oiced and desired "to see their day."

But manifold as her privileges are, the American girl generally knows
how to use them. She proves daily that the parable of the ten talents
did not refer to men only. Indeed, the fault girls are most likely to
fall into is the belief that they each and all possess every one of
the talents. In reality this is so seldom the case that it is
impossible to educate all girls after one pattern; and it is therefore
a grand thing for a girl to know just what she can and cannot do. For
if she have only five talents there is no advantage to be gained by
creating fictitious ones, since the noblest education is that which
looks to the development of the natural abilities, whether they be few
or many, fashionable or unfashionable.

Ask the majority of people "What is education?" and they will be apt
to answer "The improvement of the mind." But this answer does not take
us one step beyond the starting-point. Probably the best and most
generally useful rule for a girl is a deliberate and conscientious
inquiry into her own nature and inclinations as to what she wants to
do with her education. When she has faithfully answered the inquiry
she is ready to prepare herself for this end. For it is neither
necessary nor yet possible that every girl should know everything.
Besides which, the growth of individuality has made special knowledge
a thing of great value, and on all occasions of importance we are apt
to defer to it. If we cross the Atlantic we look for a captain who has
a special knowledge of its stormy ways. If we are really ill we go to
a specialist on our ailment, no matter what "pathy" we prefer. Special
knowledge has a prima facie worth, and without inquiry into a subject
we are inclined to consider specialists on the subject better informed
than those who have not this qualification. Hence the importance of
cultivating some one talent to such perfection as will enable a girl,
if need be, to turn it into money.

There is another point in the preparation of the American girl for the
duties of life which is often undervalued, or even quite ignored; it
is the little remembered fact that all our moral and intellectual
qualities are very dependent for their value on our surroundings. The
old Quakers used to lay great stress upon being "in one's right
place." When the right person is in the right place there is sure to
be a success in life; failure in this respect is almost certain
misfortune;