in any volume dealing with women is that of the suffrage. I must frankly
own that though I have thought much upon this subject I have not been
able to come to positive conclusions about it. I am glad for all the
freedom women have gained. I wish to see them entirely free. I think a
woman needs to be free in order to reach the highest nobility; but it is
inward freedom which we most need, and that is independent of
circumstances. Epictetus, a slave, won as complete inward freedom as
Marcus Aurelius, an emperor.
I see so many arguments on both sides of the question that I am always
vacillating between them, and it would therefore be impossible for me to
treat the matter here. All I can say is, that the longer I live the more
I am convinced that it is personal character which most helps the world
forward, and I think our hearty allegiance to the truth which we clearly
see will in the end teach us new truth.
I began this little book in the hope of saying some helpful words to
girls. I have found it necessary to think of them as having grown into
women. I cannot take leave of them without fancying them as they will be
in old age.
Charles Dudley Warner once visited the Mary Institute at St. Louis. He
was asked to make a speech, and after glancing at the five hundred
beautiful young girls before him, he turned to the fine faces of the
teachers, many of whom were gray-haired, and said:--
"It is a beautiful thing to be a charming young lady; and the best of it
is that you will sometime have a chance to be a charming old lady!"
All old ladies are not charming, but a great many of them are; and would
not all of us be so if we could follow the prescriptions I have given so
liberally for the conduct of life all the way through? Suppose we were
all sweet-tempered and warm-hearted and truthful, and as neat and pretty
as we could be, and bright and intelligent and modest and helpful--do
you not think we should be charming even if our eyes were dim and our
ears dull, and we walked with a cane?
Nevertheless, there is one practical rule that old people must never
forget. They must keep growing as long as they live. Your temper must be
sweeter at forty than it was at twenty, and sweeter at sixty than at
forty, if it is to seem sweet at all when your bright eyes and red lips
are gone. We can pardon a sharp word from an inexperienced young girl,
who speaks hastily without reflection, but we cannot pardon it so easily
from a woman who has had a lifetime to reflect.
If you would keep fresh in body, you must not pay too much attention to
rheumatic twinges, and sit still in a corner because you are too stiff
to rise. Take your painful walk, and you will be less stiff when you
come back. You will have fresh life from outside, and not be a burden to
younger lives impatient of your chimney corner.
One of my friends, who is nearly eighty, has taken a trip to Kansas this
winter, and has been delighted with the new life she has seen. I need
not say that her delight makes her delightful to others. "You need not
suppose," she writes, "that I am going to settle down and be an old lady
yet. I am planning a visit to California next year."
Mrs. Horace Mann and Miss Elizabeth Peabody were both nearly eighty when
they went to Washington on official business--something in reference to
the Indian troubles, I believe. I have already cited my mother's friend
who began to study botany at ninety. And why not? If the end of
knowledge was to help us to get our daily bread, we might at last fold
our hands; but if it is to open our minds to the glory of the universe,
to make us more worthy to be the immortal souls we hope we are, why
should we not be just as eager to learn at ninety as at nine?
A sensitive woman is sure to have many and many an experience in life
which will make her heart sad and sore; but I think that every brave and
good woman will also feel more and more, as time goes on, that the
kingdom of heaven is within her.
ADVERTISEMENTS
The Riverside Library for Young People.
_A Series of Volumes devoted to History, Biography,
Mechanics, Travel, Natural History, and Adventure. With
Maps, Portraits, etc., where needed for fuller illustration
of the volume. Each, uniform, strongly bound
in cloth, 16mo, 200-250 pages, 75 cents._
1. _The War of Independence._
By JOHN FISKE. With Maps.
2. _George Washington: An Historical Biography._
By HORACE E. SCUDDER. With Portrait and Illustrations.
3. _Birds through an Opera Glass._
By FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Illustrated.
4. _Up and Down the Brooks._
By MARY E. BAMFORD. Illustrated.
5. _Coal and the Coal Mines._
By HOMER GREENE. Illustrated.
6. _A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory._
By LUCY LARCOM.
7. _Java: The Pearl of the East._
By MRS. S. J. HIGGINSON. With a Map.
8. _Girls and Women._
By E. CHESTER.
(_Others in preparation._)
MESSRS. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY publish, under the above title, a
series of books designed especially for boys and girls who are laying
the foundation of private libraries. The books in this series are not
ephemeral publications, to be read hastily and quickly forgotten, both
the authors and the subjects treated indicate that they are books to
last.
The great subjects of History, Biography, Mechanics, Travel, Natural
History, Adventure, and kindred themes form the principal portion of the
library. The authors engaged are for the most part writers who already
have won attention, but the publishers give a hospitable reception to
all who may have something worth saying to the young, and the power to
say it in good English and in an attractive manner. The books in this
Library are intended particularly for young people, but they will not be
written in what has been well called the _Childese_ dialect.
The books are illustrated whenever the subject treated needs
illustration; history and travel are accompanied by maps; history and
biography by portraits; but the aim is to make the accompaniments to the
text real additions.
The publishers hope to have the active coöperation of parents, teachers,
superintendents, and all who are interested in the formation of good
taste in reading among young people.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY,
_4 Park Street, Boston; 11 East 17th Street, New York._
Critical Notices.
_FISKE'S War of Independence._
John Fiske's book, "The War of Independence," is a miracle. I can never
understand why, when a perfect literary work is issued, all the critics
do not clap their hands! I think it must be because they never read the
books. This story of the war is such a book, brilliant and effective
beyond measure. It should be read by every voter in the United States.
It is a statement that every child can comprehend, but that only a man
of consummate genius could have written.--MRS. CAROLINE H. DALL, in the
Springfield _Republican_.
The story of the Revolution, as Mr. Fiske tells it, is one of surpassing
interest. His treatment is a marvel of clearness and comprehensiveness;
discarding non-essential details, he selects with a fine historic
instinct the main currents of history, traces them with the utmost
precision, and tells the whole story in a masterly fashion. His little
volume will be a text-book for older quite as much as for young
readers.--_Christian Union._
_SCUDDER'S George Washington._
Mr. Scudder's biography of Washington is a fit companion volume for Mr.
Fiske's little history. It tells the story of the great patriot,
soldier, and statesman with simplicity, sincerity, and completeness. It
is not too much to say of these books that they ought to be put into the
hands of every boy and girl, not only because of that which they
contain, but because of the soundness of their form.--_Christian Union_
(New York).
Mr. Horace E. Scudder has executed a difficult task in a praiseworthy
manner. In spite of the innumerable lives of the first President, who
shall say anything new of his career and paint it in fresh colors? Mr.
Scudder has been able to do this, and his book will be welcomed by old
and young.--_Boston Beacon._
_MERRIAM'S Birds through an Opera Glass._
A capital text-book of the right sort for young observers of Natural
History. By text-book we do not mean a formal school-book, but a book
with a clear method, a capital style, and adequate information. This
little volume describes all the birds to be found in our fields and
woods; describes them, not as an ornithological treatise, but as a
keen-eyed and thoroughly interesting observer would describe them. Such
a volume ought to be the companion of every intelligent boy and girl
during the summer.--_Christian Union_ (New York).
The book is deserving of praise for its eminently practical nature. The
hints to observers with which it opens, the appendix giving the
classification of birds by general family characteristics, by
localities, by colors, by song, the books of reference, and the index,
all combine to make the book extremely useful.--_The Academy_
(Syracuse).
_GREENE'S Coal and the Coal Mines._
In the vehicle of the author's terse, vigorous language, the reader is
then taken down into the subterranean passages, where he is almost made
to see the operations of mining the fuel, so vividly and picturesquely
is the information conveyed. Interesting and valuable statistics are
quoted, amusing incidents are related, entertaining descriptions and
wise suggestions are given and made, and, taken altogether, though
dealing largely with what is essentially dry in its nature, the book
makes good reading for the old as well as the young.--_The American_
(Philadelphia).
All kinds of science and scientific information is, at this day, brought
down from its high points to the lower and more even ground of the young
student's understanding. This book is a good example of that truth. The
exhaustive theme of coal and coal mining is made so concise and simple
that a child can thoroughly comprehend it. The author covers the ground
of study in a simple and interesting way, and furnishes illustrations to
make the words clearer.--_New York School Journal._
_MISS BAMFORD'S Up and Down the Brooks._
This is a book which it is a pleasure to read and a duty to praise. Miss
Bamford tells us of her rambles by the California brookside, and her
acquaintances made there; of their habits, their transformations, death
and burial, or happier release after a period of observation by the
captor.... On the whole, we do not know among recent books any more
likely to give pleasure to the nature-loving boy or girl, or more
calculated to stimulate the taste for healthy recreation and good
reading.--_The Nation_ (New York).
A charming book, full of most fascinating details in the lives of
little-known insects, and opening a rich field of study and interest,
accessible to every country child. It cannot be too highly recommended
to parents. The author has sought out her own subjects, and studied for
herself, and her results are delightful.... We would put the book into
the hands of every girl and boy.--_Epoch_ (New York).
_MISS LARCOM'S Recollections of Girlhood._
Its unaffected, sincere, pungent style is refreshing indeed after the
introspection, the smirking self-consciousness, the willful mannerisms,
which make of so many autobiographies little more than a pose before a
mirror. More than all, as a vivid, tenderly sympathetic yet
uncompromisingly truthful picture of phases of New England life, in home
and at work, which have now practically ceased to be, the book has a
permanent, one may say an historical value.--_Boston Advertiser._
The story is one that will aid other girls to make the most of their
opportunities, and help them in understanding the real value of life. It
is a book that every girl will be better for having read.--_Boston
Herald._
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY,
4 PARK ST., BOSTON; 11 EAST 17TH ST., NEW YORK.