s which surround our girls, from the peculiarities of
national government and society. Again, then, it is, in this point of
view, of imperative importance that our girls be allowed, nay, forced,
to complete their intellectual education.

We have now so to educate the girl that she shall do what is right,
simply because it is right, and not because it is useful or politic so
to do; that she shall abstain from what is wrong, simply and, only
because it is wrong, and not because it will be harmful to her if she do
not. These two statements would, however, be fully expressed by the
first one, for it is evident that if she always do what is right she
will never be able to do what is wrong, and positive education is much
better than negative, and an active, better than a passive state of
mind. In the first years of the little girl's life this lesson can be
impressed upon her only by example, and fortunate have those of us been
who, both in grandmother and mother, from our earliest childhood up, can
remember no single instance, however trifling, of deviation from
obedience to the "stern daughter of the voice of God." Though at first
we did not know what the power was, we felt, through all our childish
consciousness, that there was a power behind the throne from which our
laws emanated, whose voice was authority itself. Some of us may even
recall the impression made upon us, as clear now as in the long gone
years, when we distinctly formulated in words, with a certain sense of
satisfaction, the conviction that "even grown-up people cannot do as
they please;" and yet, that the power which prevented this doing as they
pleased was neither fashion, nor custom, nor the opinion of society.

Let the little girl be so educated that "while she praises and rejoices
over, and receives into her soul, the good, and becomes noble and good,
she will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days of her youth,
even before she is able to know the reason of the thing, and when Reason
comes, she will recognize and salute her as a friend with whom her
education has made her long familiar."[26]

But when the girl is older, and especially at the time when the whole
character is most impressible, this part of education can be firmly laid
in the cement of rational conviction, and if it is laid on no shifting
sands of contradictory character in the educator, we may safely trust to
its enduring support. There must be no compromise here. The doctrines