n
accepting what we put before them; on the contrary we must welcome their
independent 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, 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 absorbed 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 retributive justice is done to
the wicked. This is perhaps 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 compromise. 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 profitably 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 contemporary questions have
their springs in the past, and see the rise of the forces which are at
work now, disintegrating 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
caus