Another thing that mothers should teach their children, and of which they should ever remind their young men and women as they grow older, is the extreme importance of prompt note-answering. The habit of writing notes and letters, which is now going somewhat out of fashion, is certainly of great assistance in helping us to obey the golden rule never to turn a friend into an enemy by mere carelessness or idleness, for want of a little trouble or of the explanation which, if neglected, often changes the whole character of the situation into one that is hard and difficult, and even in some cases irreparable.

Some years ago I sympathised much and took great interest in the movement that tended towards the higher education of women. I still think that every door should be thrown open and every facility given, both as regards education and professional employment, to such women who have mind and strength for the competition. The great danger of over-educating young girls is that they are so much keener and work so much harder than boys; and even if it does not injure their health, it very often unfits them for life, and makes them dissatisfied with their home and its surroundings.

The great objection to the superficial education I recommend and believe to be so advantageous to the prosperous, is that it may degenerate into idleness and frivolity in times of prosperity, and so prove an utter failure in times of adversity, and in the possibility of having to earn a livelihood later in life. I think most sensible young women of the present day feel the necessity of attaining a proficiency in some one direction, to which they could turn for help in the hour of need-Very often, however, the occupation that might best be turned to bread-winning is not the one to which girls are most addicted in their prosperity. In such a case, when money-making is not the object, they must make their own standard, and reach, if possible, a high order of proficiency; for to take up any one thing, and then to do it badly, has a deteriorating effect upon the moral nature. The superficial beginning which, according to my theory, is conducive to largeness of mind, is a good preparation to later special training. The only other alternative, which is the worst of all, is if girls fold their hands and say they are not clever, and that they can do nothing. With patience and perseverance every girl can do something. Once a woman has made up her mind that she has to earn her living, no concentration of study for the one particular occupation she has in view can be too thorough or too severe. The essential requirement for bread-winning is that she should be able to do some one thing better than the generality of people with whom she is in competition.

Now we come to the eternal and ever-discussed question, what young girls should read. I have no hesitation in saying that, taking the question all round, the safest, wisest, most sensible way out of the difficulty, is to let girls read from childhood anything they like. Never make a child come and ask, never forbid this book or that; the moment you do, you get into a sea of hopeless difficulties. Where a girl is pure-minded, nothing will hurt her; where she is not, the forbidding of one book and allowing another raises a curiosity which will do far more harm than leaving it alone. All that is harmful in the Bible or Shakespeare is simply not understood. Why should it not be the same with other books ? No one ever dreams of what they do not know. Dreams often distort and twist our knowledge; no dream ever instructs us in anything of which we are ignorant.

Without forbidding any one book or other, it would be wise for a mother to recommend her daughter not to read the current novels of the day, at the time they are being continually discussed in public, if they are of a nature which unfits her to join in the conversation. It is not that there is harm in having read the book, but there are some things which it is impossible for a girl to talk about. In Richter's 'Levana,' which I mention elsewhere, there are some excellent passages on this very subject. In this permission to read or not to read books, as in all else that seriously concerns the education of children, the all-important thing is that the father and mother should agree. Nothing has so bad an effect on children, and they are quick to learn it, as that father thinks one thing and mother another. A wife had far better allow a fault to pass than try to stop that which she knows her husband would allow; and a husband had far better back the mother when he thinks her wrong than condemn her before her children. There is an old saying that widows' children turn out well. I do not think this means that women are more fitted to manage a family alone than men are, but men very rarely give the subject their consideration. There is nothing, when men really try, that they do not do better than women-from the highest in art and literature, to the humblest cooking and tailoring. I think the old saw merely means that one will and one law are better than a divided judgment. If a woman has strong views on education, let her begin by educating and persuading her husband. If she cannot do this, let her simply try and carry out his wishes and views, whatever they are.

Not an unusual trouble of family life is that the energetic, and those who are happy through employing themselves, no matter in what way, are apt to be a sore trial to the idle and to those who want to be amused and excited. Many of us know the disappointment of rushing into a room, anxious to confide something of great or no importance to a sympathetic human being, and finding presented towards us what can only be described as a busy back, and the chilled feeling which results from the doubt whether or not we have any right to disturb it.

Sometimes the parents are idle and the children industrious, which is perhaps the most common. The children must then not exact an interest in their work, which they are not likely to get. Schopenhauer says: 'Whoever seriously takes up and pursues an object that does not lead to material advantages must not count on the sympathy of his contemporaries.'