that
children should never learn anything by rote. "When Mrs. Whately and I
first married," he observed on one occasion, "one of the first things we
agreed on was, that should Providence send us children, we would never
teach them anything they did not understand. 'Not even their prayers, my
lord?' asked the person addressed. 'No, not even their prayers,' he
replied." [1] Mary's education was conducted mainly by a governess, under
the superintendence of her parents. Her brother, Archdeacon Whately,
thus refers to her early life: "Our life in Ireland was on the whole a
very retired one. For the greater part of our sojourn there we saw very
little society, nor had my sisters a sufficient vent for a craving,
which in some of them was very strong, for social intercourse and active
work.... In early life she showed the germs of that vigour and energy of
character for which she was afterwards so distinguished. In all our
youthful games she was fond of taking the lead, and generally succeeded
in obtaining it.... Like most young persons of a sanguine and
imaginative temperament, she lived very much in an ideal future of her
own creation.... It was well for my sister that we were not allowed in
our younger days to read any unwholesome trash in the way of fiction. We
were not indeed unduly restricted in works of imagination, but we read
nothing which was foolish or sensational, and a higher taste than the
taste for mere stories was cultivated in us. Mary Whately had a strong
predilection for works of travels, history, and adventures. Perhaps
these tastes were a foreshadowing of her future destiny, and prepared
her for it." [2] Her sister adds, "Mary was from her earliest years
ardent and impulsive, hot-tempered and generous. She was quick at
lessons, and possessed of a retentive memory, though the active brain
and lively imagination made schoolroom routine somewhat irksome
to her." [3]

[Footnote 1: _Life of Archbishop Whately_, by his daughter, vol. 1. p. 62.]
[Footnote 2: _The Fireside_ for 1889, pp. 817, 818.]
[Footnote 3: _Life of Mary J. Whately_, by E.J. Whately, p. 10.]

II.

THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE AND SERVICE.

Dr. and Mrs. Whately gave their children a careful religious and moral
training, and sought to instil into their minds the highest motives for
right doing, and to set before them a high standard of conduct. Mrs.
Whately early associated her daughters with herself in visiting among
the poor in t