, there is a terrible father, kind, virtuous,
conscientious, whose one idea seems to be to encourage the children to
amass correct information. The party is driving in a chaise together,
and Lucy begins to tell a story of a little girl, Kitty Maples by name,
whom she has met at her Aunt Pierrepoint's; it seems as if the
conversation is for once to be enlightened by a ray of human interest,
but the name is hardly out of her lips, when the father directs her
attention to a building beside the road, and adds, "Let us talk of
things rather than of people." The building turns out to be a
sugar-refinery, or some equally depressing place, and the unhappy
children are initiated into its mysteries. What could be more cheerless
and dispiriting? Lucy is represented as a high-spirited and somewhat
giddy child, who is always being made aware of her moral deficiencies.

One looks forward sadly to the time when nature has been resolutely
expelled by a knowledge of dynamics and statics, and when Lucy, with
children of her own, will be directing their attention away from
childish fancies, to the fact that the poker is a lever, and that curly
hair is a good hygrometer.

Plenty of homely and simple virtues are inculcated in Harry and Lucy;
but the attitude of mind that must inevitably result from such an
education is hard, complacent, and superior. The children are scolded
out of superficial vanities, and their place is occupied by a satanical
sort of pride--the pride of possessing correct information.

What does one want to make of one's own children? One wants them to be
generous, affectionate, simple-minded, just, temperate in the moral
region. In the intellectual region, one desires them to be alert,
eager, independent, perceptive, interested. I like them to ask a
hundred questions about what they see and hear. I want them to be
tender and compassionate to animals and insects. As for books, I want
them to follow their own taste, but I surround them only with the best;
but even so I wish them to have minds of their own, to have
preferences, and reasons for their preferences. I do not want them to
follow my taste, but to trust their own. I do not in the least care
about their amassing correct information. It is much better that they
should learn how to use books. It is very strange how theories of
education remain impervious to development. In the days when books were
scarce and expensive, when knowledge was not formulated and summari