racter than any pursuit that leads the mind away
from frivolous pursuits, egotistic or morbid fancies, and fills it with
memories of noble words and lives, teaches it to love our great poets
and writers, and gives it sympathies with great causes. But this was not
the prevailing opinion twenty years ago. The influence of good people,
good homes, good example--in a word truly religious influence, as we
shall all admit--is the strongest element in the formation of character;
but the next strongest is assuredly that education which teaches us to
admire "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lovely, and
whatsoever things are of good report;" and this ought to be, and is, one
of the results of the literary teaching given by well-educated
mistresses.

I have been describing the common type of what used to be called the
"seminaries" and "establishments for young ladies" of twenty years ago.
And it may give you the impression that there was no good education to
be got in those days, and that the ladies of my generation were
therefore very ill-educated. Permit me to correct that impression. There
were homes in which the girls learned something from father or from
mother, or, perhaps, something from a not very talented governess; but
in which they educated themselves with a hunger and thirst after
knowledge, and an enjoyment of literature that is rare in any school. Do
not imagine that any school education under mistresses however skilled,
or resulting in certificates however brilliant, is really as effective
in the formation of strong intellectual tastes and clear judgment and
ability as the self-education which was won by the mothers of some of
you, by the women of my generation and those before. Such education was
rare, but it was possible, and it is possible still. Under such a system
a few are educated and the many fail altogether. The advantage of our
day is that education is offered to a much larger number. But I cannot
call it better than that which was won by a few in the generation of
your mothers. If we would combine the exceptional merits of the old
system with the high average merits of the new we must jealously
preserve the element of freedom and self-education.

To return to the report. The indifference of parents and the public, the
inadequacy of school buildings and appliances, the low intellectual
ideals of mistresses, were the evils of twenty years ago, prevailing
very widely and lowering school edu