Again, circumstances sometimes arise in school life which make light household duties an untold boon for particular children.  Accidental causes, troubles of eyesight, or too rapid growth, etc., may make regular study for a time impossible to them.  These children become exempt persons, and even if they are able to take some part in the class work the time of preparation is heavy on their hands.  Exempt persons easily develop undesirable qualities, and their apparent privileges are liable to unsettle others.  As a matter of fact those who are able to keep the common life have the best of it, but they are apt to look upon the exemption of others as enviable, as they long for gipsy life when a caravan passes by.  With the resource of household employment to give occupation it becomes apparent that exemption does not mean holiday, but the substitution of one duty or lesson for another, and this is a principle which holds good in after life—­that except in case of real illness no one is justified in having nothing to do.

Lastly, the work of the body is good for the soul, it drives out silliness as effectually as the rod, since that which was of old considered as the instrument for exterminating the “folly bound up in the heart of a child,” has been laid aside in the education of girls.  It is a great weapon against the seven devils of whom one is Sloth and another Pride, and it prepares a sane mind in a sound body for the discipline of after life.

Experience bears its own testimony to the failure of an education which is out of touch with the material requirements of life.  It leaves an incomplete power of expression, and some dead points in the mind from which no response can be awakened.  To taste of many experiences seems to be necessary for complete development.  When on the material side all is provided without forethought, and people are exempt from all care and obligation, a whole side of development is wanting, and on that side the mind remains childish, inexperienced, and unreal.  The best mental development is accomplished under the stress of many demands.  One claim balances the other; a touch of hardness and privation gives strength of mind and makes self-denial a reality; a little anxiety teaches foresight and draws out resourcefulness, and the tendency to fret about trifles is corrected by the contact of the realities of life.

To come to practice—­What can be done for girls during their years at school?

In the first place the teaching of the fundamental handicraft of women, needlework, deserves a place of honour.  In many schools it has almost perished by neglect, or the thorns of the examination programme have grown up and choked it.  This misfortune has been fairly common where the English “University Locals” and the Irish “Intermediate” held sway.  There literally was not time for it, and the loss became so general that it was taken as a matter of course, scarcely regretted; to the children