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 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC 
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 THE EDUCATION OF 
 CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 JANET ERSKINE STUART 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 CARDINAL BOURNE 
 
 ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER 
 
 FOURTH IMPRESSION 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK 
 
 BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 
 
 1914
 
 ihil batat: 
 
 F. THOS. BERGH, O.S.B. 
 
 Imprimatur : 
 
 FBANOISCUS CARD. BOURNE 
 
 ABCHIEPfls WESTMONA8T. 
 
 die 1 Januarii, 1912.
 
 Education 
 Library 
 
 LC 
 
 7"* 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 WE have had many treatises on education 
 in recent years ; many regulations have been 
 issued by Government Departments ; enor- 
 mous sums of money are contributed annually 
 from private and public sources for the im- 
 provement and development of education. 
 Are the results in any degree proportioned 
 to all these repeated and accumulated efforts ? 
 It would not be easy to find one, with prac- 
 tical experience of education, ready to give an 
 unhesitatingly affirmative answer. And the 
 explanation of the disappointing result obtained 
 is very largely to be found in the neglect of 
 the training of the will and character, which is 
 the foundation of all true education. The pro- 
 grammes of Government, the grants made if 
 certain conditions are fulfilled, the recognition 
 accorded to a school if it conforms to a certain 
 type, these things may have raised the standard 
 of teaching, and forced attention to subjects
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 of learning which were neglected ; they have 
 done little to promote education in the real 
 sense of the term. Nay, more than this, the 
 insistence on certain types of instruction which 
 they have compelled has in too many cases 
 paralysed the efforts of teachers who in their 
 hearts were striving after a better way. 
 
 The effect on some of our Catholic schools 
 of the newer methods has not been free from 
 harm. Compelled by force of circumstances, 
 parental or financial, to throw themselves into 
 the current of modern educational effort, they 
 have at the same time been obliged to abandon 
 the quieter traditional ways which, while mak- 
 ing less display, left a deeper impress on the 
 character of their pupils. Others have had the 
 courage to cling closely to hallowed methods 
 built up on the wisdom and experience of the 
 past, and have united with them all that was 
 not contradictory in recent educational require- 
 ments. They may, thereby, have seemed to 
 some wanting in sympathy with the present, 
 and attaching too great value to the past. The 
 test of time will probably show that they have 
 given to both past and present an equal share 
 in their consideration. 
 
 It will certainly be of singular advantage to 
 those who are engaged in the education of
 
 PREFACE vil 
 
 Catholic girls to have before them a treatise 
 written by one who has had a long and in- 
 timate experience of the work of which she 
 writes. Loyal in every word to the soundest 
 traditions of Catholic education, the writer re- 
 cognizes to the full that the world into which 
 Catholic girls pass nowadays on leaving school 
 is not the world of a hundred, or of fifty, or of 
 even thirty years ago. But this recognition 
 brings out, more clearly than anything else 
 could do, the great and unchanging fact that 
 the formation of heart and will and character 
 is, and must be always, the very root of the 
 education of a child ; and it also shows forth 
 the new fact that at no time has that formation 
 been more needed than at the present day. 
 
 The pages of this book are well worthy of 
 careful pondering and consideration, and they 
 will be of special value both to parents and to 
 teachers, for it is in their hands and in their 
 united, and not opposing action, that the edu- 
 cational fate of the children lies. 
 
 But I trust that the thoughts set forth upon 
 these pages will not escape either the eyes or 
 the thoughts of those who are the public 
 custodians and arbiters of education in this 
 country. The State is daily becoming more 
 jealous in its control of educational effort in
 
 riii PREFACE 
 
 England. Would that its wisdom were equal 
 to its jealousy. We might then be delivered 
 from the repeated attempts to hamper definite 
 religious teaching in secondary schools, by the 
 refusal of public aid where the intention to 
 impart it is publicly announced ; and from the 
 discouragement continually arising from regula- 
 tions evidently inspired by those who have no 
 personal experience of the work to be accom- 
 plished, and who decline to seek information 
 from those to whom such work is their very 
 life. It cannot, surely, be for the good of 
 our country that the stored-up experience of 
 educational effort of every type should be dis- 
 regarded in favour of rigid rules and pro- 
 grammes ; or that zeal and devotion in .the 
 work of education are to be regarded as value- 
 less unless they be associated with so-called 
 undenominational religion. The Catholic 
 Church in this and in every country has cen- 
 turies of educational tradition in her keeping. 
 She has no more ardent wish than to place it 
 all most generously at the service of the com- 
 monwealth, and to take her place in every 
 movement that will be to the real advantage of 
 the children upon whom the future of the 
 world depends. And we have just ground for 
 complaint when the conditions on which alone
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 our co-operation will be allowed are of such a 
 character as to make it evident that we are not 
 intended to have any real place in the educa- 
 tion of our country. 
 
 May this treatise so ably written be a source 
 of guidance and encouragement to those who 
 are giving their lives to the education of 
 Catholic children, and at the same time do 
 something to dispel the distrust and to over- 
 come the hostility shown in high quarters 
 towards every Catholic educational endeavour. 
 
 FRANCIS CARDINAL BOURNE, 
 
 ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 PREFACE , . . v 
 
 INTRODUCTION . . . ...... xv 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. RELIGION , 1 
 
 II. CHARACTER. 1 21 
 
 III. CHARACTER. II . 45 
 
 IV. THB ELEMENTS OP CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY . . 60 
 V. THB REALITIES OP LIFE 76 
 
 VI. LESSONS AND PLAY 95 
 
 VII. MATHEMATICS, NATURAL SCIENCE, AND NATDRB 
 
 STUDY 114 
 
 VIII. ENGLISH ......... 127 
 
 IX. MODERN LANGUAGES 160 
 
 X. HISTORY 164 
 
 XI. ART 182 
 
 XII. MANNERS 198 
 
 XIII. HIGHER EDUCATION or WOMEN .... 214 
 
 XIV. CONCLUSION ........ 229 
 
 APPENDIX I 233 
 
 APPENDIX II 238 
 
 INDEX 245
 
 Fair though it be, to watch unclose 
 The nestling glories of a rose, 
 Depth on rich depth, soft fold on fold : 
 Though fairer be it, to behold 
 Stately and soeptral lilies break 
 To beauty, and to sweetness wake : 
 Yet fairer still, to see and sing, 
 One fair thing is, one matchless thing : 
 Youth, in its perfect blossoming. 
 
 LIONEL JOHNSON. 
 
 Hit
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 A BOOK was published in the United States in 
 1910 with the title, EDUCATION : How OLD THE 
 NEW. A companion volume might be written 
 with a similar title, EDUCATION : How NEW 
 THE OLD, and it would only exhibit another 
 aspect of the same truth. 
 
 This does not pretend to be that possible 
 companion volume, but to present a point of 
 view which owes something both to old and 
 new, and to make an appeal for the education 
 of Catholic girls to have its distinguishing 
 features recognized and freely developed in 
 view of ultimate rather than immediate results.
 
 CHAPTEB I. 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 " Oh ! say not, dream not, heavenly notes 
 
 To childish ears are vain, 
 That the young mind at random floata, 
 
 And cannot reach the strain. 
 
 Dim or unheard, the words may fall, 
 And yet the Heaven-taught mind 
 
 May learn the sacred air, and all 
 The harmony unwind." 
 
 KEBLE. 
 
 THE principal educational controversies of the present 
 day rage round the teaching of religion to children, 
 but they are more concerned with the right to teach 
 it than with what is taught, in fact none of the com- 
 batants except the Catholic body seem to have a clear 
 notion of what they actually want to teach, when the 
 right has been secured. It is not the controversy but 
 the fruits of it that are here in question, the echoes of 
 battle and rumours of wars serve to enhance the im- 
 portance of the matter, the duty of making it all worth 
 while, and using to the best advantage the oppor- 
 tunities which are secured at the price of so many 
 conflicts. 
 
 The duty is twofold, to God and to His children. 
 God, who entrusts to us their religious education, has 
 a right to be set before them as truly, as nobly, as
 
 2 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 worthily as our capacity allows, as beautifully as 
 human language can convey the mysteries of faith, 
 with the quietness and confidence of those who know 
 and are not afraid, and filial pride in the Christian 
 inheritance which is ours. The child has a right to 
 learn the best that it can know of God, since the 
 happiness of its life, not only in eternity but even in 
 time, is bound up in that knowledge. Most grievous 
 wrong has been done, and is still done, to children by 
 well-meaning but misguided efforts to " make them 
 good " by dwelling on the vengeance taken by God 
 upon the wicked, on the possibilities of wickedness in 
 the youngest child. Their impressionable minds are 
 quite ready to take alarm, they are so small, and every 
 experience is so new ; there are so many great forces 
 at work which can be dimly guessed at, and to their 
 vivid imaginations who can say what may happen 
 next? If the first impressions of God conveyed to 
 them are gloomy and terrible, a shadow may be cast 
 over the mind so far-reaching that perhaps a whole 
 lifetime may not carry them beyond it. They hear 
 of a sleepless Eye that ever watches, to see them doing 
 wrong, an Eye from which they cannot escape. 
 There is the Judge of awful severity who admits no 
 excuse, who pursues with relentless perseverance to 
 the very end and whose resources for punishment are 
 inexhaustible. What wonder if a daring and defiant 
 spirit turns at last and stands at bay against the re- 
 sistless Avenger, and if in later years the practical 
 result is " if we may not escape, let us try to forget," 
 or the drifting of a whole life into indifference, languor 
 of will, and pessimism that border on despair.
 
 RELIGION 3 
 
 Parents could not bear to be so misrepresented to 
 their children, and what condemnation would be 
 sufficient for teachers who would turn the hearts of 
 children against their father, poisoning the very 
 springs of life. Yet this wrong is done to God. In 
 general, children taught by their own parents do not 
 suffer so much from these misrepresentations of God, 
 as those who have been left with servants and igno- 
 rant teachers, themselves warped by a wrong early 
 training. Fathers and mothers must have within 
 themselves too much intuition of the Fatherhood of 
 God not to give another tone to their teaching, and 
 probably it is from fathers and mothers, as they are 
 in themselves symbols of God's almighty power and 
 unmeasured love, that the first ideas of Him can best 
 reach the minds of little children. 
 
 But it is rare that circumstances admit the continu- 
 ance of this best instruction. For one reason or an- 
 other children pass on to other teachers and, except 
 for what can be given directly by the clergy, must 
 depend on them for further religious instruction. 
 This further teaching, covering, say, eight years of 
 school life, ten to eighteen, falls more or less into two 
 periods, one in which the essentials of Christian life 
 and doctrine have to be learned, the other in which 
 more direct preparation may be made for the warfare 
 of faith which must be encountered when the years of 
 school life are over. It is a great stewardship to be 
 entrusted with the training of God's royal family of 
 children, during these years on which their after life 
 almost entirely depends, and " it is required among 
 stewards that a man may be found faithful." For 
 
 1*
 
 4 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 other branches of teaching it is more easy to ascertain 
 that the necessary qualifications are not wanting, 
 but in this the qualifications lie so deeply hidden be- 
 tween God and the conscience that they must often 
 be taken for granted, and the responsibility lies all the 
 more directly with the teacher who has to live the 
 life, as well as to know the truth, and love both truth 
 and life in order to make them loved. These are 
 qualifications that are never attained, because they 
 must always be in process of attainment, only one 
 who is constantly growing in grace and love and know- 
 ledge can give the true appreciation of what that grace 
 and love and knowledge are in their bearing on human 
 life : to be rather than to know is therefore a primary 
 qualification. Inseparably bound up with it is the 
 thinking right thoughts concerning what is to be 
 taught. 
 
 1. To have right thoughts of God. It would seem to 
 be too obvious to need statement, yet experience shows 
 that this fundamental necessity is not always secure, 
 far from it. It is not often put into words, but traces 
 may be found only too easily of foundations of religion 
 laid in thoughts of God that are unworthy of our faith. 
 Whence can they have come? Doubtless in great 
 measure from the subtle spirit of Jansenism which 
 spread so widely in its day and is so hard to outlive 
 from remains of the still darker spirit of Calvinism 
 which hangs about convert teachers of a rigid school 
 from vehement and fervid spiritual writers, addressing 
 themselves to the needs of other times perhaps most 
 of all from the old lie which was from the beginning, 
 the deep mistrust of God which is the greatest triumph
 
 RELIGION 6 
 
 of His enemy. God is set forth as if He were en- 
 compassed with human limitations the fiery imagery 
 of the Old Testament pressed into the service of 
 modern and western minds, until He is made to seem 
 pitiless, revengeful, exacting, lying in wait to catch 
 His creatures in fault, and awaiting them at death with 
 terrible surprises. 
 
 But this is not what the Church and the Gospels 
 have to say about Him to the children of the kingdom. 
 If we could put into words our highest ideals of all 
 that is most lovely and lovable, beautiful, tender, 
 gracious, liberal, strong, constant, patient, unweary- 
 ing, add what we can, multiply it a million times, 
 tire out our imagination beyond it, and then say that 
 it is nothing to what He is, that it is the weakest ex- 
 pression of His goodness and beauty, we shall give a 
 poor idea of God indeed, but at least, as far as it goes, 
 it will be true, and it will lead to trustfulness and 
 friendship, to a right attitude of mind, as child to 
 father, and creature to Creator. We speak as we 
 believe, there is an accent of sincerity that carries 
 conviction if we speak of God as we believe, and if 
 we believe truly, we shall speak of Him largely, 
 trustfully, and happily, whether in the dogmas of our 
 faith, or as we find His traces and glorious attributes 
 in the world around us, as we consider the lilies of 
 the field and the birds of the air, or as we track with 
 reverent and unprecipitate following the line of His 
 providential government in the history of the world. 
 
 The need of right thoughts of God is also deeply 
 felt on the side of our relations to Him, and that 
 especially in our democratic times when sovereignty
 
 6 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 is losing its meaning. There are free and easy ideas 
 of God, as if man might criticize and question and call 
 Him to account, and have his say on the doings of 
 the Creator. It is not explanation or apology that 
 answer these, but a right thought of God makes them 
 impossible, and this right thought can only be given 
 if we have it ourselves. The Fatherhood of God and 
 the Sovereignty of God are foundations of belief which 
 complete one another, and bear up all the superstruc- 
 ture of a child's understanding of Christian life. 
 
 2. Eight ideas of ourselves and of our destiny. It 
 is a pity that evil instead of good is made a prominent 
 feature of religious teaching. To be haunted by the 
 thought of evil and the dread of losing our soul, as 
 if it were a danger threatening us at every step, is 
 not the most inspiring ideal of life ; quiet, steady, un- 
 imaginative fear and watchfulness is harder to teach, 
 but gives a stronger defence against sin than an ever 
 present terror ; while all that belongs to hope awakens 
 a far more effective response to good. Some realiza- 
 tion of our high destiny as heirs of heaven is the 
 strongest hold that the average character can have to 
 give steadiness in prosperity and courage in adversity. 
 Chosen souls will rise higher than this, but if the 
 average can reach so far as this they will do well. 
 
 8. Eight ideas of sin and evil. It is possible on 
 the one hand to give such imperfect ideas of right 
 and wrong that all is measured by the mere selfish 
 standard of personal security. The frightened ques- 
 tion about some childish wrong-doing " is it a mor- 
 tal sin ? " often indicates that fear of punishment 
 is the only aspect under which sin appears to the
 
 RELIGION 7 
 
 mind; while a satisfied tone in saying "it is only a 
 venial sin " looks like a desire to see what liberties 
 may be taken with God without involving too serious 
 consequences to self. "It is wrong" ought to be 
 enough, and the less children talk of mortal sin the 
 better to talk of it, to discuss with them whether this 
 or that is a mortal sin, accustoms them to the idea. 
 When they know well the conditions which make a 
 sin grave without illustrations by example which are 
 likely to obscure the subject rather than clear it up, 
 when their ideas of right and duty and obligation are 
 clear, when " I ought " has a real meaning for them, 
 we shall have a stronger type of character than that 
 which is formed on detailed considerations of differ- 
 ent degrees of guilt. 
 
 On the other hand it is possible to confuse and tor- 
 ment children by stories of the exquisite delicacy of 
 the consciences of the saints, as St. Aloysius, setting 
 before them a standard that is beyond their compre- 
 hension or their degree of grace, and making them 
 miserable because they cannot conform to it. 
 
 It is a great safeguard against sin to realize that 
 duty must be done, at any cost, and that Christianity 
 means self-denial and taking up the cross. 
 
 4. Eight thoughts of the four last things. True 
 thoughts of death are not hard for children to grasp, 
 to their unspoiled faith it is a simple and joyful thing 
 to go to God. Later on the dreary pageantry and the 
 averted face of the world from that which is indeed its 
 doom obscure the Christian idea, and the mind slips 
 back to pagan grief, as if there were no life to come. 
 
 Right thoughts of judgment are not so hard to give
 
 8 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 if the teaching is sincere and simple, free from exag- 
 gerations and phantoms of dread, and on the other 
 hand clear from an incredulous protest against God's 
 holding man responsible for his acts. 
 
 But to give right thoughts of hell and heaven taxes 
 the best resources of those who wish to lay founda- 
 tions well, for they are to be foundations for life, and 
 the two lessons belong together, corner-stones of the 
 building, to stand in view as long as it shall stand and 
 never to be forgotten. 
 
 The two lessons belong together as the final destiny 
 of man, fixed by his own act, this or that. And they 
 have to be taught with all the force and gravity and 
 dignity which befits the subject, and in such a way 
 that after-years will find nothing to smile at and no- 
 thing to unlearn. They have to be taught as the 
 mind of the present time can best apprehend them, 
 not according to the portraiture of mediaeval pictures, 
 but in a language perhaps not more true and adequate 
 in itself but less boisterous and more comprehensible to 
 our self-conscious and introspective moods. Father 
 Faber's treatment of these last things, hell and heaven, 
 would furnish matter for instruction not beyond the 
 understanding of those in their last years at school, 
 and of a kind which if understood must leave a mark 
 upon the mind for life. 1 
 
 5. Eight views of Jesus Christ and His mother. 
 For Catholic children this relationship is not a thing 
 far off, but the faith which teaches them of God In- 
 carnate bids them also understand that He is their 
 own " God who gives joy to their youth" and that 
 
 1 See Appendix I.
 
 RELIGION 9 
 
 His mother is also theirs. There are many incom- 
 prehensible things in which children are taught to 
 affirm their belief, and the acts of faith in which they 
 recite these truths are far beyond their understanding. 
 But they can and do understand if we take pains to 
 teach them that they are loved by Our Lord each one 
 alone, intimately and personally, and asked to love in 
 return. " Suffer the little children to come unto Me, 
 and forbid them not, " is not for them a distant echo 
 of what was heard long ago in the Holy Land, it is 
 no story, but a living reality of to-day. They are 
 themselves the children who are invited to come to 
 Him, better off indeed than those first called, since 
 they are not now rebuked or kept off by the Apostles 
 but brought to the front and given the first places, 
 invited by order of His Vicar from their earliest years 
 to receive the Bread of Heaven, and giving delight 
 to His representatives on earth by accepting the in- 
 vitation. 
 
 It is the reality as contrasted with the story that is 
 the prerogative of the Catholic child. Jesus and 
 Mary are real, and are its own closest kin, all but 
 visible, at moments intensely felt as present. They 
 are there in joy and in trouble, when every one else 
 fails in understanding or looks displeased there is this 
 refuge, there is this love which always forgives, and 
 sets things right, and to whom nothing is unimpor- 
 tant or without interest. Companionship in loneli- 
 ness, comfort in trouble, relief in distress, endurance 
 in pain are all to be found in them. With Jesus and 
 Mary what is there in the whole world of which a 
 Catholic child should be afraid. And this glorious
 
 10 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 strength of theirs made perfect in child-martyrs in 
 many ages will make them again child-martyrs now 
 if need be, or confessors of the holy faith as they are 
 not seldom called upon, even now, to show themselves. 
 
 There is a strange indomitable courage in children 
 which has its deep springs in these Divine things ; the 
 strength which they find in Holy Communion and in 
 their love for Jesus and Mary is enough to overcome 
 in them all weakness and fear. 
 
 6. Eight thoughts of the faith and practice of 
 Christian life. And here it is necessary to guard 
 against what is childish, visionary, and exuberant, 
 against things that only feed the fancy or excite the 
 imagination, against practices which are adapted to 
 other races than ours, but with us are liable to be- 
 come unreal and irreverent, against too vivid sense 
 impressions and especially against attaching too much 
 importance to them, against grotesque and puerile 
 forms of piety, which drag down the beautiful de- 
 votions to the saints until they are treated as inhabi- 
 tants of a superior kind of doll's house, rewarded and 
 punished, scolded and praised, endowed with pet 
 names, and treated so as to become objects of ridicule 
 to those who do not realize that these extravagances 
 may be in other countries natural forms of peasant 
 piety when the grace of intimacy with the saints has 
 run wild. In northern countries a greater sobriety 
 of devotion is required if it is to have any permanent 
 influence on life. 
 
 But again, on the other hand, the more restrained 
 devotion must not lose its spontaneity ; so long as it 
 is the true expression of faith it can hardly be too
 
 RELIGION 11 
 
 simple, it can never be too intimate a part of 
 common, life. Noble friendships with the saints in 
 glory are one of the most effectual means of learning 
 heavenly-mindedness, and friendships formed in child- 
 hood will last through a lifetime. To find a char- 
 acter like one's own which has fought the same fight 
 and been crowned, is an encouragement which obtains 
 great victories, and to enter into the thoughts of the 
 saints is to qualify oneself here below for intercourse 
 with the citizens of heaven. 
 
 To be well grounded in the elements of faith, and 
 to have been so taught that the practice of religion 
 has become the atmosphere of a happy life, to have 
 the habit of sanctifying daily duties, joys, and trials 
 by the thought of God, and a firm resolve that 
 nothing shall be allowed to draw the soul away from 
 Him, such is, broadly speaking, the aim we may set 
 before ourselves for the end of the years of childhood, 
 after which must follow the more difficult years of 
 the training of youth. 
 
 The time has gone by when the faith of childhood 
 might be carried through life and be assailed by no 
 questionings from without. A faith that is not armed 
 and ready for conflict stands a poor chance of passing 
 victoriously through its trials, it cannot hope to 
 escape from being tried. " We have laboured suc- 
 cessfully," wrote a leading Jewish Freemason in 
 Rome addressing his Brotherhood, " in the great 
 cities and among the young men ; it remains for us 
 to carry out the work in the country districts and 
 amongst the women." Words could not be plainer 
 to show what awaits the faith of children when they
 
 12 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 come out into the world ; and even in countries where 
 the aim is not so clearly set forth the current of 
 opinion mostly sets against the faith, the current of 
 the world invariably does so. For faith to hold on 
 its course against all that tends to carry it away, it 
 is needful that it should not be found unprepared. 
 The minds of the young cannot expect to be carried 
 along by a Catholic public opinion, there will be few 
 to help them, and they must learn to stand by them- 
 selves, to answer for themselves, to be challenged and 
 not afraid to speak out for their faith, to be able to 
 give "first aid" to unsettled minds and not allow 
 their own to be unsettled by what they hear. They 
 must learn that, as Father Dalgairns points out, their 
 position in the world is far more akin to that of 
 Christians in the first centuries of the Church than 
 to the life that was lived in the middle ages when 
 the Church visibly ruled over public opinion. Now, 
 as in the earliest ages, the faithful stand in small 
 assemblies or as individuals amid cold or hostile 
 surroundings, and individual faith and sanctity are 
 the chief means of extending the kingdom of God 
 on earth. 
 
 But this apostleship needs preparation and train- 
 ing. The early teaching requires to be seasoned and 
 hardened to withstand the influences which tend 
 to dissolve faith and piety ; by this seasoning faith 
 must be enlightened, and piety become serene and 
 grave, " sedate," as St. Francis of Sales would say 
 with beautiful commentary. In the last years of 
 school or school-room life the mind has to be gradu- 
 ally inured to the harder life, to the duty of defending
 
 RELIGION 13 
 
 as well as adorning the faith, and to gain at least 
 some idea of the enemies against which defence must 
 be made. It is something even to know what is in 
 the air and what may be expected that the first 
 surprise may not disturb the balance of the mind. 
 To know that in the Church there have been sorrows 
 and scandals, without the promises of Christ having 
 failed, and even that it had to be so, fulfilling His 
 word, "it must needs be that scandals come" (St. 
 Matthew xvin. 7), that they are therefore rather 
 a confirmation than a stumbling-block to our faith, 
 this is a necessary safeguard. To have some unpre- 
 tentious knowledge of what is said and thought con- 
 cerning Holy Scripture, to know at least something 
 about Modernism and other phases of current opinion 
 is necessary, without making a study of their sub- 
 tilties, for the most insecure attitude of mind for 
 girls is to think they know, in these difficult questions, 
 and the best safeguard both of their faith and good 
 sense is intellectual modesty. Without making ac- 
 quaintance in detail with the phenomena of spiritual- 
 ism and kindred arts or sciences, it is needful to know 
 in a plain and general way why they are forbidden 
 by the Church, and also to know how those who have 
 lost their balance and peace of mind in these pursuits 
 would willingly draw back, but find it next to impos- 
 sible to free themselves from the servitude in which 
 they are entangled. It is hard for some minds to 
 resist the restless temptation to feel, to see, to test 
 and handle all that life can offer of strange and 
 mysterious experiences, and next to the curb of duty 
 comes the safeguard of greatly valuing freedom of mind.
 
 14 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Curiosity concerning evil or dangerous knowledge is 
 more impetuous when a sudden emancipation of mind 
 sweeps the old landmarks and restraints out of sight, 
 and nothing has been foreseen which can serve as a 
 guide. Then is the time when weak places in educa- 
 tion show themselves, when the least insincerity in 
 the presentment of truth brings its own punishment, 
 and a faith not pillared and grounded in all honesty 
 is in danger of failing. The best security is to have 
 nothing to unlearn, to know that what one knows is 
 a very small part of what can be known, but that as 
 far as it goes it is true and genuine, and cannot be 
 outgrown, that it will stand both the wear of time 
 and the test of growing power of thought, and that 
 those who have taught these beliefs will never have 
 to retract or be ashamed of them, or own that they 
 were passed off, though inadequate, upon the minds 
 of children. 
 
 It is not unusual to meet girls who are troubled 
 with " doubts " as to faith and difficulties which alarm 
 both them and their friends. Sometimes when these 
 "doubts " are put into words they turn out to be mere 
 difficulties, and it has not been understood that " ten 
 thousand difficulties do not make a doubt." Some- 
 times the difficulties are scarcely real, and come simply 
 from catching up objections which they do not know 
 how to answer, and think unanswerable. Sometimes 
 a spirit of contradiction has been aroused, and a 
 captious tendency, or a love of excitement and sensa- 
 tionalism, with a wish to see the other side. Some- 
 times imperfect teaching has led them to expect the 
 realization of things as seen, which are only to be
 
 RELIGION 15 
 
 assented to as believed, so that there is a hopeless effort 
 to imagine, to feel, and to feel sure, to lean in some 
 way upon what the senses can verify, and the acqui- 
 escence, assent, and assurance of faith seems all insuf- 
 ficient to give security. Sometimes there is genuine 
 ignorance of what is to be believed, and of what it is 
 to believe. Sometimes it is merely a question of 
 nerves, a want of tone in the mind, insufficient oc- 
 cupation and training which has thrown the mind 
 back upon itself to its own confusion. Sometimes 
 they come from want of understanding that there 
 must be mysteries in faith, and a multitude of ques- 
 tions that do not admit of complete answers, that 
 God would not be God if the measure of our minds 
 could compass His, that the course of His Providence 
 must transcend our experience and judgment, and 
 that if the truths of faith forced the assent of our 
 minds all the value of that assent would be taken 
 away. If these causes and a few others were re- 
 moved one may ask oneself how many " doubts " and 
 difficulties would remain in the ordinary walks of 
 Catholic life. 
 
 It seems to be according to the mind of the Church 
 in our days to turn the minds of her children to the 
 devotional study of Scripture, and if this is begun, as 
 it may be, in the early years of education it gains an 
 influence which is astonishing. The charm of the 
 narrative in the very words of Scripture, and the 
 jewels of prayer and devotion which may be gathered 
 in the Sacred Books, are within the reach of children, 
 and they prepare a treasure of knowledge and love 
 which will grow in value during a lifetime. Arms
 
 16 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 are there, too, against many difficulties and tempta- 
 tions ; and a better understanding of the Church's 
 teaching and of the liturgy which is the best standard 
 of devotion for the faithful. 
 
 The blight of Scriptural knowledge is to make it a 
 " subject " for examinations, running in a parallel 
 track with Algebra and Geography, earning its 
 measure of marks and submitted to the tests of non- 
 Catholic examining bodies, to whom it speaks in 
 another tongue than ours. It must be a very robust 
 devotion to the word of God that is not chilled by 
 such treatment, and can keep an early Christian 
 glow in its readings of the Gospels and Epistles 
 whether they have proved a failure or a success in 
 the examination. In general, Catholic candidates 
 acquit themselves well in this subject, and perhaps it 
 may give some edification to non-Catholic examiners 
 when they see these results. But it is questionable 
 whether the risk of drying up the affection of children 
 for what must become to them a text-book is worth 
 this measure of success. Let experience speak for 
 those who know if it is not so ; it would seem in the 
 nature of things that so it must be. When it is 
 given over to voluntary study (beyond the diocesan 
 requirements which are a stimulus and not a blight) 
 it catches, not like wild fire, but like blessed fire, even 
 among young children, and is woven imperceptibly 
 into the texture of life. 
 
 Lastly, what may be asked of Catholic children 
 when they grow up and have to take upon themselves 
 the responsibility of keeping their own faith alive, 
 and the practice of their religion in an atmosphere
 
 RELIGION 17 
 
 which may often be one of cold faith and slack ob- 
 servance ? Neither their spiritual guides, nor those 
 who have educated them, nor their own parents, can 
 take this responsibility out of their hands. St. 
 Francis of Sales calls science the 8th Sacrament for 
 a priest, urging the clergy to give themselves 
 earnestly to study, and he says that great troubles 
 have come upon us because the sacred ark of know- 
 ledge was found in other hands than those of the 
 Levites. Leo XIII wrote in one of his great en- 
 cyclicals that " Every minister of holy religion must 
 bring to the struggle the full energy of his mind and 
 all his power of endurance." What about the laity? 
 We cannot leave all the battle to the clergy; they 
 cannot defend and instruct and carry us into the 
 kingdom of heaven in spite of ourselves ; their labours 
 call for response and correspondence. What about 
 those who are now leaving childhood behind and will 
 be in the front ranks of the coming generation? 
 Their influence will make or unmake the religion of 
 their homes, and what they will be for the whole of 
 their life will depend very much upon how they take 
 their first independent stand. 
 
 It is much that they should be well grounded in 
 those elements of doctrine which they can learn in 
 their school-days. It is much more if they carry out 
 with them a living interest in the subject and care 
 to watch the current of the Church's thought in the 
 encyclicals that are addressed to the faithful, the 
 pastorals of Bishops, the works of Catholic writers 
 which are more and more within the reach of all, in 
 
 the great events of the Church's life, and in the talk 
 
 2
 
 18 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 of those who are able to speak from first-hand know- 
 ledge and experience. It is most of all fundamental 
 that they should have an attitude of mind that is 
 worthy of their faith ; one that is not nervous or 
 apologetic for the Church, not anxious about the 
 Pope lest he should " interfere too much," nor 
 frightened of what the world may say. They 
 should have an unperturbed conviction that the 
 Church will have the last word in any controversy, 
 and that she has nothing to be alarmed at, though 
 all the battalions of newest thought should be set in 
 array against her; they should be lovingly proud 
 of the Church, and keep their belief in her at all times 
 joyous, assured, and unafraid. 
 
 Theology is not for them, neither required nor ob- 
 tainable, though some have been found enterprising 
 enough to undertake to read the Summa, ancj. naive 
 enough to suppose that they would be theologians 
 at the end of it, and even at the outset ready to 
 exchange ideas with Doctors of Divinity on efficacious 
 grace, and to have "views " on the authorship of the 
 Sacred Writings. Such aspirations either come to 
 an untimely end by an awakening sense of proportion, 
 or remain as monuments to the efforts of those " less 
 wise," or in some unfortunate cases the mind loses its 
 balance and is led into error. 
 
 " Thirsting to be more than mortal, 
 
 I was even less than clay." 
 
 Let us, if we can, keep the bolder spirits on the 
 level of what is congruous, where the wealth that is 
 within their reach will not be exhausted in their life- 
 time, and where they may excel without offence and
 
 RELIGION 19 
 
 without inviting either condemnation or ridicule. 
 The sense of fitness is a saving instinct in this as in 
 every other department of life. When it is present, 
 first principles come home like intuitions to the mind, 
 where it is absent they seem to take no hold at all, 
 and the understanding that should supply for the 
 right instinct makes slow and laborious way if it ever 
 enters at all. 
 
 To know the relation in which one stands to any 
 department of knowledge is, in that department, 
 "the beginning of wisdom". The great Christian 
 Basilicas furnish a parallel in the material order. 
 They are the house of God and the home and posses- 
 sion of every member of the Church militant without 
 distinction of age or rank or learning. But they are 
 not the same to each. Every one brings his own un- 
 derstanding and faith and insight, and the great 
 Church is to him what he has capacity to understand 
 and to receive. The great majority of worshippers 
 could not draw a line of the plans or expound a law 
 of the construction, or set a stone in its place, yet 
 the whole of it is theirs and for them, and their 
 reverent awe, even if they have no further under- 
 standing, adds a spiritual grace and a fuller dignity 
 to the whole. The child, the beggar, the pilgrim, 
 the penitent, the lowly servants and custodians of 
 the temple, the clergy, the venerable choir, the high- 
 est authorities from whom come the order and re- 
 gulation of the ceremonies, all have their parts, all 
 stand in their special relations harmoniously sharing 
 in different degrees in what is for all. Even those 
 long since depar^d, architects and builders and 
 
 2*
 
 20 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 donors, are not cut off from it, their works follow 
 them, and their memory lives in the beauty which 
 stands as a memorial to their great ideals. It is all 
 theirs, it is all ours, it is all God's. And so of the 
 great basilica of theology, built up and ever in course 
 of building ; it is for all but for each according to his 
 needs for their use, for their instruction, to surround 
 and direct their worship, to be a security and defence 
 to their souls, a great Church in which the spirit is 
 raised heavenwards in proportion to the faith and 
 submission with which it bows down in adoration 
 before the throne of God.
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 CHARACTER I. 
 
 " La verfcu maltresse d'aujourd'hui est la spontaneite r&solue, 
 reglee par les principes interieurs et lea disciplines volontaire- 
 ment acoeptees." Y. LB QUBBDBO. 
 
 THE value set on character, even if the appreciation 
 goes no further than words, has increased very mark- 
 edly within the last few years, and in reaction against 
 an exclusively mental training we hear louder and 
 louder the plea for the formation and training of 
 character. 
 
 Primarily the word character signifies a dis- 
 tinctive mark, cut, engraved, or stamped upon a sub- 
 stance, and by analogy, this is likewise character in 
 the sense in which it concerns education. A "man 
 of character" is one in whom acquired qualities, or- 
 derly and consistent, stand out on the background of 
 natural temperament, as the result of training and es- 
 pecially of self-discipline, and therefore stamped or 
 engraved upon something receptive which was pre- 
 pared for them. This something receptive is the 
 natural temperament, a basis more or less apt to re- 
 ceive what training and habit may bring to bear 
 upon it. The sum of acquired habits tells upon the 
 temperament, and together with it produce or estab- 
 
 21
 
 22 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 lish character, as the arms engraved upon the stone 
 constitute the seal. 
 
 If habits are not acquired by training, and instead 
 of them temperament alone has been allowed to have 
 its way in the years of growth, the seal bears no arms 
 engraven on it, and the result is want of character, or 
 a weak character, without distinctive mark, showing 
 itself in the various situations of life inconsistent, 
 variable, unequal to strain, acting on the impulse, good 
 or bad, of the moment; its fitful strength in moods of 
 obstinacy or self-will showing that it lacks the higher 
 qualities of rational discernment and self-control. 
 
 " Character is shown by susceptibility to motive," 
 says a modern American, turning with true American 
 instinct to the practical side in which he has made 
 experiences, and it is evidently one of the readiest 
 ways of approaching the study of any individual char- 
 acter, to make sure of the motives which awaken re- 
 sponse. But the result of habit and temperament 
 working together shows itself in every form of spon- 
 taneous activity as well as in response to external 
 stimulus. Character may be studied in tastes and 
 sympathies, in the manner of treating with one's 
 fellow-creatures, of confronting various " situations " 
 in life, in the ideals aimed at, in the estimate of suc- 
 cess or failure, in the relative importance attached to 
 things, in the choice of friends and the ultimate fate of 
 friendships, in what is expected and taken for granted, 
 as in what is habitually ignored, in the instinctive at- 
 titude towards law and authority, towards custom 
 and tradition, towards order and progress. 
 
 Character, then, may stand for the sum of the
 
 CHARACTER I. 23 
 
 qualities which go to make one to be thus, and not 
 otherwise; but the basis which underlies and con- 
 stantly reasserts itself is temperament. It makes 
 people angry to say this, if they are determined to be 
 so completely masters of their way in life that no- 
 thing but reason, in the natural order, shall be their 
 guide ; but though heroism of soul has overcome the 
 greatest drawbacks of an unfortunate physical or- 
 ganization, these cases are rare, and in general it 
 must be taken into account to such an extent that 
 the battle against difficulties of temperament is the 
 battle of a lifetime. There are certain broad divi- 
 sions which although they cannot pretend to rest 
 upon scientific principles yet appeal constantly to 
 experience, and often serve as practical guides to 
 forecast the lines on which particular characters 
 may be developed. There is a very striking division 
 into assenting and dissenting temperaments, chil- 
 dren of yes and children of no; a division which declares 
 itself very early and is maintained all along the lines 
 of early development, in mind and will and taste and 
 manner, in every phase of activity. And though time 
 and training and the schooling of life may modify its 
 expression, yet below the surface it would seem only 
 to accentuate itself, as the features of character be- 
 come more marked with advancing years. Where it 
 touches the religious disposition one would say that 
 some were born with the minds of Catholics and 
 others of Nonconformists, representing respectively 
 centripetal and centrifugal tendencies of mind ; the 
 first apt to see harmony and order, to realize the 
 innermost truth of things that must be as they are,
 
 24 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 the second born to be in opposition and with great 
 labour subduing themselves into conformity. They 
 are precious aids in the service of the Church as con- 
 troversialists when enlisted on the right side, for 
 controversy is their element. But for positive doctrine, 
 for keen appreciation, for persuasive action on the 
 wills of others, they are at a disadvantage, at all 
 events in England, where logic does not enter into 
 the national religious system, and the mind is apt to 
 resent conviction as if it were a kind of coercion. 
 There are a great number of such born Nonconform- 
 ists in England, and when either the grace of Catholic 
 education or of conversion has been granted to them, 
 it is interesting to watch the efforts to subdue and 
 attune themselves to submission and to faith. Some- 
 times the Nonconformist temperament is the greatest 
 of safeguards, where a Catholic child is obliged to stand 
 alone amongst uncongenial surroundings, then it de- 
 fends itself doggedly, splendidly, and comes out after 
 years in a Protestant school quite untouched in its 
 faith and much strengthened in militant Christianity. 
 These are cheerful instances of its development, and 
 its advantages; they would suggest that some ex- 
 ternal opposition or friction is necessary for such 
 temperaments that their fighting instinct may be 
 directed against the common enemy, and not tend 
 to arouse controversies and discussions in its own 
 ranks or within itself. In less happy cases the in- 
 stinct of opposition is a cause of endless trouble, 
 friction in family life, difficulty in working with others, 
 " alarums, excursions " on all sides, and worse, the 
 set attitude of distrust towards authority, which
 
 CHARACTER I. 25 
 
 undermines the foundations of faith and prepares 
 the mind to break away from control, to pass from 
 instinctive opposition to antagonism, from antagonism 
 to contempt, from contempt to rebellion and revolt. 
 Arrogance of mind, irreverence, self-idolatry, blind- 
 ness, follow in their course, and the whole nature 
 loses its balance and becomes through pride a piti- 
 ful wreck. 
 
 The assenting mind has its own possibilities for 
 good and evil, more human than those of Noncon- 
 formity, for " pride was not made for men " (Ecclus. 
 x. 22), less liable to great catastrophes, and in general 
 better adapted for all that belongs to the service of 
 God and man. It is a happy endowment, and the 
 happiness of others is closely bound up with its own. 
 Again, its faults being more human are more easily 
 corrected, and fortunately for the possessor, punish 
 themselves more often. This favours truthfulness 
 in the mind and humility in the soul the spirit of 
 the Confiteor. Its dangers are those of too easy 
 assent, of inordinate pursuit of particular good, of 
 inconstancy and variability, of all the humanistic ele- 
 ments which lead back to paganism. The history of 
 the Eenaissance in Southern Europe testifies to this, 
 as it illustrates in other countries the development 
 of the spirit of Nonconformity and revolt. Calvinism 
 and a whole group of Protestant schools of thought 
 may stand as examples of the spirit of denial working 
 itself out to its natural consequences ; while the ex- 
 aggerations of Italian humanism, frankly pagan, are 
 fair illustrations of the spirit of assent carried beyond 
 bounds. And those centuries when the tide of life
 
 26 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 ran high for good or evil, furnish instances in point 
 abounding with interest and instruction, more easily 
 accessible than what can be gathered from modern 
 characters, in whom less clearly defined temperaments 
 and more complex conditions of life have made it 
 harder to distinguish the characteristic features of 
 the mind. To mention only one or two St. Francis 
 of Sales and Blessed Thomas More were great as- 
 sentors, so were Pico de Mirandola and the great 
 Popes of the Kenaissance, an example of a great 
 Nonconformist is Savonarola. 
 
 The old division of temperaments into phlegmatic 
 or lymphatic, sanguine, choleric, and nervous or 
 melancholy, is a fairly good foundation for preliminary 
 observation, especially as each of the four subdivides 
 itself easily into two types the hard and soft re- 
 forms itself easily into some cross-divisions, and re- 
 fuses to be blended into others. Thus a very fine type 
 of character is seen when the characteristics of the 
 sanguine and choleric are blended the qualities of 
 one correcting the faults of the other, and a very poor 
 one if a yielding lymphatic temperament has also a 
 strain of melancholy to increase its tendency towards 
 inaction. It is often easy to discern in a group of 
 children the leading characteristics of these tempera- 
 ments, the phlegmatic or lymphatic, hard or soft, not 
 easily stirred, one stubborn and the other yielding, 
 both somewhat immobile, generally straightforward 
 and reliable, law abiding, accessible to reason, not 
 exposed to great dangers nor likely to reach unusual 
 heights. Next the sanguine, hard or soft, as hope or 
 enjoyment have the upper hand in them ; this is the
 
 CHARACTER I. 27 
 
 richest group in attractive power. If hope is the 
 stronger factor there is a fund of energy which, allied 
 with the power of charm and persuasion, with trust- 
 fulness in good, and optimistic outlook on the world, 
 wins its way and succeeds in its undertakings, mak- 
 ing its appeal to the will rather than to the mind. 
 On the softer side of this type are found the dis- 
 appointing people who ought to do well, and always 
 fail, for whom the joie de vivre carries everything 
 before it, who are always good-natured, always 
 obliging, always sweet-tempered, who cannot say no, 
 especially to themselves, whose energy is exhausted 
 in a very short burst of effort, though ever ready to 
 direct itself into some new channel for as brief a 
 trial. These are the characters which remain 
 " children of great promise " to the end of their days, 
 great promise doomed to be always unfulfilled. Of all 
 characters these are perhaps the most disappointing ; 
 they have so much in their favour, and the one thing 
 wanting, steadiness of purpose, renders useless their 
 most beautiful gifts. These two groups seem to be 
 the most common among the Teutons and Celts of 
 Northern Europe with fair colouring and tall build ; 
 perhaps the other two types are correspondingly 
 more numerous among the Latin races. They are 
 choleric, ambitious, or self-isolated, as the cast of their 
 mind is eager or scornful, and generally capable of 
 dissimulation ; the world is not large enough for 
 their Bonapartes. But if bitterness and sadness pre- 
 dominate, they are carried on an ebbing tide towards 
 pessimism and contemptuous weariness of life ; their 
 soft type, in so far as they have one, has the
 
 28 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 softness of powder, dry and crushed, rather than 
 that of a living organism. In children, this type, 
 fortunately rare, has not the charm or joy of child- 
 hood, but shows a restless straining after some self- 
 centred excellence, and a coldness of affection which 
 indicates the isolation towards which it is carried in 
 later life. Lastly, there is the unquiet group of 
 nervous or melancholic temperaments, their melan- 
 choly not weighed down by listless sadness as the 
 inactive lymphatics, but more actively dissatisfied with 
 things as they are untiringly but unhopefully at 
 work hard on themselves, anxious-minded, assured 
 that in spite of their efforts all will turn out for the 
 worst, often scrupulous, capable of long-sustained 
 efforts, often of heroic devotedness and superhuman 
 endurance, for which their reward is not in this 
 world, as the art of pleasing is singularly deficient in 
 them. Here are found the people who are " so good, 
 but so trying," ever in a fume and fuss, who, for sheer 
 goodness, rouse in others the spirit of contradiction. 
 These characters are at their best in adversity, trouble 
 stimulates them to their best efforts, whereas in easy 
 circumstances and surrounded with affection they are 
 apt to drop into querulous and exacting habits. If 
 they are endowed with more than ordinary energy it 
 is in the direction of diplomacy, and not always frank. 
 On the whole this is the character whose features 
 are least clearly defined, over which a certain mystery 
 hangs, and strange experiences are not unfrequent. 
 It is difficult to deal with its elusive showings and 
 vanishings, and this melting away and reappearing 
 seems in some to become a habit and even a
 
 CHARACTER I. 29 
 
 matter of choice, with a determination not to be 
 known. 
 
 Taking these groups as a rough classification for 
 observation of character, it is possible to get a fair idea 
 of the raw material of a class, though it may be thank- 
 fully added that in the Church no material is really 
 raw, with the grace of Baptism in the soul and later 
 on the Sacrament of Penance, to clear its obscurities 
 and explain it to itself and by degrees to transform its 
 tendencies and with grace and guidance to give it a 
 steady impulse towards the better things. Confirma- 
 tion and First Communion sometimes sensibly and 
 even suddenly transfigure a character ; but even apart 
 from such choice instances the gradual work of the 
 Sacraments brings Catholic children under a discipline 
 in which the habit of self-examination, the constant 
 necessity for effort, the truthful avowal of being in 
 the wrong, the acceptance of penance as a due, the 
 necessary submissions and self-renunciations of obedi- 
 ence to the Church, give a training of their own. So 
 a practising Catholic child is educated unconsciously 
 by a thousand influences, each of which, supernatural 
 in itself, tells beyond the supernatural sphere and 
 raises the natural qualities, by self-knowledge, by 
 truth, by the safeguard of religion against hardness 
 and isolation and the blindness of pride, even if the 
 minimum of educational facilities have been at work 
 to take advantage of these openings for good. A 
 Catholic child is a child, and keeps a childlike spirit 
 for life, unless the early training is completely ship- 
 wrecked, and even then there are memories which 
 are means of recovery, and the way home to the
 
 30 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Father's house is known. It may be hoped that very 
 many never leave it, and never lose the sense of 
 being one of the great family, " of the household of 
 faith." They enjoy the freedom of the house, the 
 rights of children, the ministries of all the graces 
 which belong to the household, the power of being at 
 home in every place because the Church is there with 
 its priesthood and its Sacraments, responsible for its 
 children, and able to supply the wants of their souls. 
 It is scarcely possible to find among Catholic children 
 the inaccessible little bits of flint who are not brought 
 up, but bring up their own souls outside the Church 
 proud in their isolation, most proud of never yielding 
 inward obedience or owning themselves in the wrong, 
 and of being sufficient for themselves. When the 
 grace of God reaches them and they are admitted into 
 the Church, one of the most overwhelming experiences 
 is that of becoming one of a family, for whom there 
 is some one responsible, the Father of the family 
 whose authority and love pass through their appointed 
 channels, down to the least child. 
 
 There is no such thing as an orphan child within 
 the Church, there are possibilities of training and 
 development which belong to those who have to edu- 
 cate the young which must appeal particularly to 
 Catholic teachers, for they know more than others 
 the priceless value of the children with whom they 
 have to do. Children, souls, freighted for their voyage 
 through life, vessels so frail and bound for such a port 
 are worthy of the devoted care of those who have 
 necessarily a lifelong influence over them, and the 
 means of using that influence for their lifelong good
 
 CHARACTER I. 31 
 
 ought to be a matter of most earnest study. Know- 
 ledge must come before action, and first-hand know- 
 ledge, acquired by observation, is worth more than 
 theoretic acquirements ; the first may supply for the 
 second, but not the second for the first. There are 
 two types of educators of early childhood which no 
 theory could produce, and indeed no theory could 
 tell how they are produced, but they stand unrivalled 
 one is the English nurse and the other the Irish. 
 The English nurse is a being apart, with a profound 
 sense of fitness in all things, herself the slave of duty ; 
 and having certain ideals transmitted, who can tell 
 how, by an unwritten traditional code, as to what 
 ought to be, and a gift of authority by which she 
 secures that these things shall be, reverence for God, 
 reverence in prayer, reverence for parents, considera- 
 tion of brothers for sisters, unselfishness, manners, etc., 
 her views on all these things are like the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians " which do not alter " and they 
 are also holy and wholesome. The Irish nurse rules 
 by the heart, and by sympathy, by a power of self-devo- 
 tion that can only be found where the love of God is 
 the deepest love of the heart ; she has no views, but 
 she knows. She does not need to observe she sees- 
 she has instincts, she never lays down a law, but she 
 wins by tact and affection, lifting up the mind to God 
 and subduing the will to obedience, while appearing to 
 do nothing but love and wait. The stamp that she 
 leaves on the earliest years of training is never entirely 
 effaced ; it remains as some instinct of faith, a habit of 
 resignation to the will of God, and habitual recourse to 
 prayer. Both these types of educators rule by their
 
 32 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 gift from God, and it is hard to believe that the most 
 finished training in the art of nursery management can 
 produce anything like them, for they govern by those 
 things that lectures and handbooks cannot teach 
 faith, love, and common sense. 
 
 Those who take up the training of the next stage 
 have usually to learn by their own experience, and 
 study what is given to very few as a natural endow- 
 ment the art of so managing the wills of children 
 that without provoking resistance, yet without yield- 
 ing to every fancy, they may be led by degrees to self- 
 control and to become a law to themselves. It must 
 be recognized from the beginning that the work is 
 slow ; if it is forced on too fast either a breaking point 
 comes and the child, too much teased into perfection, 
 turns in reaction and becomes self-willed and rebel- 
 lious ; or if, unhappily, the forcing process succeeds, a 
 little paragon is produced like Wordsworth's "model 
 child " :- 
 
 " Full early trained to worship seemliness, 
 
 This model of a child is never known 
 
 To mix in quarrels ; that were far beneath 
 
 Its dignity ; with gifts he bubbles o'er 
 
 As generous as a fountain ; selfishness 
 
 May not come near him, nor the little throng 
 
 Of flitting pleasures tempt him from his path ; 
 
 The wandering beggars propagate his name. 
 
 Dumb creatures find him tender as a nun, 
 
 And natural or supernatural fear, 
 
 Unless it leap upon him in a dream, 
 
 Touches him not. To enhance the wonder, see 
 
 How arch his notices, how nice his sense 
 
 Of the ridiculous ; not blind is he 
 
 To the broad follies of the licensed world,
 
 CHARACTER I. 33 
 
 Yet innocent himself withal, though shrewd, 
 
 And can read lectures upon innocence ; 
 
 A miracle of scientific lore, 
 
 Ships he can guide across the pathless sea, 
 
 And tell you all their cunning ; he can read 
 
 The inside of the earth, and spell the stars ; 
 
 He knows the policies of foreign lands ; 
 
 Can string you names of districts, cities, towns, 
 
 The whole world over, tight as beads of dew 
 
 Upon a gossamer thread ; he sifts, he weighs ; 
 
 All things are put to question ; he must live 
 
 Knowing that he grows wiser every day 
 
 Or else not live at all, and seeing too 
 
 Each little drop of wisdom as it falls 
 
 Into the dimpling cistern of his heart : 
 
 For this unnatural growth the trainer blame, 
 
 Pity the tree,"- 
 
 "The Prelude," Bk. V, lines 298-329. 
 
 On the other hand if those who have to bring up 
 children, fear too much to cross their inclinations, 
 and so seek always the line of least resistance, teach- 
 ing lessons in play, and smoothing over every rough 
 place of the road, the result is a weak, slack will, a 
 mind without power of concentration, and in later 
 life very little resourcefulness in emergency or power 
 of bearing up under difficulties or privations. We 
 are at present more inclined to produce these soft 
 characters than to develop paragons. But such move- 
 ments go in waves and the wave-lengths are growing 
 shorter; we seem now to be reaching the end of a 
 period when, as it has been expressed, " the teacher 
 learns the lessons and says them to the child." We 
 are beginning to_outgrow too fervid belief in methods, 
 and pattern lessons, and coming back to value more
 
 34 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 highly the habit of effort, individual work, and even 
 the saving discipline of drudgery. We are beginning, 
 that is those who really care for children, and for 
 character, and for life; it takes the State and its 
 departments a long time to come up with the experi- 
 ence of those who actually know living children a 
 generation is not too much to allow for its coming to 
 this knowledge, as we may see at present, when the 
 drawbacks of the system of 1870 are becoming ap- 
 parent at last in the eyes of the official world, having 
 been evident for years to those whose sympathies 
 were with the children and not with codes. America, 
 open-minded America, is aware of all this, and is 
 making generous educational experiments with the 
 buoyant idealism of a young nation, an idealism that 
 is sometimes outstripping its practical sense, quite 
 able to face its disappointments if they come, as 
 undoubtedly they will, and to begin again. In one 
 point it is far ahead of us in the understanding 
 that a large measure of freedom is necessary for 
 teachers. Whereas we are, let us hope, at the most 
 acute stage of State interference in details. 
 
 But in spite of the systems the children live, and 
 come up year after year, to give us fresh opportunities ; 
 and in spite of the systems something can be done 
 with them if we take the advice of Archbishop 
 Ullathorne "trust in God and begin as you can." 
 
 Let us begin by learning to know them, and the 
 knowledge of their characters is more easily gained 
 if some cardinal points are marked, by which the 
 unknown country may be mapped out. The selec- 
 tion of these cardinal points depends in part on the
 
 CHARACTER L 36 
 
 mind of the observer, which has more or less insight 
 into the various manifestations of possibility and 
 quality which may occur. It is well to observe with- 
 out seeming to do so, for as shy wild creatures fly 
 off before a too observant eye, but may be studied by 
 a naturalist who does not appear to look at them, so 
 the real child takes to flight if it is too narrowly 
 watched, and leaves a self-conscious little person to 
 take its place, making off with its true self into the 
 backwoods of some dreamland, and growing more 
 and more reticent about its real thoughts as it gets 
 accustomed to talk to an appreciative audience. 
 With weighing and measuring, inspecting and report- 
 ing, exercising and rapid forcing, and comparing, ap- 
 plauding and tabulating results, it is difficult to see 
 how children can escape self -consciousness and arti- 
 ficiality, and the enthusiasts for " child study " are 
 in danger of making the specimen of the real child 
 more and more rare and difficult to find, as destructive 
 sportsmen in a new country exterminate the choice 
 species of wild animals. 
 
 Too many questions put children on their guard or 
 make them unreal ; they cannot give an account of 
 what they think and what they mean and how far 
 they have understood, and the greater the anxiety 
 shown to get at their real mind the less are they 
 either able or willing to make it known ; so it is the 
 quieter and less active observers who see the most, 
 and those who observe most are best aware how little 
 can be known. 
 
 Yet there are some things which may serve as 
 points of the compass, especially in the transitional 
 
 3*
 
 36 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 years when the features both of face and character 
 begin to accentuate themselves. One of these is the 
 level of friendships. There are some who look by 
 instinct for the friendship of those above them, and 
 others habitually seek a lower level, where there is 
 no call to self-restraint. Boys who hang about the 
 stables, girls who like the conversation of servants ; 
 boys and girls who make friends in sets at school, 
 among the less desirable, generally do so from a love 
 of ease and dislike of that restraint and effort which 
 every higher friendship calls for ; they can be somebody 
 at a very cheap cost where the standard of talk is not 
 exacting, whereas to be with those who are striving 
 for the best in any station makes demands which 
 call for exertion, and the taste for this higher level, 
 the willingness to respond to its claims, give good 
 promise that those who have it will in their turn 
 draw others to the things that are best. 
 
 The attitude of a child towards books is also indica- 
 tive of the whole background of a mind ; the very way 
 in which a book is handled is often a sign in itself of 
 whether a child is a citizen born, or an alien, in the 
 world for which books stand. Taste in reading, both 
 as to quality and quantity, is so obviously a guiding 
 line that it need scarcely be mentioned. 
 
 Play is another line in which character shows itself, 
 and reveals another background against which the 
 scenes of life in the future will stand out, and in school 
 life the keenest and best spirits will generally divide in- 
 to these two groups, the readers and the players, 
 with a few, rarely gifted, who seem to excel in both. 
 From the readers will come those who are to influence
 
 CHARACTER I. 37 
 
 theininds of others here, if they do not let themselves 
 be carried out too far to keep in touch with real life. 
 From the players will come those whose gift is 
 readiness and decision in action, if they on their side do 
 not remain mere players when life calls for something 
 more. 
 
 There are other groups, the born artists with their 
 responsive minds, the "home children" for whom 
 everything centres in their own home-world, and who 
 have in them the making of another one in the future ; 
 the critics, standing aloof, a little peevish and very 
 self-conscious, hardly capable of deep friendship and 
 fastidiously dissatisfied with people and things in 
 general ; the cheerful and helpful souls who have no in- 
 terests of their own but can devote themselves to help 
 anyone ; the opposite class whose life is in their own 
 moods and feelings. Many others might be added, each 
 observer's experience can supply them, and will prob- 
 ably close the list with the same little group, the very 
 few, that stand a little apart, but not aloof, children of 
 privilege, with heaven in their eyes and a little air of 
 mystery about them, meditative and quiet, friends 
 of God, friends of all, loved and loving, and asking 
 very little from the outer world, because they have 
 more than enough within. They are classed as the 
 dreamers, but they are really the seers. They do 
 not ask much and they do not need much beyond a 
 reverent guardianship, and to be let alone and allowed 
 to grow ; they will find their way for they are " taught 
 of God." 
 
 It is impossible to do more than to throw out sug- 
 gestions which any child-naturalist might multiply or
 
 38 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 improve upon. The next consideration for all concerned 
 is what to do with the acquired knowledge, and how 
 to " bring up " in the later stages of childhood and 
 early youth. 
 
 What do we want to bring up ? Not good nonen- 
 tities, who are merely good because they are not bad. 
 There are too many of them already, no trouble to 
 anyone, only disappointing, so good that they ought 
 to be so much better, if only they would. But who 
 can make them will to be something more, to become, 
 as Montalembert said, "&fact, instead of remaining 
 but a shadow, an echo, or a ruin ? " Those who have 
 to educate them to something higher must them- 
 selves have an idea of what they want ; they must 
 believe in the possibility of every mind and char- 
 acter to be lifted up to something better than it has 
 already attained ; they must themselves be striving for 
 some higher excellence, and must believe and care 
 deeply for the things they teach. For no one can be 
 educated by maxim and precept ; it is the life lived, 
 and the things loved and the ideals believed in, by 
 which we tell, one upon another. If we care for 
 energy we call it out ; if we believe in possibilities of 
 development we almost seem to create them. If we 
 want integrity of character, steadiness, reliability, 
 courage, thoroughness, all the harder qualities that 
 serve as a backbone, we, at least, make others want 
 them also, and strive for them by the power of ex- 
 ample that is not set as deliberate good example, for 
 that is as tame as a precept, but the example of the 
 life that is lived, and the truths that are honestly be- 
 lieved in.
 
 CHARACTER L 39 
 
 The gentler qualities which are to adorn the harder 
 virtues may be more explicitly taught. It is always 
 more easy to tone down than to brace up ; there must 
 first be something to moderate, before moderation can 
 be a virtue ; there must be strength before gentleness 
 can be taught, as there must be some hardness in 
 material things to make them capable of polish. And 
 these are qualities which are specially needed in our 
 unsteady times, when rapid emancipation of unknown 
 forces makes each one more personally responsible 
 than in the past. It is an impatient age : we must 
 learn patience ; it is an age of sudden social changes : 
 we have to make ready for adversity ; it is an age of 
 lawlessness : each one must stand upon his own guard 
 and be his own defence ; it is a selfish age, and never 
 was unselfishness more urgently needed ; love of home 
 and love of country seem to be cooling, one as rapidly 
 as the other : never was it more necessary to learn the 
 spirit of self-sacrifice both for family life and the love 
 and honour due to one's country which is also " piety " 
 in its true sense. 
 
 All these things come with our Catholic faith and 
 practice if it is rightly understood. Catholic family 
 life, Catholic citizenship, Catholic patriotism are the 
 truest, the only really true, because the only types of 
 these virtues that are founded on truth. But they do 
 not come of themselves. Many will let themselves 
 be carried to heaven, as they hope, in the long-suffer- 
 ing arms of the Church without either defending or 
 adorning her by their virtues, and we shall but add to 
 their number if we do not kindle in the minds of child- 
 ren the ambition to do something more, to devote
 
 40 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 themselves to the great Cause, by self-sacrifice to be 
 in some sort initiated into its spirit, and identified 
 with it, and thus to make it worth while for others as 
 well as for themselves that they have lived their life 
 on earth. There is a price to be paid for this, and 
 they must face it ; a good life cannot be a soft life, and 
 a great deal, even of innocent pleasure, has to be given 
 up, voluntarily, to make life worth living, if it were 
 only as a training in doing without. 
 
 Independence is a primary need for character, and 
 independence can only be learnt by doing without 
 pleasant things, even unnecessarily. Simplicity of 
 life is an essential for greatness of life, and the very 
 meaning of the simple life is the laying aside of many 
 things which tend to grow by habit into necessities. 
 The habit of work is another necessity in any life 
 worth living, and this is only learnt by refraining 
 again and again from what is pleasant for the sake of 
 what is precious. Patience and thoroughness are 
 requirements whose worth and value never come 
 home to the average mind until they are seen in 
 startling excellence, and it is apparent what a price 
 must have been paid to acquire their adamant per- 
 fection, a lesson which might be the study of a 
 lifetime. The value of time is another necessary 
 lesson of the better life, a hard lesson, but one that 
 makes an incalculable difference between the expert 
 and the untried. We are apt to be always in a hurry 
 now, for obvious reasons which hasten the movement 
 of life, but not many really know how to use time to 
 the full. Our tendency is to alternate periods of ex- 
 treme activity with intervals of complete prostration
 
 CHARACTER I. 41 
 
 for recovery. Perhaps our grandparents knew better 
 in a slower age the use of time. The old Marquise 
 de Gramont, aged 93, after receiving Extreme Unc- 
 tion, asked for her knitting, for the poor. "Mais 
 Madame la Marquise a e'te' administr^e, elle va 
 mourir! " said the maid, who thought the occupation 
 of dying sufficient for a lady of her age. "Ma che're, 
 ce n'est pas une raison pour perdre son temps," an- 
 swered the indomitable Marquise. It is told of her 
 also that when one of her children asked for some 
 water in summer, between meals, she replied : " Mon 
 enfant, vous ne serez jamais qu'un e"tre manque", une 
 pygmee, si vous prenez ces habitudes-la, pensez, mon 
 petit coeur, au fiel de Notre Seigneur Je'sus Christ, et 
 vous aurez le courage d'attendre le diner." She had 
 learned for herself the strength of going without. 
 One more lesson must be mentioned, the hardest of 
 all to be learnt perfect sincerity. It is so hard not to 
 pose, for all but the very truest and simplest natures 
 to pose as independent, being eaten up with human 
 respect ; to pose as indifferent though aching with the 
 wish to be understood ; to pose as flippant while long- 
 ing to be in earnest ; to hide an attraction to higher 
 things under a little air of something like irreverence. 
 It is strange that this kind of pose is considered as 
 less insincere than the opposite class, which is rather 
 out of fashion for this very reason, yet to be untrue 
 to one's better self is surely an unworthier insincerity 
 than to be ashamed of the worst. Perhaps the best 
 evidence of this is the costliness of the effort to over- 
 come it, and the more observation and reflection we 
 spend on this point the more shall we be convinced
 
 42 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIKLS 
 
 that it is very hard to learn to be quite true, and that 
 it entails more personal self-sacrifice than almost any 
 other virtue. 
 
 In conclusion, the means for training character 
 may be grouped under the following headings : 
 
 1. Contact with those who have themselves at- 
 tained to higher levels, either parent, or teacher, or 
 friend. Perhaps at present the influence of a friend is 
 greater than that of any power officially set over us, 
 so jealous are we of control. So much the better 
 chance for those who have the gift even in mature age 
 of winning the friendship of children, and those who 
 have just outgrown childhood. In these friendships 
 the great power of influence is hopefulness, to be- 
 lieve in possibilities of good, and to expect the 
 best. 
 
 2. Vigilance, not the nervous vigilance, unquiet and 
 anxious, which rouses to mischief the sporting instinct 
 of children and stings the rebellious to revolt, but the 
 vigilance which, open and confident itself, gives con- 
 fidence, nurtures fearlessness, and brings a steady 
 pressure to be at one's best. Vigilance over children is 
 no insult to their honour, it is rather the right of their 
 royalty, for they are of the blood royal of Christianity, 
 and deserve the guard of honour which for the sake 
 of their royalty does not lose sight of them. 
 
 3. Criticism and correction. To be used with in- 
 finite care, but never to be neglected without grave 
 injustice. It is not an easy thing to reprove in the 
 right time, in the right tone, without exasperation, 
 without impatience, without leaving a sting behind ; 
 to dare to give pain for the sake of greater good ; to
 
 CHARACTER I. 43 
 
 love the truth and have courage to tell it ; to change 
 reproof as time goes on to the frank criticism of friend- 
 ship that is ambitious for its friend. To accept 
 criticism is one of the greatest lessons to be learnt 
 in life. To give it well is an art which requires more 
 study and more self-denial than either the habit of 
 being easily satisfied and requiring little, or the queru- 
 lous habit of " scolding " which is admirably described 
 by Bishop Hedley as " the resonance of the empty in- 
 telligence and of the hollow heart of the man who 
 has nothing to give, nothing to propose, nothing to 
 impart." 
 
 4. Discipline and obedience. If these are to be 
 means of training they must be living and not dead 
 powers, and they must lead up to gradual self-govern- 
 ment, not to sudden emancipation. Obedience must 
 be first of all to persons, prompt and unquestioning, 
 then to laws, a "reasonable service," then to the 
 wider law which each one must enforce from within 
 the law of love which is the law of liberty of the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 These are the means which in her own way, and 
 through various channels of authority, the Church 
 makes use of, and the Church is the great Mother 
 who educates us all. She takes us into her confi- 
 dence, as we make ourselves worthy of it, and shows 
 us out of her treasures things new and old. She sets 
 the better things always before us, prays for us, prays 
 with us, teaches us to pray, and so " lifts up our minds 
 to heavenly desires." She watches over us with un- 
 anxious, but untiring vigilance, setting her Bishops 
 and pastors to keep watch over the flock, collectively
 
 44 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 and individually, "with that most perfect care" that 
 St. Francis of Sales describes as " that which ap- 
 proaches the nearest to the care God has of us, which 
 is a care full of tranquillity and quietness, and which, 
 in its highest activity, has still no emotion, and being 
 only one, yet condescends to make itself all to all 
 things." 
 
 Criticism and correction, discipline and obedience 
 these things are administered by the Church our 
 Mother, gently but without weakness, so careful is 
 she in her warnings, so slow in her punishments, so 
 unswervingly true to what is of principle, and asking 
 so persuasively not for the sullen obedience of slaves, 
 but for the free and loving submission of sons and 
 daughters.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 OHABACTEB II. 
 
 " The Parts and Signes of Goodnesse are many. If a Man be 
 Gracious and Curteous to Strangers, it shewes he is a Citizen 
 of the World, Aud that his Heart is no Island cut off from 
 other Lands, but a Continent that joynes to them. If he bo 
 Compassionate towards the Afflictions of others, it shewes that 
 his Heart is like the noble Tree, that is wounded to selfe when 
 it gives Balme. If he easily Pardons and Remits Offences, it 
 shewes that his minde is planted above Iniuries, So that he 
 cannot be shot. If he be Thankfull for small Benefits, it shewes 
 that he weighes Men's Mindes, and not their Trash. But above 
 all, if he have St. Paul's Perfection, that he would wish to be an 
 Anathema from Christ, for the Salvation of his Brethren, it 
 shewes much of a Divine Nature, and a kinde of Conformity 
 with Christ himselfe." BACON, " Of Goodnesse." 
 
 No one who has the good of children at heart, and 
 the training of their characters, can leave the sub- 
 ject without some grave thoughts on the formation 
 of their own character, which is first in order of 
 importance, and in order of time must go before, and 
 accompany their work to the very end. 
 
 " What is developed to perfection can make other 
 things like unto itself." So saints develop sanctity 
 in others, and truth and confidence beget truth and 
 confidence, and the spirit of enterprise calls out the 
 spirit of enterprise, and constancy trains to endurance 
 and perseverance, and wise kindness makes others 
 
 45
 
 46 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 kind, and courage makes them courageous, and in its 
 degree each good quality tends to reproduce itself in 
 others. Children are very delicately sensitive to these 
 influences, they respond unconsciously to what is ex- 
 pected of them, and instinctively they imitate the 
 models set before them. They catch a tone, a gesture, 
 a trick of manner with a quickness that is startling. 
 The influence of mind and thought on mind and 
 thought cannot be so quickly recognized, but tells 
 with as much certainty, and enters more deeply into 
 the character for life. The consideration of this is a 
 great incentive to the acquirement of self-knowledge 
 and self-discipline by those who have to do with child- 
 ren. The old codes of conventionality in education, 
 which stood for a certain system in their time, are 
 disappearing, and the worth of the individual becomes 
 of greater importance. This is true of those who 
 educate and of those whom they bring up. As the 
 methods of modern warfare call for more individual 
 resourcefulness, so do the methods of the spiritual 
 warfare, now that we are not supported by big bat- 
 talions, but each one is thrown back on conscience 
 and personal responsibility. Girls as well as boys 
 have to be trained to take care of themselves and be 
 responsible for themselves, and if they are not so 
 trained, no one can now be responsible for them or 
 protect them in spite of themselves. Therefore, the 
 first duty of those who are bringing up Catholic girls 
 is to be themselves such as Catholic girls must be 
 later on. This example is a discourse "in the vulgar 
 tongue " which cannot be misunderstood, and example 
 is not resented unless it seems self-conscious and
 
 CHARACTER II. 47 
 
 presented of set purpose. The one thing necessary 
 is to be that which we ought to be, and that is to say, 
 in other words, that the fundamental virtue in teaching 
 children is a great and resolute sincerity. 
 
 Sincerity is a difficult virtue to practise and is too 
 easily taken for granted. It has more enemies than 
 appear at first sight. Inertness of mind, the desire to 
 do things cheaply, dislike of mental effort, the tend- 
 ency to be satisfied with appearances, the wish to 
 shine, impatience for results, all foster intellectual 
 insincerity; just as, in conduct, the wish to please, 
 the spirit of accommodation and expediency, the fear 
 of blame, the instinct of concealment, which is inborn 
 in many girls, destroy frankness of character and make 
 people untrue who would not willingly be untruthful. 
 Yet even truthfulness is not such a matter of course 
 as many would be willing to assume. To be inaccurate 
 through thoughtless laziness in the use of words is 
 extremely common, to exaggerate according to the 
 mood of the moment, to say more than one means 
 and cover one's retreat with "I didn't mean it," 
 to pull facts into shape to suit particular ends, are 
 demoralizing forms of untruthfulness, common, but 
 often unrecognized. If a teacher could only excel in 
 one high quality for training girls, probably the best 
 in which she could excel would be a great sincerity, 
 which would train them in frankness, and in the 
 knowledge that to be entirely frank means to lay down a 
 great price for that costly attainment, a perfectly hon- 
 ourable and fearless life. 1 
 
 1 " A woman, if it be once known that she is deficient in truth, 
 has no resource. Having, by a misuse of language, injured or
 
 48 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 It sometimes happens that the realization of this 
 truth comes comparatively late in life to those who 
 ought to have recognized it years before. Thinking 
 along the surface of things, and in particular repeat- 
 ing catchwords and platitudes and trite maxims on 
 the subject of sincerity, is apt to make us believe that 
 we possess the quality we talk about, and as it is im- 
 possible to have anything to do with the education of 
 children without treating of sincerity and truthfulness, 
 it is comparatively easy to slip into the happy assump- 
 tion that one is truthful, because one would not 
 deliberately be otherwise. But it takes far more than 
 this to acquire real sincerity of life in the complexity 
 and artificiality of the conditions in which we live. 
 
 " And we have been on many thousand lines, 
 And we have shown, on each, spirit and power ; 
 But hardly have we, for one little hour, 
 Been on our own line, have we been ourselves.' 
 
 Our hidden self, and what we say and do 
 Is eloquent, is well but 'tis not true ! " 
 
 MATTHEW ABNOLD, " The Buried Life." 
 
 Sincerity requires the recognition that to be honestly 
 oneself is more impressive for good than to be a very 
 superior person by imitation. It requires the renuncia- 
 tion of some claims to consideration and esteem, and 
 the acceptance of limitations (a different thing from 
 
 lost her only means of persuasion, nothing can preserve her from 
 falling into contempt or nonentity. When she is no longer to 
 be believed no one will take the trouble to listen to her . . . 
 no one can depend on her, no one rests any hope on her, the 
 words of which she makes use have no meaning." Madame 
 Necker de Saussure, "Progressive Education."
 
 CHARACTER II. 49 
 
 acquiescence in them, for it means the acceptance of 
 a lifelong effort to be what we aspire to be, with a 
 knowledge that we shall never fully attain it). It re- 
 quires that we should bear the confusion of defeat 
 without desisting from the struggle, that we should 
 accept the progressive illumination of what is still 
 unaccomplished, and keep the habitual lowliness of a 
 beginner with the unconquerable hopefulness which 
 comes of a fixed resolution to win what is worth 
 winning. Let those who have tried say whether 
 this is easy. 
 
 But in guiding children along this difficult way it 
 is not wise to call direct attention to it, lest their 
 inexperience and sensitiveness should turn to scrupu- 
 losity and their spontaneity be paralysed. It is both 
 more acceptable and healthier to present it as a feat 
 of courage, a habit of fearlessness to be acquired, of 
 hardihood and strength of character. The more subtle 
 forms of self-knowledge belong to a later period in 
 life. 
 
 Another quality to be desired in those who have to 
 do with children is what may for want of a better 
 word be called vitality, not the fatiguing artificial 
 animation which is sometimes assumed professionally 
 by teachers, but the keenness which shows forth a 
 settled conviction that life is worth living. The ex- 
 pression of this is not self-asserting or controversial, 
 for it is not like a garment put on, but a living grace 
 of soul, coming from within, born of straight thinking 
 and resolution, and so strongly confirmed by faith and 
 hope that nothing can discourage it or make it let go. 
 It is a bulwark against the faults which sink below
 
 60 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 the normal line of life, dullness, depression, timidity, 
 procrastination, sloth and sadness, moodiness, unsocia- 
 bility all these it tends to dispel, by its quiet and con- 
 fident gift of encouragement. And though so contrary 
 to the spirit of childhood, these faults are found in 
 children often in delicate children who have lost con- 
 fidence in themselves from being habitually outdone 
 by stronger brothers and sisters, or in slow minds 
 which seem "stupid" toothers and to themselves, 
 or in natures too sensitive to risk themselves in the 
 m616e. To these, one who brings the gift of en- 
 couragement comes as a deliverer and often changes 
 the course of their life, leading them to believe in 
 themselves and their own good endowments, making 
 them taste success which rouses them to better efforts, 
 giving them the strong comfort of knowing that some- 
 thing is expected of them, and that if they will only 
 try, in one way if not in another, they need -not be 
 behind the best. At some stage in life, and especially 
 in the years of rapid growth, we all need encourage- 
 ment, and often characters that seem to require only 
 repression are merely singing out of tune from the 
 effort to hold out against blank discouragement at 
 their failures to "be good," or to divert their mind 
 forcibly from their fits of depression. To be scolded 
 accentuates their trouble and tends to harden them ; 
 to grow a shell of hardness seems for the moment 
 their only defence ; but if some one will meet their 
 efforts half-way, believing in them with a tranquil 
 conviction that they will live through these difficulties 
 and find themselves in due time, they can be saved 
 from much unhappiness of their own making, though
 
 CHARACTER II. 61 
 
 not of their own fault, and their growth will not be 
 arrested behind an unnatural shell of defence. 
 
 The strong vitality and gift of encouragement which 
 can give this help are also of value in saving from the 
 morbid and exaggerated friendships which sometimes 
 spoil the best years of a girl's education. If the 
 character of those who teach them has force enough 
 not only to inspire admiration but to call out effort, it 
 may rouse the mind and will to a higher plane and 
 make the things of which it disapproves seem worth- 
 less. There are moments when the leading mind 
 must have strength enough for two, but this must not 
 last. Its glory is to raise the mind of the learner to 
 equality with itself, not to keep it in leading strings, 
 but to make it grow so that, as the master has often 
 been outstripped by the scholar, the efforts of the 
 younger may even stimulate the achievements of the 
 elder, and thus a noble friendship be formed in the 
 pursuit of what is best. 
 
 Educators of youth are exposed to certain pro- 
 fessional dangers, which lie very close to professional 
 excellences of character. There is the danger of 
 remaining young for the sake of children, so that 
 something of mature development will be lacking. 
 If there is not a stimulus from outside, and it is not 
 supplied for by an inward determination to grow, the 
 mental development may be arrested and contented- 
 ness at a low level be mistaken for the limit of ca- 
 pacity. A great many people are mentally lazy, and 
 only too ready to believe that they can do no more. 
 
 Many teachers are yoked to an examination pro- 
 gramme sufficiently loaded to call for a great deal of
 
 52 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 pressure along a low level, and they may easily 
 mistake this harassing activity for real mental work, 
 and either be indeed hindered, or consider themselves 
 absolved from anything more. The penalty of it is 
 a gradual decline of the unused powers, growing 
 difficulty of sustained attention, dislike for what 
 requires effort of mind, loss of wider interests, rest- 
 lessness and superficiality in reading, and other 
 indications of diminution of power in the years when 
 it ought to be on the increase. Is this the fault of 
 those who so decline in power ? It would be hard 
 to say that it is so universally, for some no doubt 
 are pressed through necessity to the very limits of 
 their time and of their endurance. Yet experience 
 goes to prove that if a mental awakening really takes 
 place the most unfavourable circumstances will not 
 hinder a rapid development of power. Abundance of 
 books and leisure and fostering conditions are helps 
 but not essentials for mental growth. If few books 
 can be had, but these are of the best, they will do 
 more for the mind by continued reading than abun- 
 dance for those who have not yet learned to use it. If 
 there is little leisure the value of the hardly-spared 
 moments is enhanced; we may convince ourselves 
 of this in the lives of those who have reached emin- 
 ence in learning, through circumstances apparently 
 hopeless. If the conditions of life are unfavourable, 
 it is generally possible to find one like-minded friend 
 who will double our power by quickening enthusiasm 
 or by setting the pace at which we must travel, and 
 leading the way. There may be side by side in the 
 same calling in life persons doing similar work in like
 
 CHARACTER II. 63 
 
 circumstances, with like resources, of whom one is 
 contentedly stagnating, feeling satisfied all the time 
 that duty is done and nothing neglected and this 
 may be true up to a certain point while the other is 
 haunted by a blessed dissatisfaction, urged from 
 within to seek always something better, and compel- 
 ling circumstances to minister to the growth of the 
 mind. One who would meet these two again after 
 the interval of a few months would be astonished at 
 the distance which has been left between them by 
 the stagnation of one and the advance of the other. 
 
 Another danger is that of becoming dogmatic and 
 dictatorial from the habit of dealing with less mature 
 intelligences, from the absence of contradiction and 
 friction among equals, and the want of that most 
 perfect discipline of the mind intercourse with intel- 
 lectual superiors. Of course it is a mark of ignorance 
 to become oracular and self-assured, but it needs 
 watchfulness to guard against the tendency if one is 
 always obliged to take the lead. Teaching likewise 
 exposes to faults perhaps less in themselves but far- 
 reaching in their effect upon children ; a little obser- 
 vation will show how the smallest peculiarities tell 
 upon them, either by affecting their dispositions or 
 being caught by them and reproduced. To take one 
 example among many, the pitch and intonation of 
 the voice often impress more than the words. A 
 nurse with a querulous tone has a restless nursery ; 
 she makes the high-spirited contradictory and the deli- 
 cate fretful. In teaching, a high-pitched voice is excit- 
 ing and wearing to children ; certain cadences that end 
 on a high note rouse opposition, a monotonous inton-
 
 64 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 ation wearies, deeper and more ample tones are 
 quieting and reassuring, but if their solemnity be- 
 comes exaggerated they provoke a reaction. Most 
 people have a certain cadence which constantly recurs 
 in their speaking and is characteristic of them, and 
 the satisfaction of listening to them depends largely 
 upon this characteristic cadence. It is also a help in 
 the understanding of their characters. Much trouble 
 of mind is saved by recognizing that a certain ca- 
 dence which sounds indignant is only intended to be 
 convincing, and that another which sounds defiant 
 is only giving to itself the signal for retreat. Again, 
 for the teacher's own sake, it is good to observe that 
 there are tones which dispose towards obedience, 
 and others which provoke remonstrance and, as 
 Mine. Necker de Saussure remarks: " It is of great 
 consequence to prevent remonstrances and not allow 
 girls to form a habit of contradicting and cavilling, 
 or to prolong useless opposition which annoys others 
 and disturbs their own peace of mind." 
 
 There are " teacher's manners " in many varieties, 
 often spoiling admirable gifts and qualities, for the 
 professional touch in this is not a grace but puts both 
 children and " grown-ups " on the defensive. There 
 is the head mistress's manner which is a signal 
 to proceed with caution, the modern " form mistress's " 
 or class mistress's manner, with an off-hand tone 
 destined to reassure by showing that there is nothing 
 to be afraid of, the science mistress's manner with a 
 studied quietness and determination that the knife- 
 edge of the balance shall be the standard of truth- 
 fulness, the professionally encouraging manner, the
 
 CHARACTER II. 56 
 
 " stimulating " manner, the manner of those whose 
 ambition is to be " an earnest teacher," the strained 
 tone of one whose ideal is to to be overworked, the 
 kindergarten manner, scientifically " awakening," 
 giving the call of the decoy-duck, confidentially in- 
 viting co-operation and revealing secrets these are 
 types, but there are many others. 
 
 Such mannerisms would seem to be developed by 
 reliance on books of method, by professional training 
 imparted to those who have not enough originality 
 to break through the mould, and instead of following 
 out principles as lines for personal experiment and 
 discovery, deaden them into rules and abide by them. 
 The teacher's manner is much more noticeable among 
 those who have been trained than among the now 
 vanishing class of those who have had to stand or 
 fall by their own merits, and find out their own 
 methods. The advantage is not always with the 
 trained teacher even now, and the question of manner 
 is not one of minor importance. The true instinct 
 of children and the sensitiveness of youth detect very 
 quickly and resent a professional tone ; a child looks 
 for freedom and simplicity, and feels cramped if it 
 meets with something even a little artificial. 
 Children like to find real people, not anxiously 
 careful to improve them, but able to take life with a 
 certain spontaneity as they like to take it themselves. 
 They are frightened by those who take themselves 
 too seriously, who are too acute, too convincing or 
 too brilliant ; they do not like people who appear to be 
 always on the alert, nor those of extreme tempera- 
 tures, very ardent or very frigid. The people whom
 
 56 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 they like and trust are usually quiet, simple people, 
 who have not startling ways, and do not manifest 
 those strenuous ideals which destroy all sense of leisure 
 in life. 
 
 Not only little children but those who are growing 
 up resent these mannerisms and professional ways. 
 They, too, ask for a certain spontaneity and like to 
 find a real person whom they can understand. 
 Abstract principles do not appeal to them, but they 
 can understand and appreciate character, not in one 
 type and pattern alone, for every character that has 
 life and truth commands their respect and is accept- 
 able in one way if not in another. It is not the bright 
 colours of character alone which attract them, they 
 often keep a lifelong remembrance of those whose 
 qualities are anything but showy. They look for 
 fairness in those who govern them, but if they find 
 this they can accept a good measure of severity. 
 They respect unflinching uprightness and are quick 
 to detect the least deviation from it. They prefer to 
 be taken seriously on their own ground; things ID 
 general are so incomprehensible that it only makes 
 matters worse to be approached with playful methods 
 and facetious invitations into the unknown, for who 
 can tell what educational ambush for their improve- 
 ment may be concealed behind these demonstrations. 
 They give their confidence more readily to grave and 
 quiet people who do not show too rapturous delight 
 in their performances, or surprise at their opinions, 
 or especially distress at their ignorance. They 
 admire with lasting admiration those who are hard 
 on themselves and take their troubles without com-
 
 CHARACTER II. 67 
 
 ment or complaint. They admire courage, and they 
 can appreciate patience if it does not seem to be con- 
 scious of itself. But they do not look up to a character 
 in which mildness so predominates that it cannot be 
 roused to indignation and even anger in a good cause. 
 A power of being roused is felt as a force in reserve, 
 and the knowledge that it is there is often enough to 
 maintain peace and order without any need for inter- 
 ference or remonstrance. They are offended by a 
 patience which looks like weariness, determined if it 
 were at the last gasp to " improve the occasion " and 
 say something of educational profit. To " improve 
 the occasion " really destroys the opportunity ; it is 
 like a too expansive invitation to birds to come and 
 feed, which drives them off in a flutter. Birds come 
 most willingly when crumbs are thrown as it were 
 by accident while the benefactor looks another way ; 
 and young minds pick up gratefully a suggestion 
 which seems to fall by the way, a mere hint that 
 things are understood and cared about, that there is 
 safety beyond the thin ice if one trusts and believes, 
 that " all shall be well " if people will be true to their 
 best thoughts. They can understand these assurances 
 and accept them when something more explicit would 
 drive them back to bar the door against intruders. 
 All these are truisms to those who have ob- 
 served children. The misfortune is that in spite of 
 the prominence given to training of teachers, of the 
 new name of " Child Study " and its manuals, there 
 are many who teach children without reaching their 
 real selves. If the children could combine the result 
 of their observations and bring out a manual of
 
 58 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 " Teacher Study " we should have strange revelations 
 as to how it looks from the other side. We should 
 be astonished at the shrewdness of the small juries 
 that deliberate, and the insight of the judges that pro- 
 nounce sentence upon us, and we should be convinced 
 that to obtain a favourable verdict we needed very 
 little subtlety, and not too much theory, but as much 
 as possible of the very things we look for as the result 
 and crown of our work. We labour to produce char- 
 acter, we must have it. We look for courage and 
 uprightness, we must bring them with us. We want 
 honest work, we have to give proof of it ourselves. 
 And so with the Christian qualities which we hope to 
 build on these foundations. We care for the faith of 
 the children, it must abound in us. We care for the 
 innocence of their life, we must ourselves be heavenly- 
 minded, we want them to be unworldly and ready to 
 make sacrifices for their religion, they must under- 
 stand that it is more than all the world to us. We 
 want to secure them as they grow up against the 
 spirit of pessimism, our own imperturbable hope in 
 God and confidence in the Church will be more con- 
 vincing than our arguments. We want them to 
 grow into the fulness of charity, we must make 
 charity the most lovable and lovely thing in the world 
 to them. 
 
 The Church possesses the secrets of these things ; 
 she is the great teacher of all nations and brings out 
 of her treasury things new and old for the training 
 of her children. A succession of teaching orders of 
 religious, representing different patterns of education, 
 has gone forth with her blessing to supply the needs
 
 CHARACTER II. 59 
 
 of succeeding generations in each class of the Chris- 
 tian community. When children cannot be brought 
 up in their own homes, religious seem to be desig- 
 nated as their natural guardians, independent as they 
 are by their profession from the claims of personal 
 interest and self-advancement, and therefore free to 
 give their full sympathy and devotion to the children 
 under their charge. They have also the indepen- 
 dence of their corporate life, a great power behind 
 the service of the schoolroom in which they find 
 mutual support, an " Upper Koom " to which they 
 can withdraw and build up again in prayer and inter- 
 course with one another their ideals of life and duty 
 in an atmosphere which gives a more spiritual re- 
 renewal of energy than a holiday of entire forgetful- 
 ness. 
 
 It is striking to observe that while the so-called 
 Catholic countries are banishing religious from their 
 schools, there is more and more inclination among 
 non-Catholic parents who have had experience of 
 other systems to place their children under the care 
 of religious. And it was strange to hear one of His 
 Majesty's Inspectors express his conviction that "it 
 would be ideal if all England could be taught by 
 nuns ! " Thus indirect testimony comes from friendly 
 or hostile sources to the fact that the Church holds 
 the secret of education, and every Catholic teacher 
 may gain courage from the knowledge of having that 
 which is beyond all price in the education of children, 
 that which all the world is seeking for, and which 
 the Church alone knows that she possesses in its 
 fulness.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 " E quesfco ti sia sempre piombo ai piedi, 
 Per farti mover lento, com' uom lasso, 
 Ed al si ed al no, che tu non vedi ; 
 
 Che quegli e tra gli stolti bene abbasso, 
 Che senza distinzion afferma o nega, 
 Nell' un cosi come nell' altro passo ; 
 
 Perch' egl' incontra che piu volte piega 
 L' opinfon oorrente in falsa parte, 
 E poi 1' affetto lo intelletto lega. 
 
 Vie piu che indarno da riva si parte, 
 Perche non torna tal qual ei si move, 
 Chi pesca per lo vero e non ha 1' arte." 
 
 DANTE, " Paradiso," Canto xni. 
 
 THE elements of Catholic philosophy may no longer 
 be looked upon as out of place in the education of our 
 girls, or as being reserved for the use of learned women 
 and girlish oddities. They belong to every well- 
 grounded Catholic education, and the need for them 
 will be felt more and more. They are wanted to 
 balance on the one hand the unthinking impulse of liv- 
 ing for the day, which asks no questions so long as the 
 "fun" holds out, and on the other to meet the ur- 
 gency of problems which press upon the minds of the 
 more thoughtful as they grow up. When this teach- 
 ing has been long established as part of an educational 
 plan it has been found to give steadiness and unity 
 to the whole ; something to aim at from the begin- 
 
 60
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY 61 
 
 aing, and in the later years of a girl's education some- 
 thing which will serve as foundation for all branches 
 of future study, so that each will find its place among 
 the first principles, not isolated from the others but 
 as part of a whole. The value of these elements for 
 the practical guidance of life is likewise very great. 
 A hold is given in the mind to the teaching of religion 
 and conduct which welds into one defence the best 
 wisdom of this world and of the next. For instance, the 
 connexion between reason and faith being once estab- 
 lished, the fear of permanent disagreement between 
 the two, which causes so much panic and disturbance 
 kf mind, is set at rest. 
 
 There is a certain risk at the outset of these studies 
 that girls will take the pose of philosophical students, 
 and talk logic and metaphysics, to the confusion of 
 their friends and of their own feelings later on, when 
 they come to years of discretion and realize the absurd- 
 ity of these "lively sallies," as they would have been 
 called in early Victorian times the name alone might 
 serve as a warning to the incautious ! They may per- 
 haps go through an argumentative period and trample 
 severely upon the opinions of those who are not ready 
 to have their majors " distinguished " and their minors 
 "conceded," and, especially, their conclusions denied. 
 But these phases will be outlived and the hot-and- 
 cold remembrance of them will be sufficient expia- 
 tion, with the realization that they did not know much 
 when they had taken in the " beggarly elements " 
 which dazzled them for a moment. The more thought- 
 ful minds will escape the painful phase altogether. 
 
 There are three special classes among girls whose
 
 62 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 difficulties of mind call for attention. There are those 
 who frisk playfully along, taking the good things of 
 life as they come " the more the better " whom, 
 as children, it is hard to call to account. They are 
 lightly impressed and only for a moment by the things 
 they feel, and scarcely moved at all by the things they 
 understand. The only side which seems troublesome 
 in their early life is that there is so little hold upon it. 
 They are unembarrassed and quite candid about their 
 choice ; it is the enjoyable good, life on its pleasant- 
 est side. And this disposition is in the mind as well 
 as in the will ; they cannot see it in any other way. 
 Eestraint galls them, and their inclination is not to 
 resist but to evade it. These are kitten -like children 
 in the beginning, and they appear charming. But 
 when the kitten in them is overgrown, its playful eva- 
 siveness takes an ugly contour and shows itself as want 
 of principle. The tendency to snatch at enjoyment 
 hardens into a grasping sense of market values, and 
 conscience, instead of growing inexorable, learns to be 
 pliant to circumstances. Debts weigh lightly, and 
 duties scarcely weigh at all. Concealment and un- 
 truthfulness come in very easily to save the situation 
 in a difficulty, and once the conduct of life is on the 
 down-grade it- slides quickly and far, for the sense of 
 responsibility is lacking and these natures own no 
 bond of obligation. They have their touch of piety 
 in childhood, but it soon wears off, and in its best days 
 cannot stand the demands made upon it by duty ; it 
 fails of its hold upon the soul, like a religion without 
 a sacrifice. In these minds some notions of ethics 
 leave a barbed arrow of remorse which penetrates
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY 63 
 
 further than piety. They inay soothe themselves with 
 the thought that God will easily forgive, later on, but 
 they cannot quite lose consciousness of the law which 
 does not forgive, of the responsibility of human acts 
 and the inevitable punishment of wrong-doing which 
 works itself out, till it calls for payment of the last 
 farthing. And by this rough way of remorse they 
 may come back to God. Pope Leo XIII spoke of it 
 as their best hope, an almost certain means of return. 
 The beautiful also may make its appeal to these 
 natures on their best side, and save them preventively 
 from themselves, but only if the time of study is pro- 
 longed enough for the laws of order and beauty to be 
 made comprehensible to them, so that if they admire 
 the best, remorse may have another hold and reproach 
 them with a lowered ideal. 
 
 In opposition to these are the minds to which, as 
 soon as they become able to think for themselves, all 
 life is a puzzle, and on every side, wherever they 
 turn, they are baffled by unanswerable questions. 
 These questions are often more insistent and more 
 troublesome because they cannot be asked, they have 
 not even taken shape in the mind. But they haunt 
 and perplex it. Are they the only ones who do not 
 know? Is it clear to every one else? This doubt 
 makes it difficult even to hint at the perplexity. 
 These are often naturally religious minds, and outside 
 the guidance of the Catholic Church, in search of 
 truth, they easily fall under the influence of different 
 schools of thought which take them out of their 
 depth, and lead them further and further from the 
 reasonable certainty about first principles which they
 
 64 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 are in search of. Within the Church, of course, they 
 can never stray so far, and the truths of faith supply 
 their deepest needs. But if they want to know more, 
 to know something of themselves, and to have at 
 least some rational knowledge of the universe, then 
 to give them a hold on the elements of philosophical 
 knowledge is indeed a mental if not a spiritual work 
 of mercy, for it enables them to set their ideas in 
 order hy the light of a few first principles, it shows 
 them on what plane their questions lie, it enables 
 them to see how all knowledge and new experience 
 have connexions with what has gone before, and 
 belong to a whole with a certain fitness and propor- 
 tion. They learn also thus to take themselves in 
 hand in a reasonable way ; they gain some power of 
 attributing effects to their true causes, so as neither 
 to be unduly alarmed nor elated at the various ex- 
 periences through which they will pass. 
 
 Between these two divisions lies a large group, 
 that of the "average person," not specially flighty 
 and not particularly thoughtful. But the average 
 person is of very great importance. The greatest 
 share in the work of the world is probably done by 
 " average " people, not only for the obvious reason 
 that there are more of them, but also because they 
 are more accessible, more reliable, and more available 
 for all kinds of responsibility than those who have 
 made themselves useless by want of principle, or 
 those whose genius carries them away from the 
 ordinary line. They are accessible because their 
 fellow-creatures are not afraid of them ; they are not 
 too fine for ordinary wear, nor too original to be able
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY 65 
 
 to follow a line laid down for them, and if they take 
 a line of their own it is usually intelligible to others. 
 
 To these valuable "average" persons the impor- 
 tance of some study of the elements of philosophy is 
 very great. They can hardly go through an elemen- 
 tary course of mental science without wishing to learn 
 more, and being lifted to a higher plane. The weak 
 point in the average person is a tendency to sink into 
 the commonplace, because the consciousness of not 
 being brilliant induces timidity, and timidity leads to 
 giving up effort and accepting a fancied impossibility 
 of development which from being supposed, assumed, 
 and not disturbed, becomes in the end real. 
 
 On the other hand the strong point of the average 
 person is very often common sense, that singular, 
 priceless gift which gives a touch of likeness among 
 those who possess it in all classes, high or low in 
 the sovereign, the judge, the ploughman, or the 
 washerwoman, a likeness that is somewhat like a 
 common language among them and makes them 
 almost like a class apart. Minds endowed with com- 
 mon sense are an aristocracy among the " average," 
 and if this quality of theirs is lifted above the 
 ordinary round of business and trained in the domain 
 of thought it becomes a sound and wide practical 
 judgment. It will observe a great sobriety in its 
 dealings with the abstract ; the concrete is its king- 
 dom, but it will rule the better for having its ideas 
 systematized, and its critical power developed. Self- 
 dimdence tends to check this unduly, and it has 
 to be strengthened in reasonably supporting its own 
 opinion which is often instinctively true, but fails
 
 66 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 to find utterance. It is a help to such persons if 
 they can learn to follow the workings of their own 
 mind and gain confidence in their power to under- 
 stand, and find some intellectual interest in the 
 drudgery which in every order of things, high or low, 
 is so willingly handed over to their good manage- 
 ment. These results may not be showy, but it is 
 a great thing to strengthen an " average " person, 
 and the reward of doing so is sometimes the satis- 
 faction of seeing that average mind rise in later 
 years quite above the average and become a tower of 
 steady reflection ; while to itself it is a new life to 
 gain a view of things as a whole, to find that nothing 
 stands alone, but that the details which it grasps in 
 so masterly a manner have their place and meaning 
 in the scheme of the universe. 
 
 It is evident that even this elementary knowledge 
 cannot be given in the earliest years of the education 
 of girls, and that it is only possible to attempt it in 
 schools and school-rooms where they can be kept on 
 for a longer time of study. Every year that can be 
 added to the usual course is of better value, and more 
 appreciated, except by those who are restless to come 
 out as soon as possible. No reference is made here 
 to those exceptional cases in which girls are allowed 
 to begin a course of study at a time when the 
 majority have been obliged to finish their school life. 
 
 As the elements of philosophy are not ordinarily 
 found in the curriculum of girls' schools or school- 
 room plans, it may not be out of place to say a few 
 words on the method of bringing the subject within 
 their reach.
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY 67 
 
 In the first place it should be kept in view from the 
 beginning, and some preparation be made for it even 
 in teaching the elements of subjects which are most 
 elementary. Thus the study of any grammar may 
 serve remotely as an introduction to logic, even English 
 grammar which, beyond a few rudiments, is a most 
 disinterested study, valuable for its by-products more 
 than for its actual worth. But the practice of gram- 
 matical analysis is certainly a preparation for logic, 
 as logic is a preparation for the various branches of 
 philosophy. Again some preliminary exercises in 
 definition, and any work of the like kind which gives 
 precision in the use of language, or clear ideas of the 
 meanings of words, is preparatory work which trains 
 the mind in the right direction. In the same way the 
 elements of natural science may at least set the 
 thoughts and inquiries of children on the right track 
 for what will later on be shown to them as the " dis- 
 ciplines " of cosmology and pyschology. 
 
 To make preparatory subjects serve such a purpose 
 it is obviously required that the teachers of even young 
 children should have been themselves trained in these 
 studies, so far at least as to know what they are aiming 
 at, to be able to lay foundations which will not require 
 to be reconstructed. It is not the matter so much as 
 the habits of mind and work that are remotely pre- 
 pared in the early stages, but without some knowledge 
 of what is coming afterwards this preparation cannot 
 be made. In order of arrangement it is not possible 
 for the different branches to be taught to girls accord- 
 ing to their normal sequence ; they have to be adapted 
 to the capacity of the minds and their degree of develop- 
 
 5 *
 
 68 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 ment. Some branches cannot even be attempted 
 during the school-room years, except so far as to pre- 
 pare the mind incidentally during the study of other 
 branches. The explanation of certain terms and 
 fundamental notions will serve as points of departure 
 when opportunities for development are accessible 
 later on, as architects set " toothings " at the angles 
 of buildings that they may be bonded into later con- 
 structions. By this means the names of the more 
 abstruse branches are kept out of sight, and it is em- 
 phasized that the barest elements alone are within 
 reach at present, so that the permanent impression 
 may be not " how much I have learned," but "how 
 little I know and how much there is to learn." This 
 secures at least a fitting attitude of mind in those who 
 will never go further, and increases the thirst of those 
 who really want more. 
 
 The most valuable parts of philosophy in the educa- 
 tion of girls are : 
 
 1. Those which belong to the practical side logic, 
 for thought ; ethics, for conduct ; aesthetics, for the 
 study of the arts. 
 
 2. In speculative philosophy the " disciplines " 
 which are most accessible and most necessary are 
 psychology, and natural theology which is the very 
 crown of all that they are able to learn. 
 
 General metaphysics and cosmology, and in pyscho- 
 logy the subordinate treatises of criteriology and idea- 
 logy are beyond their scope. 
 
 Logic, as a science, is not a suitable introduc- 
 tion, though some general notions on the subject 
 are necessary as preliminary instructions. Cardinal
 
 Mercier presents these under " propaBdeutics," even 
 for his grown-up scholars, placing logic properly 
 so called in its own rank as the complement of the 
 other treatises of speculative philosophy, seen in 
 retrospect, a science of rational order amongst 
 sciences. 
 
 The " notions of logic " with which he introduces 
 the other branches are, says the Cardinal, so plain that 
 it is almost superfluous to enumerate them, " tant 
 elles sont de simple bon sens," 1 and he disposes of 
 them in two pages of his textbook. Obviously this 
 is not so simple when it comes to preparing the fallow 
 ground of a girl's mind ; but it gives some idea of the 
 proportion to be observed in the use of this instrument 
 at the outset, and may save both the teacher and the 
 child from beguiling themselves to little purpose 
 among the moods and figures of the syllogism. The 
 preliminary notions of logic must be developed, ex- 
 tended, and supplemented through the whole course as 
 necessity arises, just as they have been already antici- 
 pated through the preparatory work done in every 
 elementary subject. This method is not strictly 
 scientific nor in accordance with the full-grown course 
 of philosophy; it only claims to have " le simple bon 
 sens " in its favour, and the testimony of experience 
 to prove that it is of use. And it cannot be said to 
 be wholly out of rational order if it follows the normal 
 development of a growing mind, and answers questions 
 as they arise and call for solution. It may be a rustic 
 way of learning the elements of philosophy, but it 
 answers its purpose, and does not interfere with more 
 
 1 "Traite El&naentaire de Philosophie," Vol. I, Introduction.
 
 70 
 
 scientific and complete methods which may come later 
 in order of time. 
 
 The importance of the "discipline" of psychology 
 can scarcely be over-estimated. With that of ethics it 
 gives to the minds of women that which they most 
 need for the happy attainment of their destiny in any 
 sphere of life and for the fulfilment of its obligations. 
 They must know themselves and their own powers 
 in order to exercise control and direction on the current 
 of their lives. The complaint made of many women 
 is that they are wanting in self-control, creatures of 
 impulse, erratic, irresponsible, at the mercy of chance 
 influences that assume control of their lives for the 
 moment, subject to " nerves," carried away by emo- 
 tional enthusiasm beyond all bounds, and using a 
 blind tenacity of will to land themselves with the 
 cause they have embraced in a dead-lock of absurdity. 
 
 Such is the complaint. It would seem more par- 
 donable if this tendency to extremes and impulsive- 
 ness were owned to as a defect. But to be erratic is 
 almost assumed as a pose. It is taken up as if self- 
 discipline were dull, and control reduced vitality and 
 killed the interest of life. The phase may not last, 
 stronger counsels may prevail again. In a few years 
 it may be hoped that this school of " impressionism " 
 in conduct will be out of vogue, but for the moment 
 it would seem as if its weakness and mobility, and 
 restlessness were rather admired. It has created a 
 kind of automobilism if the word may be allowed 
 of mind and manners, an inclination to be perpetually 
 " on the move," too much pressed for time to do any- 
 thing at all, permanently unsettled, in fact to be un-
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY 71 
 
 settled is its habitual condition if not its recognized 
 plan of life. 
 
 It is not contended that psychology and ethics 
 would of themselves cure this tendency, but they 
 would undoubtedly aid in doing so, for the confusion 
 of wanting to do better and yet not knowing what to 
 do is a most pathetic form of helplessness. A little 
 knowledge of psychology would at least give an idea 
 of the resources which the human soul has at its 
 command when it seeks to take itself in hand. It 
 would allow of some response to a reasonable appeal 
 from outside. And all the time the first principles 
 of ethics would refuse to be killed in the mind, and 
 would continue to bear witness against the waste of 
 existence and the diversion of life from its true 
 end. 
 
 Eational principles of sesthetics belong very in- 
 timately to the education of women. Their ideas of 
 beauty, their taste in art, influence very powerfully 
 their own lives and those of others, and may trans- 
 figure many things which are otherwise liable to fall 
 into the commonplace and the vulgar. If woman's 
 taste is trained to choose the best, it upholds a standard 
 which may save a generation from decadence. This 
 concerns the beautiful and the fitting in all things 
 where the power of art makes itself felt as " the 
 expression of an ideal in a concrete work capable of 
 producing an impression and attaching the beholder 
 to that ideal which it presents for admiration." 1 It 
 touches on all questions of taste, not only in the fine 
 arts but in fiction, and furniture, and dress, and all 
 Cardinal Mercier, "General Metaphysics," Part iv., Ch. iv.
 
 72 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 the minor arts of life and adaptation of human skill 
 to the external conditions of living. The importance 
 of all these in their effect on the happiness and 
 goodness of a whole people is a plea for not leav- 
 ing out the principles of aesthetics, as well as the 
 practice of some form of art from the education of 
 girls. 
 
 The last and most glorious treatise in philosophy 
 of which some knowledge can be given at the end of 
 a school course is that of natural theology. If it is 
 true, as they say, that St. Thomas Aquinas at the age 
 of five years used to go round to the monks of Monte 
 Cassino pulling them down by the sleeve to whisper 
 his inquiry, " quid est Deus " ? it may be hoped that 
 older children are not incapable of appreciating some 
 of the first notions that may be drawn from reason 
 about the Creator, those truths "concerning the 
 existence of God which are the supreme conclusion 
 and crown of the department of physics, and those 
 concerning His nature which apply the truths of 
 general metaphysics to a determinate being, the 
 Absolutely Perfect." 1 It is in the domain of natu- 
 ral theology that they will often find a safeguard 
 against difficulties which may occur later in life, 
 when they meet inquirers whose questions about God 
 are not so ingenuous as that of the infant St. Thomas. 
 The armour of their faith will not be so easily pierced 
 by chance shots as if they were without preparation, 
 and at the same time they will know enough of the 
 greatness of the subject not to challenge " any un- 
 believer" to single combat, and undertake to prove 
 1 Cardinal Mercier, "Natural Theology," Introduction.
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY 73 
 
 against all opponents the existence and perfections 
 of God. 
 
 For instruction as well as for defence the relation 
 of philosophy to revealed truth should be explained. 
 It is necessary to point out that while science has its 
 own sphere within which it is independent, having 
 its own principles and methods and means of certitude, 1 
 yet the Church as the guardian of revealed truth is 
 obliged to prosecute for trespass those who in teach- 
 ing any science encroach by affirmation or contradic- 
 tion on the domain of revelation. 
 
 To sum up, therefore, logic can train the students 
 to discriminate between good and bad arguments, 
 which few ordinary readers can do, and not even 
 every writer. Ethics teaches the rational basis of 
 morals which it is useful for all to know, and psycho- 
 logy can teach to discriminate between the acts of in- 
 tellect and will on the one hand and imagination and 
 emotion on the other, and so furnish the key to many 
 a puzzle of thought that has led to false and danger- 
 ous theorizing. 
 
 The method of giving instruction in the different 
 branches of philosophy will depend so much on the 
 preparation of the particular pupils, and also on the 
 cast of mind of the teachers, that it is difficult to 
 offer suggestions, except to point out this very fact 
 that each mind needs to be met just where it is 
 with its own mental images, vocabulary, habit of 
 thought and attention, all calling for consideration 
 
 1 De Bonald and others were condemned and reproved by 
 Gregory XVI for teaching that reason drew its first principles 
 ud grounds of certitude from revelation.
 
 74 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 and adaptation of the subject to their particular case. 
 It depends on the degree of preparation of the teachers 
 to decide whether the form of a lecture is safest, or 
 whether they can risk themselves in the arena of 
 question and answer, the most useful in itself but re- 
 quiring a far more complete training in preparation. 
 If it can be obtained that the pupils state their own 
 questions and difficulties in writing, a great deal will 
 have been gained, for a good statement of a question 
 is half-way to the right solution. If, after hearing a 
 lecture or oral lesson, they can answer in writing 
 some simple questions carefully stated, it will be a 
 further advance. It is something to grasp accurately 
 the scope of a question. The plague of girls' answers 
 is usually irrelevancy from want of thought as to the 
 scope of questions or even from inattention to their 
 wording. If they can be patient in face of unanswered 
 difficulties, and wait for the solution to come later on 
 in its natural course, then at least one small fruit of 
 their studies will have been brought to maturity ; and 
 if at the end of their elementary course they are con- 
 vinced of their own ignorance, and want to know 
 more, it may be said that the course has not been 
 unsuccessful. 
 
 It is not, however, complete unless they know 
 something of the history of philosophy, the great 
 schools, and the names which have been held in 
 honour from the beginning down to our own days. 
 They will realize that it is good to have been born in 
 their own time, and to learn such lessons now that 
 the revival of scholastic philosophy under Leo XIII
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY 75 
 
 and the development of the neo-scholastic teaching 
 have brought fresh life into the philosophy of tra- 
 dition, which although it appears to put new wine 
 into old bottles, seems able to preserve the wine and 
 the bottles together.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EEALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 "He fixed thee mid this dance 
 Of plastic circumstance, 
 
 This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest : 
 Machinery just meant 
 To give thy soul its bent, 
 
 Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed." 
 BROWNING, "Rabbi Ben Ezra." 
 
 ' ' Eh, Dieu ! nous marchons trop en enfants cela me f&che ! " 
 ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL. 
 
 ONE of the problems which beset school education, 
 and especially education in boarding schools, is the 
 difficulty of combining the good things it can give 
 with the best preparation for after life. This pre- 
 paration has to be made under circumstances which 
 necessarily keep children away from many of the 
 realities that have to be faced in the future. 
 
 To be a small member of a large organization has 
 an excellent effect upon the mind. From the pres- 
 ence of numbers a certain dignity gathers round 
 many things that would in themselves be insignifi- 
 cant. Ideas of corporate life with its obligations and 
 responsibilities are gained. Honoured traditions and 
 ideals are handed down if the school has a history 
 and spirit of its own. There are impressive and 
 solemn moments in the life of a large school which 
 
 76
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 77 
 
 remain in the memory as something beautiful and 
 great. The close of a year, with its retrospect and 
 anticipation, its restrained emotion from the pathos 
 which attends all endings and beginnings in life, fills 
 even the younger children with some transient realiz- 
 ation of the meaning of it all, and lifts them up to a 
 dim sense of the significance of existence, while for 
 the elder ones such days leave engraven upon the 
 mind thoughts which can never be effaced. These 
 deep impressions belong especially to old-established 
 schools, and are bound up with their past, with their 
 traditional tone, and the aims that are specially theirs. 
 In this they cannot be rivalled. The school-room at 
 home is always the school-room, it has no higher 
 moods, no sentiment of its own. 
 
 There are diversities of gifts for school and for 
 home education ; for impressiveness a large school 
 has the advantage. It is also, in general, better off 
 in the quality of its teachers, and it can turn their 
 gifts to better account. A modern governess would 
 require to be a host in herself to supply the varied 
 demands of a girl's education, in the subjects to be 
 taught, in companionship and personal influence, in 
 the training of character, in watching over physical 
 development, and even if she should possess in her- 
 self all that would be needed, there is the risk of 
 " incompatibility of temperament" which makes a 
 Ute-d-Ute life in the school-room trying on both sides. 
 School has the advantage of bringing the influence 
 of many minds to bear, so that it is rare that a child 
 should pass through a school course without coming 
 in contact with some who awaken and understand
 
 78 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 and influence her for good. It offers too the chance 
 of making friends, and though " sets " and cliques, 
 plagues of school life, may give trouble and unsettle 
 the weaker minds from time to time, yet if the 
 current of the school is healthy it will set against 
 them, and on the other hand the choicest and best 
 friendships often begin and grow to maturity in the 
 common life of school. The sodalities and congre- 
 gations in Catholic schools are training grounds 
 within the general system of training, in which 
 higher ideals are aimed at, the obligation of using 
 influence for good is pressed home, and the instincts 
 of leadership turned to account for the common 
 good. Lastly, among the advantages of school may 
 be counted a general purpose and plan in the curri- 
 culum, and better appliances for methodical teaching 
 than are usually available in private school-rooms, 
 and where out-door games are in honour they add a 
 great zest to school life. 
 
 But, as in all human things, there are drawbacks to 
 school education, and because it is in the power of 
 those who direct its organization to counteract some 
 of these drawbacks, it is worth while to examine 
 them and consider the possible remedies. 
 
 In the first place it will probably be agreed that 
 boarding-school life is not desirable for very young 
 children, as their well-being requires more elasticity 
 in rule and occupations than is possible if they are 
 together in numbers. Little children, out of control 
 and excited, are a misery to themselves and to each 
 other, and if they are kept in hand enough to protect 
 the weaker ones from the exuberant energy of the
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 79 
 
 stronger, then the strictness chafes them all, and 
 spontaneity is too much checked. The informal play 
 which is possible at home, with the opportunities for 
 quiet and even solitude, are much better for young 
 children than the atmosphere of school, though a 
 day-school, with the hours of home life in between, 
 is sometimes successfully adapted to their wants. 
 But the special cases which justify parents in sending 
 young children to boarding schools are numerous, 
 now that established home life is growing more rare, 
 and they have to be counted with in any large school. 
 It can only be said that the yoke ought to be made 
 as light as possible short lessons, long sleep, very 
 short intervals of real application of mind, as much 
 open air as possible, bright rooms, and a mental 
 atmosphere that tends to calm rather than to excite 
 them. They should be saved from the petting of the 
 elder girls, in whom this apparent kindness is often a 
 selfish pleasure, bad on both sides. 
 
 For older children the difficulties are not quite the 
 same, and instead of forcing them on too fast, school 
 life may even keep them back. When children 
 are assembled together in considerable numbers the 
 intellectual level is that of the middle class of mind 
 and does not favour the best, the outlook and con- 
 versation are those of the average, the language and 
 vocabulary are on the same level, with a tendency to 
 sink rather than to rise, and though emulation may 
 urge on the leading spirits and keep them at racing 
 speed, this does not quicken the interest in know- 
 ledge for its own sake, and the work is apt to slacken 
 when the stimulus is withdrawn. And all the time
 
 80 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 there is comfort to the easy-going average in the con- 
 sciousness of how many there are behind them. 
 
 The necessity for organization and foresight in 
 detail among large numbers is also unfavourable to in- 
 dividual development. For children to find every- 
 thing prepared for them, to feel no friction in the 
 working of the machinery, so that all happens as 
 it ought to, without effort and personal trouble on 
 their part, to be told what to do, and only have to 
 follow the bells for the ordering of their time all this 
 tends to diminish their resourcefulness and their 
 patience with the unforeseen checks and cross-pur- 
 poses and mistakes that they will have to put up 
 with on leaving school. As a matter of fact the more 
 perfect the school machinery, the smoother its work- 
 ing, the less does it prepare for the rutty road after- 
 wards, and in this there is some consolation when 
 school machinery jars from time to time in the work- 
 ing ; if it teaches patience it is not altogether regret- 
 table, and the little trouble which may arise in the 
 material order is perhaps more educating than the 
 regularity which has been disturbed. 
 
 We are beginning to believe what has never ceased 
 to be said, that lessons in lesson-books are not the 
 whole of education. The whole system of teaching in 
 the elementary schools has been thrown off its balance 
 by too many lesson-books, but it is righting itself 
 again, and some of the memoranda on teaching, 
 issued by the Board of Education within the last few 
 years, are quite admirable in their practical sugges- 
 tions for promoting a more efficient preparation for 
 life. The Board now insists on the teaching of
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 81 
 
 handicrafts, training of the senses in observation, 
 development of knowledge, taste, and skill in various 
 departments which are useful for life, and for girls 
 especially on things which make the home. The 
 same thing is wanted in middle-class education, 
 though parents of the middle-class still look a 
 little askance at household employments for their 
 daughters. But children of the wealthier and 
 upper classes take to them as a birthright, with the 
 cordial assent of their parents and the applause of 
 the doctors. It is for these children, so well-disposed 
 for a practical education, and able to carry its influ- 
 ence so far, that we may consider what can be done 
 in school life. 
 
 We ourselves who have to do with children must 
 first appreciate the realities of life before we can 
 communicate this understanding to others or give 
 the right spirit to those we teach. And " the realities 
 of life" may stand as a name for all those things 
 which have to be learned in order to live, and which 
 lesson-books do not teach. The realities of life are 
 not material things, but they are very deeply wrought 
 in with material things. There are things to be done, 
 and things to be made, and things to be ordered and 
 controlled, belonging to the primitive wants of human 
 life, and to all those fundamental cares which have 
 to support it. They are best learned in the actual 
 doing from those who know how to do them ; for 
 although manuals and treatises exist for every pos- 
 sible department of skill and activity, yet the human 
 voice and hand go much further in making knowledge 
 
 acceptable than the textbook with diagrams. The 
 
 6
 
 82 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 dignity of manual labour comes home from seeing it 
 well done, it is shown to be worth doing and deserv- 
 ing of honour. 
 
 Something which cannot be shown to children, 
 but it will come to them later on as an inheritance, 
 is the effect of manual work upon their whole being. 
 Manual work gives balance and harmony in the 
 development of the growing creature. A child does 
 not attain its full power unless every faculty is exer- 
 cised in turn, and to think that hard mental work 
 alternated with hard physical exercise will give it full 
 and wholesome development is to ignore whole pro- 
 vinces of its possessions. Generally speaking, chil- 
 dren have to take the value of their mental work on 
 the faith of our word. They must go through a 
 great deal in mastering the rudiments of, say, Latin 
 grammar (for the honey is not yet spread so thickly 
 over this as it is now over the elements of modern 
 languages). They must wonder why " grown-ups " 
 have such an infatuation for things that seem out of 
 place and inappropriate in life as they consider it 
 worth living. Probably it is on this account that so 
 many artificial rewards and inducements have had 
 to be brought in to sustain their efforts. Physical 
 exercise is a joy to healthy children, but it leaves 
 nothing behind as a result. Children are proud 
 of what they have done and made themselves. 
 They lean upon the concrete, and to see as the 
 result of their efforts something which lasts, especi- 
 ally something useful, as a witness to their power 
 and skill, this is a reward in itself and needs no 
 artificial stimulus, though to measure their own
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 83 
 
 work in comparative excellence with that of others 
 adds an element that quickens the desire to do well. 
 Children will go quietly back again and again to look, 
 without saying anything, at something they have 
 made with their own hands, their eyes telling all that 
 it means to them, beyond what they can express. 
 
 With its power of ministering to harmonious de- 
 velopment of the faculties manual work has a direct 
 influence on fitness for home and social life. It 
 greatly develops good sense and aptitude for dealing 
 with ordinary difficulties as they arise. In common 
 emergencies it is the " handy " member of the house- 
 hold whose judgment and help are called upon, not 
 the brilliant person or one who has specialized in 
 any branch, but the one who can do common things 
 and can invent resources when experience fails. 
 When the specialist is at fault and the artist waits 
 for inspiration, the handy person comes in and saves 
 the situation, unprofessionally, like the bone-setter, 
 without much credit, but to the great comfort of every 
 one concerned. 
 
 Manual work likewise saves from eccentricity or 
 helps to correct it. Eccentricity may appear harm- 
 less and even interesting, but in practice it is found 
 to be a drawback, enfeebling some sides of a charac- 
 ter, throwing the judgment at least on some points 
 out of focus. In children it ought to be recognized 
 as a defect to be counteracted. When people have 
 an overmastering genius which of itself marks out 
 for them a special way of excellence, some degree of 
 eccentricity is easily pardoned, and almost allowable. 
 But eccentricity unaccompanied by genius is mere 
 
 6*
 
 84 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 uncorrected selfishness, or want of mental balance. 
 It is selfishness if it could be corrected and is not, 
 because it makes exactions from others without re- 
 turn. It will not adapt itself to them but insists on 
 being taken as it is, whether acceptable or not. At 
 best, eccentricity is a morbid tendency liable to run 
 into extremes when its habits are undisturbed. An 
 excuse sometimes made for eccentricity is that it is 
 a security against any further mental aberration, 
 perhaps on the same principle that inoculation pro- 
 ducing a mild form of diseases is sometimes a safe- 
 guard against their attacks. But if the mind and 
 habits of life can be brought under control, so as to 
 take part in ordinary affairs without attracting atten- 
 tion or having exemptions and allowance made for 
 them, a result of a far higher order will have been 
 attained. To recognize eccentricity as selfishness is 
 a first step to its cure, and to make oneself serviceable to 
 others is the simplest corrective. Whatever else they 
 may be, " eccentrics " are not generally serviceable. 
 
 Children of vivid imagination, nervously excitable 
 and fragile in constitution, rather easily fall into little 
 eccentric ways which grow very rapidly and are hard 
 to overcome. One of the commonest of these is talk- 
 ing to themselves. Sitting still, making efforts to 
 apply their minds to lessons for more than a short 
 time, accentuates the tendency by nerve fatigue. In 
 reaction against fatigue the mind falls into a vacant 
 state and that is the best condition for the growth of 
 eccentricities and other mental troubles. If their 
 attention is diverted from themselves, and yet fixed 
 with the less exhausting concentration which belongs
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 86 
 
 to manual work, this diversion into another channel, 
 with its accompanying bodily movement, will restore 
 the normal balance, and the little eccentric pose will 
 be forgotten ; this is better than being noticed and 
 laughed at and formally corrected. 
 
 Manual employments, especially if varied, and 
 household occupations afford a great variety, give 
 to children a sense of power in knowing what to do 
 in a number of circumstances ; they take pleasure in 
 this, for it is a thing which they admire in others. 
 Domestic occupations also form in them a habit of 
 decision, from the necessity of getting through things 
 which will not wait. For domestic duties do not 
 allow of waiting for a moment of inspiration or de- 
 laying until a mood of depression or indifference has 
 passed. They have a quiet, imperious way of com- 
 manding, and an automatic system of punishing 
 when they are neglected, which are more convincing 
 than exhortations. Perhaps in this particular point 
 lies their saving influence against nerves and moodi- 
 ness and the demoralization of " giving way." Those 
 who have no obligations, whose work will wait for 
 their convenience, and who can if they please let 
 everything go for a time, are more easily broken 
 down by trouble than those whose household duties 
 have still to be done, in the midst of sorrow and trial. 
 There is something in homely material duties which 
 heals and calms the mind and gives it power to come 
 back to itself. And in sudden calamities those who 
 know how to make use of their hands do not help- 
 lessly wring them, or make trouble worse by clinging 
 to others for support.
 
 86 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Again, circumstances sometimes arise in school 
 life which make light household duties an untold 
 boon for particular children. Accidental causes, 
 troubles of eyesight, or too rapid growth, etc., may 
 make regular study for a time impossible to them. 
 These children become exempt persons, and even if 
 they are able to take some part in the class work the 
 time of preparation is heavy on their hands. Exempt 
 persons easily develop undesirable qualities, and their 
 apparent privileges are liable to unsettle others. As 
 a matter of fact those who are able to keep the com- 
 mon life have the best of it, but they are apt to look 
 upon the exemption of others as enviable, as they 
 long for gipsy life when a caravan passes by. With 
 the resource of household employment to give occupa- 
 tion it becomes apparent that exemption does not 
 mean holiday, but the substitution of one duty -or 
 lesson for another, and this is a principle which holds 
 good in after life that except in case of real illness 
 no one is justified in having nothing to do. 
 
 Lastly, the work of the body is good for the soul, 
 it drives out silliness as effectually as the rod, since 
 that which was of old considered as the instrument 
 for exterminating the " folly bound up in the heart of 
 a child," has been laid aside in the education of girls. 
 It is a great weapon against the seven devils of whom 
 one is Sloth and another Pride, and it prepares a sane 
 mind in a sound body for the discipline of after life. 
 
 Experience bears its own testimony to the failure 
 of an education which is out of touch with the ma- 
 terial requirements of life. It leaves an incomplete 
 power of expression, and some dead points in the
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 87 
 
 mind from which no response can be awakened. 
 To taste of many experiences seems to be necessary 
 for complete development. When on the material 
 side all is provided without forethought, and people 
 are exempt from all care and obligation, a whole side 
 of development is wanting, and on that side the mind 
 remains childish, inexperienced, and unreal. The 
 best mental development is accomplished under the 
 stress of many demands. One claim balances the 
 other; a touch of hardness and privation gives 
 strength of mind and makes self-denial a reality ; a 
 little anxiety teaches foresight and draws out re- 
 sourcefulness, and the tendency to fret about trifles 
 is corrected by the contact of the realities of life. 
 
 To come to practice What can be done for girls 
 during their years at school ? 
 
 In the first place the teaching of the fundamental 
 handicraft of women, needlework, deserves a place 
 of honour. In many schools it has almost perished 
 by neglect, or the thorns of the examination pro- 
 gramme have grown up and choked it. This mis- 
 fortune has been fairly common where the English 
 " University Locals " and the Irish "Intermediate" 
 held sway. There literally was not time for it, and 
 the loss became so general that it was taken as a 
 matter of course, scarcely regretted ; to the children 
 themselves, so easily carried off by vogue, it became 
 almost a matter for self-complacency, "not to be 
 able to hold a needle " was accepted as an indication 
 of something superior in attainments. And it must 
 be owned that there were certain antiquated methods 
 of teaching the art which made it quite excusable to
 
 88 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 " hate needlework." One " went through so much 
 to learn so little " ; and the results depending so often 
 upon help from others to bring them to any conclu- 
 sion, there was no sense of personal achievement 
 in a work accomplished. Others planned, cut out 
 and prepared the work, and the child came in as an 
 unwilling and imperfect sewing machine merely to 
 put in the stitches. The sense of mastery over ma- 
 terial was not developed, yet that is the only way in 
 which a child's attainment of skill can be linked on 
 to the future. What cannot be done without help 
 always at hand drops out of life, and likewise that 
 which calls for no application of mind. 
 
 To reach independence in the practical arts of life 
 is an aim that will awaken interests and keep up 
 efforts, and teachers have only a right to be satisfied 
 when their pupils can do without them. This is not 
 the finishing point of a course of teaching, it is a whole 
 system, beginning in the first steps and continuing 
 progressively to the end. It entails upon teachers 
 much labour, much thought, and the sacrifice of showy 
 results. The first look of finish depends more upon 
 the help of the teacher than upon the efforts of chil- 
 dren. Their results must be waited for, and they 
 will in the early years have a humbler, more rough- 
 hewn look than those in which expert help has been 
 given. But the educational advantages are not to be 
 compared. 
 
 A four years' course, two hours per week, gives 
 a thorough grounding in plain needlework, and 
 girls are then capable of beginning dressmaking, in 
 which they can reach a very reasonable proficiency
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 89 
 
 when they leave school. Whether they turn this to 
 practical account in their own homes, or make use of 
 it in Clothing Societies and Needlework Guilds for 
 the poor, the knowledge is of real value. If fortune 
 deals hardly with them, and they are thrown on their 
 own resources later in life, it is evident that to make 
 their own clothes is a form of independence for 
 which they will be very thankful. Another branch 
 of needlework that ought to form part of every 
 Catholic girl's education is that of work for the 
 Church in which there is room for every capacity, 
 from the hemming of the humblest lavabo towel to 
 priceless works of art embroidered by queens for the 
 popes and bishops of their time. 
 
 " First aid," and a few practical principles of nurs- 
 ing, can sometimes be profitably taught in school, if 
 time is made for a few lessons, perhaps during one 
 term. The difficulty of finding time even adds to the 
 educational value, since the conditions of life outside 
 do not admit of uniform intervals between two bella. 
 Enough can be taught to make girls able to take 
 their share helpfully in cases of illness in their homes, 
 and it is a branch of usefulness in which a few sensible 
 notions go a long way. 
 
 General self-help is difficult to define or describe, 
 but it can be taught at school more than would 
 appear at first sight, if only those engaged in the 
 education of children will bear in mind that the 
 triumph of their devotedness is to enable children to 
 do without them. This is much more laborious than 
 to do things efficiently and admirably for them, but 
 it is real education. They can be taught as mothers
 
 90 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 would teach them at home, to mend and keep their 
 things in order, to prepare for journeys, pack their 
 own boxes, be responsible for their labels and keys, 
 write orders to shops, to make their own beds, dust 
 their private rooms, and many other things which 
 will readily occur to those who have seen the pitiful 
 sight of girls unable to do them. 
 
 Finally, simple and elementary cooking comes well 
 within the scope of the education of elder girls at 
 school. But it must be taught seriously to make it 
 worth while, and as in the teaching of needlework, 
 the foundations must be plain. To begin by fancy- 
 work in one case and bonbons in the other turns the 
 whole instruction into a farce. In this subject especi- 
 ally, the satisfaction of producing good work, well 
 done, without help, is a result which justifies all the 
 trouble that may be spent upon it. When girls have, 
 by themselves, brought to a happy conclusion the pre- 
 paration of a complete meal, their very faces bear 
 witness to the educational value of the success. They 
 are not elated nor excited, but wear the look of quiet 
 contentment which seems to come from contact with 
 primitive things. This look alone on a girl's face 
 gives a beauty of its own, something becoming, and 
 fitting, and full of promise. No expression is equal 
 to it in the truest charm, for quiet contentment is the 
 atmosphere which in the future, whatever may be her 
 lot, ought to be diffused by her presence, an atmo- 
 sphere of security and rest. 
 
 Perhaps at first sight it seems an exaggeration to 
 link so closely together the highest natural graces of 
 a woman with those lowliest occupations, but let the
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 91 
 
 effects be compared by those who have examined 
 other systems of instruction. If they have considered 
 the outcome of an exclusively intellectual education 
 for girls, especially one loaded with subjects in sec- 
 tions to be " got up " for purposes of examination, and 
 compared it with one into which the practical has 
 largely entered, they can hardly fail to agree that the 
 latter is the best preparation for life, not only physi- 
 cally and morally but mentally. During the stress 
 of examinations lined foreheads, tired eyes, shallow 
 breathing, angular movements tell their own story of 
 strain, and when it is over a want of resourcefulness 
 in finding occupation shows that a whole side has re- 
 mained undeveloped. The possibility of turning to 
 some household employments would give rest with- 
 out idleness ; it would save from two excesses in a time 
 of reaction, from the exceeding weariness of having 
 nothing to do, the real misery of an idle life, and on 
 the other hand from craving for excitement and 
 constant change through fear of this unoccupied 
 vacancy. 
 
 One other point is worth consideration. The 
 " servant question " is one which looms larger and 
 larger as a household difficulty. There are stories 
 of great and even royal households being left in 
 critical moments at the mercy of servants' tempers, 
 of head cooks " on strike " or negligent personal at- 
 tendants. And from these down to the humblest em- 
 ployers of a general servant the complaint is the same 
 servants so independent, so exacting, good servants 
 not to be had, so difficult to get things properly done, 
 etc. These complaints give very strong warning that
 
 92 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 helpless dependence on servants is too great a risk to 
 be accepted, and that every one in ordinary stations 
 of life should be at least able to be independent of 
 personal service. The expansion of colonial life points 
 in the same direction. The "simple life" is talked 
 of at home, but it is really lived in the colonies. 
 Those who brace themselves to its hardness find a 
 vigour and resourcefulness within them which they 
 had never suspected, and the pride of personal achieve- 
 ment in making a home brings out possibilities which 
 in softer circumstances might have remained for ever 
 dormant, with their treasure of happiness and hardy 
 virtues. It is possible, no doubt, in that severe and 
 plain life to lose many things which are not replaced 
 by its self-reliance and hardihood. It is possible to 
 drop into merely material preoccupation in the 
 struggle for existence. But it is also possible not to 
 do so, and the difference lies in having an ideal. 
 
 To Catholics even work in the wilderness and life 
 in the backwoods are not dissociated from the most 
 spiritual ideals. The pioneers of the Church, St. 
 Benedict's monks, have gone before in the very same 
 labour of civilization when Europe was to a great ex- 
 tent still in backwoods. And, when they sanctified 
 their days in prayer and hard labour, poetry did not 
 forsake them, and learning even took refuge with them 
 in their solitude to wait for better times. It was re- 
 ligion which attracted both. Without their daily 
 service of prayer, the Opus Dei, and the assiduous 
 copying of books, and the desire to build worthy 
 churches for the worship of God, arts and learning 
 would not have followed the monks into the wilder-
 
 THE REALITIES OF LIFE 93 
 
 ness, but their life would have dropped to the dead 
 level of the squatter's existence. In the same way 
 family life, if toilsome, either at home or in a new 
 country, may be inspired by the example of the Holy 
 Family in Nazareth ; and in lonely and hard condi- 
 tions, as well as in the stress of our crowded ways of 
 living, the influence of that ideal reaches down to 
 the foundations and transfigures the very humblest 
 service of the household. 
 
 These primitive services which are at the foundation 
 of all home life are in themselves the same in all places 
 and times. There is in them something almost sacred ; 
 they are sane, wholesome, stable, amid the weary per- 
 petual change of artificial additions which add much to 
 the cares but little to the joys of life. There is a long 
 distance between the labours of Benedictine monks 
 and the domestic work possible for school girls, but the 
 principles fundamental to both are the same happi- 
 ness in willing work, honour to manual labour, service 
 of God in humble offices. The work of lay-sisters 
 in some religious houses, where they understand the 
 happiness of their lot, links the two extremes together 
 across the centuries. The jubilant onset of their com- 
 pany in some laborious work is like an anthem rising 
 to God, bearing witness to the happiness of labour 
 where it is part of His service. They are the envy of 
 the choir religious, and in the precincts of such relig- 
 ious houses children unconsciously learn the dignity 
 of manual labour, and feel themselves honoured by 
 having any share in it. Such labour can be had for 
 love, but not for money. 
 
 One word must be added before leaving the subject
 
 94 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIELS 
 
 of the realities of life. From time to time a rather 
 emphatic school lifts up its voice in the name of plain 
 speaking and asks for something beyond reality for 
 realism, for anticipated instruction on the duties and 
 especially on the dangers of grown-up life. It will 
 be sufficient to suggest three points for consideration 
 in this matter : (1) That these demands are not made 
 by fathers and mothers, but appear to come from 
 those whose interest in children is indirect and not 
 immediately or personally responsible. This may be 
 supposed from the fact that they find fault with what 
 is omitted, but do not give their personal experience 
 of how the want may be supplied. (2) Those priests 
 who have made a special study of children do not 
 seem to favour the view, or to urge that any change 
 should be made in the direction of plain speaking. 
 (3) The answer given by a great educational authority, 
 Miss Dorothea Beale, the late Principal of Cheltenham 
 College, may appeal to those who are struck by the 
 theory if they do not advocate it in practice. When 
 this difficulty was laid before her she was not in 
 favour of departing from the usual course, or insist- 
 ing on the knowledge of grown-up life before its time, 
 and she pointed out that in case of accidents or 
 surgical operations it was not the doctors nor the 
 nurses actively engaged who turned faint and sick, 
 but those who had nothing to do, and in the same 
 way she thought that such instruction, cut off from 
 the duties and needs of the present, was not likely to 
 be of any real benefit, but rather to be harmful. Con- 
 sidering how wide was her experience of educational 
 work this opinion carries great weight.
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY. 
 
 " What think we of thy soul ? 
 
 
 Born of full stature, lineal to control ; 
 
 And yet a pigmy's yoke must undergo. 
 Yet must keep pace and tarry, patient, kind, 
 With its unwilling scholar, the dull, tardy mind ; 
 Must be obsequious to the body's powers, 
 Whose low hands mete its paths, set ope and close its ways , 
 
 Must do obeisance to the days, 
 And wait the little pleasure of the hours ; 
 
 Yea, ripe for kingship, yet must be 
 Captive in statuted minority ! " 
 
 " Sister Songs," by FKANCIS THOMPSON. 
 
 LESSONS and play used to be as clearly marked off 
 one from the other as land and water on the older 
 maps. Now we see some contour maps in which the 
 land below so many feet and the sea within so many 
 fathoms' depth are represented by the same marking, 
 or left blank. In the same way the tendency in 
 education at present is almost to obliterate the line 
 of demarcation, at least for younger children, so that 
 lessons become a particular form of play, " with a 
 purpose," and play becomes a sublimated form of 
 lessons, as the druggists used to say, "an elegant 
 preparation " of something bitter. If the Board of 
 
 96
 
 96 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Education were to name a commission composed of 
 children, and require it to look into the system, it is 
 doubtful whether they would give a completely satis- 
 factory report. They would probably judge it to be 
 too uniform in tone, poor in colour and contrast, 
 deficient in sparkle. They like the exhilaration of 
 bright colour, and the crispness of contrast. Of 
 course they would judge it from the standpoint of 
 play, not of lessons. But play which is not quite 
 play, coming after something which has been not 
 quite lessons, loses the tingling delight of contrast. 
 The funereal tolling of a bell for real lessons made a 
 dark background against which the rapture of release 
 for real play shone out with a brilliancy which more 
 than made up for it. At home, the system of ten 
 minutes' lessons at short intervals seems to answer 
 well for young children ; it exerts just enough pressure 
 to give rebound in the intervals of play. Of course this 
 is not possible at school. 
 
 But the illusion that lessons are play cannot be 
 indefinitely kept up, or if the illusion remains it is 
 fraught with trouble. Duty and endurance, the 
 power to go through drudgery, the strength of mind 
 to persist in taking trouble, even where no interest is 
 felt, the satisfaction of holding on to the end in doing 
 something arduous, these things must be learned at 
 some time during the years of education. If they 
 are not learned then, in all probability they will never 
 be acquired at all ; examples to prove the contrary 
 are rare. The question is how and when. If 
 pressed too soon with obligations of lessons, especially 
 with prolonged attention, little anxious faces and
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 97 
 
 round shoulders protest. If too long delayed the 
 discovery comes as a shock, and the less energetic 
 fall out at once and declare that they "can't learn " 
 " never could." 
 
 Perhaps in one way the elementary schools with 
 their large classes have a certain advantage in this, 
 because the pressure is more self-adjusting than in 
 higher class education, where the smaller numbers 
 give to each child a greater share in the general work, 
 for better or for worse. In home education this share 
 becomes even greater when sometimes one child alone 
 enjoys or endures the undivided attention of the 
 governess. In that case the pressure does not relax. 
 But out of large classes of infants in elementary 
 schools it is easy to see on many vacant restful faces 
 that after a short exertion in "qualifying to their 
 teacher " they are taking their well-earned rest. They 
 do not allow themselves to be strung up to the highest 
 pitch of attention all through the lesson, but take and 
 leave as they will or as they can, and so they are 
 carried through a fairly long period of lessons with- 
 out distress. As they grow older and more inde- 
 pendent in their work the same cause operates in a 
 different way. They can go on by themselves and to 
 a certain extent they must do so, as o n account of the 
 numbers teachers can give less time and less individual 
 help to each, and the habit of self-reliance is gradually 
 acquired, with a certain amount of drudgery, leading 
 to results proportionate to the teacher's personal 
 power of stimulating work. The old race of Scottish 
 schoolmaster in the rural schools produced per- 
 haps still produces good types of such self-reliant 
 
 7
 
 98 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 scholars, urged on by his personal enthusiasm for 
 knowledge. Having no assistant, his own person- 
 ality was the soul of the school, both boys and girls 
 responding in a spirit which was worthy of it. But 
 the boys had the best of it ; " lassies " were not deemed 
 worthy to touch the classics, and the classics were 
 everything to him. In America it is reported that the 
 best specimens of university students often come from 
 remote schools in which no external advantages have 
 been available ; but the tough unyielding habit of study 
 has been developed in grappling with difficulties with- 
 out much support from a teacher. 
 
 With those who are more gently brought up the 
 problem is how to obtain this habit of independent 
 work, that is practically how to get the will to act. 
 There is drudgery to be gone through, however it may 
 be disguised, and as a permanent acquisition the power 
 of going through it is one of the most lasting educa- 
 tional results that can be looked for. Drudgery is 
 labour with toil and fatigue. It is the long penitential 
 exercise of the whole human race, not limited to one 
 class or occupation, but accompanying every work of 
 man from the lowest mechanical factory hand or do- 
 mestic " drudge " up to the Sovereign Pontiff, who has 
 to spend so many hours in merely receiving, encourag- 
 ing, blessing, and dismissing the unending processions 
 of his people as they pass before him, imparting to 
 them graces of which he can never see the fruit, and 
 then returning to longer hours of listening to com- 
 plaints and hearing of troubles which often admit of 
 no remedy : truly a life of labour with toil and fatigue, 
 in comparison with which most lives are easy, though
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 99 
 
 each has to bear in its measure the same stamp. 
 Pius X has borne the yoke of labour from his youth. 
 His predecessor took it up with an enthusiasm that 
 burned within him, and accepted training in a service 
 where the drudgery is as severe though generally kept 
 out of sight. The acceptance of it is the great matter, 
 whatever may be the form it takes. 
 
 Spurs and bait, punishment and reward, have been 
 used from time immemorial to set the will in motion, 
 and the results have been variable no one has ap- 
 peared to be thoroughly satisfied with either, or even 
 with a combination of the two. Some authorities have 
 stood on an eminence, and said that neither punish- 
 ment nor reward should be used, that knowledge should 
 be loved for its own sake. But if it was not loved, 
 after many invitations, the problem remained. As 
 usual the real solution seems to be attainable only by 
 one who really loves both knowledge and children, or 
 one who loves knowledge and can love children, as 
 Vittorino da Feltre loved them both, and also Blessed 
 Thomas More. These two affections mingled to- 
 gether produce great educators great in the propor- 
 tion in which the two are possessed as either one or 
 the other declines the educational power diminishes, 
 till it dwindles down to offer trained substitutes and 
 presentable mediocrities for living teachers. The 
 fundamental principle reasserts itself, that " love 
 feels no labour, or if it does it loves the labour." 
 
 Here is one of our Catholic secrets of strength. 
 We have received so much, we have so much to give, 
 we know so well what we want to obtain. We have 
 the Church, the great teacher of the world, as our 
 
 7*
 
 100 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 prototype, and by some instinct a certain unconscious 
 imitation of her finds its way into the mind and heart 
 of Catholic teachers, so that, though often out of poorer 
 material, we can produce teachers who excel in per- 
 sonal hold over children, and influence for good by 
 their great affection and the value which they set on 
 souls. Their power of obtaining work is proportioned 
 to their own love of knowledge, and here let it be 
 owned we more often fail. Various theories are 
 offered in explanation of this ; people take one or other 
 according to their personal point of view. Some say 
 we feel so sure of the other world that our hold on 
 this is slack. Some that in these countries we have 
 not yet made up for the check of three centuries when 
 education was made almost impossible for us. And 
 others say it is not true at all. Perhaps they know 
 best. 
 
 Next to the personal power of the teacher to in- 
 fluence children in learning lessons comes an essential 
 condition to make it possible, and that is a simple 
 life with quiet regular hours and unexciting pleasures. 
 Amid a round of amusements lessons must go to the 
 wall, no child can stand the demands of both at a 
 time. All that can be asked of them is that they 
 should li ve through the excitement without too much 
 weariness or serious damage. The place to consider 
 this is in London at the children's hour for riding in 
 the park, contrasting the prime condition of the 
 ponies with the "illustrious pallor" of so many of 
 their riders. They have courage enough left to sit 
 up straight in their saddles, but it would take a heart 
 of stone to think of lesson books. This extreme of
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 101 
 
 artificial life is of course the portion of the few. Those 
 few, however, are very important people, influential in 
 the future for good or evil, but a protest from a dis- 
 tance would not reach their schoolrooms, any more 
 than legislation for the protection of children ; they 
 may be protected from work, but not from amusement. 
 The conditions of simple living which are favourable 
 for children have been so often enumerated that it is 
 unnecessary to go over them again ; they may even 
 be procured in tabular form or graphical representa- 
 tion for those to whom these figures and curves carry 
 conviction. 
 
 But a point that is of more practical interest to 
 children and teachers, struggling together in the 
 business of education, and one that is often over- 
 looked, is that children do not know how to learn 
 lessons when the books are before them, and that 
 there is a great waste of good power, and a great 
 deal of unnecessary weariness from this cause. If 
 the cause of imperfectly learned lessons is examined 
 it will usually be found there, and also the cause of 
 so much dislike to the work of preparation. Children 
 do not know by instinct how to set about learning 
 a lesson from a book, nor do they spontaneously re- 
 cognize that there are different ways of learning, 
 adapted to different lessons. It is a help to them 
 to know that there is one way for the multiplication 
 table and another for history and another for poetry, 
 as the end of the lesson is different. They can un- 
 derstand this if it is put before them that one is 
 learnt most quickly by mere repetition, until it be- 
 comes a sing-song in the memory that cannot go
 
 102 
 
 wrong, and that afterwards in practice it will allow 
 itself to be taken to pieces ; they will see that they 
 can grasp a chapter of history more intelligently if 
 they prepare for themselves questions upon it which 
 might be asked of another, than in trying by me- 
 chanical devices of memory to associate facts with 
 something to hold them by ; that poetry is different 
 from both, having a body and a soul, each of which 
 has to be taken account of in learning it, one of them 
 being the song and the other the singer. Obviously 
 there is not one only way for each of these or for 
 other matters which have to be learnt, but one of 
 the greatest difficulties is removed when it is under- 
 stood that there is something intelligible to be done 
 in the learning of lessons beyond reading them over 
 and over with the hope that they will go in. 
 
 The hearing of lessons is a subject that deserves a 
 great deal of consideration. It is an old formal name 
 for what has been often an antiquated mechanical ex- 
 ercise. A great deal more trouble is expended now 
 on the manner of questioning and " hearing " the 
 lessons ; but even yet it may be done too formally, as 
 a mere function, or in a way that kills the interest, 
 or in a manner that alarms with a mysterious face 
 as if setting traps, or with questions that are easy 
 and obvious to ask, but for children almost impos- 
 sible to answer. Children do not usually give direct 
 answers to simple questions. Experience seems to 
 have taught them that appearances are deceptive in 
 this matter, and they look about for the spring by 
 which the trap works before they will touch the bait. 
 It is a pity to set traps, because it destroys confidence,
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 103 
 
 and children's confidence in such matters as lessons 
 is hard to win. 
 
 The question of aids to study by stimulants is a 
 difficult one. On the one hand it seems to some 
 educators a fundamental law that reward should 
 follow right-doing and effort, and so no doubt it is ; 
 but the reward within one's own mind and soul is 
 one thing and the calf-bound book is another 
 scarcely even a symbol of the first, because they are 
 not always obtained by the same students. This is 
 a fruitful subject for discourse or reflection at dis- 
 tributions of prizes. Those who are behind the 
 scenes know that the race is not to the swift nor the 
 battle to the strong, and the children know it them- 
 selves, and prize-winners often become the object of 
 the "word in season," pointing out how rarely they 
 will be found to distinguish themselves in after life ; 
 while the steady advance of the plodding and slow 
 mind is dwelt upon, and those who have failed 
 through idleness drink up the encouragement which 
 was not intended for them, and feel that they are the 
 hope of the future because they have won no prizes. 
 It is difficult on those occasions to make the conflict- 
 ing conclusions clear to everybody. 
 
 Yet the system of prize distributions is time hon- 
 oured and traditional, and every country is not yet 
 so disinterested in study as to be able to do without 
 it; under its sway a great deal of honest effort is 
 put out, and the taste of success which is the great 
 stimulant of youth is first experienced. 
 
 There is also the system of certificates, which has 
 the advantage of being open to many instead of to
 
 104 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 one. It is likewise a less material testimonial, ap- 
 proaching more nearly to the merited word of 
 approval which is in itself the highest human reward, 
 and the one nearest to the heart of things, because it 
 is the one which belongs to home. For if the home 
 authorities interest themselves in lessons at all, their 
 grown-up standard and the paramount weight of 
 their opinion gives to one word of their praise a 
 dignity and worth which goes beyond all prizes. 
 Beyond this there is no natural satisfaction to equal 
 the inner consciousness of having done one's best, 
 a very intimate prize distribution in which we our- 
 selves make the discourse, and deliver the certificate 
 to ourselves. This is the culminating point at which 
 educators aim ; they are all agreed that prizes in the 
 end are meant to lead up to it, but the way is long 
 between them. And both one and the other are good 
 in so far as they lead us on to the highest judgment 
 that is day by day passed on our work. When prizes, 
 and even the honour of well-deserved praise, fail to 
 attract, the thought of God the witness of our efforts, 
 and of the value in His sight of striving which is 
 never destined to meet with success, is a support that 
 keeps up endurance, and seals with an evident mark 
 of privilege the lives of many who have made those 
 dutiful efforts not for themselves but in the sight of 
 God. 
 
 The subject of play has to be considered from two 
 points of view, that of the children and ours. Theirs 
 is concerned chiefly with the present and ours with 
 the future, for although we do not want every play- 
 hour to be haunted with a spectral presence that
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 106 
 
 speaks of improvement and advancement, yet we 
 cannot lose sight of the fact that every hour of play 
 is telling on the future, deepening the mark of the 
 character, strengthening the habits, and guiding the 
 lines of after life into this or that channel. 
 
 Looking at it from this point of view of the future, 
 there seems to be something radically wrong at 
 present with the play provided for children of nursery 
 age. In a very few years we shall surely look back 
 and wonder how we could have endured, for the 
 children, the perverse reign of the Golliwog dynasty 
 and the despotism of Teddy-bears. More than that, 
 it is pitiful to hear of nurseries for Catholic children 
 sometimes without shrine or altar or picture of the 
 Mother of God, and with one of these monsters on 
 every chair. Something even deeper than the artistic 
 sense must revolt before long against this barbarous 
 rule. The Teddy-bear, if he has anything to impart, 
 suggests his own methods of life and defence, and the 
 Golliwog, far worse limp, hideous, without one char- 
 acteristic grace, or spark of humour suggests the 
 last extremity of what is embodied in the expression 
 " letting oneself go." And these things are loved ! 
 Pity the beautiful soul of the child, made for beautiful 
 things. II y a toujours en nous quelque chose qui 
 veut ramper, said Pere de Eavignan, and to this the 
 Golliwog makes strong appeal. It is only too easy to 
 let go, and the Golliwog playfellow says that it is 
 quite right to do so he does it himself. It takes a 
 great deal to make him able to sit up at all only in the 
 most comfortable chair can it be accomplished if 
 the least obstacle is encountered he can only give
 
 106 THE EDUCATION OP CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 way. And yet this pitiable being makes no appeal 
 to the spirit of helpfulness. Do what you can for 
 him it is impossible to raise him up, the only thing 
 is to go down with him to his own level and stay 
 there. The Golliwog is at heart a pessimist. 
 
 In contrast with this the presence of an altar or 
 nursery shrine, though not a plaything, gives a dif- 
 ferent tone to play a tone of joy and heavenliness 
 that go down into the soul and take root there to 
 grow into something lasting and beautiful. There 
 are flowers to be brought, and lights, and small pro- 
 cessions, and evening recollection with quietness of 
 devotion, with security in the sense of heavenly pro- 
 tection, with the realization of the " great cloud of 
 witnesses " who are around to make play safe and 
 holy, and there is through it all the gracious call to 
 things higher, to be strong, to be unselfish, to be self- 
 controlled, to be worthy of these protectors and 
 friends in heaven. 
 
 There is another side also to the question of nursery 
 play, and that is what may be called the play-values 
 of the things provided. Mechanical toys are wonder- 
 ful, but beyond an artificial interest which comes 
 mostly from the elders, there is very little lasting 
 delight in them for children. They belong to the 
 system of over-indulgence and over-stimulation which 
 measures the value of things by their price. Their 
 worst fault is that they do all there is to be done, 
 while the child looks on and has nothing to do. The 
 train or motor rushes round and round, the doll struts 
 about and bleats "papa," " mama," the Teddy-bear 
 growls and dances, and the owner has but to wind
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 107 
 
 them up, which is very poor amusement. Probably 
 they are better after they have been over-wound and 
 the mechanical part has given way, and they have 
 come to the hard use that belongs to their proper posi- 
 tion as playthings. If a distinction may be drawn 
 between toys and playthings, toys are of very little 
 play-value, they stand for fancy play, to be fiddled 
 with ; while playthings stand as symbols of real life, 
 the harder and more primitive side of life taking the 
 highest rank, and all that they do is really done by 
 the child. This is the real play-value. Even things 
 that are not playthings at all, sticks and stones and 
 shells, have this possibility in them. Things which 
 have been found have a history of their own, which 
 gives them precedence over what comes from a shop ; 
 but the highest value of all belongs to the things 
 which children have made entirely themselves bows 
 and arrows, catapults, clay marbles, though imper- 
 fectly round, home-made boats and kites. The play- 
 value grows in direct proportion to the amount of 
 personal share which children have in the making 
 and in the use of their playthings. And in this we 
 ought cordially to agree with them. 
 
 After the nursery age, in the school or school-room, 
 play divides into two lines organized games, of 
 which we hear a great deal in school at present, and 
 home play. They are not at all the same thing. 
 Both have something in their favour. So much has 
 been written of late about the value of organized 
 games, how they bring out unselfishness, prompt and 
 unquestioning obedience, playing for one's side and 
 not for oneself, etc., that it seems as if all has been
 
 108 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 said better than it could be said again, except perhaps 
 to point out that there is little relaxation in the 
 battle of life for children who do their best at books 
 indoors and at games out of doors so that in self- 
 defence a good many choose an "elective course" 
 between the two lines of advantages that school 
 offers, and do not attempt to serve two masters ; they 
 will do well at books or games, but not at both. If the 
 interest in games is keen, they require a great deal 
 of will-energy, as well as physical activity, a great 
 deal of self-control and subordination of personal in- 
 terest to the good of the whole. In return for these 
 requirements they give a great deal, this or that, more 
 or less, according to the character of the game ; they 
 give physical control of movement, quickness of eye 
 and hand, promptitude in decision, observance of 
 right moments, command of temper, and many other 
 things. In fact, for some games the only adverse 
 criticism to offer is that they are more of a discipline 
 than real play, and that certainly for younger children 
 who have no other form of recreation than play, 
 something more restful to the mind and less definite 
 in purpose is desirable. 
 
 For these during playtime some semblance of 
 solitude is exceedingly desirable at school where the 
 great want is to be sometimes alone. It is good for 
 them not to be always under the pressure of competi- 
 tion going along a made road to a definite end but 
 to have their little moments of even comparative soli- 
 tude, little times of silence and complete freedom, if 
 they cannot be by themselves. Hoops and skipping- 
 ropes without races or counted competitions will give
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 109 
 
 this, with the possibility of a moment or two to do 
 nothing but live and breathe and rejoice in air and 
 sunshine. Without these moments of rest the condi- 
 tions of life at present and the constitutions for which 
 the new word ' ' nervy " has had to be invented, will give 
 us tempers and temperaments incapable of repose and 
 solitude. A child alone in a swing, kicking itself 
 backwards and forwards, is at rest ; alone in its little 
 garden it has complete rest of mind with the joy of 
 seeing its own plants grow ; alone in a field picking 
 wild flowers it is as near to the heart of primitive 
 existence as it is possible to be. Although these joys 
 of solitude are only attainable in their perfection by 
 children at home, yet if their value is understood, 
 those who have charge of them at school can do 
 something to give them breathing spaces free from 
 the pressure of corporate life, and will probably find 
 them much calmer and more manageable than if 
 they have nothing but organized play. 
 
 There are plenty of indoor occupations too for little 
 girls which may give the same taste of solitude and 
 silence, approaching to those simpler forms of home 
 play which have no definite aim, no beginning and 
 ending, no rules. The fighting instinct is very near 
 the surface in ambitious and energetic children, and 
 in the play-grounds it asserts itself all the more in 
 reaction after indoor discipline, then excitement grows, 
 and the weaker suffer, and the stronger are exasperated 
 by friction. If unselfish, they feel the effort to control 
 themselves ; if selfish, they exhaust themselves and 
 others in the battle to impose their own will. In 
 these moods solitude and silence, with a hoop or
 
 110 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 skipping-rope, are a saving system, and restore calm- 
 ness of mind. All that is wanted is freedom, fresh 
 air, and spontaneous movement. This is more evident 
 in the case of younger children, but if it can be ob- 
 tained for elder girls it is just as great a relief. 
 They have usually acquired more self-control, and 
 the need does not assert itself so loudly, but it is per- 
 haps all the greater ; and in whatever way it can best 
 be ministered to, it will repay attention and the pro- 
 vision that may be made for it. 
 
 One word may be merely suggested for considera- 
 tion concerning games in girls' schools, and that is 
 the comparative value of them as to physical develop- 
 ment. The influence of the game in vogue in each 
 country will always be felt, but it is worth attention 
 that some games, as hockey, conduce to all the atti- 
 tudes and movements which are least to be desired, 
 and that others, as basket-ball, on the contrary tend 
 if played with strict regard to rules to attitudes 
 which are in themselves beautiful and tending to 
 grace of movement. This word belongs to our side 
 of the question, not that of the children. It belongs 
 to our side also to see that hoops are large, and driven 
 with a stick, not a hook, for the sake of straight 
 backs, which are so easily bent crooked in driving a 
 small hoop with a hook. 
 
 In connexion with movement comes the question 
 of dancing. Dancing comes, officially, under the 
 heading of lessons, most earnest lessons if the pro- 
 fessor has profound convictions of its significance. 
 But dancing belongs afterwards to the playtime of 
 life. We have outlived the grim puritanical pre-
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 111 
 
 judice which condemned it as wrong, and it is gener- 
 ally agreed that there is almost a natural need for 
 dancing as the expression of something very deep in 
 human nature, which seems to be demonstrated by 
 its appearance in one form or another, amongst all 
 races of mankind. There is something in co-ordin- 
 ated rhythmical movement, in the grace of steps, in 
 the buoyancy of beautiful dancing which seems to 
 make it a very perfect exercise for children and young 
 people. But there are dances and dances, steps and 
 steps, and about the really beautiful there is always 
 a touch of the severe, and a hint of the ideal. With- 
 out these, dancing drops at once to the level of the 
 commonplace and below it. In general, dances 
 which embody some characteristics of a national life 
 have more beauty than cosmopolitan dances, but 
 they are only seen in their perfection when per- 
 formed by dancers of the race to whom their spirit 
 belongs, or by the class for whom they are intended: 
 which is meant as a suggestion that little girls should 
 not dance the hornpipe. 
 
 In conclusion, the question of play, and playtime 
 and recreation is absorbing more and more attention 
 in grown-up life. We have heard it said over and 
 over again of late years that we are a nation at play, 
 and that " the athletic craze " has gone beyond all 
 bounds. Many facts are brought forward in support 
 of this criticism from schools, from newspapers, from 
 general surveys of our national life at present. And 
 those who study more closely the Catholic body say 
 that we too are sharing in this extreme, and that the 
 Catholic body though small in number is more respon-
 
 112 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 sible and more deserving of reproof if it falls from its 
 ideals, for it has ideals. It is only Catholic girls who 
 concern us here, but our girls among other girls, and 
 Catholic women among other women have the privi- 
 lege as well as the duty of upholding what is highest. 
 We belong by right to the graver side of the human 
 race, for those who know must be in an emergency 
 graver, less reckless on the one hand, less panic- 
 stricken on the other, than those who do not know. 
 We can never be entirely " at play." And if some 
 of us should be for a time carried away by the current, 
 and momentarily completely " at play," it must be in 
 a wave of reaction from the long grinding of endur- 
 ance under the penal times. Cardinal Newman's re- 
 miniscences of the life and ways of " the Koman 
 Catholics " in his youth show the temper of mind 
 against which our present excess of play is a reaction. 
 
 " A few adherents of the Old Religion, moving silently and 
 sorrowfully about, as memorials of what had been. "The 
 Roman Catholics ' not a sect, not even an interest, as men 
 conceived of it not a body, however small, representative of 
 the Great Communion abroad, but a mere handful of individuals, 
 who might be counted, like the pebbles and detritus of the great 
 deluge, and who, forsooth, merely happened to retain a creed 
 which, in its day indeed, was the profession of a Church. Here 
 a set of poor Irishmen, coming and going at harvest time, or a 
 colony of them lodged in a miserable quarter of the vast metro- 
 polis. There, perhaps, an elderly person, seen walking in the 
 streets, grave and solitary, and strange, though noble in bearing, 
 and said to be of good family, and ' a Roman Catholic.' An 
 old-fashioned house of gloomy appearance, closed in with high 
 walls, with an iron gate, and yews, and the report attaching to it 
 that ' Roman Catholics ' lived there ; but who they were, or 
 what they did, or what waa meant by calling them Roman
 
 LESSONS AND PLAY 113 
 
 Catholics, no one could tell, though it had an unpleasant sound, 
 and told of form and superstition. And then, perhaps, as we 
 went to and fro, looking with a boy's curious eyes through the 
 great city, we might come to-day upon some Moravian chapel, 
 or Quaker's meeting-house, and to-morrow on a chapel of the 
 ' Roman Catholics ' : but nothing was to be gathered from it, 
 except that there were lights burning there, and some boys in 
 white, swinging censers : and what it all meant could only be 
 learned from books, from Protestant histories and sermons ; 
 but they did not report well of the ' Roman Catholics,' but, 
 on the contrary, deposed that they had once had power and had 
 abused it. ... Such were the Catholics in England, found in 
 corners, and alleys, and cellars, and the housetops, or in the re- 
 cesses of the country ; cut off from the populous world around 
 them, and dimly seen, as if through a mist or in twilight, as 
 ghosts flitting to and fro, by the high Protestants, the lords of 
 the earth." (" The Second Spring.") 
 
 This it is from which we are keeping holiday ; but 
 for us it can be only a half holiday, the sifting process 
 is always at work, the opposition of the world to the 
 Church only sleeps for a moment, and there are many 
 who tell us that the signs of the times point to new 
 forms of older conflicts likely to recur, and that we 
 may have to go, as they went on the day of Waterloo, 
 straight from the dance to the battlefield. 
 
 8
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 MATHEMATICS, NATURAL SCIENCE, AND NATURE 
 STUDY. 
 
 " The Arab told me that the stone 
 (To give it in the language of the dream) 
 Was " Euclid's Elements " ; and " This," said he, 
 " Is something of more worth " ; and at the word 
 Stretched forth the shell, so beautiful in shape, 
 In colour so resplendent, with command 
 That I should hold it to my ear. I did so, 
 And heard that instant in an unknown tongue, 
 Which yet I understood, articulate sounds, 
 A loud prophetic blast of harmony." 
 
 WORDSWORTH, "The Prelude," Bk. V. 
 
 MATHEMATICS, natural science, and nature study may 
 be conveniently grouped together, because in a study 
 of educational aims, in so far as they concern Catholic 
 girls, there is not much that is distinctive which practi- 
 cally affects these branches ; during the years of school 
 life they stand, more or less, on common ground with 
 others. More advanced studies of natural science 
 open up burning questions, and as to these, it is the 
 last counsel of wisdom for girls leaving school or 
 school-room to remember that they have no right to 
 have any opinion at all. It is well to make them 
 understand that after years of specialized study the 
 
 114
 
 MATHEMATICS AND NATURE STUDY 115 
 
 really great men of science, in very gentle tones and 
 with careful utterance, give to the world their formed 
 opinions, keeping them ever open to readjustment 
 as the results of fresh observations come in year after 
 year, and new discoveries call for correction and re- 
 arrangement of what has been previously taught. It 
 is also well that they should know that by the time 
 the newest theory reaches the school-room and text- 
 book it may be already antiquated and perhaps super- 
 seded in the observatory and laboratory, so that in 
 scientific matters the school-room must always be a 
 little " behind the times." And likewise that when 
 scientific teaching has to be brought within the com- 
 pass of a text-book for young students, it is mere baby 
 talk, as much like the original theory as a toy engine 
 is like an express locomotive. From which they 
 may conclude that it is wiser to be listeners or to 
 ask deferential questions than to have light-hearted 
 opinions of their own on burning questions such as 
 we sometimes hear : " Do you believe in evolution ? 
 I do." "No, I don't, I think there is very little 
 evidence for it." And that if they are introduced to 
 a man of science it is better not to ask his opinion 
 about the latest skeleton that has been discovered, or 
 let him see that they are alarmed lest there might be 
 something wrong with our pedigree after all, or with 
 the book of Genesis. One would be glad, however, 
 that they should know the names and something of 
 the works and reputation of the Catholic men of 
 science, as Ampere, Pasteur, and Wassmann, etc., 
 who have been or are European authorities in special 
 branches of study, so that they may at least be ready
 
 116 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 with an answer to the frequent assertion that 
 "Catholics have done nothing for science." 
 
 But in connexion with these three subjects, not as 
 to the teaching of them but as to their place in the 
 education of girls, some points regarding education in 
 general are worth considering : 
 
 1. Mathematics in the curriculum of girls' schools 
 has been the subject of much debate. Cool and 
 colourless as mathematics are in themselves, they 
 have produced in discussion a good deal of heat, being 
 put forward to bear the brunt of the controversy as 
 to whether girls were equal to boys in understanding 
 and capable of following the same course of study, and 
 to enter into competition with them in all departments 
 of learning. Even taking into consideration many 
 brilliant achievements and an immense amount of 
 creditable, and even distinguished work, the answer of 
 those who have no personal bias in the matter for the 
 sake of a Cause is generally that they are not. Facts 
 would seem to speak for themselves if only on the 
 ground that the strain of equal studies is too great for 
 the weaker physical organization. Girls are willing 
 workers, exceedingly intense when their heart is set 
 upon success ; but their staying power is not equal to 
 their eagerness, and the demands made upon them 
 sometimes leave a mortgage on their mental and 
 physical estate which cannot be paid off in the course 
 of a whole lifetime. In support of this, reference 
 may be made to the l report of a commission of Dublin 
 physicians on the effects of the Intermediate Educa- 
 
 1 Appendix to " Final Report of the Commissioners (Irish In- 
 termediate Education)," Pt. I, 1899.
 
 MATHEMATICS AND NATURE STUDY 117 
 
 tion system in Ireland, which has broken down many 
 more girls than boys. 
 
 Apart from the question of over-pressure it is gener- 
 ally recognized let it be said again, by those who 
 have not a position to defend or a theory to advance 
 in the matter that the aptitude of girls for mathe- 
 matical work is generally less than that of boys, and 
 unless one has some particular view or plan at stake 
 in the matter there is no grievance in recognizing this. 
 There is more to be gained in recognizing diversities of 
 gifts than in striving to establish a level of uniformity, 
 and life is richer, not poorer for the setting forth of 
 varied types of excellence. Competition destroys co- 
 operation, and in striving to prove ability to reach an 
 equal standard in competition, the wider and more 
 lasting interests which are at stake may be lost sight 
 of, and in the end sacrificed to limited temporary 
 success. 
 
 The success of girls in the field of mathematics is, 
 in general, temporary and limited, it means much less 
 in their after life than in that of boys. For the few 
 whose calling in life is teaching, mathematics have 
 some after use ; for those, still fewer, who take a real 
 interest in them, they keep a place in later life ; but 
 for the many into whose life-work they do not enter, 
 beyond the mental discipline which is sometimes 
 evaded, very little remains. The end of school means 
 for them the end of mathematical study, and the 
 complete forgetfulness in which the whole subject is 
 soon buried gives the impression that too much may 
 have been sacrificed to it. From the point of view of 
 practical value it proves of little use, and as men-
 
 118 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 tal discipline something of more permanent worth 
 might have taken its place to strengthen the reason- 
 ing powers. The mathematical teacher of girls has 
 generally to seek consolation in very rare success for 
 much habitual disappointment. 
 
 The whole controversy about equality in education 
 involves less bitterness to Catholics than to others, 
 for this reason, that we have less difficulty than those 
 of other persuasions in accepting a fundamental dif- 
 ference of ideals for girls and boys. Our ideals of 
 family life, of spheres of action which co-operate and 
 complete each other, without interference or com- 
 petition, our masculine and feminine types of holiness 
 amongst canonized saints, give a calmer outlook upon 
 the questions involved in the discussion. The Church 
 puts equality and inequality upon such a different 
 footing that the result is harmony without clash of in- 
 terests, and if in some countries we are drawn into the 
 arena now, and forced into competition, the very slack- 
 ness of interest which is sometimes complained of is 
 an indirect testimony to the truth that we know of 
 better things. And as those who know of better 
 things are more injured by following the less good 
 than those who know them not, so our Catholic girls 
 seem to be either more indifferent about their work or 
 more damaged by the spirit of competition if they 
 enter into it, than those who consider it from a dif- 
 ferent plane. 
 
 2. Natural science has of late years assumed a title 
 to which it has no claim, and calls itself simply 
 " Science " presumably "for short," but to the great 
 confusion of young minds, or rather with the effect
 
 MATHEMATICS AND NATURE STUDY 119 
 
 of contracting their range of vision within very narrow 
 limits, as if theology and Biblical study, and mental 
 and moral, and historical and political science, had no 
 place of mention in the rational order where things 
 are studied in their causes. 
 
 Inquiry was made in several schools where natural 
 science was taught according to the syllabuses of the 
 Board of Education. The question was asked, " What 
 is science ? " and without exception the answers 
 indicated that science was understood to mean the 
 study of the phenomena of the physical world in 
 then: causes. The name " Science " used by itself 
 has been the cause of this, and has led to the usual 
 consequences of the assumption of unauthorized 
 titles. 
 
 Things had been working up in England during 
 the last few years towards this misconception in the 
 schools. On the one hand there was the great im- 
 petus given to physical research and experimental 
 science in recent years, so that its discoveries absorbed 
 more and more attention, and this filtered down to 
 the school books. 
 
 On the other hand, especially since the South 
 African war, there had been a great stir in reaction 
 against mere lessons from books, and it was seen 
 that we wanted more personal initiative and thought, 
 and resourcefulness, and self-reliance, and many other 
 qualities which our education had not tended to de- 
 velop. It was seen that we were unpractical in our 
 instruction, that minds passed under the discipline of 
 school and came out again, still slovenly, unobservant, 
 unscientific in temper, impatient, flippant, inaccurate,
 
 120 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 tending to guess and to jump at conclusions, to gener- 
 alize hastily, etc. It was observed that many unskil- 
 ful hands came out of the schools, clumsy ringers, 
 wanting in neatness, untidy in work, inept in measur- 
 ing and weighing, incapable of handling things intelli- 
 gently. There had come an awakening from the dreams 
 of 1870, when we felt so certain that all England was 
 to be made good and happy through books. A remedy 
 was sought in natural science, and the next educa- 
 tional wave which was to roll over us began to rise. 
 It was thought that the temper of the really scientific 
 man, so patient in research, so accurate and conscien- 
 tious, so slow to dogmatize, so deferential t<? others, 
 might be fostered by experimental science in the 
 schools, acquiring " knowledge at first hand, "making 
 experiments, looking with great respect at balances, 
 weighing and measuring, and giving an account of 
 results. So laboratories were fitted up at great ex- 
 pense, and teachers with university degrees in science 
 were sought after. The height of the tide seemed to 
 be reached in 1904 and 1905 to judge by the tone of 
 Kegulations for the Curricula of Secondary Schools 
 issued by the Board of Education for in these years 
 it is most insistent and exacting for girls as well as 
 boys, as to time and scope of the syllabus in this 
 branch. Then disillusion seems to have set in and 
 the tide began to ebb. It appeared that the results 
 were small and poor in proportion to expectation and 
 to the outlay on laboratories. The desirable qualities 
 did not seem to develop as had been hoped, the temper 
 of mind fostered was not entirely what had been 
 desired. The conscientious accuracy that was to come
 
 MATHEMATICS AND NATURE STUDY 121 
 
 of measuring a millimetre and weighing a milligramme 
 was disappointing, and also the fluent readiness to give 
 an account of observations made, the desired accuracy 
 of expression, the caution in drawing inferences. The 
 links between this teaching and after life did not 
 seem to be satisfactorily established. The Board of 
 Education showed the first signs of a change of out- 
 look by the readjustment in the curriculum giving 
 an alternative syllabus for girls, and the latitude in 
 this direction is widening by degrees. It begins to 
 be whispered that even in some boys' schools the 
 laboratory is only used under compulsion or by excep- 
 tional students, and the wave seems likely to go down 
 as rapidly as it rose. 
 
 Probably for girls the strongest argument against 
 experimental science taught in laboratories is that it 
 has so little connexion with after life. As a discipline 
 the remedy did not go deeply enough into the realities 
 of life to reach the mental defects of girls ; it was arti- 
 ficial, and they laid it aside as a part of school life 
 when they went home. Latitude is now given by the 
 Board of Education for " an approved course in a 
 combination of the following subjects : needlework, 
 cooking, laundry-work, housekeeping, and household 
 hygiene for girls over fifteen years of age, to be substi- 
 tuted partially or wholly for science and for mathe- 
 matics other than arithmetic." Comparing this with 
 the regulations of five or six years ago when the only 
 alternative for girls was a " biological subject " instead 
 of physics, and elementary hygiene as a substitute for 
 chemistry, it would seem as if the Board of Edu- 
 cation had had reason to be dissatisfied with the
 
 122 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 "science " teaching for girls, and was determined to 
 seek a more practical system. 
 
 This practical aspect of things is penetrating into 
 every department, and when it is combined with some 
 study of first principles nothing better can be desired. 
 For instance, in the teaching of geography, of botany, 
 etc., there is a growing inclination to follow the line 
 of reality, the middle course between the book alone 
 and the laboratory alone, so that these subjects 
 gather living interest from their many points of con- 
 tact with human life, and give more play to the 
 powers of children. As the text-book of geography 
 is more and more superseded by the use of the atlas 
 alone, and the botanical chart by the children's own 
 drawings, and by the beautiful illustrations in books 
 prepared especially for them, the way is opened be- 
 fore them to worlds of beauty and wonder which 
 they may have for their own possession by the use of 
 their eyes and ears and thoughts and reasonings. 
 
 3. But better than all new apparatus and books 
 of delight is the informal study of the world around 
 us which has grown up by the side of organized 
 teaching of natural science. The name of " nature 
 study" is the least attractive point about it; the re- 
 ality escapes from all conventionalities of instruction, 
 and looks and listens and learns without the rules and 
 boundaries which belong to real lessons. Its range 
 is not restricted within formal limits ; it is neither 
 botany, nor natural history, nor physics ; neither in- 
 struction on light nor heat nor sound, but it wanders 
 on a voyage of discovery into all these domains. And 
 in so far as it does this, it appeals very strongly to
 
 MATHEMATICS AND NATURE STUDY 123 
 
 children. Children usually delight in flowers and dis- 
 like botany, are fond of animals and rather indifferent 
 to natural history. Life is what awakens their in- 
 terest ; they love the living thing as a whole and do not 
 care much for analysis or classification; these interests 
 grow up later. 
 
 The object of informal nature study is to put 
 children directly in touch with the beautiful and 
 wonderful things which are within their reach. Its 
 lesson-book is everywhere, its time is every time, its 
 spirit is wonder and delight. This is for the children. 
 Those who teach it have to look beyond, and it is not 
 so easy to teach as it is to learn. It cannot, properly 
 speaking, be learned by teachers out of books, though 
 books can do a great deal. But a long-used quiet 
 habit of observation gives it life and the stored-up 
 sweetness of years " the old is better." The most 
 charming books on nature study necessarily give a 
 second-hand tone to the teaching. But the point of 
 it all is knowledge at first-hand ; yet, for children 
 knowledge at first-hand is so limited that some one 
 to refer to, and some one to guide them is a necessity, 
 some one who will say at the right moment "look '' 
 and "listen," and who has looked and listened for 
 years. Perhaps the requirement of knowledge at first- 
 hand for children has sometimes been pushed a little 
 too far, with a deadening effect, for the progress of 
 such knowledge is very slow and laborious. How 
 little we should know if we only admitted first-hand 
 knowledge, but the stories of wonder from those who 
 have seen urge us on to see for ourselves ; and so we 
 swing backwards and forwards, from the world out-
 
 124 THE EDUCATION OP CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 side to the books, to find out more, from the books to 
 the world outside to see for ourselves. And a good 
 teacher, who is an evergreen learner, goes backwards 
 and forwards, too, sharing the work and heightening 
 the delight. All the stages come in turn, over and 
 over again, observation, experiment, inquiry from 
 others whether orally or in books, and in this subject 
 books abound more fascinating than fairy tales, and 
 their latest charm is that they are laying aside the 
 pose of a fairy tale and tell the simple truth. 
 
 The love of nature, awakened early, is a great 
 estate with which to endow a child, but it needs edu- 
 cation, that the proprietor of the estate may know 
 how to manage it, and not with the manners of a 
 parvenu miss either the inner spirit or the outward 
 behaviour belonging to the property. This right 
 manner and spirit of possession is what the informal 
 " nature study " aims at ; it is a point of view. Now 
 the point of view as to the outside world means a 
 great deal in life. Countrymen do not love nature 
 as townsmen love it. Their affection is deeper but 
 less emotional, like old friendships, undemonstrative 
 but everlasting. Countrymen see without looking, 
 and say very little about it. Townsmen in the 
 country look long and say what they have seen, but 
 they miss many things. A farmer stands stolidly 
 among the graces of his frisky lambs and seems to 
 miss their meaning, but this is because the manners 
 cultivated in his calling do not allow the expression 
 of feeling. It is all in his soul somewhere, deeply at 
 home, but impossible to utter. The townsman looks 
 eagerly, expresses a great deal, expresses it well, but
 
 MATHEMATICS AND NATURE STUDY 125 
 
 misses the spirit from want of a background to his 
 picture. One must know the whole round of the 
 year in the country to catch the spirit of any season 
 and perceive whence it comes and whither it goes. 
 
 On the other hand, the countryman in town thinks 
 that there is no beauty of the world left for him to 
 see, because the spirit there is a spirit of the hour 
 and not of the season, and natural beauty has to be 
 caught in evanescent appearances a florist's window 
 full of orchids in place of his woodlands and his 
 mkid is too slow to catch these. This too quick or 
 too slow habit of seeing belongs to minds as well as 
 to callings ; and when children are learning to look 
 around them at the world outside, it has to be taken 
 into account. Some will see without looking and be 
 satisfied slowly to drink in impressions, and they are 
 really glad to learn to express what they see. Others, 
 the quick, so-called " clever " children, look, and 
 judge, and comment, and overshoot the mark many 
 times before they really see. These may learn 
 patience in waiting for their garden seeds, and quiet- 
 ness from watching birds and beasts, and deliberation, 
 to a certain extent, from their constant mistakes. 
 To have the care of plants may teach them a good 
 deal of watchfulness and patience; it is of greater 
 value to a child to have grown one perfect flower than 
 to have pulled many to pieces to examine their struc- 
 ture. And the care of animals may teach a great 
 deal more if it learns to keep the balance between 
 silly idolatry of pets and cruel negligence the hot and 
 cold extremes of selfishness. 
 
 Little gardens of their own are perhaps the best
 
 126 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 gifts which can be given to children. To work in 
 them stores up not only health but joy. Every 
 flower in their garden stands for so much happiness, 
 and with that happiness an instinct for home life and 
 simple pleasures will strike deep roots. From growing 
 the humblest annual out of a seed-packet to grafting 
 roses there is work for every age, and even in the dead 
 season of the year the interest of a garden never dies. 
 
 In new countries gardens take new aspects. A 
 literal version of a garden party in the Transvaal 
 suggests possibilities of emancipation from the con- 
 ventionalities which weary the older forms of enter- 
 tainment with us. Its object was not to play in a 
 garden, but to plant one. Guests came from afar, 
 each one bringing a contribution of plants. The after- 
 noon was spent in laying out the beds and planting 
 the offerings, in hard, honest, dirty work. And all the 
 guests went home feeling that they had really lived 
 a day that was worth living, for a garden had been 
 made, in the rough, it is true ; but even in the rough 
 in such a new country a garden is a great possession. 
 
 The outcome of these considerations is that the 
 love of nature is a great source of happiness for 
 children, happiness of the best kind in taking posses- 
 sion of a world that seems to be in many ways 
 designed especially for them. It brings their minds 
 to a place where many ways meet ; to the confines 
 of science, for they want to know the reasons of 
 things ; to the confines of art, for what they can 
 understand they will strive to interpret and express ; 
 to the confines of worship, for a child's soul, hushed 
 in wonder, is very near to God.
 
 CHAPTER VIH. 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 " If Chaucer, as has been said, is Spring, it is a modern, pre- 
 mature Spring, followed by an interval of doubtful weather. 
 Sidney is the very Spring the later May. And in prose he is 
 the authentic, only Spring. It is a prose full of young joy, and 
 young power, and young inexperience, and young melancholy, 
 which is the wilfulness of joy ; . . . 
 
 "Sidney's prose is treasureable, not only for its absolute 
 merits, but as the bud from which English prose, that gorgeous 
 and varied flower, has unfolded." FRANCIS THOMPSON, "The 
 Prose of Poets." 
 
 THE study of one's own language is the very heart of 
 a modern education ; to the study of English, there- 
 fore, belongs a central place in the education of 
 English-speaking girls. It has two functions : one is 
 to become the instrument by which almost all the 
 other subjects are apprehended ; the other, more 
 characteristically its own, is to give that particular 
 tone to the mind which distinguishes it from others. 
 This is a function that is always in process of further 
 development ; for the mind of a nation elaborates its 
 language, and the language gives tone to the mind 
 of the new generation. The influences at work upon 
 the English language at present are very complex, 
 and play on it with great force, so that the changes 
 
 127
 
 128 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 are startling in their rapidity. English is not only 
 the language of a nation or of a race, not even of an 
 empire ; and the inflowing elements affirm this. We 
 have kindred beyond the empire, and their speech is 
 more and more impressing ours, forging from the 
 common stock, which they had from us, whole arm- 
 ouries full of expressive words, words with edge and 
 point and keen directness which never miss the mark. 
 Some are unquestionably an acquisition, those 
 which come from States where the language is 
 honoured and studied with a carefulness that puts to 
 shame all except our very best. They have kept 
 some gracious and rare expressions, now quaint to 
 our ear, preserved out of Elizabethan English in the 
 current speech of to-day. These have a fragrance of 
 the olden time, but we cannot absorb them again into 
 our own spoken language. Then they have their 
 incisive modern expressions so perfectly adapted for 
 their end that they are irresistible even to those who 
 cling by tradition to the more stable element in 
 English. These also come from States in which 
 language is conscious of itself and looks carefully to 
 literary use, and they do us good rather than harm. 
 Other importations from younger States are too 
 evidently unauthorized to be in any way beautiful, 
 and are blamed on both sides of the ocean as de- 
 basing the coinage. But these, too, are making 
 their way, so cheap and convenient are they, and so 
 expressive. 
 
 It is needful in educating children to remember 
 that this strong inflowing current must be taken into 
 account, and also to remember that it does not be-
 
 ENGLISH 129 
 
 long to them. They must first be trained in the use 
 of the more lasting elements of English; later on 
 they may use their discretion in catching the new 
 words which are afloat in the air, but the foundations 
 must be laid otherwise. It takes the bloom off the 
 freshness of young writers if they are determined to 
 exhibit the last new words that are in, or out of 
 season. New words have a doubtful position at 
 first. They float here and there like thistle-down, 
 and their future depends upon where they settle. 
 But until they are established and accepted they are 
 out of place for children's use. They are contrary 
 to the perfect manner for children. We ask that 
 their English should be simple and unaffected, not 
 that it should glitter with the newest importations, 
 brilliant as they may be. It is from the more per- 
 manent element in the language that they will acquire 
 what they ought to have, the characteristic traits of 
 thought and manner which belong to it. It is not 
 too much to look for such things in children's writing 
 and speaking. The first shoots and leaves may come 
 up early though the full growth and flower may be 
 long waited for. These characteristics are often better 
 put into words by foreign critics than by ourselves, 
 for we are inclined to take them as a whole and to 
 take them for granted ; hence the trouble experienced 
 by educated foreigners in catching the characteristics 
 of English style, and their surprise in finding that 
 we have no authentic guides to English composition, 
 and that the court of final appeal is only the standard 
 of the best use. The words of a German critic on a 
 collection of English portraits in Berlin are very 
 
 9
 
 130 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 happily pointed and might be as aptly applied to 
 writing as to painting. 
 
 " English, utterly English ! Nothing on God's 
 earth could be more English than this whole collec- 
 tion. The personality of the artist (it happened that 
 he was an Irishman), the countenances of the subjects, 
 their dress, the discreetly suggestive backgrounds, all 
 have the characteristic touch of British culture, very 
 refined, very high-bred, very quiet, very much clari- 
 fied, very confident, very neat, very well-appointed, a 
 little dreamy and just a little wearisome the 
 precise qualities which at the same time impress and 
 annoy us in the English." 
 
 This is exactly what might be said of Pater's writ- 
 ing, but that is full-grown English. Pater is not a 
 model for children, they would find him more than 
 "just a little wearisome." If anyone could put into 
 words what Sir Joshua Eeynolds' portraits of children 
 express, that would be exactly what we want for the 
 model of their English. They can write and they 
 can speak in a beautiful way of their own if they are 
 allowed a little liberty to grow wild, and trained 
 a little to climb. Their charm is candour, as it is 
 the charm of Sir Joshua's portraits, with a quiet con- 
 fidence that all is well in the world they know, and 
 that everyone is kind ; this gives the look of trustful 
 innocence and unconcern. Their writing and talk- 
 ing have this charm, as long as nothing has happened 
 to make them conscious of themselves. But these 
 first blossoms drop off, and there is generally an in- 
 termediate stage in which they can neither speak 
 nor write, but keep their thoughts close, and will not
 
 ENGLISH 131 
 
 give themselves away. Only when that stage is past 
 do they really and with full consciousness seek to 
 express themselves, and pay some attention to the 
 self-expression of others. This third stage has its 
 May-day, when the things which have become hack- 
 neyed to our minds from long use come to them 
 with the full force of revelations, and they astonish 
 us by their exuberant delight. But they have a 
 right to their May-day and it ought not to be cut 
 short ; the sun will go down of itself, and then June 
 will come in its own time and ripen the green wood, 
 and after that will come pruning time, in another 
 season, and then the phase of severity and fastidious- 
 ness, and after that if they continue to write they 
 will be truly themselves. 
 
 In every stage we have our duty to do, encouraging 
 and pruning by turns, and, as in everything else, we 
 must begin with ourselves and go on with ourselves 
 that there may be always something living to give, 
 and some growth ; for in this we need never cease to 
 grow, in knowledge, in taste, and in critical power. 
 The means are not far to seek ; if we really care about 
 these things, the means are everywhere, in reading 
 the best things, in taking notes, in criticising inde- 
 pendently and comparing with the best criticism, in 
 forming our own views and yet keeping a willingness 
 to modify them, in an attitude of mind that is always 
 learning, always striving, always raising its standard, 
 never impatient but permanently dissatisfied. 
 
 We have three spheres of action in the use of the 
 language there is English to speak, English to write, 
 
 and the wide field of English to read, and there 
 
 9*
 
 132 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 are vital interests bound up in each for the after life 
 of children. As they speak, so will be the tone of 
 their intercourse ; as they write, so will be the stan- 
 dard of their habits of thought; and as they read so 
 will be the atmosphere of their life, and the prepara- 
 tion of their judgment for those critical moments of 
 choice which are the pivots upon which its whole 
 action moves. 
 
 If practice alone would develop it to perfection, 
 speaking ought to be easy to learn, but it does not 
 prove so, and especially when children are together 
 in schools the weeds grow faster than the crop, and 
 the crop is apt to be thin. The language of the 
 majority holds its own ; children among children can 
 express with a very small vocabulary what they want 
 to say to each other, whereas an only child who lives 
 with its elders has usually a larger vocabulary than 
 it can manage, which makes the sayings of only 
 children quaint and almost weird, as the perfection 
 of the instrument persuades us that there is a full- 
 grown thought within it, and a child's fancy sud- 
 denly laughs at us from under the disguise. 
 
 There is general lamentation at present because 
 the art of conversation has fallen to a very low ebb ; 
 there is, in particular, much complaint of the conver- 
 sation of girls whose education is supposed to have 
 been careful. The subjects they care to talk of are 
 found to be few and poor, their power of expressing 
 themselves very imperfect, the scanty words at their 
 command worked to death in supplying for all kinds 
 of things to which they are not appropriate. We 
 know that we have a great deal of minted gold in the
 
 ENGLISH 133 
 
 English language, but little of it finds its way into 
 our general conversation, most of our intercourse is 
 carried on with small change, a good deal of it even 
 m coppers, and the worst trouble of all is that so few 
 seem to care or to regret it. Perhaps the young 
 generation will do so later in life, but unless some- 
 thing is done for them during the years of their 
 education it does not seem probable, except in the 
 case of the few who are driven by their professional 
 work to think of it, or drawn to it by some influence 
 that compels them to exert themselves in earnest. 
 
 Listening to the conversation of girls whose 
 thoughts and language are still in a fluid state, say 
 from the age of 17 to 25, gives a great deal of matter 
 for thought to those who are interested in education, 
 and this point of language is of particular interest. 
 There are the new catch-words of each year; they 
 had probably a great piquancy in the mouth of the 
 originator but they very soon become flat by repeti- 
 tion, then they grow jaded, are more and more ne- 
 glected and pass away altogether. From their rising 
 to their setting the arc is very short about five years 
 seems to be the limit of their existence, and no one 
 regrets them. We do not seem to be in a happy 
 vein of development at present as to the use of words, 
 and these short-lived catch-words are generally poor 
 in quality. Our girl talkers are neither rich nor in- 
 dependent in their language, they lay themselves 
 under obligations to anyone who will furnish a new 
 catch-word, and especially to boys from whom they 
 take rather than accept contributions of a different 
 kind. It is an old-fashioned regret that girls should
 
 134 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 copy boys instead of developing themselves indepen- 
 dently in language and manners ; but though old- 
 fashioned, it will never cease to be true that what was 
 made to be beautiful on its own line is dwarfed and 
 crippled by straining it into imitation of something 
 else which it can never be. 
 
 What can be done for the girls to give them first 
 more independence in their language and then more 
 power to express themselves? Probably the best 
 cure, food and tonic in one, is reading ; a taste for the 
 best reading alters the whole condition of mental life, 
 and without being directly attacked the defects in 
 conversation will correct themselves. But we could 
 do more than is often done for the younger children, 
 not by talking directly about these things, but by 
 being a little harder to please, and giving when it is 
 possible the cordial commendation which makes them 
 feel that what they have done was worth working for. 
 
 Becitation and reading aloud, besides all their other 
 uses, have this use that they accustom children to the 
 sound of their own voices uttering beautiful words, 
 which takes away the odd shyness which some of 
 them feel in going beyond their usual round of ex- 
 pressions and extending their vocabulary. We owe 
 it to our language as well as to each individual child 
 to make recitation and reading aloud as beautiful as 
 possible. Perhaps one of the causes of our conversa- 
 tional slovenliness is the neglect of these ; critics of an 
 older generation have not ceased to lament their 
 decay, but it seems as if better times were coming 
 again, and that as the fundamentals of breathing and 
 voice-production are taught, we shall increase the
 
 ENGLISH 135 
 
 scope of the power acquired and give it more import- 
 ance. There is a great deal underlying all this, 
 beyond the acquirement of voice and pronunciation. 
 If recitation is cultivated there is an inducement to 
 learn by heart ; this in its turn ministers to the love 
 of reading and to the formation of literary taste, and 
 enriches the whole life of the mind. There is an in- 
 direct but far-reaching gain of self-possession, from 
 the need for outward composure and inward concen- 
 tration of mind in reciting before others. But it is 
 a matter of importance to choose recitations so that 
 nothing should be learnt which must be thrown 
 away, nothing which is not worth remembering for 
 life. It is a pity to make children acquire what they 
 will soon despise when they might learn something 
 that they will grow up to and prize as long as they live. 
 There are beautiful things that they can understand, 
 if something is wanted for to-day, which have at the 
 same time a life that will never be outgrown. There 
 are poems with two aspects, one of which is ac- 
 ceptable to a child and the other to the grown-up 
 mind ; these, one is glad to find in anthologies for 
 children. But there are many poems about children 
 of which the interest is so subtle as to be quite un- 
 suitable for their collection. Such a poem is " We 
 are seven." Children can be taught to say it, even 
 with feeling, but their own genuine impression of it 
 seems to be that the little girl was rather weak in 
 intellect for eight years old, or a little perverse. 
 Whereas Browning's " An incident of the French 
 camp " appeals to them by pride of courage as it 
 does to us by pathos. It may not be a gem, poeti-
 
 136 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 cally speaking, but it lives. As children grow older 
 it is only fair to allow them some choice in what 
 they learn and recite, to give room for their taste to 
 follow its own bent ; there are a few things which it 
 is well that every one should know by heart, but be- 
 yond these the field is practically without limits. 
 
 Perfect recitation or reading aloud is very rare and 
 difficult to acquire. For a few years there was a 
 tendency to over-emphasis in both, and, in recitation, 
 to teach gesture, for which as a nation we are singu- 
 larly inapt. This is happily disappearing, simplicity 
 and restraint are regaining their own, at least in the 
 best teaching for girls. As to reading aloud to 
 Dhildren it begins to be recognized that it should not 
 be too explicit, nor too emphatic, nor too pointed ; 
 that it must leave something for the natural grace 
 of the listener's intelligence to supply and to feel. 
 Thereis a didactic tone in reading which says, " you are 
 most unintelligent, but listen to ME and there may yet 
 be hope that you will understand." This leaves the 
 "poor creatures" of the class still unmoved and un- 
 enlightened ; " the child is not awakened," while the 
 more sensitive minds are irritated ; they can feel it as 
 an impertinence without quite knowing why they are 
 hurt. It is a question of manners and considera- 
 tion which is perceptible to them, for they like what 
 is best sympathy and suggestiveness rather than 
 hammering in. They can help each other by their 
 simple insight into these things when they read aloud, 
 and if a reading lesson in class is conducted as an 
 exercise in criticism it is full of interest. The frank 
 good-nature and gravity of twelve-year-old critics
 
 ENGLISH 137 
 
 makes their operations quite painless, and they are 
 accepted with equal good humour and gravity, no one 
 wasting any emotion and a great deal of good sense 
 being exchanged. 
 
 Conversation, as conversation, is hard to teach, we 
 can only lead the way and lay down a few principles 
 which keep it in the right path. These common- 
 places of warning, as old as civilization itself, belong 
 to manners and to fundamental unselfishness, but 
 obvious as they are they have to be said and to be 
 repeated and enforced until they become matters of 
 course. Not to seem bored, not to interrupt, not to 
 contradict, not to make personal remarks, not to talk of 
 oneself (some one was naive enough to say " then what 
 is there to talk of "), not to get heated and not to look 
 cold, not to do all the talking and not to be silent, 
 not to advance if the ground seems uncertain, and to 
 be sensitively attentive to what jars all these and 
 other things are troublesome to obtain, but exceed- 
 ingly necessary. And even observing them all we 
 may be just as far from conversation as before ; how 
 often among English people, through shyness or 
 otherwise, it simply faints from inanition. We can 
 at least teach that a first essential is to have some- 
 thing to say, and that the best preparation of mind 
 is thought and reading and observation, to be inter- 
 ested in many things, and to give enough personal 
 application to a few things as to have something 
 worth saying about them. 
 
 By testing in writing every step of an educational 
 course a great deal of command over all acquired 
 materials may be secured. As our girls grow older,
 
 138 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 essay-writing becomes the most powerful means for 
 fashioning their minds and bringing out their indi- 
 vidual characteristics. 
 
 It is customary now to begin with oral composi- 
 tion, quite rightly, for one difficulty at a time is 
 enough. But when children have to write for them- 
 selves the most natural beginning is by letters. A 
 great difference in thought and power is observable 
 in their first attempts, but in the main the structure 
 of their letters is similar, like the houses and the 
 moonfaced persons which they draw in the same 
 symbolic way. Perhaps both are accepted conven- 
 tions to which they conform handed down through 
 generations of the nursery tradition though students 
 of children are inclined to believe that these symboli- 
 cal drawings represent their real mind in the repre- 
 sentation of material things. Their communications 
 move in little bounds, a succession of happy thoughts, 
 the kind of things which birds in conversation might 
 impart to one another, turning their heads quickly 
 from side to side and catching sight of many things 
 unrelated amongst themselves. It is a pity that this 
 manner is often allowed to last too long, for in these 
 stages of mental training it is better to be on the 
 stretch to reach the full stature of one's age rather 
 than to linger behind it, and early promise in com- 
 position means a great deal. 
 
 To write of the things which belong to one's age 
 in a manner that is fully up to their worth or even a 
 little beyond it, is better than to strain after some- 
 thing to say in a subject that is beyond the mental 
 grasp. The first thing to learn is how to write
 
 ENGLISH 139 
 
 pleasantly about the most simple and ordinary 
 things. But a common fault in children's writing 
 is to wait for an event, " something to write about," 
 and to dispose of it in three or four sentences like 
 telegrams. 
 
 The influences which determine these early steps 
 are, first, the natural habit of mind, for thoughtful 
 children see most interesting and strange things in 
 their surroundings; secondly, the tone of their ordinary 
 conversation, but especially a disposition that is un- 
 selfish and affectionate. Warm-hearted children who 
 are gifted with sympathy have an intuition of what 
 will give pleasure, and that is one of the great secrets 
 of letter-writing. But the letters they write will al- 
 ways depend in a great measure on the letters they 
 receive, and a family gift for letter-writing is generally 
 the outcome of a happy home-life in which all the 
 members are of interest to each other and their doings 
 of importance. 
 
 What sympathy gives to letter-writing, imagina- 
 tion gives to the first essays of children in longer 
 compositions. Imagination puts them in sympathy 
 with all the world, with things as well as persons, as 
 affection keeps them in touch with every detail of 
 the home world. But its work is not so simple. 
 Home affection is true and is a law to itself ; if it is 
 present it holds all the little child's world in a right 
 proportion, because all heavenly affection is bound up 
 with it. But the awakening and the rapid develop- 
 ment of imagination as girls grow up needs a great 
 deal of guidance and training. Fancy may overgrow 
 itself, and take an undue predominance, so that life
 
 140 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 is tuned to the pitch of imagination and not imagina- 
 tion to the pitch of life. It is hardly possible and 
 hardly to be desired that it should never overflow 
 the limits of perfect moderation ; if it is to be con- 
 trolled, there must be something to control, in prun- 
 ing there must be some strong shoots to cut back, 
 and in toning down there must be some over-gaudy 
 colours to subdue. It is better that there should be 
 too much life than too little, and better that criticism 
 should find something vigorous enough to lay hold 
 of, rather than something which cannot be felt at all. 
 This is the time to teach children to begin their 
 essays without preamble, by something that they 
 really want to say, and to finish them leaving some- 
 thing still unsaid that they would like to have ex- 
 pressed, so as not to pour out to the last drop their 
 mind or their fancy on any subject. This discipline 
 of promptitude in beginning and restraint at the end 
 will tell for good upon the quality of their writing. 
 
 But the work of the imagination may also betray 
 something unreal and morbid this is a more serious 
 fault and means trouble coming. It generally points 
 to a want of focus in the mind; because self predomi- 
 nates in the affections feeling and interest are self- 
 centred. Then the whole development of mind comes 
 to a disappointing check the mental power remains 
 on the level of unstable sixteen years old, and the 
 selfish side develops either emotionally or frivolously 
 according to taste, faster than it can be con- 
 trolled. 
 
 There are cross-roads at about sixteen in a girl's 
 life. After two or three troublesome years she is go-
 
 ENGLISH 141 
 
 ing to make her choice, not always consciously and 
 deliberately, but those who are alive to what is going 
 on may expect to hear about this time her speech 
 from the throne, announcing what the direction of 
 her life is going to be. It is not necessarily the 
 choice of a vocation in life, that belongs to an order 
 of things that has neither day nor hour determined 
 for it, but it is when the mental outlook takes a 
 direction of its own, literary, or artistic, or philosophi- 
 cal, or worldly, or turning towards home ; it may some- 
 times be the moment of decisive vocation to leave all 
 things for God, or, as has so often happened in the 
 lives of the Saints, the time when a child's first de- 
 sire, forgotten for a while, asserts itself again. In 
 any case it is generally a period of new awakenings, 
 and if things are as they ought to be, generally a 
 time of deep happiness the ideal hour in the day of 
 our early youth. All this is faithfully rendered in 
 the essays of that time ; we unsuspectingly give our- 
 selves away. 
 
 After this, for those who are going to write at all, 
 comes the " viewy " stage, and this is full of interest. 
 We are so dogmatic, so defiant, so secure in our per- 
 suasions. It is impossible to believe that they will 
 ever alter. Yet who has lived through this phase of 
 abounding activity and has not found that, at first 
 with the shock of disappointment, and afterwards 
 without regret, a memorial cross had to be set by 
 our wayside, here and there, marking the place of 
 rest for our most enthusiastic convictions. In the 
 end one comes to be glad of it, for if it means any- 
 thing it means a growth in the truth.
 
 142 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 The criticism of essays is one of the choice oppor- 
 tunities which education offers, for then the contact 
 of mind with mind is so close that truth can be 
 told under form of criticism, which as exhortation 
 would have been less easily accepted. It is evident 
 that increasing freedom must be allowed as the years 
 go on, and that girls have a right to their own taste 
 and manner and within the limits of their know- 
 ledge to form their own opinions ; but it is in this 
 period of their development that they are most sensi- 
 tive to the mental influence of those who are training 
 them, and their quick responsiveness to the best is a 
 constant stimulus to go on for their sakes, discovering 
 and tasting and training one's discernment in what 
 is most excellent. 
 
 From this point we may pass to what is first in 
 the order of things but first and last in this depart- 
 ment of an English education and that is reading, 
 with the great field of literature before us, and the 
 duty of making the precious inheritance all that it 
 ought to be to this young generation of ours 
 heiresses to all its best. 
 
 English literature will be to children as they grow- 
 up, what we have made it to them in the beginning. 
 There will always be the exceptional few, privileged 
 ones, who seem to have received the key to it as a 
 personal gift. They will find their way without us, 
 but if we have the honour of rendering them service 
 we may do a great deal even for them in showing 
 where the best things lie, and the way to make them 
 one's own. But the greater number have to be taken 
 through the first steps with much thought and dis-
 
 ENGLISH 143 
 
 cernment, for taste in literature is not always easy to 
 develop, and may be spoiled by bad management afc 
 the beginning. We are not very teachable as a nation 
 in this matter our young taste is wayward, and 
 sometimes contradictory, it will not give account of 
 itself, very likely it cannot. We have inarticulate 
 convictions that this is right, and suits us, and some- 
 thing else is wrong as far as our taste is concerned, 
 and that we have rights to like what we like and 
 condemn what we do not like, and we have gone a 
 considerable way along the road before we can stop 
 and look about us and see the reason of our choice. 
 English literature itself fosters this independent 
 spirit of criticism by its extraordinary abundance, its 
 own wide liberty of spirit, its surpassing truthfulness. 
 Our greatest poets and our truest do not sing to an 
 audience but to their Maker and to His world, and 
 let anyone who can understand it catch the song, and 
 sing it after them. No doubt many have fallen from 
 the truth and piped an artificial tune, and they have 
 had their following. But love for the real and true is 
 very deep and in the end it prevails, and as far as we 
 can obtain it with children it must prevail. 
 
 Their first acquaintance with beautiful things is 
 best established by reading aloud to them, and this 
 need not be limited entirely to what they can under- 
 stand at the time. Even if we read something that 
 is beyond them, they have listened to the cadences, 
 they have heard the song without the words, the 
 words will come to them later. If there is good 
 ground for the seed to fall upon, and we sow good 
 seed, it will come up with its thirtyfold or more, as
 
 144 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 seed sown in the mind seems always to come up, 
 whether it be good or bad, and even if it has lain 
 dormant for years. There are good moments laid up 
 in store for the future when the words, which have 
 been familiar for years, suddenly awake to life, and 
 their meaning, full-grown, at the moment when we 
 need it, or at the moment when we are able to under- 
 stand its value, dawns upon the mind. Then we are 
 grateful to those who invested these revenues for us 
 though we knew it not. We are not grateful to those 
 who give us the less good though pleasant and easy 
 to enjoy. A little severity and fastidiousness render 
 us better service. And this is especially true for 
 girls, since for them it is above all important that 
 there should be a touch of the severe in their taste, 
 and that they should be a little exacting, for if they 
 once let themselves go to what is too light-heartedly 
 popular they do not know where to draw the line and 
 they go very far, with great loss to themselves and 
 others. 
 
 One of the beautiful things of to-day in England 
 is the wealth of children's literature. It is a peculiar 
 grace of our time that we are all trying to give the 
 best to the children, and this is most of all remarkable 
 in the books published for them. We had rather a 
 silly moment in which we kept them babies too long 
 and thought that rhymes without reason would please 
 them, and another moment when we were just a little 
 morbid about them ; but now we have struck a very 
 happy vein, free from all morbidness, very innocent 
 and very happy, abounding in life and in no way un- 
 fitting for the experiences that have to be lived
 
 ENGLISH 115 
 
 through afterwards. No one thinks it waste of time 
 to write and illustrate books for children, and to do 
 their very best in both, and the result of historical 
 research and the most critical care of texts is put 
 within the children's reach with a real understanding 
 of what they can care for. A true appreciation of 
 the English classics must result from this, and the 
 mere reading of what is choice is an early safeguard 
 against the less good. 
 
 Heading, without commentary, is what is best 
 accepted ; we are beginning to come back to this 
 belief. It is agreed almost generally that there has 
 been too much comment and especially too much 
 analysis in our teaching of literature, and that the 
 majesty or the loveliness of our great writers' works 
 have not been allowed to speak for themselves. We 
 have not trusted them enough, and we have not 
 trusted the children so much as they deserved. The 
 little boy who said he could understand if only they 
 would not explain has become historical, and his 
 word of warning, though it may not have sounded 
 quite respectful, has been taken into account. We 
 have now fewer of the literary Baedeker's guides who 
 stopped us at particular points, to look back for the 
 view, and gave the history and date of the work with 
 its surrounding circumstances, and the meaning of 
 every word, while they took away the soul of the 
 poem, and robbed us of our whole impression. We 
 realize now that by reading and reading again, until 
 they have mastered the music, and the meaning dawns 
 of itself, children gain more than the best annota- 
 tions can give them ; these will be wanted later on, 
 
 10
 
 146 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 but in the beginning they set the attitude of mind 
 completely wrong for early literary study in which 
 reverence and receptiveness and delight are of more 
 account than criticism. The memory of these things 
 is so much to us in after life, and if the living forms 
 of beautiful poems have been torn to pieces to show 
 us the structure within, and the matter has been 
 shaken out into ungainly paraphrase and pursued 
 with relentless analysis until it has given up the last 
 secret of its meaning, the remembrance of this de- 
 structive process will remain and the spirit will never 
 be the same again. The best hope for beautiful 
 memories is in perfect reading aloud, with that rever- 
 ence of mind and reticence of feeling which keeps 
 itself in the background, not imposing a marked per- 
 Bonal interpretation, but holding up the poem with 
 enough support to make it speak for itself and no more. 
 There is a vexed question about the reading allowed 
 to girls which cannot be entirely passed over. It is a 
 point on which authorities differ widely among them- 
 selves, according to the standard of their family, the 
 whole early training which has given their mind a 
 particular bent, the quality of their own taste and 
 their degree of sensitiveness and insight, the views 
 which they hold about the character of girls, their 
 ideas of the world and the probable future surround- 
 ings of those whom they advise, as well as many 
 other considerations. It is quite impossible to arrive 
 at a uniform standard, or at particular precepts or at 
 lists of books or authors which should or should not 
 be allowed. Even if these could be drawn up, it 
 would be more and more difficult to enforce them or
 
 ENGLISH 147 
 
 to keep the rules abreast of the requirements of each 
 publishing season. In reading, as in conduct, each 
 one must bear more and more of their own personal 
 responsibility, and unless the law is within themselves 
 there is no possibility of enforcing it. 
 
 The present Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, 
 when rector of St. John's Seminary, Wonersh, used to 
 lay down the following rules for his students, and on 
 condition of their adhering to these rules he allowed 
 them great freedom in their reading, but if they were 
 disregarded, it was understood that the rector took 
 no responsibility about the books they read : 
 
 1. " Be perfectly conscientious, and if you find a 
 book is doing you harm stop reading it at once. If 
 you know you cannot stop you must be most careful 
 not to read anything you don't know about." 
 
 2. "Be perfectly frank with your confessor and 
 other superiors. Don't keep anything hidden from 
 them." 
 
 3. "Don't recommend books to others which, al- 
 though they may do no harm to you, might do harm 
 to them." 
 
 These rules are very short but they call for a great 
 deal of self-control, frankness, and discretion. They 
 set up an inward standard for the conscience, and, if 
 honestly followed, they answer in practice any diffi- 
 culty that is likely to arise as to choice of reading. 1 
 
 But the application of these rules presupposes a 
 
 1 In the Appendix will be found a pastoral letter by Cardinal 
 Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, then Bishop of South- 
 wark, bearing on this subject and full of instruction for all who 
 have to deal with it. 
 
 10*
 
 148 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 degree of judgment and self-restraint which are hardly 
 to be found in girls of school-room years, and before 
 they can adjust themselves to the relative standard and 
 use the curb for themselves, it is necessary to set be- 
 fore them some fixed rules by which to judge. While 
 life is young and character plastic and personal 
 valuations still in formation, the difficulty is to know 
 what is harmful. " How am I to know," such a 
 one may ask, " whether what seems harmful to me 
 may not be really a gain, giving me a richer life, a 
 greater expansion of spirit, a more independent and 
 human character ? May not this effect which I take 
 to be harm, be no more than necessary growing pains ; 
 may it not be bringing me into truer relation with 
 life as it is, and as a whole ? " 
 
 There will always be on one side timid and mediocre 
 minds, satisfied to shut themselves up and safeguard 
 what they already have ; and on the other more daring 
 and able spirits who are tempted beyond the line of 
 safety in a thirst for discovery and adventure, and 
 are thus swept out beyond their own immature con- 
 trol. Books that foster the spirit of rebellion, of 
 doubt and discontent concerning the essentials and 
 inevitable elements of human life, that tend to sap 
 the sense of personal responsibility, and to disparage 
 the cardinal virtues and the duty of self-restraint as 
 against impulse, are emphatically bad. They are 
 particularly bad for girls with their impressionable 
 minds and tendency to imitation, and inclination to 
 be led on by the glamour of the old temptation, 
 " Your eyes shall be opened ; you shall be as gods, 
 knowing good and evil."
 
 ENGLISH 149 
 
 To follow a doubt or a lie or a by-way of conduct 
 with the curiosity to see what comes of it in the end, 
 is to prepare their own minds for similar lines of 
 thought and action, and in the crises of life, when 
 they have to choose for themselves, often unadvised 
 and without time to deliberate, they are more likely 
 to fall by the doubt or the lie or the spirit of revolt 
 which has become familiar to them in thought and 
 sympathy.
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES. 
 
 " All nations have their message from on high, 
 Each the messiah of some central thought, 
 For the fulfilment and delight of Man : 
 One has to teach that Labour is divine ; 
 Another Freedom and another Mind ; 
 And all, that God is open-eyed and just, 
 The happy centre and calm heart of all." 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 
 
 WE cannot have a perfect knowledge even of our own 
 language without some acquaintance with more than 
 one other, either classical or modern. This is especi- 
 ally true of English because it has drawn its strength 
 and wealth from so many sources, and absorbed 
 them into itself. But this value is usually taken in- 
 directly, by the way, and the understanding of it only 
 comes to us after years as an appreciable good. It 
 is, however, recognized that no education correspond- 
 ing to the needs of our own time can be perfected or 
 even adequately completed in one language alone. 
 Not only do the actual conditions of life make it im- 
 perative to have more than one tongue at our com- 
 mand from the rapid extension of facilities for travel- 
 ling, and increased intercourse with other nations; 
 but in proportion to the cooling down of our extreme 
 
 160
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 151 
 
 ardour for experimental science in the school-room 
 we are returning to recognize in language a means 
 of education more adapted to prepare children for 
 life, by fitting them for intercourse with their fellow- 
 creatures and giving them some appreciative un- 
 derstanding of the works of man's mind. Thus 
 languages, and especially modern languages, are as- 
 suming more and more importance in the education 
 of children, not only with us, but in most other 
 countries of Europe. In some of them the methods 
 are distinctly in advance of ours. 
 
 Much has been written of late years in the course 
 of educational discussions as to the value of classical 
 studies in education. As the best authorities are not 
 yet in agreement among themselves it would be 
 obviously out of place to add anything here on the 
 subject. But the controversy principally belongs to 
 classics in boys' schools ; as to the study of Latin by 
 girls, and in particular to its position in Catholic 
 schools, there is perhaps something yet to be said. 
 
 In non-Catholic schools for girls Latin has not, 
 even now, a great hold. It is studied for certain ex- 
 aminations, but except for the few students whose 
 life takes a professional turn it scarcely outlives the 
 school-room. Girl students at universities cannot 
 compete on equal terms with men in a classical 
 course, and the fact is very generally acknowledged 
 by their choosing another. Except in the rarest 
 instances let us not be afraid to own it our Latin 
 is that of amateurs, brilliant amateurs perhaps, but 
 unmistakable. Latin, for girls, is a source of de- 
 light, a beautiful enrichment of their mental life, most
 
 152 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 precious in itself and in its influence, but it is not a 
 living power, nor a familiar instrument, nor a great 
 discipline ; it is deficient in hardness and closeness of 
 grain, so that it cannot take polish ; it is apt to betray 
 by unexpected transgressions the want of that long, 
 detailed, severe training which alone can make 
 classical scholarship. It is usually a little tremulous, 
 not quite sure of itself, and indeed its best adorn- 
 ment is generally the sobriety induced by an over- 
 shadowing sense of paternal correction and solicitude 
 always present to check rashness and desultoriness, 
 and make it at least " gang warily " with a finger on 
 its lip ; and their attainments in Latin are, at the 
 best, receptively rather than actively of value. 
 
 In Catholic girls' schools, however, the elements of 
 Latin are almost necessity. It is wanting in 
 courtesy, it is almost uncouth for us to grow up with- 
 out any knowledge of the language of Holy Church. 
 It is almost impossible for educated Catholics to have 
 right taste in devotion, the " love and relish " of the 
 most excellent things, without some knowledge of our 
 great liturgical prayers and hymns in the original. 
 We never can really know them if we only hear them 
 halting and plunging and splashing through transla- 
 tions, wasting their strength in many words as they 
 must unavoidably do in English, and at best only 
 reaching an approximation to the sense. The use of 
 them in the original is discipline and devotion in one, 
 and it strengthens the Catholic historical hold on the 
 past, with a sense of nearness, when we dwell 'with 
 some understanding on the very words which have 
 been sung in the Church subsisting in all ages and
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 163 
 
 teaching all nations. This is our birthright, but it is 
 not truly ours unless we can in some degree make use 
 of what we own. 
 
 It has often been pointed out that even to the most 
 uneducated amongst our people Latin is never a dead 
 language to Catholics, and that the familiar prayers 
 at Mass and public devotions make them at home in 
 the furthest countries of the earth as soon as they are 
 within the church doors. So far as this, it is a uni- 
 versal language for us, and even if it went no further 
 than the world- wide home feeling of the poor in our 
 churches it would make us grateful for every word of 
 Latin that has a familiar sound to them, and this 
 alone might make us anxious to teach Catholic 
 children at school, for the use of prayer and devotion, 
 as much Latin as they can learn even if they never 
 touch a classic. 
 
 Our attitude towards the study of modern languages 
 has had its high and low tides within the last century. 
 We have had our submissive and our obstinate moods ; 
 at present we are rather well and affably disposed. 
 French used to be acknowledged without a rival as 
 the universal language ; it was a necessity, and in 
 general the older generation learned it carefully and 
 spoke it well. At that time Italian was learned from 
 taste and German was exceptional. Queen Victoria's 
 German marriage and all the close connexion that 
 followed from it pressed the study of German to the 
 front ; the influence of Carlyle told in the same direc- 
 tion, and the study of Italian declined. Then in our 
 enthusiasm for physical sciences for a time we read 
 more German, but not German of the best quality,
 
 154 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 and in another line we were influenced by German 
 literary criticism. Now, the balance of things has 
 altered again. For scholarship and criticism German 
 is in great request ; in commercial education it is 
 being outrun by Spanish ; for the intercourse of ordin- 
 ary life Germans are learning English much more 
 eagerly than we are learning German. We have had 
 a fit of let us call it shyness, but we are trying to 
 do better. We recognize that these fits of shyness are 
 not altogether to our credit, not wholly reasonable, and 
 that we are not incapable of learning foreign languages 
 well. We know the story of the little boy reprimanded 
 by the magistrate for his folly in running away from 
 home because he was obliged to learn French, and 
 his haughty reply that if foreigners wished to speak 
 to him they might learn his language. But our 
 children have outgrown him, as to his declaration if 
 not as to his want of diligence, and we are in general 
 reforming our methods of teaching so much that it 
 will soon be inexcusable not to speak one or two 
 languages well, besides our own. 
 
 The question of pronunciation and accent has been 
 haunted by curious prejudices. An English accent in 
 a foreign tongue has been for some speakers a refuge 
 for their shyness, and for others a stronghold of their 
 patriotism. The first of these feared that they would 
 not be truly themselves unless their personality could 
 take shelter beneath an accent that was unmistakably 
 from England, and the others felt that it was like 
 hauling down the British flag to renounce the long- 
 drawn English "A-o-o." And, curiously, at the 
 other extreme, the slightest tinge of an English
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 155 
 
 accent is rather liked in Paris, perhaps only among 
 those touched with Anglomania. But now we ought 
 to be able to acquire whatever accent we choose, even 
 when living far away from every instructor, having 
 the gramophone to repeat to us untiringly the true 
 Spanish " manana " and the French " ennui." And 
 the study of phonetics, so much developed within the 
 last few years, makes it unpardonable for teachers of 
 modern languages to let the old English faults pre- 
 vail. 
 
 We have had our succession of methods too. The 
 old method of learning French, with a bonne in 
 the nursery first, and then a severely academic gover- 
 ness or tutor, produced French of unsurpassed quality- 
 But it belonged to home education, it required a 
 great deal of leisure, it did not adapt itself to school 
 curricula in which each child, to use the expressive 
 American phrase, " carries " so many subjects that the 
 hours and minutes for each have to be jealously counted 
 out. There have been a series of methods succeeding 
 one another which can scarcely be called more than 
 quack methods of learning languages, claiming to be 
 the natural method, the maternal method, the only 
 rational method, etc. Educational advertisements of 
 these have been magnificent in their promise, but 
 opinions are not entirely at one as to the results. 
 
 The conclusions which suggest themselves after 
 seeing several of these methods at work are : 
 
 1. That good teachers can make use of almost any 
 method with excellent results but that they generally 
 evolve one of their own. 
 
 2. That if the teachers and the children take a
 
 166 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 great deal of trouble the progress will be very remark- 
 able, whatever method is employed, and that without 
 this both the classical and the "natural" methods 
 can accomplish very little. 
 
 3. That teachers with fixed ideas about children 
 and about methods arrest development. 
 
 4. That the self -instruction courses which " work 
 out at a penny a lesson " (the lesson lasts ten minutes 
 and is especially recommended for use in trams), and 
 the gramophone with the most elaborate records, still 
 bear witness to the old doctrine that there is no royal 
 road to the learning of languages, and that it is not 
 cheap in the end. In proportion to the value we set 
 upon perfect acquirement of them will be our willing- 
 ness to spend much labour upon foundations. By 
 this road we arrive again at the fundamentals of an 
 educator's calling, love and labour. 
 
 The value to the mind of acquiring languages is so 
 great that all our trouble is repaid. It is not utili- 
 tarian value: what is merely for usefulness can be 
 easily acquired, it has very little beauty. It is not 
 for the sake of that commonplace usefulness that we 
 should care to spend trouble upon permanent founda- 
 tions in any tongue. The mind is satisfied only by 
 the genius of the language, its choicest forms, its 
 characteristic movement, and, most of all, the posses- 
 sion of its literature from within, that is to say of 
 the spirit as it speaks to its own, and in which the 
 language is most completely itself. 
 
 The special fitness of modern languages in a girl's 
 education does not appear on the surface, and it re- 
 quires more than a superficial, conversational know-
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 157 
 
 ledge to reap the fruit of their study. The social, and 
 at present the commercial values are obvious to every 
 one, and of these the commercial value is growing 
 very loud in its assertions, and appears very exacting 
 in its demands. For this the quack methods promise 
 the short and easy way, and perhaps they are suffi- 
 cient for it. A knowledge sufficient for business cor- 
 respondence is not what belongs to a liberal education; 
 it has a very limited range, hard, plain, brief com- 
 munications, supported on cast-iron frames, inelastic 
 forms and crudest courtesies, a mere formula for each 
 particular case, and a small vocabulary suited to the 
 dealings of every branch of business. We know the 
 parallel forms of correspondence in English, which 
 give a means of communication but not properly a 
 language. Even the social values of languages are 
 less than they used to be, as the finer art of con- 
 versation has declined. A little goes a long way; 
 the rush of the motor has cut it short ; there is not 
 time to exchange more than a few commonplaces, 
 and for these a very limited number of words is 
 enough. 
 
 But let our girls give themselves time, or let time 
 be allowed them, to give a year or two to the real 
 study of languages, not in the threadbare phrases of 
 the tourist and motorist, nor to mere drawing-room 
 small talk; not with "matriculation standard" as an 
 object, but to read the best that has been written, and 
 try to speak according to the best that can be said 
 now, and to write according to the standard of what 
 is really excellent to-day ; then the study of modern 
 languages is lifted quite on to another plane. The
 
 158 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 particular advantage of this plane is that there is a 
 view from it, wider in proportion to the number of 
 languages known and to the grasp that is acquired of 
 each, and the particular educational gift to be found 
 there is width of sympathy and understanding. De- 
 fective sympathies, national and racial prejudices 
 thrive upon a lower level. The elect of all nations 
 understand one another, and are strangely alike ; the 
 lower we go down in the various grades of each 
 nation the more is the divergency accentuated between 
 one and another. Corresponding to this is mutual 
 understanding through language ; the better we 
 possess the language of any nation the closer touch 
 we can acquire with all that is theirs, with their 
 best. 
 
 A superficial knowledge of languages rather accen- 
 tuates than removes limitations, multiplies mistakes 
 and embitters them. With a half-knowledge we 
 misunderstand each other's ideals, we lose the point 
 of the best things that are said, we fail to catch the 
 aroma of the spices and the spirit of the living word ; 
 in fact, we are mere tourists in each other's mental 
 world, and what word could better express the atti- 
 tude of mind of one who is a stranger, but not a 
 pilgrim, a tramp of a rather more civilized kind, 
 having neither ties nor sympathies nor obligations, 
 nothing to give, and more inclined to take than to 
 receive. To create ties, sympathies, and obligations 
 in the mental life, is a grace belonging to the study of 
 languages, and makes it possible to give and receive 
 hospitality on the best terms with the minds of those 
 of other nations than our own. This is particularly
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 169 
 
 a gift for the education of girls, since all graces of 
 hospitality ought to be peculiarly theirs. To lift them 
 above prejudices, to make them love other beauties 
 than those of their own mental kindred, to afford them 
 a wider possibility of giving happiness to others, and 
 of making themselves at home in many countries, is 
 to give them a power over the conditions of life which 
 reaches very far into their own mental well-being and 
 that of others, and makes them in the best meaning 
 of the word cosmopolitan. 
 
 The choice of languages to be learnt must depend 
 upon many considerations, but the widest good for 
 English girls, though not the most easy to attain, 
 is to give them perfect French. German is easier 
 to learn from its kinship with our own language, 
 but its grammar is of less educational value than 
 French, and it does not help as French does to the 
 acquirement of the most attractive of other European 
 languages. 
 
 As a second language, however, and for a great deal 
 that is not otherwise attainable, German is in general 
 the best that can be chosen. Italian and Spanish 
 have their special claims, but at present in England 
 their appeal is not to the many. German gives the 
 feeling of kindred minds near to us, ourselves yet 
 not ourselves ; with primitive Teutonic strength and 
 directness, with a sweet freshness of spring in its 
 more delicate poetry, and both of these elements 
 blended at times in an atmosphere as of German 
 forests in June. In some writers the flicker of French 
 brilliancy illumines the depth of these Teutonic woods, 
 producing a German which, in spite of the condem-
 
 nation of the Emperor, we should like to write our- 
 selves if the choice were offered to us. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the depth and strength of 
 German, it is generally agreed that as an instrument 
 of thought French prose in a master-hand is unrivalled, 
 by its subtlety and precision, and its epigrammatic 
 force. Every one knows and laments the decadent 
 style which is eating into it ; and every one knows 
 that the deplorable tone of much of its contemporary 
 literature makes discernment in French reading a 
 matter not only of education but of conscience and 
 sanity ; but this does not make the danger to be 
 inherent in the French language ; obliging translators 
 are ready to furnish us, in our own language and ac- 
 cording to taste, with the very worst taken from every- 
 where. And these faults do not affect the beauty of 
 the instrument, nor its marvellous aptitude for train- 
 ing the mind to precision of expression. The logical 
 bent of the French mind, its love of rule, the elabor- 
 ateness of its conventions in literature, its ceremonial 
 observances dating from by-gone times, the custom 
 of giving account of everything, of letting no nuance 
 pass unchallenged or uncommented, have given it 
 a power of expression and definiteness which holds 
 together as a complete code of written and unwritten 
 laws, and makes a perfect instrument of its kind. 
 But the very completeness of it has seemed to some 
 writers a fetter, and when they revolt against and 
 break through it, their extravagance passes beyond 
 all ordinary bounds. French represents the two ex- 
 tremes, unheard-of goodness, unequalled perfection, 
 or indescribable badness and unrestraint. Unfor-
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 161 
 
 tunately the unrestraint is making its way, and as 
 with ourselves in England, the magazine literature in 
 France grows more and more undesirable. 
 
 Yet there is unlimited room for reading, and for 
 Catholics a great choice of what is excellent. The 
 modern manner of writing the lives of the Saints 
 has been very successfully cultivated of late years in 
 France, making them living human beings "inter- 
 esting as fiction," to use an accepted standard of 
 measurement, more appealingly credible and more 
 imitable than those older works in which they walked 
 remote from the life of to-day, angelic rather than 
 human. There are studies in criticism, too, and essays 
 in practical psychology and social science, which 
 bring within the scope of ordinary readers a great 
 deal which with us can only be reached over rough 
 roads and by-ways. No doubt each method has its 
 advantages ; the laboriously acquired knowledge be- 
 comes more completely a part of ourselves, but along 
 the metalled way it is obvious that we cover more 
 ground. 
 
 The comparison of these values leads to the prac- 
 tical question of translations. The Italian saying 
 which identifies the translator with the traitor ought 
 to give way to a more grateful and hopeful modern 
 recognition of the services done by conscientious 
 translations. We have undoubtedly suffered in Eng- 
 land in the past by well-meaning but incompetent 
 translators, especially of spiritual books, who have 
 given us such impressions as to mislead us about 
 the minds of the writers or even turned us against 
 them altogether, to our own great loss. But at
 
 162 THE EDUCATION OP CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 present more care is exercised, and conscientious 
 critical exactitude in translating important spiritual 
 works has given us English versions that are not 
 unworthy of their originals. 1 
 
 There is good service to be done to the Church in 
 England by this work of translation, and it is one in 
 which grown-up girls, if they have been sufficiently 
 trained, might give valuable help. It must be borne 
 in mind that not every book which is beautiful or 
 useful in its own language, is desirable to translate. 
 Some depend so much upon the genius of the lan- 
 guage and the mentality of their native country that 
 they simply evaporate in translation ; others appeal 
 so markedly to national points of view that they seem 
 anomalous in other languages, as a good deal of our 
 present-day English writing would appear in French. 
 It has also to be impressed on translators that their 
 responsibility is great; that it takes laborious per- 
 sistence to make a really good translation, doing 
 justice to both sides, giving the spirit of the author 
 as well as his literal meaning, and not straining the 
 language of the translation into unnatural forms to 
 make it carry a sense that it does not easily bear. 
 
 The beauty of a translator's work is in the perfect 
 accord of conscience and freedom, and this is not at- 
 tained without unwearied search for the right word, 
 the only right word which will give the true meaning 
 and the true expression of any idea. To believe that 
 this right word exists is one of the delights of trans- 
 
 1 An example of this is the late Canon Mackey's edition of the 
 complete works of St. Francis of Sales, which has, unfortunately, 
 to be completed without him,
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 163 
 
 lating ; to be a lover of choice and beautiful words is 
 an attraction in itself, leading to the love of things 
 more beautiful still, the love of truth, and fitness, and 
 transparency ; the exercise of thought, and discrimina- 
 tion, and balance, and especially of a quality most rare 
 and precious in women mental patience. It is said 
 that we excel in moral patience, but that when we 
 approach anything intellectual this enduring virtue 
 disappears, and we must " reach the goal in a bound 
 or never arrive there at all." The sustained search 
 for the perfect word would do much to correct this 
 impatience, and if the search is aided by a knowledge 
 of several modern languages so that comparative 
 meanings and uses may be balanced against one 
 another, it will be found not only to open rich veins 
 of thought, but to give an ever-increasing power of 
 working the mines and extracting the gold. 
 
 11*
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 " We have heard, O God, with our ears : our fathers have de- 
 clared to us, 
 
 " The work thou hast wrought in their days, and in the days 
 of old." Psalm XLIII. 
 
 " Thus independent of times and places, the Popes have never 
 found any difficulty, when the proper moment came, of following 
 out a new and daring line of policy (as their astonished foes 
 have called it), of leaving the old world to shift for itself and to 
 disappear from the scene in its due season, and of fastening on 
 and establishing themselves in the new. 
 
 " I am led to this line of thought by St. Gregory's behaviour to 
 the Anglo-Saxon race, on the break-up of the old civilisation." 
 Cardinal Newman, " Historical Sketches," III, " A Character- 
 istic of the Popes." 
 
 OF the so-called secular subjects history is the one 
 which depends most for its value upon the honour in 
 which it is held and upon the standpoint from which 
 it is taught. Not that history can be truly a secular 
 subject if it is taught as a whole isolated periods 01 
 subdivisions may be separated from the rest and 
 studied in a purely secular spirit, or with no spirit 
 at all for the animating principle is not in the sub- 
 divided parts but in the whole, and only if it is taught 
 as a whole can it receive the honour which belongs 
 to it as the " study of kings," the school of experience 
 
 164
 
 HISTORY 166 
 
 and judgment, and one of the greatest teachers of 
 truth. 
 
 In modern times, since the fall of the Western 
 Empire, European history has centred, whether for 
 love or for hatred, round the Church ; and it is thus 
 that Catholic education comes to its own in this 
 study, and the Catholic mind is more at home among 
 the phenomena and problems of history than other 
 minds for whom the ages of faith are only vaults of 
 superstition, or periods of mental servitude, or at best, 
 ages of high romance. Without the Church what 
 are the ideals of the Crusades, of the Holy Eoman 
 Empire, of the religious spirit of chivalry, or the 
 struggle concerning Investitures, the temporal power 
 of the Popes and their temporal sovereignty, the 
 misery of the "Babylonian Captivity," the develop- 
 ment of the religious orders in contemporary history 
 the Italian question during the last fifty years, or 
 the present position of the Church in France ? These 
 are incomprehensible phenomena without the Church 
 to give the key to the controversies and meaning to 
 the ideals. Without knowing the Catholic Church 
 from within, it is impossible to conceive of all these 
 things as realities affecting conscience and the pur- 
 pose and direction of life ; their significance is lost if 
 they have to be explained as the mere human struggle 
 for supremacy of persons or classes, mere ecclesiasti- 
 cal disputes, or dreams of imperialism in Church 
 matters. Take away the Church and try to draw 
 up a course of lessons satisfactory to the minds even 
 of girls under eighteen, and at every turn a thought- 
 ful question may be critical, and the explanations in
 
 166 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 the hands of a non-Catholic teacher scarcely less- 
 futile than the efforts of old Kaspar to satisfy " young 
 Peterkin " about the battle of Blenheim. 
 What about Investitures ? 
 
 " Now tell us all about the war, 
 
 And what they fought each other for ?" 
 
 What about Canossa ? 
 
 " What they fought each other for, 
 I could not well make out. 
 But everybody said " quoth he, 
 " That 'twas a famous victory." 
 
 What about Mentana or Castel-Fidardo ? 
 " What good came of it at last ? " 
 Quoth little Peterkin. 
 " Why that I cannot tell," said he, 
 " But 'twas a famous victory." 
 
 The difficulty is tacitly acknowledged by the rare 
 appearance of European history in the curriculum 
 for non-Catholic girls' schools. But in any school 
 where the studies are set to meet the requirements 
 of examinations, the teaching of history is of necessity 
 dethroned from the place which belongs to it by right. 
 History deserves a position that is central and com- 
 manding, a scheme that is impressive when seen as 
 a whole in retrospect, it deserves to be taught from 
 a point of view which has not to be reconsidered in 
 later years, and this is to be found with all the stability 
 possible, and with every facility for later extension in 
 the natural arrangement of all modern history round 
 the history of the Church. 
 
 During the great development which has taken place 
 in the study of history within the last century, and
 
 HISTORY 167 
 
 .especially within the last fifty years, the mass of 
 materials has grown so enormous and the list of 
 authors of eminence so imposing that one might al- 
 most despair of adapting the subject in any way to a 
 child's world if it were not for this central point of 
 view, in which the Incarnation and the Church are 
 the controlling facts dominating all others and giv- 
 ing them their due place and proportion. On this 
 commanding point of observation the child and the 
 historian may stand side by side, each seeing truth 
 according to their capacity, and if the child should 
 grow into a historian it would be with an unbroken 
 development there would not be anything to unlearn. 
 The method of "concentric" teaching against which 
 there is so much to be said when applied to national 
 history or to other branches of teaching is entirely 
 appropriate here, because no wider vision of the world 
 can be attained than from the point whence the 
 Church views it, in her warfare to make the king- 
 doms of the world become the kingdom of God and 
 His Christ that He may reign for ever and ever. 
 The Church beholds the rational not the sensible 
 horizon of history, and standing at her point of view, 
 the great ones and the little ones of the earth, his- 
 torians and children, can look at the same heavens, 
 one with the scientific instruments of his observatory, 
 the other with the naked eye of a child's faith and 
 understanding. 
 
 But the teaching of history as it has been carried 
 on for some years, would have to travel a long way to 
 arrive at this central point of view. As an educa- 
 tional subject a great deal has been done to destroy
 
 168 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 its value, by what was intended to give it assistance 
 and stimulus. The history syllabus and requirements 
 for University Local and other examinations have 
 produced specially adapted text-books, in which facts 
 and summaries have been arranged in order with 
 wonderful care and forethought, to " meet all require- 
 ments " ; but the kind intention with which every 
 possible need has been foreseen between the covers 
 of one text-book has defeated its own purpose, the 
 living thing is no longer there its skeleton remains, 
 and after handling the dry bones and putting them 
 in order and giving an account of them to the ex- 
 amining body, the children escape with relief to some- 
 thing more real, to the people of fiction who, however 
 impossible to believe in, are at least flesh and blood, 
 and have some points of contact with their own 
 lives. " Of course as we go up for examinations 
 here," wrote a child from a new school, " we only 
 learn the summaries and genealogies of history and 
 other subjects." A sidelight on the fruit of such a 
 plan is often cast in the appreciations of its pupils. 
 " Did you like history ? " " No I hated it, I can't 
 bear names and dates." " What did you think of so 
 and so?" "He wasn't in my period." So history 
 has become names and dates, genealogies and sum- 
 maries, hard pebbles instead of bread. It is unfair 
 to children thus to prejudice them against a subject 
 which thrills with human interest, and touches human 
 life at every turn, it is unfair to history to present it 
 thus, it is misleading to give development to a particu- 
 lar period without any general scheme against which 
 it may show in due proportion, as misleading as the
 
 HISTORY 189 
 
 old picture-books for children in which the bat on one 
 page and the man on the other were of the same size. 
 
 There must necessarily be a principle of selection, 
 but one of the elements to be considered in making 
 choice ought always to be that of proportion and of 
 fitness in adaptation to a general scheme. It was 
 pointed out by Sir Joshua Fitch in his " Lessons on 
 Teaching " (an old-fashioned book now, since it was 
 published before the deluge of "Pedagogics," but still 
 valuable) that an ideal plan of teaching history to 
 children might be found in the historical books of 
 Holy Scripture, and in practice the idea is useful, 
 suggesting that one aim should be kept in view, that 
 at times the guiding line should contract to a mere 
 clue of direction, and at others expand into very full 
 and vivid narrative chiefly in biographical form. The 
 principle may be applied in the teaching of any his- 
 tory that may be given to children, that is to say, in 
 general, to Sacred history which has its own place in 
 connexion with religious teaching, to ancient history 
 within very small limits, to Greek and Koman history 
 in such proportion as the years of education may 
 allow, and to the two most prominent and most 
 necessary for children, the history of their own 
 country and that of modern Europe directed along 
 the lines of the history of the Church. 
 
 There are periods and degrees of development in 
 the minds of children to which correspond different 
 manners of teaching and even different objects, as we 
 make appeal to one or other of the growing faculties. 
 The first stage is imaginative, the second calls not 
 only upon the imagination and memory but upon the
 
 170 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIELS 
 
 understanding, and the third, which is the beginning 
 of a period of fruition, begins to exercise the judgment, 
 and to give some ideas concerning principles of re- 
 search and criticism. 
 
 The first is the period of romance, when by means 
 of the best myths of many nations, from their heroic 
 legends and later stories, the minds of children are 
 turned to what is high and beautiful in the traditions 
 of the past, and they learn those truths concerning 
 human life and destiny which transcend the more lim- 
 ited truths of literal records of fact. In the beginning 
 they are, to children, only stories, but we know our- 
 selves that we can never exhaust the value of what 
 came to us through the story of the wanderings of 
 Ulysses, or the mysterious beauty of the Northern and 
 Western myths, as the story of Balder or the children 
 of Lir. The art of telling stories is beginning to be 
 taught with wonderful power and beauty, the story- 
 teller is turning into the pioneer of the historian, 
 coming in advance to occupy the land, so that history 
 may have " staked out a claim " before the examining 
 bodies can arrive, in the dry season, to tread down 
 the young growth. 
 
 The second period makes appeal to the intelligence, 
 as well as to the imagination, and to this stage be- 
 longs particularly the study of the national history, 
 the history of their own race and country ; for English 
 girls the history of England, not yet constitutional 
 history, but the history of the Constitution with that 
 of the kings and people, and further the history of 
 the Empire. To this period of education belong the 
 great lessons of loyalty and patriotism, that piety to-
 
 HISTORY 171 
 
 wards our own country which is so much on the de- 
 cline as the home tie grows feebler. We do not want 
 to teach the narrow patriotism which only finds ex- 
 pression in antagonism to and disparagement of other 
 countries, but that which is shown by self-denial and 
 self-sacrifice for the good of our own. The time to 
 teach it is in that unsettled "middle age" of child- 
 hood when its exuberant feeling is in search of an 
 ideal, when large moral effects can be appreciated, 
 when there is some opening understanding of the 
 value of character. 
 
 If the first period of childhood delights in what is 
 strange, this second period gives its allegiance to what 
 is strong, by preference to primitive and simple 
 strength, to uncomplex aims and marked characters ; 
 it appreciates courage and endurance, and can bear 
 to hear of sufferings which daunt the fastidiousness 
 of those who are a few years older ; perhaps it can 
 endure so much because it realizes so little, but the 
 fact remains true. This age exults in the sufferings 
 of the martyrs and cannot bear the suggestion that 
 plain duties may be heroic before God. There is a 
 great deal that may be done for minds in this period 
 of development by the teaching of history if it is not 
 crippled in its programme. To make concrete their 
 ideals of greatness in the right personalities a work 
 which is as easily spoiled by a word out of season as 
 a fine porcelain vase is cracked in a furnace to direct 
 their ideas of the aims of life towards worthy and 
 unselfish ends, to foster true loyalty because of God 
 from whom all authority comes and this lesson has 
 its pathetic poignancy for us in the history of our
 
 172 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 English martyrs to show the claims that our country 
 has upon the devotion of its sons and daughters, and 
 to inspire some feeling of responsibility for its honour, 
 especially to show the supreme worth of character 
 and self-sacrifice, all these things may and must be 
 taught in this middle period of children's education 
 if they are to have any strong hold upon them in after 
 life. It is a stubborn age in which teaching has to 
 be on strong lines and deep ones ; when the evolution 
 of character is in the critical period that is to make 
 or mar its future, it needs a strong hand over it, with 
 power both to control and to support, a strong mind 
 to command its respect, strong convictions to impress 
 it, and strong principles on which to test its own 
 young strength; and all those who have the privi- 
 lege of teaching history to children of this age have 
 an incomparable opportunity of training mind and 
 character. The strength of our own convictions, the 
 brightness of our own ideals, the fibre of our patri- 
 otism and loyalty will tell in the measure of two en- 
 dowments, our own spirit of self-sacrifice and our 
 tact. Children will detect the least false note if self- 
 sacrifice is preached without experimental knowledge ; 
 and as it is the most contradictory of all ages, it takes 
 every resource of tact to pilot it through channels for 
 which there is no chart. The masterpieces of edu- 
 cators are wrought in this difficult but most interesting 
 material. 
 
 Those who come after them will see what they 
 have done, they cannot see it themselves. With less 
 difficulty perhaps, because reason is more developed 
 and the hot-headed and irritable phase of character
 
 HISTORY 173 
 
 is passing away, they will be able to apply the prin- 
 ciples which have been laid down. With less diffi- 
 culty, that is to say against less resistance, but not 
 with less responsibility or even with less anxiety. For 
 the nearer the work approaches to its completion and 
 the more perfectly it has been begun, the more deeply 
 must anyone approaching to lay hand upon it feel the 
 need for great reverence, and self-restraint, and pati- 
 ence, and vigilance, not to spoil by careless interference 
 that which is ready to receive and to give all that is 
 best in youth, not to be unworthy of the confidence 
 which a young mind is willing to place in its guidance. 
 
 For although so much stress is laid upon the im- 
 pressionability of first childhood and the ineffaceable 
 marks that are engraven on it, yet as to all that be- 
 longs to the mind and judgment this third period, 
 in the early years of adolescence, is more sensitive 
 still, because real criticism is just beginning to be 
 possible and appreciation is in its spring-tide, now for 
 the first time fully alive and awake. A transition line 
 has been passed, and the study of history, like every- 
 thing else, enters upon a new phase. The elementary 
 teaching which has been sufficient up to this, which 
 has in fact been the only possible teaching, must 
 widen out in the third period, and the relative im- 
 portance of aims is the line on which the change to 
 more advanced teaching is felt. 
 
 The exercise of judgment becomes the chief object, 
 and to direct this aright is the principal duty of those 
 who teach at this age. It is not easy to give a right 
 discernment and true views. To begin with one must 
 have them oneself, and be able to support them with
 
 174 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 facts and arguments, they must have the weight of 
 patient work behind them, and have settled themselves 
 deeply in the mind ; opinions freshly gathered that 
 very day from an article or an essay are attractive and 
 interesting and they appeal very strongly to young 
 minds looking out for theories and clues, but they 
 only give superficial help ; in general, essay-writers 
 and journalists do not expect to be taken too seriously, 
 they intend to be suggestive rather than convincing, 
 and it is a great matter to have the principle under- 
 stood by girls, that it is not to the journalists that 
 they must look for the last word in a controversy, nor 
 for a permanent presentment of contemporary history. 
 Again, it is necessary to remember the wayward- 
 ness of girls' minds, and that it is conviction, not sub- 
 mission of views that we must aim at. A show of 
 authority is out of place, the tone that " you must 
 think as I do," tends without any bad will on the 
 part of children to exasperate them and rouse the 
 spirit of opposition, whereas a patient and even defer- 
 ential hearing of their views and admission of their 
 difficulties ensures at least a mind free from irritation 
 and impatience, to listen and to take into account 
 what we have to say. They are not to be blamed 
 for having difficulties in accepting what we put before 
 them ; on the contrary we must welcome their in- 
 dependent thought even if it seems aggressive and 
 conceited ; their positive assurance that they see to 
 the end of things is characteristic of their age, but 
 it is better that they should show themselves thus, 
 than through want of thought or courage fall in with 
 everything that is set before them, or, worse still,
 
 HISTORY 176 
 
 take that pose of impartiality which allows no views 
 at all, and in the end obliterates the line between 
 right and wrong. The too submissive minds which 
 give no trouble now, are laying it all up for the future. 
 They accept what we tell them without opposition, 
 others will come later on, telling them something 
 different, and they will accept it in the same way, 
 and correct their views day by day to the readings of 
 the daily paper, or of the vogue of their own particular 
 set. These are the minds which in the end are ab- 
 sorbed by the world : the Church receives neither 
 love nor service from them. 
 
 Judgment may be passed upon actions as right or 
 wrong in themselves, or as practically adapting means 
 to end ; the first is of great interest even to young 
 children, but for them it is all black or white, and 
 characters are to them entirely good or entirely 
 bad, deserving of unmixed admiration or of their 
 most excellent hatred, which they pour out simply 
 and vehemently, rejoicing without qualms of pity 
 when punishment overtakes the wrongdoer and re- 
 tributive justice is done to the wicked. This is per- 
 haps what makes them seem bloodthirsty in their 
 vengeance ; they feel that so it ought to be, and that 
 the affirmation of principle is of more account than 
 the individual. They detest half -measures and com- 
 promise. For the elder girls it is not so simple, and 
 the nearer they come to our own times the more 
 necessary is it to put before them that good is not 
 always unaccompanied by evil nor evil by good. 
 
 In the last two or three years of a girl's education 
 all the time that can be spared may be most profit-
 
 176 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 ably spent on the study of modern history, since it is 
 there that the more complex problems are found, and 
 there also that they will understand how contempor- 
 ary questions have their springs in the past, and see 
 the rise of the forces which are at work now, disin- 
 tegrating the nations of Europe and shaking the 
 foundations of every government. There are grave 
 lessons to be learnt, not in gloomy or threatening 
 forecasts but in showing the direction of cause and 
 effect and the renewal of the same struggle which 
 has been from the beginning, in ever fresh phases. 
 The outcome of historical teaching to Catholics can 
 never be discouragement or depression, whatever the 
 forecast. The past gives confidence, and, when the 
 glories of bygone ages are weighed against their 
 troubles, and the Church's troubles now against her 
 inward strength and her new horizons of hope, there 
 is great reason for gratitude that we live in our own 
 much-abused time. In every age the Church has, 
 with her roots in the past, some buds and blossoms in 
 the present and some fruit coming on for the future. 
 Hailstorms may cut off both blossoms and fruit, but 
 all will not be lost. We can always hold up our 
 heads ; there are buds on the fig-tree and we know in 
 whom we have believed. 
 
 In bringing home to children these grounds for 
 thankfulness, the quality of one's own mind and views 
 tells very strongly, and this leads to the consideration 
 of what is chiefly required in teaching history to 
 children, and to girls growing up. The first and 
 most essential point is that we ourselves should care 
 about what we teach, not that we should merely like
 
 HISTORY 177 
 
 history as a school subject, but that it should be real 
 to us, that we should feel something about it, joy or 
 triumph or indignation, things which are not found 
 in text-books, and we should believe that it all 
 matters very much to the children and to ourselves. 
 Lessons of the text-book type, facts, dates, summaries, 
 and synopses matter very little to children, but people 
 are of great importance, and if they grasp what 
 often they only half believe, that what they are re- 
 peating as a mere lesson really took place among 
 people who saw and felt it as vividly as they would 
 themselves, then their sympathies and understanding 
 are carried beyond the bounds of their school-rooms 
 and respond to the touch of the great doings and 
 sufferings of the race. 
 
 It is above all in the history of the Church that 
 this sympathetic understanding becomes real. The 
 interest of olden times in secular history is more 
 dramatic and picturesque than real to children ; but 
 in the history of the Church and especially of the 
 personalities of the popes the continuity of her life 
 is very keenly felt ; the popes are all of to-day, they 
 transcend the boundaries of their times because in a 
 number of ways they did and had to do and bear the 
 very same things that are done and have to be borne 
 by the popes of our own day. If we give to girls 
 some vivid realization, say, of the troubled Pontificate 
 of Boniface VIII, with the violence and tragedy and 
 pathos in which it ended, after the dust and jarring 
 and weariness of battle in which it was spent ; if they 
 have entered into something of the anguish of Pius 
 
 VII, they will more fully understand and feel deeper 
 
 12
 
 178 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 love and sympathy for the living, suffering successor 
 now in the same chair, in another phase of the same 
 conflict, with the Gentiles and peoples of the rising 
 democracies taking counsel together against him, as 
 kings and rulers did in the past, all imagining the 
 same "vain thing," that they can overcome Christ 
 and His Vicar. 
 
 Besides this living sympathy with what we teach, 
 we must be able to speak truth without being afraid 
 of its consequences. There was at one time a fear 
 in the minds of Catholic teachers that by admitting 
 that any of the popes had been unworthy of their 
 charge, or that there had ever been abuses which 
 called for reforms among clergy and religious and 
 Catholic laity, they would be giving away the case 
 for the Church and imperilling the faith and loyalty 
 of children ; that it was better they should only hear 
 these things later, with the hope that they would 
 never hear them at all. The real peril is in the 
 course thus adopted. Surrounded as we are by non- 
 Catholics, and in a time when no Catholic escapes 
 from questions and attacks, open or covert, upon 
 what we believe, the greatest injustice to the girls 
 themselves, and to the honour of the faith, was to 
 send them out unarmed against what they must 
 necessarily meet. The first challenge would be met 
 with a flat denial of facts, loyal-heartedly and con- 
 fidently given ; then would come a suspicion that 
 there might be something in it, the inquiry which 
 would show that this was really the case ; then a cer- 
 tain right indignation, "Why was I not told the 
 truth?" and a sense of insecurity vaguely disturbing
 
 HISTORY 179 
 
 the foundations which ought to be on immovable 
 bed-rock. At the best, such an experience produces 
 what builders call a " settlement," not dangerous to 
 the fabric but unsightly in its consequences ; it may, 
 however, go much further, first to shake and then to 
 loosen the whole spiritual building by the insinuation 
 of doubt everywhere. It is impossible to forewarn 
 children against all the charges which they may hear 
 against the Church, but two points well established 
 in their minds will give them confidence. 
 
 1. That the evidence which is brought to light 
 year after year from access to State papers and docu- 
 ments tells on the side of the Church, as we say in 
 England, of "the old religion," and not against it. 
 Books by non-Catholics are more convincing than 
 others in this matter, since they are free from the 
 suspicion of partisanship ; for instance, Gairdner's 
 " Lollardy and the ^Reformation " which disposes of 
 many mythical monsters of Protestant history. 
 
 2. That even if the facts were still more authentic 
 to justify personal attacks on some of the popes, even 
 if the abuses in the Church had not been grossly 
 exaggerated, even putting facts at their worst, grant- 
 ing all that is assumed, it tends to strengthen faith 
 rather than to undermine it, for the existence of the 
 Church and the Papacy as they are to-day is a wonder 
 only enhanced by every proof that it ought to have 
 perished long ago according to all human probability. 
 With that confidence and assurance even our little 
 girls may hold their heads high, with their faith and 
 trust in the Church quite unabashed, and wait for an 
 
 answer if they cannot give it to others or to themselves 
 
 12*
 
 180 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 at the moment. "We have no occasion to answer 
 thee concerning this matter," said the three holy chil- 
 dren to Nabuchodonosor, and so may our own children 
 say if they are hard pressed, " your charges do but 
 confirm our faith, we have no occasion to answer." 
 
 It is impossible to leave so great a subject as his- 
 tory without saying a word on the manner of teach- 
 ing it (for in this a manner is needed rather than 
 a method), when it is emancipated from the fetters 
 of prescribed periods and programmes which attach 
 it entirely to text-books. Text-books are not useless 
 but they are very hard to find, and many Catholic 
 text-books, much to be desired, are still unwritten, 
 especially in England. America has made more effort 
 in this direction than we. But the strength of 
 historical teaching for children and girls at school 
 lies in oral lessons, and of these it would seem that 
 the most effective form is not the conversational lesson 
 which is so valuable in other subjects, nor the formal 
 lesson with " steps," but the form of a story for little 
 ones ; for older children the narrative leading up to a 
 point of view, with conversational intervals, and en- 
 couragement for thoughtful questions, especially at the 
 end of the lesson; and in the last years an informal kind 
 of lecture, a transition from school-room methods to 
 the style of formal lectures which maybe attended later 
 
 Lessons in history are often spoiled by futile 
 questions put in as it were for conscience' sake, to 
 satisfy the obligation of questioning, or to rouse the 
 flagging attention of a child, but this is too great a 
 sacrifice. It is artistically a fault to jar the whole 
 movement of a good narrative for the sake of running
 
 HISTORY 181 
 
 after one truant mind. It is also artistically wrong 
 and jarring to go abruptly from the climax of a 
 story, or narrative, or lecture which has stirred some 
 deep thought or emotion, and call with a sudden 
 change of tone for recapitulation, or summary, or 
 discussion. Silence is best ; the greater lessons of 
 history ought to transcend the limits of mere lessons, 
 they are part of life, and they tell more upon the 
 mind if they are dissociated from the harness and 
 trappings of school work. Written papers for 
 younger students and essays for seniors are the best 
 means of calling for their results, and of guiding the 
 line of reading by which all oral teaching of history 
 and study of text-books must be supplemented. 
 
 When school-room education is finished what we 
 may look for is that girls should be ready and inclined 
 to take up some further study of history, by private 
 reading or following lectures with intelligence, and 
 that they should be able to express themselves clearly 
 in writing, either in the form of notes, papers, or 
 essays, so as to give an account of their work and 
 their opinions to those who may direct these later 
 studies. We may hope that what they have learned 
 of European history will enable them to travel with 
 understanding and appreciation, that places with a 
 history will mean something to them, and that the 
 great impression of a living past may set a deep mark 
 upon them with its discipline of proportion that makes 
 them personally so small and yet so great, small in 
 proportion to all that has been, great in their inherit- 
 ance from the whole past and in expectation of all 
 that is yet to be.
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 ART. 
 
 " Give honour unto Luke Evangelist : 
 For he it was (the aged legends say) 
 Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray. 
 
 Scarcely at once she dared to rend the mist 
 
 Of devious symbols : but soon having wist 
 
 How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day 
 Are symbols also in some deeper way, 
 
 She looked through these to God, and was God's priest. 
 
 And if, past noon, her toil began to irk, 
 
 And she sought talismans, and turned in vain 
 To soulless self-reflections of man's skill, 
 Yet now, in this the twilight, she might still 
 
 Kneel in the latter grass to pray again, 
 
 Ere the night cometh and she may not work. " 
 
 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSBTTI. 
 
 WHEN we consider how much of the direction of life 
 depends upon the quality of our taste, upon right dis- 
 cernment in what we like and dislike, it is evident 
 that few things can be more important in education 
 than to direct this directing force, and both to learn 
 and teach the taste for what is best as far as possible 
 in all things. For in the matter of taste nothing is 
 unimportant. Taste influences us in every department 
 of life, as our tastes are, so are we. The whole quality 
 of our inner and outer life takes its tone from the 
 
 182
 
 ART 183 
 
 things in which we find pleasure, from our standard 
 of taste. If we are severe in our requirements, hard 
 to please, and at least honest with ourselves, it will 
 mean that a spur of continual dissatisfaction pricks 
 us, in all we do, into habitual striving for an excel- 
 lence which remains beyond our reach. But on the 
 other hand we shall have to guard against that 
 peevish fastidiousness which narrows itself down until 
 it can see nothing but defects and faults, and loses 
 the power of humbly and genuinely admiring. This 
 passive dissatisfaction which attempts nothing of its 
 own, and only finds fault with what is done by others, 
 grows very fast if it is allowed to take hold, and pro- 
 duces a mental habit of merely destructive criticism 
 or perpetual scolding. Safe in attempting nothing 
 itself, unassailable and self-righteous as a Pharisee, 
 this spirit can only pull down but not build up again. 
 In children it is often the outcome of a little jealousy 
 and want of personal courage ; they can be helped to 
 overcome it, but if it is allowed to grow up, dissatis- 
 faction allied to pusillanimity are very difficult to 
 correct. 
 
 On the other hand, if we are amiably and cheerfully 
 inclined to admire things in general in a popular way, 
 easily pleased and not exacting, we shall both receive 
 and give a great deal of pleasure, but it will be all in a 
 second and third and fourth-rate order of delight, and 
 although this comfortable turn of mind is saved from 
 much that is painful and jarring, it is not exempt 
 from the danger of itself jarring continually upon the 
 feelings of others, of pandering to the downward 
 tendency in what is popular, and, in education, of
 
 184 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIELS 
 
 debasing the standard of taste and discrimination for 
 children. To be swayed by popularity in matters of 
 taste is to accept mediocrity wholesale. We have 
 left too far behind the ages when the taste of the 
 people could give sound and true judgment in matters 
 of art ; we have left them at a distance which can be 
 measured by what lies between the greatest Greek 
 tragedies and contemporary popular plays. Conster- 
 nation is frequently expressed at seeing how theatres 
 of every grade are crowded with children of all classes 
 in life, so it is from these popular plays that they 
 must be learning the first lessons of dramatic criti- 
 cism. 
 
 There are only rare instances of taste which is in- 
 stinctively true, and the process of educational pres- 
 sure tends to level down original thought in children, 
 as the excess of magazine and newspaper reading 
 works in the same direction for older minds, so that 
 true, independent taste becomes more rare ; the result 
 does not seem favourable to the development of the 
 best discernment in those who ought to sway the 
 taste of their generation. If taste in art is entirely 
 guided by that of others, and especially by fashion, it 
 cannot attain to the possession of an independent 
 point of view ; yet this in a modest degree every one 
 with some training might aspire to. But under the 
 sway of fashion taste is cowed ; it becomes conven- 
 tional, and falls under the dominion of the current 
 price of works of art. On the other hand it is more 
 unfortunate to be self-taught in matters of taste than 
 in any other order of things. In this point taste 
 ranks with manners, which are, after all, a depart-
 
 ART 185 
 
 ment of the same region of right feeling and discern- 
 ment. If taste is untaught and spontaneous, it is 
 generally unreliable and without consistency. If 
 self-taught it can hardly help becoming dogmatic and 
 oracular, as some highly gifted minds have become, 
 making themselves the supreme court of appeal for 
 their own day. 
 
 But trained taste is grounded in reverence and 
 discipleship, a lowly and firm basis for departure, from 
 which it may, if it has the power to do or to discern, 
 rise in its strength, and leave behind those who have 
 shown the way, or soar in great flights beyond their 
 view. So it has often been seen in the history of art, 
 and such is the right order of growth. It needs the 
 living voice and the attentive mind, the influence of 
 trained and experienced judgment to guide us in the 
 beginning, but the guide must let us go at last and we 
 must rely upon ourselves. 
 
 The bad effect of being either self-taught or con- 
 ventional is exclusiveness ; in one case the personal 
 bias is too marked, in the other the temporary aspect 
 appeals too strongly. In the education of taste it is 
 needful that the child should " eat butter and honey," 
 not only so as to refuse the evil and choose the good, 
 but also to judge between good and good, and to know 
 butter from honey and honey from butter. This is 
 the principal end of the study of art in early educa- 
 tion. The doing is very elementary, but the principles 
 of discernment are something for life, feeding the 
 springs of choice and delight, and making sure that 
 they shall run clear and untroubled. 
 
 Teaching concerning art which can be given to
 
 186 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 girls has to be approached with a sense of responsi- 
 bility from conviction of the importance of its bear- 
 ing on character as a whole. Let anyone who has 
 tried it pass in review a number of girls as they grow 
 up, and judge whether their instinct in art does not 
 give a key to their character, always supposing that 
 they have some inclination to reflect on matters of 
 beauty, for there are some who are candidly indiffer- 
 ent to beauty if they can have excitement. They 
 have probably been spoiled as children and find it 
 hard to recover. Excitement has worn the senses so 
 that their report grows dull and feeble. Imagination 
 runs on other lines and requires stimulants ; there is 
 no stillness of mind in which the perception of beauty 
 and harmony and fitness can grow up. 
 
 There are others may they be few in whose 
 minds there is little room for anything but success. 
 Utilitarians in social life, their determination is to 
 get on, and this spirit pervades all they do ; it has 
 the making of the hardest-grained worldliness : to 
 these art has nothing to say. But there are others 
 to whom it has a definite message, and their response 
 to it corresponds to various schools or stages of art. 
 
 There are some who are daring and explicit in their 
 taste ; they resent the curb, and rush into what is ex- 
 travagant with a very feeble protest against it from 
 within themselves. Beside them are simpler minds, 
 merely exuberant, for whom there can never be 
 enough light or colour in their picture of life. If 
 they are gifted with enough intelligence to steady 
 their joyful constitution of mind, these will often de- 
 velop a taste that is fine and true. In the back-
 
 ART 187 
 
 ground of the group are generally a few silent mem- 
 bers of sensitive temperament and deeper intuition, 
 who see with marvellous quickness, but see too much 
 to be happy and content, almost too much to be true. 
 They incline towards another extreme, an ideal so 
 high-pitched as to become unreal, and it meets with 
 the penalty of unreality in over-balancing itself. 
 Children nearly always pull to one side or the other ; 
 it is a work of long patience even to make them accept 
 that there should be a golden mean. Did they ever 
 need it so much as they do now? Probably each 
 generation in turn, from Solomon's time onward, has 
 asked the same question. But in the modern world 
 there can hardly have been a time in which the prin- 
 ciple of moderation needed to be more sustained, for 
 there has never been a time when circumstances made 
 man more daring in face of the forces of nature, and 
 this same daring in other directions, less beautiful, is 
 apt to become defiant and unashamed of excess. It 
 asserts itself most loudly in modern French art, but 
 we are following close behind, less logical and with 
 more remaining traditions of correctness, but influ- 
 enced beyond what we like to own. 
 
 In the education of girls, which is subject to so 
 many limitations, very often short in itself, always 
 too short for what would be desirable to attain, the 
 best way to harmonize cesthetic teaching is not to 
 treat it in different departments, but to centre all 
 round the general history of art. This leaves in every 
 stage the possibility of taking up particular branches 
 of art study, whether historical, or technical, or prac- 
 tical, and these will find their right place, not dissoci-
 
 188 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 ated from their antecedents and causes, not paramount 
 but subordinate, and thus rightly proportioned and 
 true in their relation to the whole progress of man- 
 kind in striving after beauty and the expression of 
 it. 
 
 The history of art in connexion with the general 
 history of the human race is a complement to it, 
 ministering to the understanding of what is most in- 
 timate, stamping the expression of the dominant 
 emotion on the countenance of every succeeding age. 
 This is what its art has left to us, a more confidential 
 record than its annals and chronicles, and more ac- 
 cessible to the young, who can often understand 
 feelings before they can take account of facts in their 
 historical importance. In any case the facts are 
 clothed in living forms there where belief and aspira- 
 tion and feeling have expressed themselves in works 
 of art. If we value for children the whole impression 
 of the centuries, especially in European history, more 
 than the mere record of changes, the history of art 
 will allow them to apprehend it almost as the biogra- 
 phies of great persons who have set their signature 
 upon the age in which they lived. 
 
 As each of the fine arts has its own history which 
 moves along divergent or parallel lines in different 
 countries and periods, and as each development or 
 check is bound up with the history of the country 
 or period and bears its impress, the interpretation of 
 one is assisted and enriched by the other, and both 
 are linked together to illuminate the truth. It is 
 only necessary to consider the position of Christian art 
 in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the
 
 ART 189 
 
 changes wrought by the Eenaissance, to estimate the 
 value of some knowledge of it in giving to children a 
 right understanding of those times and of what they 
 have left to the world. Again, the inferences to be 
 drawn from the varied developments of Gothic archi- 
 tecture in France, Spain, and England are roads in- 
 dicated to what is possible to explore in later studies, 
 both in history and in art. And so the schools of 
 painting studied in their history make ready the way 
 for closer study in after years. Pugin's "Book of 
 Contrasts " is an illustration full of suggestive power 
 as to the service which may be rendered in teaching 
 by comparing the art of one century with that of 
 another, as expressive of the spirit of each period, and 
 a means of reading below the surface. 
 
 Without Pugin's bitterness the same method of 
 contrast has been used most effectively to put before 
 children by means of lantern slides and lectures the 
 manner in which art renders truth according to the 
 various ideals and convictions of the artists. It is a 
 lesson in itself, a lesson in faith, in devotion, as well 
 as in art and in the history of man's mind, to show 
 in succession, or even side by side, though the shock 
 is painful, works of art in which the Christian mys- 
 teries are rendered in an age of faith or in one of 
 unbelief. They can see in the great works of Catho- 
 lic art how faith exults in setting them forth, with 
 undoubting assurance, with a theological grasp of 
 their bearings and conclusions, with plenitude of 
 conviction and devotion that has no afterthoughts ; 
 and in contrasting with these the strained efforts to 
 represent the same subjects without the illumination
 
 190 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 of theology they will learn to measure the distance 
 downwards in art from faith to unbelief. 
 
 The conclusions may carry them further, to judge 
 from the most modern paintings of the tone of mind 
 of their own time, of its impatience and restlessness 
 and want of hope. Let them compare the patient 
 finish, the complete thought given to every detail in 
 the works of the greatest painters, the accumulated 
 light and depth, the abounding life, with the hasty, 
 jagged, contemporary manner of painting, straining 
 into harshness from want of patience, tense and 
 angular from want of real vitality, exhausted from 
 the absence of inward repose. They will comment for 
 themselves upon the pessimism to which so many 
 surrender themselves, taking with them their religious 
 art, with its feeble Madonnas and haggard saints, 
 without hope or courage or help, painted out of the 
 abundance of their own heart's sadness. This con- 
 trast carries much teaching to the children of to-day ii 
 they can understand it, for each one who sets value 
 upon faith and hope and resolution and courage in 
 art is a unit adding strength to the line of defence 
 against the invasions of sadness and dejection of 
 spirit. 
 
 These considerations belong to the moral and 
 spiritual value of the study of art, in the early years 
 of an education intended to be general. They are of 
 primary importance although in themselves only in- 
 direct results of the study. As to its direct results, it 
 may be said in general that two things must be aimed 
 at during the years of school life, appreciation of 
 the beautiful in the whole realm of art, and some
 
 ART 191 
 
 very elementary execution in one or other branch, 
 some doing or making according to the gift of each 
 one. 
 
 The work on both sides is and can be only prepara- 
 tion, only the establishment of principles and the lay- 
 ing of foundations ; if anything further is attempted 
 during school life it is apt to throw the rest of the 
 education out of proportion, for in nothing whatever 
 can a girl leaving the school-room be looked upon as 
 having finished. It is a great deal if she is well- 
 grounded and ready to begin. Even the very branches 
 of study to which a disproportioned space has been 
 allowed will suffer the penalty of it later on, for the 
 narrow basis of incomplete foundations tends to make 
 an ill-balanced superstructure which cannot bear the 
 stress of effort required for perfection without falling 
 into eccentricity or wearing itself out. Both misfor- 
 tunes have been seen before now when infant pro- 
 digies have been allowed to grow on one side only. 
 Kestraint and control and general building up tend to 
 strengthen even the talent which has apparently to 
 be checked, by giving it space and equilibrium and 
 the power of repose. Even if art should be their 
 profession or their life-work in any form, the sacrifices 
 made for general education will be compensated in 
 the mental and moral balance of their work. 
 
 If general principles of art have been kept before 
 the minds of children, and the history of art has given 
 them some true ideas of its evolution, they are ready 
 to learn the technique and practice of any branch to 
 which they may be attracted. But as music and 
 painting are more within their reach than other arts.
 
 192 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 it is reasonable that they should be provided for in the 
 education of every child, so that each should have at 
 least the offer and invitation of an entrance into those 
 worlds, and latent talents be given the opportunity of 
 declaring themselves. Poetry has its place apart, or 
 rather it has two places, its own in the field of litera- 
 ture, and another, as an inspiration pervading all the 
 domain of the fine arts, allied with music by a natural 
 affinity, connected with painting on the side of im- 
 agination, related in one way or another to all that is 
 expressive of the beautiful. Children will feel its 
 influence before they can account for it, and it is well 
 that they should do so to feel it is in the direction of 
 refusing the evil and choosing the good. 
 
 Music is coming into a more important place among 
 educational influences now that the old superstition 
 of making every child play the piano is passing away. 
 It was an injustice both to the right reason of a child 
 and to the honour of music when it was forced upon 
 those who were unwilling and unfit to attain any 
 degree of excellence in it. We are renouncing these 
 superstitions and turning to something more widely 
 possible to cultivate the audience and teach them to 
 listen with intelligence to that which without instruc- 
 tion is scarcely more than pleasant noise, or at best 
 the expression of emotion. The intellectual aspect of 
 music is beginning to be brought forward in teaching 
 children, and with this awakening the whole effect 
 of music in education is indefinitely raised. It has 
 scarcely had time to tell yet, but as it extends more 
 widely and makes its way through the whole of our 
 educational system it may be hoped that the old com-
 
 ART 193 
 
 plaints, too well founded, against the indifference and 
 carelessness of English audiences, will be heard no 
 more. We shall never attain to the kind of religious 
 awe which falls upon a German audience, or to its 
 moods of emotion, but we may reach some means of 
 expression which the national character does not 
 forbid, showing at least that we understand, even 
 though we must not admit that we feel. 
 
 It is impossible to suggest what may be attained 
 by girls of exceptional talent, but in practice if the 
 average child-students, with fair musical ability, can 
 at the end of their school course read and sing at 
 sight fairly easy music, and have a good beginning of 
 intelligent playing on one or two instruments, they 
 will have brought their foundations in musical practice 
 up to the level of their general education. If with some 
 help they can understand the structure of a great 
 musical work, and perhaps by themselves analyse an 
 easy sonata, they will be in a position to appreciate 
 the best of what they will hear afterwards, and if 
 they have learnt something of the history of music 
 and of the works of the great composers, their musical 
 education will have gone as far as proportion allows 
 before they are grown up. Some notions of harmony, 
 enough to harmonize by the most elementary methods 
 a simple melody, will be of the greatest service to those 
 whose music has any future in it. 
 
 Catholic girls have a right and even a duty to learn 
 something of the Church's own music ; and in this 
 also there are two things to be learnt appreciation 
 and execution. And amongst the practical applica- 
 tions of the art of music to life there is nothing more 
 
 13
 
 194 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 honourable than the acquired knowledge of ecclesias- 
 tical music to be used in the service of the Church. 
 When the love and understanding of its spirit are 
 acquired the diffusion of a right tone in Church music 
 is a means of doing good, as true and as much within 
 the reach of many girls as the spread of good litera- 
 ture ; and in a small and indirect way it allows them 
 the privilege of ministering to the beauty of Catholic 
 worship and devotion. 
 
 The scope of drawing and painting in early educa- 
 tion has been most ably treated of in many general 
 and special works, and does not concern us here ex- 
 cept in so far as it is connected with the training of 
 taste in art which is of more importance to Catholics 
 than to others, as has been considered above, in its 
 relation to the springs of spiritual life, to faith and 
 devotion, and also in so far as taste in art serves to 
 strengthen or to undermine the principles on which 
 conduct is based. We have to brace our children's 
 wills to face restraint, to know that they cannot 
 cast themselves at random and adrift in the pursuit 
 of art, that their ideals must be more severe than 
 those of others, and that they have less excuse than 
 others if they allow these ideals to be debased. They 
 ought to learn to be proud of this restraint, not to 
 believe themselves thwarted or feel themselves galled 
 by it, but to understand that it stands for a higher 
 freedom by the side of which ease and unrestraint 
 are more like servitude than liberty ; it stands for the 
 power to refuse the evil and choose the good; it 
 stands for intellectual and moral freedom of choice, 
 holding in check the impulse and inclination that are
 
 ART 195 
 
 prompted from within and invited from without to 
 escape from control. 
 
 The best teaching in this is to show what is best, 
 and to give the principles by which it is to be judged. 
 To talk of what is bad, or less good, even by way of 
 warning, is less persuasive and calculated even to do 
 harm to girls whose temper of mind is often " quite 
 contrary." Warnings are wearisome to them, and 
 when they refer to remote dangers, partly guessed at, 
 mostly unknown, they even excite the spirit of ad- 
 venture to go and find out for themselves, just as 
 in childhood repeated warnings and threats of the 
 nursery-maids and maiden aunts are the very things 
 which set the spirit of enterprise off on the voyage of 
 discovery, a fact which the head nurse and the 
 mother have found out long ago, and so have learnt 
 to refrain from these attractive advertisements of 
 danger. So it is with teachers. We learn by experi- 
 ence that a trumpet blast of warning wakes the echoes 
 at first and rouses all that is to be roused, but also 
 that if it is often repeated it dulls the ear and calls 
 forth no response at all. Quiet positive teaching con- 
 vinces children ; to show them the best things at- 
 tracts them, and once their true allegiance is given to 
 the best, they have more security within themselves 
 than in many danger signals set up for their safety. 
 What is most persuasive of all is a whole-hearted 
 love for real truth and beauty in those who teach 
 them. Their own glow of enthusiasm is caught, 
 light from light, and taste from taste, and ideal from 
 ideal ; warning may be lost sight of, but this is living 
 
 spirit and will last. 
 
 13*
 
 196 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 What children can accomplish by the excellent 
 methods of teaching drawing and painting which 
 are coming into use now, it is difficult to say. 
 Talent as well as circumstances and conditions of 
 education differ very widely in this. But as prepara- 
 tion for intelligent appreciation they should acquire 
 some elementary principles of criticism, and some 
 knowledge of the history and of the different schools of 
 painting, indications of what to look for here and 
 there in Europe and likewise of how to look at it ; 
 this is what they can take with them as a foundation, 
 and in some degree all can acquire enough to con- 
 tinue their own education according to their oppor- 
 tunities. Matter-of-fact minds can learn enough not 
 to be intolerable, the average enough to guide and 
 safeguard their taste. They are important, for they 
 will be in general the multitude, the public, whose 
 judgment is of consequence by its weight of numbers ; 
 they will by their demand make art go upwards or 
 downwards according to their pleasure. For the 
 few, the precious few who are chosen and gifted to 
 have a more definite influence, all the love they can 
 acquire in their early years for the best in art will 
 attach them for life to what is sane and true and 
 lovely and of good fame. 
 
 The foundations of all this lie very deep in human 
 nature, and taste will be consistent with itself 
 throughout the whole of life. It manifests itself in 
 early sensitiveness and responsiveness to artistic 
 beauty. It determines the choice in what to love as 
 well as what to like. It will assert itself in friend- 
 ship, and estrangement in matters of taste is often the
 
 ART 197 
 
 first indication of a divergence in ideals which con- 
 tinues and grows more marked until at some cross- 
 roads one takes the higher path and the other the 
 lower and their ways never meet again. That 
 higher path, the disinterested love of beauty, calls for 
 much sacrifice ; it must seek its pleasure on ly in the 
 highest, and not look for a first taste of delight, but 
 a second, when the power of criticism has been 
 schooled by a kind of asceticism to detect the choice 
 from the vulgar and the true from the insincere. 
 This spirit of sacrifice must enter into every form of 
 training for life, but above all into the training of the 
 Catholic mind. It has a wide range and asks much 
 of its disciples, a certain renunciation and self-re- 
 straint in all things which never completely lets itself 
 go. Catholic art bears witness to this : "Where a 
 man seeks himself there he falls from love," says a 
 Kempis, and this is proved not only in the love of 
 God, but in what makes the glory of Christian art, 
 the love of beauty and truth in the service of faith.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 MANNERS. 
 
 " Manners are the happy ways of doing things ; each once a 
 btroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into 
 usage. " EMERSON. 
 
 THE late Queen Victoria had a profound sense of the 
 importance of manners and of certain conventional- 
 ities, and the singular gift of common sense, which 
 stood for so much in her, stands also for the signifi- 
 cance of those things on which she laid so much 
 stress. 
 
 Conventionality has a bad name at present, and 
 manners are on the decline, this is a fact quite undis- 
 puted. As to conventionalities it is assumed that 
 they represent an artificial and hollow code, from the 
 pressure of which all, and especially the young, should 
 be emancipated. And it may well be that there is 
 something to be said in favour of modifying them in 
 fact it must be so, for all human things need at times 
 to be revised and readapted to special and local con- 
 ditions. To attempt to enforce the same code of 
 conventions on human society in different countries, 
 or at different stages of development, is necessarily 
 artificial, and if pressed too far it provokes reaction, 
 and in reaction we almost inevitably go to extreme 
 
 198
 
 MANNERS 199 
 
 lengths. So in reaction against too rigid convention- 
 alities and a social ritual which was perhaps over- 
 exacting, we are swinging out beyond control in the 
 direction of complete spontaneity. And yet there is 
 need for a code of conventions for some established 
 defence against the instincts of selfishness which find 
 their way back by a short cut to barbarism if they 
 are not kept in check. 
 
 Civilized selfishness leads to a worse kind of barbar- 
 ism than that of rude and primitive states of society, 
 because it has more resources at its command, as 
 cruelty with refinement has more resources for inflict- 
 ing pain than cruelty which can only strike hard. 
 Civilized selfishness is worse also in that it has let go 
 of better things ; it is not in progress towards a higher 
 plane of life, but has turned its back upon ideals and is 
 slipping on the down-grade without a check. We can 
 see the complete expression of life without conventions 
 in the unrestraint of " hooliganism " with us, and its 
 equivalents in other countries. In this we observe the 
 characteristic product of bringing up without either 
 religion, or conventions, or teaching in good manners 
 which are inseparable from religion. We see the 
 demoralization of the very forces which make both 
 the strength and the weakness of youth and a great 
 part of its charm, the impetuosity, the fearlessness of 
 consequence, the lightheartedness, the exuberance 
 which would have been so strong for good if rightly 
 turned, become through want of this right impetus 
 and control not strong but violent, uncontrollable 
 and reckless to a degree which terrifies the very 
 authorities who are responsible for them, in that
 
 200 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 system which is bringing up children with nothing 
 to hold by, and nothing to which they can appeal. 
 
 Girls are inclined to go even further than boys in 
 this unrestraint through their greater excitability and 
 recklessness, and their having less instinct of self- 
 preservation. It is a problem for the local auth- 
 orities. Their lavish expenditure upon sanitation, 
 adornment, and to use the favourite word " equip- 
 ment " of their schools does not seem to touch it; 
 in fact it cannot reach the real difficulty, for it makes 
 appeal to the senses and neglects the soul, and the 
 souls of children are hungry for faith and love and 
 something higher to look for, beyond the well-being 
 of to-day in the schools, and the struggle for life, in 
 the streets, to-morrow. 
 
 It is not only in the elementary schools that 
 such types of formidable selfishness are produced. 
 In any class of life, in school or home, wherever 
 a child is growing up without control and " handling," 
 without the discipline of religion and manners, 
 without the yoke of obligations enforcing respect 
 and consideration for others, there a rough is being 
 brought up, not so loud-voiced or so uncouth as the 
 street-rough, but as much out of tune with goodness 
 and honour, with as little to hold by and appeal to, 
 as troublesome and dangerous either at home or in 
 society, as uncertain and unreliable in a party or a 
 ministry, and in any association that makes demand 
 upon self-control in the name of duty. 
 
 This is very generally recognized and deplored, but 
 except within the Church, which has kept the key to 
 these questions, the remedy is hard to find. In-
 
 MANNERS 201 
 
 specters of elementary schools have been heard to 
 say that, even in districts where the Catholic school 
 was composed of the poorest and roughest elements, 
 the manners were better than those of the well-to-do 
 children in the neighbouring Council schools. They 
 could not account for it, but we can ; the precious hour 
 of religious teaching for which we have had to fight 
 so hard, influences the whole day and helps to create 
 the "Catholic atmosphere" which in its own way 
 tells perhaps more widely than the teaching. Faith 
 tells of the presence of God and this underlies the 
 rest, while the sense of friendly protection, the love of 
 Our Lady, the angels, and saints, the love of the priest 
 who administers all that Catholic children most value, 
 who blesses and absolves them in God's name, all 
 these carry them out of what is wretched and de- 
 pressing in their surroundings to a different world in 
 which they give and receive love and respect as 
 children of God. No wonder their manners are 
 gentler and their intercourse more disposed to friend- 
 liness, there is something to appeal to and uphold, 
 something to love. 
 
 The Protestant Keformation breaking up these 
 relations and all the ceremonial observance in which 
 they found expression, necessarily produced deteriora- 
 tion of manners. As soon as anyone, especially 
 a child, becomes not rightly but aggressively in- 
 dependent, argumentatively preoccupied in asserting 
 that " I am as good as you are, and I can do without 
 you " he falls from the right proportion of things, 
 becomes less instead of greater, because he stands 
 alone, and from this to warfare against all order and
 
 202 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 control the step is short. So it has proved. The 
 principles of Protestantism worked out to the princi- 
 ples of the Eevolution, and to their natural outcome, 
 seen at its worst in the Eeign of Terror and the Com- 
 mune of 1871 in Paris. 
 
 Again the influence of the Church on manners was 
 dominant in the age of chivalry. At that time religion 
 and manners were known to be inseparable, and it 
 was the Church that handled the rough vigour of her 
 sons to make them gentle as knights. This is so well 
 known that it needs no more than calling to mind, 
 and, turning attention to the fact that all the handling 
 was fundamental, it is handling that makes manners. 
 Even the derivation of the word does not let us forget 
 this manners from manieres, from manier, from 
 main, from manus, the touch of the human hand 
 upon the art of living worthily in human society, 
 without offence and without contention, with the 
 gentleness of a race, the gens, that owns a common 
 origin, the urbanity of those who have learned to 
 dwell in a city "compact together," the respect of 
 those who have some one to look to for approval and 
 control, either above them in dignity, or beneath 
 them in strength, and therefore to be considered with 
 due reverence. 
 
 The handling began early in days of chivalry, no 
 time was lost, because there would necessarily be 
 checks on the way. Knighthood was far off, but 
 it could not be caught sight of too early as an ideal, 
 and it was characteristic of the consideration of the 
 Church that, in the scheme of manners over which 
 she held sway, the first training of her knights was
 
 MANNERS 203 
 
 intrusted to women. For women set the standard 
 of manners in every age, if a child has not learnt by 
 seven years old how to behave towards them it is 
 scarcely possible for him to learn it at all, and it is 
 by women only that it can be taught. The little 
 damoiseaux would have perfect and accomplished 
 manners for their age when they left the apartments 
 of the ladies at seven years old ; it was a matter of 
 course that they would fall off a good deal in their 
 next stage. They would become " pert," as pages 
 were supposed to be, and diffident as esquires, but as 
 knights they would come back of themselves to the 
 perfect ways of their childhood with a grace that be- 
 came well the strength and self-possession of their 
 knighthood. We have no longer the same formal and 
 ceremonial training ; it is not possible in our own times 
 under the altered conditions of life, yet it commands 
 attention for those who have at heart the future well- 
 being of the boys and girls of to-day. The funda- 
 mental facts upon which manners are grounded 
 remain the same. These are, some of them, worth 
 consideration : 
 
 1. That manners represent a great deal more than 
 mere social observances ; they stand as the outward 
 expression of some of the deepest springs of conduct, 
 and none of the modern magic of philanthropy 
 altruism, culture, the freedom and good-fellowship of 
 democracy, replaces them, because, in their spirit, 
 manners belong to religion. 
 
 2. That manners are a matter of individual training, 
 so that they could never be learnt from a book. They 
 can scarcely be taught, except in their simplest
 
 204 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 elements, to a class or school as a whole, but the 
 authority which stands nearest in responsibility to 
 each child, either in the home circle or at school, has 
 to make a special study of it in order to teach it 
 manners. The reason of this is evident. In each 
 nature selfishness crops out on one side rather than 
 another, and it is this which has to be studied, that 
 the forward may be repressed, the shy or indolent 
 stimulated, the dreamy quickened into attention, and 
 all the other defective sides recognized and taken, 
 literally, in hand, to be modelled to a better form. 
 
 3. That training in manners is not a short course 
 but a long course of study, a work of patience on both 
 sides, of gentle and most insistent handling on one 
 side and of long endurance on the other. There are 
 a very few exquisite natures with whom the grace of 
 manners seems to be inborn. They are not very 
 vigorous, not physically robust ; their own sensitive- 
 ness serves as a private tutor or monitor to tell them 
 at the right moment what others feel, and what they 
 should say or do. They have a great gift, but they 
 lay down their price for it, and suffer for others as 
 well as in themselves more than their share. But in 
 general, the average boy and girl needs a " daily 
 exercise " which in most cases amounts to " nagging," 
 and in the best hands is only saved from nagging by 
 its absence of peevishness, and the patience with 
 which it reminds and urges and teases into perfect 
 observance. The teasing thing, and yet the most 
 necessary one, is the constant check upon the pre- 
 occupying interests of children, so that in presence 
 of their elders they can never completely let them- 
 selves go, but have to be attentive to every service of
 
 MANNERS 205 
 
 consideration or mark of respect that occasion calls 
 for. It is very wearisome, but when it has been 
 acquired through laborious years there it is, like a 
 special sense superadded to the ordinary endowments 
 of nature, giving presence of mind and self-possession, 
 arming the whole being against surprise or awkward- 
 ness or indiscretion, and controlling what has so long 
 appeared to exercise control over it the conditions 
 of social intercourse. 
 
 How shall we persuade the children of to-day that 
 manners and conventions have not come to an end 
 as part of the old regime which appears to them an 
 elaborate unreality ? It is exceedingly difficult to do 
 so, at school especially, as in many cases their whole 
 family consents to regard them as extinct, and only 
 when startled at the over-growth of their girls' un- 
 mannerly roughness and self-assertion they send 
 them to school " to have their manners attended 
 to " ; but then it is too late. The only way to form 
 manners is to teach them from the beginning as a 
 part of religion, as indeed they are. Devotion to Our 
 Lady will give to the manners both of boys and girls 
 something which stamps them as Christian and 
 Catholic, something above the world's level. And, as 
 has been so often pointed out, the Church's ritual is 
 the court ceremonial of the most perfect manners, 
 in which every least detail has its significance, and 
 applies some principle of inward faith and devotion 
 to outward servica 
 
 If we could get to the root of all that the older 
 codes of manners required, and even the convention- 
 alities of modern life these remnants, in so far as 
 they are based on the older codes it would be found
 
 206 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 that, as in the Church's ceremonial, not one of them 
 was without its meaning, but that all represented 
 some principle of Christian conduct, even if they 
 have developed into expressions which seem trivial. 
 Human things tend to exaggeration and to " sport," 
 as gardeners say, from their type into strange varieties, 
 and so the manners which were the outcome of 
 chivalry exquisite, idealized, and restrained in their 
 best period, grew artificial in later times and elabor- 
 ated themselves into an etiquette which grew tyran- 
 nical and even ridiculous, and added violence to the 
 inevitable reaction which followed. But if we look 
 beyond the outward form to the spirit of such pre- 
 scriptions as are left in force, there is something 
 noble in their origin, either the laws of hospitality 
 regulating all the relations of host and guest, or 
 reverence for innocence and weakness which sur- 
 rounded the dignity of both with lines of chivalrous 
 defence, or the sensitiveness of personal honour, the 
 instinct of what was due to oneself, an inward law 
 that compelled a line of conduct that was unselfish 
 and honourable. So the relics of these lofty con- 
 ventions are deserving of all respect, and they cannot 
 be disregarded without tampering with foundations 
 which it is not safe to touch. They are falling into 
 disrepute, but for the love of the children let us main- 
 tain them as far as we can. The experience of past 
 ages has laid up lessons for us, and if we can take 
 them in let us do so, if only as a training for children 
 in self-control, for which they will find other uses a 
 few years hence. 
 
 But in doing this we must take account of all that
 
 MANNERS 207 
 
 has changed. There are some antique forms, beautiful 
 and full of dignity, which it is useless to attempt to 
 revive ; they cannot live again, they are too massive 
 for our mobile manner of life to-day. And on the 
 other hand there are some which are too high-pitched, 
 or too delicate. We are living in a democratic age, 
 and must be able to stand against its stress. So in 
 the education of girls a greater measure of independ- 
 ence must necessarily be given to them, and they 
 must learn to use it, to become self-reliant and self- 
 protecting. They have to grow more conscious, less 
 trustful, a little harder in outline ; one kind of young 
 dignity has to be exchanged for another, an attitude 
 of self-defence is necessary. There is perhaps a 
 certain loss in it, but it is inevitable. The real mis- 
 fortune is that the first line of defence is often sur- 
 rendered before the second is ready, and a sudden 
 relaxation of control tends to yield too much ; in fact 
 girls are apt to lose their heads and abandon their 
 self-control further than they are able to resume it. 
 Once they have " let themselves go " it is the favour- 
 ite phrase, and for once a phrase that completely 
 conveys its meaning it is exceedingly difficult for 
 them to stop themselves, impossible for others to 
 stop them by force, for the daring ones are quite 
 ready to break with their friends, and the others can 
 elude control with very little difficulty. The only 
 security is a complete armour of self-control based 
 on faith, and a home tie which is a guarantee for 
 happiness. Girls who are not happy in their own 
 homes live in an atmosphere of temptation which 
 they can scarcely resist, and the happiness of home
 
 208 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 is dependent in a great measure upon the manners 
 of home, " there is no surer dissolvant of home affec- 
 tions than discourtesy." * It is useless to insist on 
 this, it is known and admitted by almost all, but the 
 remedy or the preventive is hard to apply, demand- 
 ing such constant self-sacrifice on the part of parents 
 that all are not ready to practise it ; it is so much 
 easier and it looks at first sight so kind to let children 
 have their way. So kind at first, so unselfish in 
 appearance, the parents giving way, abdicating their 
 authority, while the young democracy in the nursery 
 or school-room takes the reins in hand so willingly, 
 makes the laws, or rather rules without them, by its 
 sovereign moods, and then outgrows the " establish- 
 ment" altogether, requires more scope, snaps the 
 link with home, scarcely regretting, and goes off on 
 its own account to elbow its way in the world. It is 
 obviously necessary and perhaps desirable that many 
 girls should have to make their own way in the 
 world who would formerly have lived at home, but 
 often the way in which it is done is all wrong, and 
 leaves behind on both sides recollections with a touch 
 of soreness. 
 
 For those who are practically concerned with the 
 education of girls the question is how to attain what 
 we want for them, while the force of the current is 
 set so strongly against us. We have to make up our 
 minds as to what conventions can survive and fix in 
 some way the high and low- water marks, for there 
 must be both, the highest that we can attain, 
 and the lowest that we can accept. All material 
 
 J D. Urquhart.
 
 MANNERS 209 
 
 is not alike ; some cannot take polish at all. It is well 
 if it can be made tolerable ; if it does not fall below that 
 level of manners which are at least the safeguard of 
 conduct ; if it can impose upon itself and accept at 
 least so much restraint as to make it inoffensive, not 
 aggressively selfish. Perhaps the low-water mark 
 might be fixed at the remembrance that other people 
 have rights and the observance of their claims. This 
 would secure at least the common marks of respect 
 and the necessary conventionalities of intercourse. 
 For ordinary use the high-water mark might attain 
 to the remembrance that other people have feelings, 
 and to taking them into account, and as an ordinary 
 guide of conduct this includes a great deal and re- 
 quires training and watchfulness to establish it, even 
 where there is no exceptional selfishness or bluntness 
 of sense to be overcome. The nature of an ordinary 
 healthy energetic child, high-spirited and boisterous, 
 full of a hundred interests of its own, finds the mere 
 attention to these things a heavy yoke, and the con- 
 stant self-denial needed to carry them out is a labor- 
 ious work indeed. 
 
 The slow process of polishing marble has more 
 than one point of resemblance with the training of 
 manners ; it is satisfactory to think that the re- 
 semblance goes further than the process, that as 
 only by polishing can the concealed beauties of the 
 marble be brought out, so only in the perfecting of 
 manners will the finer grain of character and feeling 
 be revealed. Polishing is a process which may reach 
 different degrees .of brilliancy according to the ma- 
 terial on which it is performed ; and so in the teaching 
 
 14
 
 210 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 of manners a great deal depends upon the quality of 
 the nature, and the amount of expression which it is 
 capable of acquiring. It isuseless to press for what can- 
 not be given, at the same time it is unfair not to exact 
 the best that every one is able to give. As in all that has 
 to do with character, example is better than precept. 
 
 But in the matter of manners example alone is by 
 no means enough ; precept is formally necessary, and 
 precept has to be enforced by exercise. It is necessary 
 because the origin of established conventionalities is 
 remote ; they do not speak for themselves, they are the 
 outcome of a general habit of thought, they have 
 come into being through a long succession of preced- 
 ents. We cannot explain them fully to children ; they 
 can only have the summary and results of them, and 
 these are dry and grinding, opposed to the unpremedi- 
 tated spontaneous ways of acting in which they de- 
 light. Manners are almost fatally opposed to the 
 sudden happy thoughts of doing something original, 
 which occur to children's minds. No wonder they 
 dislike them ; we must be prepared for this. They 
 are almost grown up before they can understand the 
 value of what they have gone through in acquiring 
 these habits of unselfishness, but unlike many other 
 subjects to which they are obliged to give time and 
 labour, they will not leave this behind in the school- 
 room. It is then that they will begin to exercise with 
 ease and precision of long practice the art of the best 
 and most expressive conduct in every situation which 
 their circumstances may create. 
 
 In connexion with this question of circumstances 
 in life and the situations which arise out of them,
 
 MANNERS 211 
 
 there is one thing which ought to be taught to 
 children as a fundamental principle, and that is the 
 relation of manners to class of life, and what is meant 
 by vulgarity. For vulgarity is not what it is too 
 often assumed to be a matter of class, but in itself 
 a matter of insincerity, the effort to appear or to be 
 something that one is not. The contrary of vulgarity, 
 by the word, is preciousness or distinction, and in 
 conduct or act it is the perfect preciousness and dis- 
 tinction of truthfulness. Truthfulness in manners 
 gives distinction and dignity in all classes of society ; 
 truthfulness gives that simplicity of manners which is 
 one of the special graces of royalty, and also of an un- 
 spoiled and especially a Catholic peasantry. Vulgarity 
 has an element of restless unreality and pretentious 
 striving, an affectation or assumption of ways which do 
 not belong to it, and in particular an unwillingness to 
 serve, and a dread of owning any obligation of service. 
 Yet service perfects manners and dignity, from the 
 highest to the lowest, and the manners of perfect 
 servants either public or private are models of dignity 
 and fitness. The manners of the best servants often 
 put to shame those of their employers, for their self- 
 possession and complete knowledge of what they are 
 and ought to be raises them above the unquietness oi 
 those who have a suspicion that they are not quite 
 what might be expected of them. It is on this un- 
 certain ground that all the blunders of manners occur ; 
 when simplicity is lost disaster follows, with loss of 
 dignity and self-respect, and pretentiousness forces its 
 way through to claim the respect which it is con- 
 scious of not deserving. 
 
 H*
 
 212 THE EDUCATION OP CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Truth, then, is the foundation of distinction in 
 manners for every class, and the manners of children 
 are beautiful and perfect when simplicity bears witness 
 to inward truthfulness and consideration for others, 
 when it expresses modesty as to themselves and 
 kindness of heart towards every one. It does not 
 require much display or much ceremonial for their 
 manners to be perfect according to the requirements 
 of life at present ; the ritual of society is a variable 
 thing, sometimes very exacting, at others disposed to 
 every concession, but these things do not vary truth, 
 modesty, reverence, kindness are of all times, and 
 these are the bases of our teaching. 
 
 The personal contribution of those who teach, the 
 influence of their companionship is that which estab- 
 lishes the standard, their patience is the measure 
 which determines the limits of attainment, for it is 
 only patience which makes a perfect work, whether the 
 attainment be high or low. It takes more patience to 
 bring poor material up to a presentable standard than 
 to direct the quick intuitions of those who are more 
 responsive ; in one case efforts meet with resistance, 
 in the other, generally with correspondence. But 
 our own practice is for ourselves the important thing, 
 for the inward standard is the point of departure, and 
 our own sincerity is a light as well as a rule, or rather 
 it is a rule because it is a light; it prevents the 
 standard of manners from being double, one for use 
 and one for ornament ; it imposes respect to be ob- 
 served with children as well as exacted from them, 
 and it keeps up the consciousness that manners re-
 
 MANNERS 213 
 
 present faith and, in a sense, duty to God rather than 
 to one's neighbour. 
 
 This, too, belongs not to the fleeting things of 
 social observance but to the deep springs of conduct, 
 and its teaching may be summed up in one question. 
 Is not well-instructed devotion to Our Lady and the 
 understanding of the Church's ceremonies a school 
 of manners in which we may learn how human in- 
 tercourse may be carried on with the most perfect 
 external expressiveness ? Is not all inattention of 
 mind to the courtesies of life, all roughness and 
 slovenliness, all crude un conventionality which is 
 proud of its self-assertion, a " falling from love " in 
 seeking self ? Will not the instinct of devotion and 
 imitation teach within, all those things which must 
 otherwise be learned by painful reiteration from with- 
 out ; the perpetual give up, give way, give thanks, 
 make a fitting answer, pause, think of others, don't 
 get excited, wait, serve, which require watchfulness 
 and self-sacrifice ? 
 
 Perhaps in the last year or two of education, when 
 our best opportunities occur, some insight will be 
 gained into the deeper meaning of all these things. 
 It may then be understood that they are something 
 more than arbitrary rules ; there may come the under- 
 standing of what is beautiful in human intercourse, 
 of the excellence of self-restraint, the loveliness of 
 perfect service. If this can be seen it will tone down 
 all that is too uncontrolled and make self-restraint 
 acceptable, and will deal with the conventions of life 
 as with symbols, poor and inarticulate indeed, but 
 profoundly significant, of things as they ought to be.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HIGHEK EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 
 
 " In die Erd' ist's aufgenommen, 
 Gliicklich 1st die Form gefullt ; 
 Wird's auch schon zu Tage kommen, 
 Dass es Fleiss und Kunst vergilfc ? 
 
 Wenn der Guss misslang ? 
 
 Wenn die Form zersprang ? 
 Aoh, vielleicht, indem wir hoffen, 
 Hat uns Unheil schon getroffen." 
 
 SCHILLER, "Das Lied von der Glocke." 
 
 So far in these pages the education of girls has only 
 been considered up to the age of eighteen or so, that 
 is to the end of the ordinary school-room course. At 
 eighteen, some say that it is just time to go to school, 
 and others consider that it is more than time to leave 
 it. They look at life from different points of view. 
 Some are eager to experience everything for them- 
 selves, and as early as possible to snatch at this good 
 thing, life, which is theirs, and make what they can 
 of it, believing that its only interest is in what lies 
 beyond the bounds of childhood and a life of regulated 
 studies ; they want to begin to live. Others feel that 
 life is such a good thing that every year of longer 
 preparation fits them better to make the most of its 
 opportunities, and others again are anxious for 
 
 214
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 215 
 
 a particular purpose, sometimes, and very rarely for 
 the disinterested love of it to undertake a course 
 of more advanced studies and take active part in the 
 movement "for the higher education of women." 
 The first will advance as far as possible the date of 
 their coming out ; the second will delay it as long as 
 they are allowed, to give themselves in quiet to the 
 studies and thought which grow in value to them 
 month by month ; the third, energetic and decided, 
 buckle on their armour and enter themselves at uni- 
 versities for degrees or certificates according to the 
 facilities offered. 
 
 There can be no doubt that important changes 
 were necessary in the education of women. About 
 the middle of the last century it had reached a con- 
 dition of stagnation from the passing away of the old 
 system of instruction before anything was ready to 
 take its place. With very few exceptions, and those 
 depended entirely on the families from which they 
 came, girls were scarcely educated at all. The old 
 system had given them few things but these were of 
 value ; manners, languages, a little music and domestic 
 training would include it all, with perhaps a few 
 notions of " the use of the globes " and arithmetic. 
 But when it dwindled into a book called " Hangnail's 
 Questions," and manners declined into primness, and 
 domestic training lost its vigour, then artificiality laid 
 hold of it and lethargy followed, and there was no 
 more education for " young ladies." 
 
 In a characteristically English way it was individual 
 effort which came to change the face of things, and 
 honour is due to the pioneers who went first, facing
 
 216 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIELS 
 
 opposition and believing in the possibilities of better 
 things. In some other countries the State would 
 have taken the initiative and has done so, but we 
 have our own ways of working out things, " 1'aveugle 
 et tatonnante infaillibilite 1 de 1'Angleterre," as some 
 one has called it, in which the individual goes first, 
 and makes trial of the land, and often experiences 
 failure in the first attempts. From the closing years 
 of the eighteenth century, when the "Vindication of 
 the Eights of Women " was published by Mary 
 Wollstonecraft, the question has been more or less 
 in agitation. But in 1848, with the opening of Queen's 
 College in London, it took its first decided step forward 
 in the direction of provision for the higher education 
 of women, and in literature it was much in the air. 
 Tennyson's "Princess" came in 1847, and "Aurora 
 Leigh" from Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1851. 
 and things moved onward with increasing rapidity 
 until at one moment it seemed like a rush to new 
 goldfields. One university after another has granted 
 degrees to women or degree certificates in place of 
 the degrees which were refused ; women are resident 
 students at some universities and at others present 
 themselves on equal terms with men for examination. 
 The way has been opened to them in some professions 
 and in many spheres of activity from which they had 
 been formerly excluded. 
 
 One advantage of the English mode of proceeding 
 in these great questions is that the situation can be 
 reconsidered from time to time without the discordant 
 contentions which surround any proclamation of non- 
 success in State concerns. We feel our way and try
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 217 
 
 this and that, and readjust ourselves, and a great deal 
 of experimental knowledge has been gained before 
 any great interests or the prestige of the State have 
 been involved. These questions which affect a whole 
 people directly or indirectly require, for us at least, 
 a great deal of experimenting before we know what 
 suits us. We are not very amenable to systems, or 
 theories, or ready-made schemes. And the phenome- 
 non of tides is very marked in all that we under- 
 take. There is a period of advance and then a pause 
 and a period of decline, and after another pause the 
 tide rises again. It may perhaps be accounted for in 
 part by the very fact that we do so much for ourselves 
 in England, and look askance at anything which 
 curtails the freedom of our movements, when we are 
 in earnest about a question ; but this independence is 
 rapidly diminishing under the more elaborate ad- 
 ministration of recent years, and the increase of State 
 control in education. Whatever may be the effect of 
 this in the future, it seems as if there were at present 
 a moment of reconsideration as to whether we have 
 been quite on the right track in the pursuit of higher 
 education for women, and a certain discontent with 
 what has been achieved so far. There are at all 
 events not many who are cordially pleased with the 
 results. Some dissatisfaction is felt as to the position 
 of the girl students in residence at the universities. 
 They cannot share in any true sense in the life of the 
 universities, but only exist on their outskirts, outside 
 the tradition of the past, a modern growth tolerated 
 rather than fostered or valued by the authorities. 
 This creates a position scarcely enviable in itself,
 
 218 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 or likely to communicate that particular tone which 
 is the gift of the oldest English universities to their 
 sons. Some girl students have undoubtedly distin- 
 guished themselves, especially at Cambridge; in the 
 line of studies they attained what they sought, but 
 that particular gift of the university they could not 
 attain. It is lamented that the number of really dis- 
 interested students attending Girton and Newnham 
 is small ; the same complaint is heard from the Halls 
 for women at Oxford ; there is a certain want of con- 
 fidence as to the future and what it is all leading to. 
 To women with a professional career before them 
 the degree certificates are of value, but the course of 
 studies itself and its mental effect is conceded by 
 many to be disappointing. One reason may be that 
 the characteristics of girls' work affect in a way the 
 whole movement. They are very eager and im- 
 petuous students, but in general the staying power is 
 short ; an excessive energy is put out in one direction, 
 then it flags, and a new beginning is made towards 
 another quarter. So in this general movement there 
 have been successive stages of activity. 
 
 The higher education movement has gone on its 
 own course. The first pioneers had clear and noble 
 ideals ; Bedford College, the growth of Cheltenham, 
 the beginnings of Newnham and Girton Colleges, 
 the North of England Ladies' "Council of Educa- 
 tion " represented them. Now that the movement 
 has left the port and gone beyond what they foresaw, 
 it has met the difficulties of the open sea. 
 
 Nursing was another sphere opened about the
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 219 
 
 same time, to meet the urgent needs felt during the 
 Crimean War; it was admirably planned out by 
 Florence Nightingale, again a pioneer with loftiest 
 ideals. There followed a rush for that opening; it has 
 continued, and now the same complaint is made that 
 it is an outlet for those whose lives are not to their 
 liking at home, rather than those who are conscious 
 of a special fitness for it or recognized as having the 
 particular qualities which it calls for. And then came 
 the development of a new variety among the unem- 
 ployed of the wealthier classes, the " athletic girl." 
 Not every one could aspire to be an athletic girl, it re- 
 quires some means, and much time ; but it is there, and 
 it is part of the emancipation movement. The latest 
 in the field are the movements towards organization 
 of effort, association on the lines of the German 
 Frauenbund, and the French Mouvement Fdministe, 
 and beside them, around them, with or without them, 
 the Women's Suffrage Movement, militant or non- 
 militant. These are of the rising tide, and each tide 
 makes a difference to our coast-line, in some places 
 the sea gains, in others the land, and so the thinkers, 
 for and against, register their victories and defeats, 
 and the face of things continues to change more and 
 more rapidly. 
 
 It seems an ungracious task, unfair perhaps it 
 seems above all retrogade and ignorant to express 
 doubt and not to think hopefully of a cause in which 
 so many lives have been spent with singular disin- 
 terestedness and self-devotion. Yet these adverse 
 thoughts are in the air, not only amongst those who 
 are unable to win in the race, but amongst those who
 
 220 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 have won, and also amongst those who look out upon 
 it all with undistracted and unbiassed interest ; older 
 men, who look to the end and outcome of things, to 
 the ultimate direction when the forces have adjusted 
 themselves. Those who think of the next generation 
 are not quite satisfied with what is being done for our 
 girls or by them. 
 
 Catholics have been spurred hotly into the move- 
 ment by those who are keenly anxious that we 
 should not be left behind, but should show ourselves 
 able to be with the best in all these things. Perhaps 
 at the stage which has been reached we have more 
 reason than others to be dissatisfied with the results 
 of success, since we are more beset than others by the 
 haunting question what then ? For those who have 
 to devote themselves to the cause of Catholic educa- 
 tion ,it is often and increasingly necessary to win 
 degrees or their equivalents, not altogether for their 
 own value, but as the key that fits the lock, for the 
 gates to the domain of education are kept locked by 
 the State. And so in other spheres of Catholic use- 
 fulness the key may become more and more necessary. 
 But may it be suggested in their own education, 
 a degree for a man and a degree for a girl mean very 
 different things, even if the degree is the same. For 
 a girl it is the certificate of a course of studies. For 
 a man an Oxford or Cambridge degree means atmo- 
 sphere unique in character, immemorial tradition, 
 association, all kinds of interests and subtle influences 
 out of the past, the impressiveness of numbers, 
 among which the individual shows in very modest 
 proportions indeed whatever may be his gifts. The
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 221 
 
 difference is that of two worlds. But even at other 
 universities the degree means more to a man if it is 
 anything beyond a mere gate-key. It is his initial 
 effort, after which comes the full stress of his life's 
 work. For a girl, except in the rarest cases, it is 
 either a gate-key or a final effort, either her life's 
 work takes a different turn, or she thinks she has 
 had enough. The line of common studies is adapted 
 for man's work and programme of life. It has been 
 made to fit woman's professional work, but the fit is 
 not perfect. It has a marked unfitness in its adapta- 
 tion for women to the real end of higher education, or 
 university education, which is the perfecting of the 
 individual mind, according to its kind, in surroundings 
 favourable to its complete development. 
 
 Atmosphere is a most important element at all 
 periods of education, and in the education of girls 
 all-important, and an atmosphere for the higher edu- 
 cation of girls has not yet been created in the univer- 
 sities. The girl students are few, their position is 
 not unassailable, their aims not very well defined, 
 and the thing which is above all required for the in- 
 tellectual development of girls quiet of mind is 
 not assured. It is obvious that there can never be 
 great tradition and a past to look back to, unless 
 there is a present, and a beginning, and a long period 
 of growth. But everything for the future consists 
 in having a noble beginning, however lowly, true 
 foundations and clear aims, and this we have not yet 
 secured. It seems almost as if we had begun at the 
 wrong end, that the foundations of character were 
 not made strong enough, before the intellectual
 
 222 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 superstructure began to be raised and that this 
 gives the sense of insecurity. An unusual strength 
 of character would be required to lead the way in 
 living worthily under such difficult circumstances as 
 have been created, a great self-restraint to walk 
 without swerving or losing the track, without the 
 controlling machinery of university rules and tradi- 
 tions, without experience, at the most adventurous 
 age of life, and except in preparation for professional 
 work without the steadying power of definite duties 
 and obligations. A few could do it, but not many, 
 and those chosen few would have found their way in 
 any case. The past bears witness to this. 
 
 But the past as a whole bears other testimony 
 which is worth considering here. Through every 
 vicissitude of women's education there have always 
 been the few who were exceptional in mental and 
 moral strength, and they have held on their way, and 
 achieved a great deal, and left behind them names 
 deserving of honour. Such were Maria Gaetana 
 Agnesi, who was invited by the Pope and the univer- 
 sity to lecture in mathematics at Bologna (and de- 
 clined the invitation to give herself to the service of 
 the poor), and Lucretia Helena Comaro Piscopia, 
 who taught philosophy and theology ! and Laura 
 Bassi who lectured in physics, and Clara von Schur- 
 man who became proficient in Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, 
 and Chaldaic in order to study Scripture "with 
 greater independence and judgment," and the Pirk- 
 heimer family of Nuremberg, Caritas and Clara and 
 others, whose attainments were conspicuous in their 
 day. But there is something unfamiliar about all
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 223 
 
 these names; they do not belong so much to the 
 history of the world as to the curiosities of literature 
 and learning. The world has not felt their touch 
 upon it ; we should scarcely miss them in the galleries 
 of history if their portraits were taken down. 
 
 The women who have been really great, whom we 
 could not spare out of their place in history, have not 
 been the student women or the remarkably learned. 
 The greatest women have taken their place in the life 
 of the world, not in its libraries ; their strength has 
 been in their character, their mission civilization in its 
 widest and loftiest sense. They have ruled not with 
 the " Divine right of kings," but with the Divine right 
 of queens, which is quite a different title, undisputed 
 and secure to them, if they do not abdicate it of 
 themselves or drag it into the field of controversy 
 to be matched and measured against the Divine or 
 human rights of kings. " The heaven of heavens is 
 the Lord's, but the earth He has given to the children 
 of men," and to woman He seems to have assigned 
 the borderland between the two, to fit the one for 
 the other and weld the links. Hers are the first 
 steps in training the souls of children, the nurseries 
 of the kingdom of heaven (the mothers of saints 
 would fill a portrait gallery of their own) ; hers the 
 special missions of peace and reconciliation and en- 
 couragement, the hidden germs of such great enter- 
 prises as the Propagation of the Faith, and the trust 
 of such great devotions as that of the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment and the Sacred Heart to be brought within the 
 reach of the faithful. The names of Matilda of 
 Tuscany, of St. Catherine of Siena, of Blessed Joan
 
 224 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 of Arc, of Isabella the Catholic, of St. Theresa are 
 representative, amongst others, of women who have 
 fulfilled public missions for the service of the Church, 
 and of Christian people, and for the realization of 
 religious ideals: true queens of the borderland be- 
 tween both worlds. Others have reigned in their 
 own spheres, in families or solitudes, or cloistered en- 
 closures as the two Saints Elizabeth, Paula and 
 Eustochium and all their group of friends, the great 
 Abbesses Hildegarde, Hilda, Gertrude and others, and 
 the chosen line of foundresses of religious, orders 
 these too have ruled the borderland, and their in- 
 fluence, direct or indirect, has all been in the same 
 direction, for pacification and not for strife, for high 
 aspiration and heavenly-mindedness, for faith and 
 hope and love and self-devotion, and all those things 
 for want of which the world is sick to death. 
 
 But the kingdom of woman is on that borderland, 
 and if she comes down to earth to claim its lowland 
 provinces she exposes herself to lose both worlds, not 
 securing real freedom or permanent equality in one, 
 and losing hold of some of the highest prerogatives 
 of the other. These may seem to be cloudy and 
 visionary views, and this does not in any sense pre- 
 tend to be a controversial defence of them, but only a 
 suggestion that both history and present experience 
 have something to say on this side of the question, 
 a suggestion also that there are two spheres of in- 
 fluence, requiring different qualities for their perfect 
 use, as there are two forces in a planetary system. 
 If these forces attempted to work on one line the 
 result would be the wreck of the whole, but in their
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 225 
 
 balance one against the other, apparently contrary, 
 in reality at one, the equilibrium of the whole is 
 secured. One is for motor force and the other for 
 central control ; both working in concert establish the 
 harmony of planetary motion and give permanent 
 conditions of unity. Here, as elsewhere, uniformity 
 tends to ultimate loosening of unity ; diversity estab- 
 lishes that balance which combines freedom with 
 stability. 
 
 Once more it must be said that only the Catholic 
 Church can give perfect adjustment to the two forces, 
 as she holds up on both sides ideals which make for 
 unity. And when the higher education of women 
 has flowered under Catholic influence, it has had a 
 strong basis of moral worth, of discipline and control 
 to sustain the expansion of intellectual life ; and with- 
 out the Church the higher education of women has 
 tended to one-sidedness, to nonconformity of manners, 
 of character, and of mind, to extremes, to want of 
 balance, and to loss of equilibrium in the social order, 
 by straining after uniformity of rights and aims and 
 occupations. 
 
 So with regard to the general question of women's 
 higher education may it be suggested that the moral 
 training, the strengthening of character, is the side 
 which must have precedence and must accompany 
 every step of their education, making them fit to bear 
 heavier responsibilities, to control their own larger 
 independence, to stand against the current of disin- 
 tegrating influences that will play upon them. To 
 be fit for higher education calls for much acquired 
 
 self-restraint, and unfortunately it is on the contrary 
 
 15
 
 226 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 sometimes sought as an opening for speedier emanci- 
 pation from control. Those who seek it in this spirit 
 are of all others least fitted to receive it, for the aim 
 is false, and it gives a false movement to the whole 
 being. Again, when it is entirely dissociated from 
 the realities of life, it tends to unfit girls for any but 
 a professional career in which they will have at 
 great cost to their own well-being to renounce their 
 contact with those primeval teachers of experience. 
 
 In some countries they have found means of com- 
 bining both in a modified form of university life for 
 girls, and in this they are wiser than we. Buds of the 
 same tree have been introduced into England, but 
 they are nipped by want of appreciation. We have 
 still to look to our foundations, and even to make up 
 our minds as to what we want. Perhaps the next 
 few years will make things clearer. But in the mean- 
 time there is a great deal to be done ; there is one 
 lesson that every one concerned with girls must teach 
 them, and induce them to learn, that is the lesson of 
 self-command and decision. Our girls are in danger 
 of drifting and floating along the current of the hour, 
 passive in critical moments, wanting in perseverance 
 to carry out anything that requires steady effort. 
 They are often forced to walk upon slippery ground ; 
 temptations sometimes creep on insensibly, and at 
 others make such sudden attacks that the thing of 
 all others to be dreaded for girls is want of courage 
 and decision of character. Those render them the 
 best service who train them early to decide for them- 
 selves, to say yes or no definitely, to make up their 
 mind promptly, not because they "feel like it" but
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 227 
 
 for a reason which they know, and to keep in the 
 same mind which they have reasonably made up. 
 Thus they may be fitted by higher moral education 
 to receive higher mental training according to their 
 gifts ; but in any case they will be prepared by it to 
 take up whatever responsibilities life may throw upon 
 them. 
 
 The future of girls necessarily remains indeter^ 
 minate, at least until the last years of their edu- 
 cation, but the long indeterminate time is not lost if 
 it has been spent in preparatory training of mind, and 
 especially in giving some resistance to their pliant or 
 wayward characters. Thus, whether they devote 
 themselves to the well-being of their own families, 
 or give themselves to volunteer work in any depart- 
 ment, social or particular, or advance in the direction 
 of higher studies, or receive any special call from 
 God to dedicate their gifts to His particular service, 
 they will at least have something to give ; their educa- 
 tion will have been " higher " in that it has raised 
 them above the dead level of mediocre character and 
 will-power, which is only responsive to the inclina- 
 tion or stimulus of the moment, but has no definite 
 plan of life. It may be that as far as exterior work 
 goes, or anything that has a name to it, no specified 
 life-work will be offered to many, but it is a pity if 
 they regard their lives as a failure on that account. 
 
 There are lives whose occupations could not be ex- 
 pressed in a formula, yet they are precious to their 
 surroundings and precious in themselves, requiring 
 more steady self-sacrifice than those which give the 
 stimulus of something definite to do. These need 
 
 15*
 
 228 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 not feel themselves cut off from what is highest in 
 woman's education, if they realize that the mind has 
 a life in itself and makes its own existence there, not 
 selfishly, but indeed in a peculiarly selfless way, be- 
 cause it has nothing to show for itself but some small 
 round of unimpressive occupations ; some perpetual 
 call upon its sympathies and devotion, not enough to 
 fill a life, but just enough to prevent it from turning 
 to anything else. Then the higher life has to be 
 almost entirely within itself, and no one is there to 
 see the value of it all, least of all the one who lives 
 it. There is no stimulus, no success, no brilliancy ; 
 it is perhaps of all lives the hardest to accept, yet 
 what perfect workmanship it sometimes shows. Its 
 disappearance often reveals a whole tissue of indirect 
 influences which had gone forth from it; and who 
 can tell how far this unregistered, uncertificated 
 higher education of a woman, without a degree and 
 with an exceedingly unassuming opinion of itself, 
 may have extended. It is a life hard to accept, 
 difficult to put into words with any due proportion 
 to its worth, but good and beautiful to know, and 
 surely " rich in the sight of God."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 " Far out the strange ships go : 
 
 Their broad sails flashing red 
 As flame, or white as snow : 
 
 The ships, as David said. 
 " Winds rush and waters roll : 
 
 Their strength, their beauty, brings 
 Into mine heart the whole 
 
 Magnificence of things." 
 
 LIONEL JOHNSON. 
 
 THE conclusion is only an opportunity for repeating 
 how much there is still to be said, and even more to 
 be thought of and to be done, in the great problem 
 and work of educating girls. Every generation has to 
 face the same problem, and deals with it in a character- 
 istic way. For us it presents particular features of 
 interest, of hope and likewise of anxious concern. The 
 interest of education never flags ; year after year the 
 material is new, the children come up from the nursery 
 to the school-room, with their life before them, their 
 unbounded possibilities for good, their confidence and 
 expectant hopefulness as to what the future will bring 
 them. We have our splendid opportunity and are 
 greatly responsible for its use. Each precious result 
 of education when the girl has grown up and leaves 
 our hands is thrown into the furnace to be tried 
 
 329
 
 230 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 fired like glass or fine porcelain. Those who educate 
 have, at a given moment, to let go of their control, and 
 however solicitously they may have foreseen and pre- 
 pared for it by gradually obliging children to act with- 
 out coercion and be responsible for themselves, yet 
 the critical moment must come at last and "every 
 man's work shall be manifest," " the fire shall try 
 every man's work, of what sort it is" (1 Cor. in). 
 
 Life tries the work of education, " of what sort it 
 is." If it stands the test it is more beautiful than be- 
 fore, its colours are fixed. If it breaks, and some will 
 inevitably break in the trial, a Catholic education has 
 left in the soul a way to recovery. Nothing, with us, 
 is hopelessly shattered, we always know how to make 
 things right again. But if we can we must secure 
 the character against breaking, our effort in education 
 must be to make something that will last, and for 
 this we must often sacrifice present success in con- 
 sideration of the future, we must not want to see 
 results. A small finished building is a more sightly 
 object than one which is only beginning to rise above 
 its foundations, yet we should choose that our educa- 
 tional work should be like the second rather than the 
 first, even though it has reached "the ugly stage," 
 though it has its disappointments and troubles before 
 it, with its daily risks and the uncertainty of ultimate 
 success. But it is a truer work, and a better intro- 
 duction to the realities of life. 
 
 A "finished education" is an illusion or else a 
 lasting disappointment ; the very word implies a con 
 dition of mind which is opposed to any further de- 
 velopment, a condition of self-satisfaction. What
 
 CONCLUSION 231 
 
 then shall we call a well-educated girl, whom we 
 consider ready for the opportunities and responsi- 
 bilities of her new life ? An equal degree of fitness 
 cannot be expected from all, the difference between 
 those who have ten talents and those who have only 
 two will always be felt. Those who have less will 
 be well educated if they have acquired spirit enough 
 not to be discontented or disheartened at feeling that 
 their resources are small ; if we have been able to in- 
 spire them with hope and plodding patience it will be 
 a great thing, for this unconquerable spirit of per- 
 severance does not fail in the end, it attains to 
 something worthy of all honour, it gives us people of 
 trust whose character is equal to their responsibilities, 
 and that is no little thing in any position of life ; and, 
 if to this steadiness of will is added a contented mind, 
 it will always be superior to its circumstances and will 
 not cease to develop in the line of its best qualities. 
 
 It is not these who disappoint in fact they often 
 give more than was expected of them. It is those 
 of great promise who are more often disappointing 
 in failing to realize what they might do with their 
 richer endowments ; they fail in strength of will. 
 
 Now if we want a girl to grow to the best that a 
 woman ought to be it is in two things that we must 
 establish her fundamentally quiet of mind and firm- 
 ness of will. Quiet of mind equally removed from 
 stagnation and from excitement. In stagnation her 
 mind is open to the seven evil spirits who came into 
 the house that was empty and swept ; under excite- 
 ment it is carried to extremes in any direction which 
 occupies its attention at the time. The best minds
 
 232 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 of women are quiet, intuitive, and full of intellectual 
 sympathies. They are not in general made for 
 initiation and creation, but initiation and creation 
 lean upon them for understanding and support. And 
 their support must be moral as well as mental, for 
 this they need firmness of will. Support cannot be 
 given to others without an inward support which 
 does not fail towards itself in critical moments. The 
 great victories of women have been won by this in- 
 ward support, this firmness and perseverance of will 
 based upon faith. The will of a woman is strong, 
 not in the measure of what it manifests without, as 
 of what it reserves within, that is to say in the 
 moderation of its own impulsiveness and emotional 
 tendency, in the self-discipline of perseverance, the 
 subordination of personal interest to the good of 
 whatever depends upon it for support. It is great in 
 self-devotion, and in this is found its only lasting 
 independence. 
 
 To give much and ask little in personal return is 
 independence of the highest kind. But faith alone 
 can make it possible. The Catholic Faith gives that 
 particular orientation of mind which is independent 
 of this world, knowing the account which it must 
 give to God. To some it is duty and the reign of 
 conscience, to others it is detachment and the reign 
 of the love of God, the joyful flight of the soul to- 
 wards heavenly things. The particular name matters 
 little, it has a centre of gravity. " As everlasting 
 foundations upon a solid rock, so the commandments 
 of God in the heart of a holy woman." l 
 1 Ecclus. xxvi. 24.
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM "THE BLESSED SACRAMENT" 
 BY FATHER FABER. 
 
 BOOK III. SEO. VII. 
 
 LET us put aside the curtain of vindicative fire, and see 
 what this pain of loss is like ; I say, what it is like, for it 
 fortunately surpasses human imagination to conceive its 
 dire reality. Suppose that we could see the huge planets 
 and the ponderous stars whirling their terrific masses 
 with awful, and if it might be so, clamorous velocity, 
 and thundering through the fields of unresisting space with 
 furious gigantic momentum, such as the mighty avalanche 
 most feebly figures, and thus describing with chafing 
 eccentricities and frightful deflections, their mighty centre- 
 seeking and centre-flying circles, we should behold in the 
 nakedness of its tremendous operations the Divine law of 
 gravitation. Thus in like manner should we see the true 
 relations between God and ourselves, the true meaning 
 and worth of His beneficent presence, if we could behold a 
 lost soul at the moment of its final and judicial reproba- 
 tion, a few moments after its separation from the body and 
 in all the strength of its disembodied vigour and the fierce- 
 ness of its penal immortality. 
 
 No beast of the jungle, no chimera of heathen imagina- 
 tion, could be so appalling. No sooner is the impassable 
 bar placed between God and itself than what theologians 
 
 233
 
 234 APPENDIX I 
 
 call the creature's radical love of the Creator breaks out in 
 a perfect tempest of undying efforts. It seeks its centre 
 and it cannot reach it. It bounds up towards God, and 
 is dashed down again. It thrusts and beats against the 
 granite walls of its prison with such incredible force, that 
 the planet must be strong indeed whose equilibrium is not 
 disturbed by the weight of that spiritual violence. Yet the 
 great law of gravitation is stronger still, and the planet 
 swings smoothly through its beautiful ether. Nothing can 
 madden the reason of the disembodied soul, else the view 
 of the desirableness of God and the inefficacious attractions 
 of the glorious Divinity would do so. 
 
 Up and down its burning cage the many-facultied and 
 mightily intelligenced spirit wastes its excruciating immor- 
 tality in varying and ever varying still, always beginning 
 and monotonously completing, like a caged beast upon its 
 iron tether, a threefold movement, which is not three 
 movements successively, but one triple movement all at 
 once. In rage it would fain get at God to seize Him, de- 
 throne Him, murder Him, and destroy Him ; in agony it 
 would fain suffocate its own interior thirst for God, which 
 parches and burns it with all the frantic horrors of a per- 
 fectly self-possessed frenzy; and in fury it would fain 
 break its tight fetters of gnawing fire which pin down its 
 radical love of the beautiful Sovereign Good, and drag it 
 ever back with cruel wrench from its desperate propension 
 to its uncreated Centre. In the mingling of these three 
 efforts it lives its life of endless horrors. Portentous as is 
 the vehemence with which it shoots forth its imprecations 
 against God, they fall faint and harmless, far short of His 
 tranquil, song-surrounded throne. 
 
 Four views of its own hideous state revolve around the 
 lost soul, like the pictures of some ghastly show. One
 
 APPENDIX I 236 
 
 while it sees the million times ten million genera and 
 species of pains of sense which meet and form a loathsome 
 union with this vast central pain of loss. Another while 
 all the multitude of graces, the countless kind providences, 
 which it has wasted pass before it, and generate that un- 
 dying worm of remorse of which Our Saviour speaks. 
 Then comes a keen but joyless view, a calculation, but 
 only a bankrupt's calculation, of the possibility of gains for 
 ever forfeited, of all the grandeur and ocean -like vastness 
 of the bliss which it has lost. Last of all comes before it 
 the immensity of God, to it so unoonsoling and so unprofit- 
 able; it is not a picture, it is only a formless shadow, 
 yet it knows instinctively that it is God. With a cry that 
 should be heard creation through, it rushes upon Him, and 
 it knocks itself, spirit as it is, against material terrors. It 
 clasps the shadow of God, and, lo ! it embraces keen flames. 
 It runs up to Him but it has encountered only fearful 
 demons. It leaps the length of its chain after Him, but 
 it has only dashed into an affrighting crowd of lost and 
 cursed souls. Thus is it ever writhing under the sense of 
 being its own executioner. Thus there is not an hour of 
 our summer sunshine, not a moment of our sweet starlight, 
 not a vibration of our moonlit groves, not an undulation 
 of odorous air from our flowerbeds, not a pulse of delicious 
 sound from music or song to us, but that hapless unpiti- 
 able soul is ever falling sick afresh of the overwhelming 
 sense that all around it is eternal. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM " THE CREATOR AND THE CREATURE." 
 BY FATHER FABER. 
 
 BOOK II. CH. V. 
 
 YET the heavenly joys of the illuminated understanding 
 far transcend the thrills of the glorified senses. The con-
 
 236 APPENDIX I 
 
 templation of heavenly beauty and of heavenly truth must 
 indeed be beyond all our earthly standards of comparison. 
 The clearness and instantaneousness of all the mental pro- 
 cesses, the complete exclusion of error, the unbroken 
 serenity of the vision, the facility of embracing whole 
 worlds and systems in one calm, searching, exhausting 
 glance, the Divine character and utter holiness of all the 
 truths presented to the view these are broken words 
 which serve at least to show what we may even now in- 
 distinctly covet in that bright abode of everlasting bliss. 
 Intelligent intercourse with the angelic choirs, and the in- 
 cessant transmission of the Divine splendours through 
 them to our minds, cannot be thought of without our per- 
 ceiving that the keen pleasures and deep sensibilities of 
 the intellectual world on earth are but poor, thin, unsub- 
 stantial shadows of the exulting immortal life of our glorified 
 minds above. 
 
 The very expansion of the faculties of the soul, and 
 the probable disclosure in it of many new faculties which 
 have no object of exercise in this land of exile, are in 
 themselves pleasures which we can hardly picture to our- 
 selves. To be rescued from all narrowness, and for ever ; 
 to possess at all times a perfect consciousness of our whole 
 undying selves, and to possess and retain that self-con- 
 sciousness in the bright light of God ; to feel the super- 
 natural corroborations of the light of glory, securing to us 
 powers of contemplation such as the highest mystical theo- 
 logy can only faintly and feebly imitate ; to expatiate in 
 God, delivered from the monotony of human things ; to be 
 securely poised in the highest flights of our immense 
 capacities, without any sense of weariness, or any chance 
 of a reaction ; who can think out for himself the realities 
 of a life like this ?
 
 APPENDIX I 237 
 
 Yet what is all this compared with one hour, one of 
 earth's short hours, of the magnificences of celestial love ? 
 Oh to turn our whole souls upon God, and souls thus ex- 
 panded and thus glorified ; to have our affections multiplied 
 and magnified a thousandfold, and then girded up and 
 strengthened by immortality to bear the beauty of God to 
 be unveiled before us ; and even so strengthened, to be 
 rapt by it into a sublime amazement which has no simili- 
 tude on earth; to be carried away by the inebriating 
 torrents of love, and yet be firm in the most steadfast 
 adoration; to have passionate desire, yet without tumult 
 or disturbance; to have the most bewildering intensity 
 along with an unearthly calmness; to lose ourselves in 
 God, and then find ourselves there more our own than 
 ever ; to love rapturously and to be loved again still more 
 rapturously, and then for our love to grow more rapturous 
 still, and again the return of our love to be still outstrip- 
 ping what we gave, and then for us to love even yet more 
 and more and more rapturously, and again, and again, and 
 again to have it so returned, and still the great waters of 
 God's love to flow over us and overwhelm us until the 
 vehemence of our impassioned peace and the daring vigour 
 of our yearning adoration reach beyond the sight of our 
 most venturous imagining ; what is all this but for our 
 souls to live a life of the most intelligent entrancing ecstasy, 
 and yet not be shivered by the fiery heat ? There have 
 been times on earth when we have caught our own hearts 
 loving God, and there was a flash of light, and then a tear, 
 and after that we lay down to rest. O happy that we 
 werel Worlds could not purchase from us even the 
 memory of those moments. And yet when we think of 
 heaven, we may own that we know not yet what manner 
 of thing it is to love the Lord Our God.
 
 APPENDIX H 
 
 From a Pastoral Letter of His Eminence Cardinal Bourne, 
 Archbishop of Westminster, written when Bishop of 
 Southwark. Quinquagesima Sunday, 1901. 
 
 . . . EVERY age has its own difficulties and dangers. At 
 the present day we are exposed to temptations which at 
 the beginning of the last century were of comparatively 
 small account. It will be so always. Every new de- 
 velopment of human activity, every invention of human 
 ingenuity, is meant by God to serve to His honour, and to 
 the good of His creatures. We must accept them all 
 gratefully as the results of the intelligence which He has 
 been pleased to bestow upon us. At the same time the 
 experience of every age teaches us that the weakness and 
 perversity of many wrest to evil purposes these gifts, 
 which in the Divine intention should serve only for good. 
 It is against the perverted use of two of God's gifts that 
 we would very earnestly warn you to-day. 
 
 During the last century the power that men have of 
 conveying their thoughts to others has been multiplied 
 incredibly by the facility of the printed word. Thoughts 
 uttered in speech or sermon were given but to a few 
 hundreds who came within the reach of the human voice. 
 Even when they were communicated to manuscript they 
 came to the knowledge of very few. What a complete 
 change has now been wrought. In the shortest space of 
 
 238
 
 APPENDIX H 239 
 
 time men's ideas are conveyed all over the world, and they 
 may become at once a power for good or for evil in every 
 place, and millions who have never seen or heard him 
 whose thoughts they read, are brought to some extent 
 under his influence. 
 
 Again, at the present day all men read, more or less. 
 The number of those who are unable to do so is rapidly 
 diminishing, and a man who cannot read will soon be 
 practically unknown. As a matter of fact men read a 
 great deal, and they are very largely influenced by what 
 they read. 
 
 Thus the multiplicity of printed matter, and the wide- 
 spread power of reading have created a situation fraught 
 with immense possibilities for good, but no less exposed to 
 distinct occasions of evil and of sin. It is to such occasions 
 of sin, dear children in Jesus Christ, that we desire to 
 direct your attention this Lent. 
 
 Every gift of God brings with it responsibility on our 
 part in the use that we make of it. The supreme gift of 
 intelligence and free-will are powers to enable us to love 
 and serve God, but we are able to use them to dishonour 
 and outrage Him. So with all the other faculties that 
 flow from these two great gifts. Beading and books have 
 brought many souls nearer to their Creator. Many souls, 
 on the other hand, have been ruined eternally by the books 
 which they have read. It is dearly, therefore, of import- 
 ance to us to know how to use wisely these gifts that we 
 possess. 
 
 The Holy Catholic Church, the Guardian of God's 
 Truth, and the unflinching upholder of the moral law, has 
 been always alive to her duty in this matter, and from the 
 earliest times has claimed and exercised the right of point- 
 ing out to her children books that are dangerous to faith
 
 240 APPENDIX II 
 
 or virtue. This is one of the duties of bishops, and, in a 
 most special manner, of the Sacred Congregation of the 
 Index. And, though at the present day, owing to the 
 decay of religious belief, this authority cannot be exercised 
 in the same way as of old, it is on that very account all 
 the more necessary for us to bear well in mind, and to 
 carry out fully in practice, the great unchanging principles 
 on which the legislation of the Church in this matter has 
 been ever based. 
 
 You are bound, dear children in Jesus Christ, to guard 
 yourselves against all those things which may be a source 
 of danger to your faith or purity of heart. You have no 
 right to tamper with the one or the other. Therefore, in 
 the first place, it is the duty of Catholics to abstain from 
 reading all such books as are written directly with the ob- 
 ject of attacking the Christian Faith, or undermining the 
 foundations of morality. If men of learning and position 
 are called upon to read such works in order to refute them, 
 they must do so with the fear of God before their eyes. 
 They must fortify themselves by prayer and spiritual read- 
 ing, even as men protect themselves from contagion, where 
 they have to enter a poisonous atmosphere. Mere curi- 
 osity, still less the desire to pass as well informed in every 
 newest theory, will not suffice to justify us in exposing 
 ourselves to so grave a risk. 
 
 Again, there are many books, especially works of fiction, 
 in which false principles are often indirectly conveyed, 
 and by which the imagination may be dangerously excited. 
 With regard to such reading, it is very hard to give one 
 definite rule, for its effect on different characters varies so 
 much. A book most dangerous to one may be almost 
 without harm to another, on account of the latter's want 
 of vivid imagination. Again, a book full of danger to the
 
 APPENDIX II 241 
 
 youth or girl may be absolutely without effect on one of 
 maturer years. The one and only rule is to be absolutely 
 loyal and true to our conscience, and if the voice of con- 
 science is not sufficiently distinct, to seek guidance and ad- 
 vice from those upon whom we can rely, and above all, 
 from the director of our souls. If we take up a book, and 
 we find that, without foolish scruple, it is raising doubts in 
 our mind or exciting our imagination in perilous directions, 
 then we must be brave enough to close it, and not open it 
 again. If our weakness is such that we cannot resist 
 temptation, which unforeseen may come upon us, then it 
 is our duty not to read any book the character of which is 
 quite unknown to us. If any such book is a source of 
 temptation to us, we must shun it, if we wish to do our 
 duty to God. If our reading makes us discontented with 
 the lot in life which Divine Providence has assigned to us, 
 if it leads us to neglect or do ill the duties of our position, 
 if we find that our trust in God is lessening and our love 
 of this world growing, in all these cases we must examine 
 ourselves with the greatest care, and banish from ourselves 
 any book which is having these evil effects upon us. 
 
 Lastly there is an immense amount of literature, mostly 
 of an ephemeral character, which almost of necessity enters 
 very largely into our lives at the present day. We cannot 
 characterize it as wholly bad, though its influence is not 
 entirely good, but it is hopeless to attempt to counteract 
 what is harmful in it by any direct means. The news- 
 papers and magazines of the hour are often without ap- 
 parent harm, and yet very often their arguments are based 
 on princpiles which are unsound, and their spirit is frankly 
 worldly, and entirely opposed to the teaching of Jesua 
 Christ and of the Gospel. Still more when the Catholic 
 Church and the Holy See are in question, we know full 
 
 16
 
 242 APPENDIX II 
 
 well, and the most recent experience has proved it, that 
 they are often consciously or unconsciously untruthful. 
 Even when their misrepresentations have been exposed, 
 in spite of the boasted fairness of our country, we know 
 that we must not always expect a withdrawal of false 
 news, still less adequate apology. Constant reading of 
 this character cannot but weaken the Catholic sense and 
 instinct, and engender in their place a worldly and critical 
 spirit most harmful in every way, unless we take means 
 to counteract it. What are these means ? A place must 
 be found in your lives, dear children in Jesus Christ, for 
 reading of a distinctly Catholic character. You must 
 endeavour to know the actual life and doings of the Catholic 
 Church at home and abroad by the reading of Catholic 
 periodical literature. You must have at hand books of 
 instruction in the Catholic Faith, for at least occasional 
 reading, so as to keep alive in your minds the full teach- 
 ing of the Church. You must give due place to strictly 
 spiritual reading, such as the "Holy Gospels," "The 
 Following of Christ," "The Introduction to a Devout 
 Life" by St. Francis of Sales, and the lives of the 
 Saints, which are now published in every form and at 
 every price. It is not your duty to abstain from reading 
 all the current literature of the day, but it is your duty to 
 nourish your Catholic mental life by purely Catholic litera- 
 ture. The more you read of secular works, the more 
 urgent is your duty to give a sufficient place to those also, 
 which will directly serve you in doing your duty to God 
 and in saving your soul. Assuredly one of the most press- 
 ing duties at the present day is to recognize fully our 
 personal and individual responsibility in this matter of 
 reading, and to examine our conscience closely to see how 
 we are acquitting ourselves of it.
 
 APPENDIX II 248 
 
 Before we leave this subject, we wish to ask all those 
 among you dear children in Jesus Christ, who, whether as 
 fathers and mothers, or as members of religious institutes, 
 or masters and mistresses in schools, are charged with the 
 education of the young, to do all in your power to train 
 those committed to you to a wise and full understanding 
 of this matter of reading, and to a realization of its enor- 
 mous power for good and harm, and, therefore, to a sense 
 of the extreme responsibility attaching to it. Make them 
 understand that, while all are able to read, all things are 
 not to be read by all ; that this power, like every power, 
 may be abused, and that we have to learn how to use it 
 with due restraint. While they are with you and gladly 
 subject to your influence, train their judgment and their 
 taste in reading, so that they may know what is good and 
 true, and know how to turn from what is evil and false. 
 Such a trained and cultivated judgment is the best protec- 
 tion that you can bestow upon them. Some dangers 
 must be overcome by flight, but there are far more, especi- 
 ally at the present day, which must be faced, and then 
 overcome. It is part of your great vocation to prepare 
 and equip these children to be brave and to conquer in 
 this fight. Gradually, therefore, accustom them to the 
 dangers they may meet hi reading. Train their judgment, 
 strengthen their wills, make them loyal to conscience, and 
 then, trusting in God's grace, give them to their work in 
 life. 
 
 16*
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abbesses, the great, 224. 
 
 Accent and pronunciation, 154. 
 
 Adolescence, impressionability of children in, 173. 
 
 Esthetics, 68 ; principles of, 71-2 ; teaching of, 187. 
 
 Agnesi, Maria Gaetaua, 222. 
 
 Aids to study, 103-4. 
 
 A Kempis on self-seeking, 197. 
 
 America : educational experiments in, 34 ; text-books in, 180. 
 
 American view on character, 22. 
 
 expressive phrases, 128, 155. 
 
 Ampere, Catholic scientist, 115. 
 
 Amusements and lessons, 100. 
 
 Animals, care of, in education of children, 125. 
 
 Answers, irrelevancy in girls', 74. 
 
 Aquinas, St. Thomas, 72. 
 
 Architecture, Gothic, inferences from, 189. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 48. 
 
 Art, character and, 186-7; Christian, 188, 189, 197; for children, 
 191-2 ; contrasts in works of, 189-90 ; in education of girls, 72, 
 187 ; French art, 187 ; history of, 188-9 ; study of, 190-1 ; aims 
 of study in early education, 185, 196. 
 
 Assenting mind, the, 25. 
 
 Assontors, great, 26. 
 
 Athletic craze, the, 111. 
 
 girl, the, 219. 
 
 Atmosphere in education, 221-2. 
 
 Audience, English and German, contrasted, 193. 
 
 " Aurora Leigh," 216. 
 
 Average person, the, 64-6. 
 
 "Babylonian Captivity," the. 165. 
 Bacon, " Of Goodnesse," 45. 
 Balder, the story of, 170. 
 Barbarism, selfishness and, 199. 
 Basilicas, the Christian, 19-20. 
 Basket-ball for girls, 110. 
 
 245
 
 246 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Bassi, Laura, 222. 
 
 Beale, Dorothea, cited, 94. 
 
 Bedford College, 218. 
 
 Benedictine monks, cited, 92-3. 
 
 Boarding schools, 76 ; young children in, 78. 
 
 Boniface VIII, 177. 
 
 Books, attitude of child towards, 36 ; wealth of children's literatuie 
 
 in England, 144-5 
 
 reaction against mere lessons from, 80, 119-20. 
 
 Sacred, jewels of prayer and devotion in, 16. 
 
 to avoid, 148. 
 
 Botany, 122-3. 
 
 British culture, characteristics of, 139. 
 
 Browning, E. B., cited, 216. 
 
 B., quoted, 76 ; " An incident of the French camp," cited, 
 
 135. 
 
 Calvinism, 4, 25. 
 
 Candour, charm of, in children, 130. 
 
 Carlyle, cited, 158. 
 
 Catch-words, abuse of, 133. 
 
 Catherine, St., of Siena, 223. 
 
 Catholic 
 
 Art, 189, 197. 
 
 Atmosphere, effect on manners, 201. 
 
 Body : at play, 111 ; and religious education, 1. 
 
 Characteristics : belong to graver side of human race, 112. 
 
 Ghild, the, characteristics of, 29, 30; source of courage in, 9- 
 10 ; in Protestant surroundings, 24 ; prerogative of, 9, 30. 
 
 Children, and relationship with Jesus and His Mother, 8 ; and 
 religion, 16-18 ; under influence of Sacraments, 29. 
 
 Church, ideals for man and woman in, 118, 225. 
 
 Citizenship, 39. 
 
 Disabilities, Newman quoted, 112-3. 
 
 Education, 220, 225, 230 ; and character, 39 ; and history, 115. 
 
 Faith, gives particular orientation of mind, 232. 
 
 Family life, 39, 93. 
 
 Girls, and work for the Church, 89 ; and Church music, 193. 
 
 Historical hold on the past, 152. 
 
 Literature, 240. 
 
 Men of science, 115. 
 
 Mental life, 242. 
 
 Mind : training of the, 197 ; and history, '165. 
 
 Patriotism, 89. 
 
 Peasantry, 211. 
 
 Philosophy, 60-75 ; value of, in educ&tion, 61. 
 
 Schools : manners in, 201 ; sodalities in, 78. 
 
 Secrets of strength, 99. 
 
 Teachers, 100 ; and truth in history, 178. 
 
 Text-books, need of, 180. 
 
 Women, duty and privilege of, 112.
 
 INDEX 247 
 
 Catholics and 
 
 Equality of education, 118 ; higher education, 220 ; duty in read- 
 ing, 240 ; historical teaching, 176 ; Latin, 152 ; taste in art, 194 
 
 disabilities of, Newman quoted, 112-3. 
 
 Celts of N. Europe, types of character among, 27. 
 Certificates as aids to study, 103-4. 
 
 Character, 21-3 ; essentials of, 40-1 ; evolution of, 50, 172-3 ; study 
 of, 22, 29, 34-9; training of, 22, 29-34, 38-42, 46, 49-61, 58, 148, 
 210, 221, 226-6, 230; means of training, 42-4; types of, 26-9, 37. 
 
 influence of art on, 186. 
 
 in the teacher, 88, 46-59. 
 
 manners and, 209. 
 
 religion and, 6-7, 29. 
 
 the strength of great women, 223. 
 
 value of, appreciated by children, 56-8, 171. 
 
 Characters, modern, 26, 83 ; cardinal points in study of children's, 
 
 84-7. 
 
 Characteristic cadence in speaking, 54. 
 Characteristics, of the age, 39; of British culture, 130; of English 
 
 style, 129-30 ; of girls' work, 218. 
 Charges against the Church, 179. 
 Chaucer, 127. 
 
 Cheltenham College, 94, 218. 
 Child, attitude of, towards books, 36. 
 
 martyrs, 10. 
 
 study, 85, 57. 
 
 vocabulary of an " only," 132. 
 
 Wordsworth's " model child," 32-3. 
 
 See alto Catholic Child. 
 
 Childhood, friendships formed in, 11. 
 
 impressionability of, 173. 
 
 Childishness in piety, 10. 
 
 Childlike spirit of Catholic child, 29. 
 
 Children, 80. 
 
 books for, 144-5 ; attitude to books, 36. 
 
 characteristics of, 35, 55, 56, 82-3, 109-10, 123 ; candour, 180 ; 
 
 habits of mind, 125 ; sensitive to influences, 46 ; as critics, 136 ; 
 like real people, 55-6 ; dislike compromise, 175. 
 
 delicate, 9, 50, 84, 86. 
 
 development of, 82 ; mental development, 140-1, 169-78. 
 
 eccentric ways in, 84. 
 
 groups observable among, 23, 26-8, 87, 62, 126. 
 
 and lessons ; a simple life essential, 100 ; do not know how to 
 
 learn, 101 ; answers, 102. 
 
 - letters of, 138-9. 
 
 - and love of nature, 124, 126. 
 
 no orphans within the Church, 80. 
 
 and playtima solitude, 108-9. 
 
 - souls of, 200. 
 training of, 32-8. 
 
 Chivalry : age of, 202 ; religious spirit of, 165.
 
 248 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Choleric temperament, the, 26. 
 Church, the 
 
 Abuses in, exaggerated, 179. 
 
 Ceremonial of, 206-6. 
 
 Characterised as the Great Master who educates us all, 48-4; as 
 the Guardian of Truth, 239 ; the Teacher of all nations, 58-9, 99. 
 
 Example of, as teacher, 43 ; influence on Catholic teachers, 99- 
 100. 
 
 in Prance, 165. 
 
 and history, 165. 
 
 Ideals for man and woman In, 118, 225. 
 
 Music of, 193-4. 
 
 Needlework for, 89. 
 
 the pioneers of, 92. 
 
 as a teacher of manners, 200-3, 205. 
 
 testimony to, from Non-Catholic sources, 59, 178. 
 Classes, advantages of large, 97. 
 Classical studies, 151-2. 
 Classics, English, for the young, 145. 
 " Clever " children, the so-called, 125. 
 Colonial life, 92. 
 Common sense, 65. 
 Communion, First, 29. 
 Composition, oral, 138 ; written, 137, 139-42. 
 Concentric method in teaching, 167. 
 Confirmation, 29. 
 Contentment, 90. 
 
 Contrasts, method of, in teaching of art, 189. 
 Control and "handling" in training children, 200. 
 Controversies. See Educational Controversies. 
 Conventionality, 198-9. 
 Conventions, code of, 199. 
 
 Conversation, 132-7 ; of girls, 132-4 ; principles in, 137. 
 Cooking, 90, 121. 
 Correction, value of, 42. 
 Cosmology, 68. 
 
 Countrymen and nature, 124-5. 
 Crimean War and women's work, 219. 
 Criticism and correction, 42-3 ; administered by the Church, 44. 
 
 evils of merely destructive, 183 ; reading lesson as an exercise 
 
 in, 136 ; of essays, 142. 
 Critics, gravity of children as, 136. 
 Cross-roads in a girl's life, 140. 
 Cruelty, 199. 
 
 Crusades, ideals of the, 165. 
 Curiosity concerning evil, 14 ; evil of curiosity in reading, 149. 
 
 Dalgairns, Fr., cited, 12. 
 Damoiseaux, in days of chivalry, 203 
 Dancing, 110-11. 
 Dante, " Paradise," quoted, 6X),
 
 INDEX 249 
 
 Death, right thoughts of, 7. 
 
 De Bonald, cited, 73. 
 
 De Ghantal, St. Jane F., quoted, 76. 
 
 De Gramont, Marquise, quoted, 41. 
 
 Degrees, different significance of, for man and woman, 220-1. 
 
 Democratic age, 5, 207. 
 
 Democracy in the nursery, 208. 
 
 De Bavignan, Pere, quoted, 105. 
 
 Devotion : requirements of, 10 ; to our Lady, 205, 213. And se 
 
 Self-devotion. 
 Devotions of Blessed Sacrament and Saored Heart entrusted to 
 
 women, 223. 
 
 to the Saints, 10. 
 
 Difficulties of mind, 61-6. 
 Discipline and obedience, 42. 
 Dogmatism in teaching, 53. 
 Domestic occupations, 81, 85-92, 93, 121. 
 Doubts and difficulties as to faith, 14. 
 Dressmaking, 88. 
 Drudgery, need of, 96, 98. 
 Duty and endurance, 96. 
 
 Eccentricity, 88-5. 
 
 Educated, a well-educated girl, 231. 
 
 Education 
 
 Aims in, 88, 89, 159, 230-1. 
 
 Board of, 80-1, 95, 119, 120, 121. 
 
 and character, 21, 231. 
 
 Demands of girls', 77. 
 
 A "finished," 230-1. 
 
 Higher Education of women, 214-28. 
 
 Home education, 77, 96, 97, 155. 
 
 Intermediate, 87, 116. 
 
 Intellectual and practical, contrasted, 91. 
 
 Last years of, 213. 
 
 and lesson books, 80. 
 
 Life the test of, 230. 
 
 and material requirements of life, 86. 
 
 Middle class, and practical work, 81. 
 
 Mistakes in English, 119-21. 
 
 the opportunity of the teacher, 229. 
 
 Practical, 81, 91 ; practical aspect of, 122. 
 
 Problems in, 76 it ssq. 
 
 Religious, 1-20. 
 
 and religious orders, 58-9. 
 
 State control in, 217. 
 
 System of 1870, 34, 120. 
 
 "Ugly stage" in, 230. 
 
 of women, changes in, 215. 
 
 of young children, 78-9, 96-7. 
 Educational advantages of personal work, 88,
 
 250 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Educational controversies, 1, 99, 116, 118, 151, 218. 
 
 experiments in America, 34. 
 
 pressure levels original thought, 184. 
 
 Educators, qualities in great, 99 ; fundamental principles of, 99, 156. 
 
 of early childhood, types of, 81-2. 
 
 Elementary schools, 97. 
 
 Elizabeth, the two Saints, 224. 
 
 Emerson on manners, 198. 
 
 Encouragement, need of, 50. 
 
 English characteristics, 180, 187, 216-7. 
 
 language, 128, 150; study of, 127-49; method in study, 131; 
 
 characteristics of style, 129-30; American influences on, 127-8; 
 
 traces of Elizabethan, in America, 128; new words in, 129; 
 
 children's English, 129-31. And see Composition, Conversation, 
 
 Literature, Reading. 
 
 martyrs, 172. 
 
 portraits in Berlin, 129-30. 
 
 Essay writing, 138-42. 
 
 Ethics, 68, 70, 71, 73. 
 
 European history, 165, 166. 
 
 Eustochium, St., 224. 
 
 Examination programme, a professional danger, 51. 
 
 Example, power of, 38, 46. 
 
 Excitement, evil of, 100, 231. 
 
 Exempt persons, 86. 
 
 Paber, Father, on hell and heaven, 8, 233-7. 
 Fairness, children look for, 56. 
 Faith, and art, 189-90, 194. 
 
 Catholic, things which come with, 39. 
 
 child's soul hungry for, 200. 
 
 children as confessors of, 10. 
 
 dangers to, 11-14, 178, 240. 
 
 difficulties and doubts as to, 14-15. 
 
 mysteries in, 2, 15. 
 
 philosophy, a help and support to, 61, 72, 
 
 the Propagation of the, 223. 
 
 responsibility with regard to, 16-17. 
 
 right thoughts of, 10. 
 
 thoughts of, inspiring life, 6. 98, 104. 
 
 Family life, Catholic, 39, 93. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, symbols of God's love, 8. 
 
 Faults contrary to spirit of childhood, 50. 
 
 Feltre, Vittorino da, 99. 
 
 Fighting instinct in child, 109. 
 
 First aid, 89. 
 
 Fitch, Sir J., " Lessons on Teaching," cited 169. 
 
 Fitness, sense of, 19. 
 
 Flowers and children, 109, 123, 125-6. 
 
 Four last things, right thoughts of, 7-8. 
 
 France, literature in, 161.
 
 INDEX 251 
 
 Francis of Sales, St., cited, 12, 17, 26; on care of the Church, 44; 
 
 works of, 162 n., 242. 
 Frauenbund, 219. 
 Freruaon, Jewish, In Borne, 11. 
 French : art, 187 ; language, study of, 163, 155, 159-60 ; literature, 
 
 160-1 ; mind, bent of, 160; Revolution, 202. 
 Friend, the influence of a, 42. 
 Friendship and character forming, 42, 43. 
 Friendships, as indications of character, 36 ; a safeguard against 
 
 morbid, 51 ; with the saints, 11. 
 
 Gairdner's " Lollardy and the Reformation " cited, 179. 
 Games, value of organized, 78, 107-8, 110. 
 Gardens for children, 125. 
 
 in a new country, 126. 
 
 Genesis, Book of, 115. 
 Geography, 122. 
 
 German, language, study of, 153-4, 169-60. 
 
 musical audience, 193. 
 
 Girl students at universities, 217-8, 226. 
 Girls' and higher moral education, 226-7. 
 
 answers, irrelevancy in, 74. 
 
 views of life at age of 18, 214 ; mental outlook at 16, 141. 
 
 work, characteristics of, 218. 
 
 Girton, 218. 
 
 " Giving way," 85. 
 
 God, child's soul near to, 126. 
 
 duty to, 1, 213, 241. 
 
 Fatherhood of, 3, 6. 
 
 on conveying right thoughts of, to children, 1-8. 
 
 truths concerning existence of, 72. 
 
 God'a care for us, 44. 
 
 priest, Art, 182. 
 
 Golliwogg, the, 105-6. 
 
 Gothic architecture, 189. 
 
 Governess, a modern, 77. 
 
 Grammar, 67. 
 
 Gramophone in language teaching, 155. 
 
 Greek history, 169. 
 
 tragedies, 184. 
 
 Gregory XVI and De Bonald, 73. 
 
 Grown-up life, on anticipated instruction in, 94. 
 
 Habit of work, 40, 98. 
 
 Habits, 21, 22. 
 
 Handicrafts, teaching of, 81. 
 
 " Handling " in training in manners, 200-2. 
 
 Handy member of family, the, 83. 
 
 Hearing of lessons, 101. 
 
 Hedley, Bp., quoted, 43. 
 
 Hell and heaven, 8, 233-7.
 
 252 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Hidden lives, 227-8. 
 
 Higher education of women, 214-8; atmosphere for, non-existent 
 
 221, 226; and Catholic influence, 225 ; false aims in, 226; and 
 
 realities of life, 226. 
 
 life, the, 228. 
 
 Historical teaching to Catholics, 176. 
 
 History, 164 ; position in curriculum, 166-7 ; value in education, 181. 
 
 European, centres round the Church, 166-7. 
 
 study, and the examination syllabus, 166, 168. 
 
 teaching : and periods in development of children, 170-6 ; alms 
 
 in teaching, 172 ; method, 102, 167-9, 180-1 ; concentric method, 
 
 167 ; truth in teaching, 178 ; requirements in the teacher, 176-9. 
 text-books, defects of, 168. 
 
 Hookey, 110. 
 
 Holy family, the, 93. 
 
 Roman Empire, 165. 
 
 Home education, 77, 96, 97, 155. 
 
 happiness dependent on manners, 208, 
 
 Hooliganism, 199-200. 
 
 Imagination, 189-40. 
 Impressionism in conduct, 70. 
 Independence, 40, 92, 207, 232. 
 Influence. See Example. 
 Insincerity, 47-8 ; in teaching, 14, 178. 
 Inspectors on teaching by nuns, 59. 
 Investitures, struggle concerning, 166. 
 Irish Intermediate education, 87, 116. 
 Isabella the Catholic, 224. 
 Italian humanism, 25. 
 
 language, study of, 153, 159. 
 
 question, 165. 
 
 Jansenism, spirit of, 4. 
 Jesus Christ, right views of, 8-9. 
 Joan of Arc, Blessed, 223. 
 Johnson, Lionel, quoted, xiii, 229. 
 Judgment, right thoughts of, 7-8. 
 
 Keble, J., quoted, 1. 
 Kingdom of woman, 224. 
 Knighthood, training for, 202-3 
 
 Knowledge : at first hand, 123 ; before action, 31 ; love of, and in- 
 fluence of teacher, 99-100. 
 
 Laboratory science, 120-1. 
 
 Language. See English. 
 
 Languages, modern, place and value in education, 150-1, 156-8 ; social 
 and commercial values of, 157-8 ; evil of superficial knowledge 
 of, 158 ; attitude towards study of, 153, 154 ; choice of, 159-61 ;
 
 INDEX 253 
 
 pronunciation, 154; methods in study, 155-7; self-instruction 
 
 courses, 156 ; translation, 161-3. 
 Latin, 151-3 ; grammar, 82. 
 
 races, temperaments among, 27. 
 
 Learning by heart, 135. 
 
 of lessons, 100-2. 
 
 Leo XIII, 17, 63, 74. 
 
 Lesson books and education, 80, 81, 119. 
 
 Lessons and play, 83, 95-6, 100. 
 
 from history, 176. 
 
 hearing of, 102 ; learning of, 100-2. 
 
 Letter-writing, 138-9. 
 
 Lir, children of, 170. 
 
 Literature, 142-5 ; wealth of children's books, 144-5. 
 
 Logic, 67, 68-9, 73 ; has no place in English religious system, 24. 
 
 Lowell, J. Russell, quoted, 150. 
 
 Loyalty and patriotism, 170. 
 
 Mackey, Canon, cited. 162. 
 
 " Hangnail's Questions," 215. 
 
 Mannerisms in teachers, 54-6. 
 
 Manners, 198-203, 210,213; codes of, 205-6; derivation of word, 
 202 ; acquiring of, wearisome, 204-5, 210 ; neglect of, 205-6 ; 
 effect of neglect to teach, 199-200 ; fundamentals of, 203-4 ; high 
 and low watermarks in, 208-9; standard of, 203,212; training 
 in, 204-5, 207-9 ; example not enough, 210 ; personal element in 
 training in, 212 ; mistakes in training in, 208 ; truthfulness in, 
 211-2. 
 
 Manners and 
 
 Class of life, 211 ; home ties, 207-8 ; religion, 200-2, 205-6, 211 ; 
 service, 211, 213 ; the life of to-day, 207. 
 
 Manual work, value of, in education, 82-3, 85, 86 ; a corrective to 
 eccentricity, 83 ; domestic occupations, 85-93. 
 
 Mathematics, 114, 116-8, 121. 
 
 Matilda of Tuscany, 223. 
 
 Mechanical toys. 106-7. 
 
 Melancholic temperament, the, 26, 28. 
 
 Mercier, Cardinal, quoted, 69, 71, 72. 
 
 Metaphysics, 68. 
 
 Middle-class education, 81. 
 
 Mind, quiet of, 221, 231-2 ; habits of mind in children, 125; develop- 
 ment of, 140-1, 169-73. 
 
 Minds : the best of, in women, 231-2; of girls, waywardness of, 174 
 5 ; classes of, 61-6. 
 
 Modernism, 13. 
 
 Montalembert, quoted, 38. 
 
 More, Blessed Thomas, 26, 99. 
 
 Mouvement F&minisle, 219. 
 
 Music, place of, in education, 191-4 ; aims in study of, 193 ; intel- 
 lectual aspect of, 192. 
 
 Myths, value in teaching history, 170.
 
 254 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Nagging, in teaching manners, 204. 
 Natural Science, 67, 114-5, 118-22. 
 
 Theology, 68, 72-3. 
 
 Nature Study, 114, 122-6; aims of, 122; books, 123-4. 
 
 Necker de Saussure, Mme., quoted, 47-8, 64. 
 
 Needlework, 87-9, 121. 
 
 Nerve fatigue, 84. 
 
 " Nerves," women subject to, 70. 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, quoted, 112, 164. 
 
 Newnham College, 218. 
 
 Nightingale, Florence, 219. 
 
 Non -Catholic parents, and schools held by Religious, 59. 
 
 schools, 151, 166. 
 
 Nonconformist type of character, 23-6. 
 
 Nonentities, good, 38-40. 
 
 North of England Ladies' " Council of Education," 218. 
 
 Nuremberg, Pirkheimer family of, 222. 
 
 Nurse, the English and the Irish, 81-2. 
 
 Nursery shrine, the, 105, 106. 
 
 Nursing, 89, 218-9. 
 
 Obedience, training in, 43. 
 Observation of children, 35. 
 
 training in, 81, 119-26. 
 
 Oral composition, 138 ; oral lessons, 74, 180. 
 Organization and development, 80, 87. 
 Our Lady, right thoughts of, 8-10. 
 Oxford and Cambridge Degrees, 220. 
 girl students at, 218. 
 
 Painting and drawing, 191-6. 
 
 Parents : and teaching about God, 3 ; and teaching of manners, 208. 
 
 Pasteur, 115. 
 
 Pater, Walter, cited, 130. 
 
 Patience, value of, 40, 212; mental and moral, in women, 163. 
 
 Patriotism, 39, 170-1. 
 
 Paula, St., 224. 
 
 Peasantry, Catholic, simplicity of manners in, 211/ 
 
 Penance, Sacrament of, 29. 
 
 People of great promise, 281. 
 
 Personal work, educational advantages of, 88. 
 
 Piety, childishness in, 10. 
 
 Philosophy, 60-76 ; method of study in, 66-74 ; relation to revealed 
 
 truth, 73. 
 Phonetics, 165. 
 Physical exercise, 82. 
 Pico de Mirandola, 26. 
 Pirkheimer family of Nuremberg, 222. 
 Piscopia, Lucretia, 222. 
 Pius VII, 177. 
 Piua X, life of labour of, 99.
 
 INDEX 265 
 
 Plants, care of, for children, 125. 
 
 Play, 104-5, 111, 112 ; and character, 86, 105, 107 ; of the nursery, 
 
 105-6; and organized games, 107-8, 110; and solitude, 108-10 ; 
 
 toys and playthings, 107 ; hoops, 110. 
 Poetry, 102 ; place of, 192 ; for children's recitation, 135. 
 Popes, the : in history, 177, 178, 179 ; of Renaissance, 26 ; temporal 
 
 power of, 165 ; life of labour of, 98-9. 
 Popularity in matters of taste, 183-4. 
 Portraits, criticism of English, in Berlin, 129-30. 
 Pose, temptation to, 41 ; of being erratic, 70. 
 Practical education, 81. 
 Pressure in education, 97, 116-7. 
 Prize distribution, system of, 103-4. 
 Professional dangers in teaching, 51-7. 
 Pronunciation and accent, 154. 
 Proportion in studies, 191. 
 Protestant Reformation, effect on manners, 201. 
 
 school, Catholic child in, 24. 
 
 Protestantism, 25 ; and French Revolution, 202. 
 Psychology, 68, 70-1, 73. 
 Pugin's " Book of Contrasts," cited, 189. 
 Punishment, 99. 
 
 " Quack " methods in learning languages, 155. 
 
 Queen Victoria, 153, 198. 
 
 Queen's College, London, opening of, 216. 
 
 Querdec, Y Le, quoted, 21. 
 
 Querulous tone, in the nursery, 53. 
 
 Question and answer lessons, 75, 180. 
 
 Questioning, manner of, 102 ; effect of too many questions, 35. 
 
 Quiet of mind, 221, 231-2. 
 
 Reading: Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster on, 147, 238-43; 
 and character, 86 ; for girls, 146, 148 ; without commentary, 
 145 ; value of, in education, 132-42. 
 
 aloud, 134, 136, 146 ; the best introduction to literature, 143. 
 
 Realities of life, 81, 87 et stq., 226. 
 
 Recitation, 134-6 ; gesture in, 136. 
 
 Recreation. See Play. 
 
 Reformation, the Protestant, 201. 
 
 Religion, the teaching of, 1-20; aims in, 11, 17-18 ; periods in, 8. 
 
 Religious houses : foundresses of, 224 ; and manual labour, 98. 
 
 minds, difficulties of, 63. 
 
 orders, development of, 165. 
 
 teaching : qualifications for, 4 ; and manners, 201. 
 
 Renaissance, the, 25 ; Popes of the, 26. 
 
 Rewards, 99, 103, 104. 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, cited, 130. 
 Roman Catholics, disabilities of, 112-8. 
 
 history, 169. 
 
 Rcssetti, D. G., quoted, 182.
 
 256 THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC GIRLS 
 
 Sacraments, the, as modifying temperament, 29. 
 Sacred books, jewels of prayer in, 15. 
 Saints, devotions to the, 10-11. 
 Savonarola, 26. 
 Schiller, quoted, 214. 
 Scholastic philosophy, 74. 
 
 School : and home education, contrasted, 77-8 ; and preparation for 
 life, 76, 80,91 et seq.; organization and individual dvelopment,80. 
 
 education, drawbacks to, 78-9. 
 
 life, impressiveness of, 76-7. 
 
 Sohurman, Clara von, 222. 
 
 Science, experimental, 120-2, 151 ; misuse of the term, 118-9. 
 
 Scolding, 43, 50. 
 
 Scottish schoolmasters, old race of, 97-8. 
 
 Scriptural knowledge examinations, 16. 
 
 Scripture, devotional study of, 15. 
 
 Self-consciousness in children, 35. 
 
 Self-devotion, 81, 219, 224, 228. 
 
 Self-help, 89-90. 
 
 Selfishness, 84, 199-200. 
 
 Servant question, 91. 
 
 Servants, manners in the best, 211. 
 
 Shrines, nursery, 105, 106. 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 127. 
 
 Silliness, driven out by manual work, 86. 
 
 Simple life, the, 40, 92 ; for children, 100. 
 
 Sin and evil, right thoughts of, 6-7. 
 
 Sincerity, 41, 47-9. 
 
 Sodalities in Catholic schools, 78. 
 
 Solitude, value of, to children, 108-9. 
 
 South African War, reaction in education since, 119-20. 
 
 Spanish, study of, 154, 159. 
 
 Spiritualism, 13. 
 
 Sporting instinct in children, 42. 
 
 Stagnation of mind, 231. 
 
 Story-telling, 170 ; in teaching history, 180-1. 
 
 Strength, Catholic secrets of, 99. 
 
 Study, aids to, 103. 
 
 Suffrage movement, women's, 219. 
 
 Taste, 182, 196-7 ; and character, 182-4 ; independent, 184 ; self- 
 taught, 184, 185 ; trained, 185. 
 
 " Teacher Study," from child's point of view, 58. 
 
 Teacher's manners, 54-6. 
 
 Teachers, a large measure of freedom for, 34. 
 
 Teaching, a great stewardship, 3-4, 30 ; reality in, 122 ; qualifica- 
 tions in religious, 4. 
 
 orders of Religious, 58-9. 
 
 " Teddy Bears," 105, 106. 
 
 Temperament, 21-9; difficulties of, 32; diviaion and classification 
 of, 23, 26-9 ; in religion, 23-5.
 
 INDEX 867 
 
 Tennyson, quoted, 216. 
 
 Teutons, types of character among, 27. 
 
 Text-books, 180. 
 
 Theatres and children, 184. 
 
 Theology : not for girls, 18 ; parallel with a great Basilica, 19-20 ; 
 
 Natural, 72. 
 Theresa, Saint, 224. 
 Thompson, Francis, quoted, 95, 127. 
 Time, value of, 40. 
 
 Townsman, the, in the country, 124-5. 
 Toys, 107. 
 
 Translation from foreign languages, 161-3. 
 Transvaal, a garden party in the, 126. 
 Truthfulness, 47, 211. 
 
 Ullathorne, Archbishop, quoted, 34. 
 Ulysses, the wanderings of, 170. 
 University life for girls, 217-8, 226. 
 
 locals, 87, 168. 
 
 Urquhart, D., quoted, 208. 
 Utilitarians in social life, 186. 
 
 Victoria, Queen, 153, 198. 
 
 Vigilance, 42. 
 
 Vitality in teacher, 49. 
 
 Vocabulary of children, 132. 
 
 Vocation, choice of a, 141. 
 
 Voice, influence of tone of, 53 ; cadences in, 59-4 ; production, 184-5. 
 
 Vulgarity, 211. 
 
 Wassmann, Catholic scientist, 115. 
 
 Ways of learning lessons, 101-2. 
 
 Westminster, Cardinal Archbishop of, on reading, 147, 238-48. 
 
 Will of a woman, strength of, 232. 
 
 Wisdom, the beginning of, 19. 
 
 Wollstonecraft, Mary, cited, 216. 
 
 Woman, the kingdom of, 224 ; the mission of, 223. 
 
 Women, higher education of, 214-28 ; changes in education of, 215. 
 
 and manners, 203. 
 
 direction of influence of, 224. 
 
 mental characteristics of the best, 232. 
 
 tendency of, to impressionism in conduct, 70. 
 
 the really great, 223 ; conspicuous in learning, 222 ; con- 
 spicuous in religion, 224. 
 
 Women's suffrage movement, 219. 
 Wordsworth, quoted, 32, 114, 135. 
 Work, habit of, 40, 98. 
 
 Young ladies, education for, 215. 
 
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