not subdued by his wife, he is by his own heart. The next day
the son leaves his college for the _Christian college_, or the school
for the little seminary. The daughter is led triumphantly by her
mother to the excellent boarding-school close by, where the good abbe
confesses and directs. In less than a year the boarding-school is
found to be not quite good enough, being still too worldly; the little
girl is then given over to the nuns, whose superior our abbe happens to
be, in some convent of his, that is, under his protection and his lock
and key.

Good-humoured parent, lie easy and sleep sound. Your daughter is in
good hands: you shall be contradicted till your death. Your daughter
is really a girl of good sense; and on every subject, having been
carefully armed against you, will take, whatever you may say, the
opposite side of the question.

What is very singular, the father, generally, is aware that they are
bringing up his child against him. Man, you surprise me! what do you
expect then? "Oh! she will forget it; time, marriage, and the world
will wear away all that." Yes, for a time, but only to re-appear; at
the first disappointment in the world it will all return. As soon as
she grows somewhat in years, she will return to the habits of the
child; the master she now has will be her master then, whether for your
contradiction, in your old age, good man, or for the despair and daily
damnation of her father and husband. Then will you taste the fruit of
this education.

Education! a mere trifle, a weak power, no doubt, which the father may,
without danger, allow his enemies to take possession of!

To possess the mind, with all the advantage of the first possessor! To
write in this book of blank paper whatever they will! and to write what
will last for ever! For, remember well, it will be in vain for you to
write upon it hereafter; what has once been indited, cannot be erased.
It is the mystery of her young memory to be as weak in receiving
impressions as it is strong in keeping them. The early tracing that
seemed to be effaced at twenty re-appears at forty or sixty. It is the
last and the clearest, perhaps, that old age will retain.

What! will not reading, and the press, the great overruling power of
our own days, give a stronger education than the former one? Do not
rely on this. The influence of the press partly annuls itself; it has
a thousand voices to speak, and a thousand others to answer