result that I hurried with my Puritan nurse swiftly and violently
by a Roman Catholic chapel and a Wesleyan meeting-house which we
used to pass in our walks, with a sense of horror and wickedness in
the air. Indeed, I remember once asking my mother why God did not
rain down fire and brimstone on these two places of worship, and
received a very unsatisfactory answer. To develop such a spirit
was, it seems to me, a monstrous sin against Christian charity, and
my children shall be saved from that.

Meantime my own hours are increasingly filled. It takes me a long
time to prepare for the children's lessons; and I have my reward
abundantly in the delight of seeing their intelligence, their
perception, their interest grow. I am determined that the
beginnings of knowledge shall be for them a primrose path; I
suppose there will have to be some stricter mental discipline
later; but they shall begin by thinking and expecting things to be
interesting and delightful, before they realise that things can
also be hard and dull.



June 20, 1889.


When I read books on education, when I listen to the talk of
educational theorists, when I see syllabuses and schedules, schemes
and curricula, a great depression settles on my mind; I feel I have
no interest in education, and a deep distrust of theoretical
methods. These things seem to aim at missing the very thing of
which we are in search, and to lose themselves in a sort of