him is pretence and unreal, and judging the
true by a false standard he conceives an honest disgust for
intellectual labor, and pronounces it all a sham.

Few boys can even mentally go through a course of "cramming" and come
out uninjured. The majority of the finest intellects develop tardily,
and their superiority is in fact greatly dependent upon the staying
powers conferred by physical strength and wisely considered
conditions. There are of course exceptions, where an inherited force
of genius stamps the boy from the first and defies all systems to
crush it. But it is the average boy, and not the exceptional one, that
must be considered in all methods of education.

In this matter boys are not to be blamed. They naturally accept the
master's opinions as to the value of his plan; they rather enjoy a
neck-and-neck race with each other in superficial acquirements, and
the whole tendency of our social life supports the tempting theory.
Every one wants to possess without the trouble of acquiring; every one
would have a reputation without the labor of earning it. In an age
which prides itself upon the speed with which it does everything,
which makes a merit of doing whatever is to be done in the shortest
and quickest way possible, it is easy to perceive how a certain class
of teachers, and parents too, would be willing to believe that the old
up-hill road to knowledge might be graded and lined and made available
for rapid transit.

But nothing can be more illogical than to apply social rules and
conditions to mental ones. The former are constantly changing, the
latter obey fixed and immutable laws. There is not, there never has
been, there never will be, any short cuts to universal knowledge; and
the boy who is made to waste time seeking one will have either to
relinquish his object altogether, or else, turning back to the main
road, find his early companions who kept to it hopelessly ahead of
him. Learning is a plant that grows slowly and whose fruit must be
waited for. It is a long time, even after having learned anything,
_that we know it well_.

The Servant-Girl's Point of View

A great deal has been said lately on the servant-girl question, always
from the mistresses' point of view; and as no _ex-parte_ evidence is
conclusive, I offer for the servant-girl side some points that may
help to a better understanding of the whole subject.

It is said, on all hands, that servants every year grow more idle,
s