much time alone out of +doors, even if she carry with her a book. + +When the college day is ended, and you look back over its hours, what +will have made its success, and what will have made its happiness? Have +you been "nobly busy"? I leave to you the answer. + + + + + The Riverside Press + + CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS + U . S . A + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Talks to Freshman Girls, by Helen Dawes Brown + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALKS TO FRESHMAN GIRLS *** + +***** This file should be named 37299.txt or 37299.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/9/37299/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from images made available by the HathiTrust +Digital Library.) + + +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. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |