hetic study
of history and travels, the broad teaching of the poets, and, indeed, of
the best writers of other times and other countries, to neutralize and
check the dwarfing influences of necessarily narrow careers and
necessarily stunted lives. That is the point which you will see I mean
when I ask you to cultivate the imagination. I want to introduce you to
other, wider, and nobler fields of thought, and to open up vistas of
other worlds, when refreshing and bracing breezes will stream upon your
minds and souls. GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN.
From "On the Cultivation of the Imagination."
* * * * *
But it is a noteworthy fact that eminent qualities in men may often be
traced to similar qualities in their mothers. Knowledge, it is true, is
not hereditary, but high mental qualities are so, and experience and
observation seem to prove that the transmission is chiefly through the
mother's side. But leaving this physiological view, let us look at the
purely educational. Imagine an educated mother training and molding the
powers of her children, giving to them in the years of infancy those
gentle yet permanent tendencies which are of more account in the
formation of character than any subsequent educational influences,
selecting for them the best instructors, encouraging and aiding them in
their difficulties, rejoicing with them in their successes, able to take
an intelligent interest in their progress in literature and science.
JOHN WILLIAM DAWSON.
From "On the Higher Education of Women."
* * * * *
It only remains to remind you that another consideration has been
strongly prest upon you, and, no doubt, will be insisted on in reply.
You will be told that the matters which I have been justifying as legal,
and even meritorious, have therefore not been made the subject of
complaint; and that whatever intrinsic merit parts of the book may be
supposed or even admitted to possess, such merit can afford no
justification to the selected passages, some of which, even with, the
context, carry the meaning charged by the information, and which, are
indecent animadversions on authority. THOMAS LORD ERSKINE
From "Speech in Behalf of Blockdale."
* * * * *
But let it now for argument's sake be admitted, saving always the
reputation of honorable men who are not here to defend themselves--let
it, I say, for argument's sake, be admitted t
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