n parted," but that is nothing to the speed with
which a fool and his education are parted!

Now, I am going to take the chief subjects you learn, and show the higher
things which I want you to gain when you are doing those lessons, and
_you_ must want it too, or my wanting it will not do much good. You do not
learn Mathematics simply that you may know so many books of Euclid, and so
many pages of Algebra; it is to give you power over your minds, to enable
you to follow a chain of reasoning, to teach you to keep up continuous
attention, and not to jump at conclusions. I do not say you cannot learn
these things except by Mathematics; you might do it by Logic, and I know
many people who have done it by mother-wit and the teaching of life; but
when a person is inclined to trust to his mother-wit, and to neglect
educational advantages because he can do without them, I for one feel
inclined to doubt whether his share of mother-wit can be very large, after
all. The people I have known who are clever, without having had the
careful school-training you enjoy, used all the advantages that came in
their way (though, when they were young, advantages were fewer), and
unless you do the same, you cannot expect to be like them. Also, clever
untrained people often feel very much hampered by their want of training;
you see the cleverness, but they feel how much more they could have done
if they had been trained. Therefore, do not allow yourselves to think
"Euclid is no good, because 'Aunt So-and-so' is quite clever enough, and
she never did it;" depend upon it, that is not going the right road to be
like her. I feel quite sure that if this "not impossible aunt" had had
opportunities of learning Euclid when she was young, she would have done
it, and very well too! Of course, if you mean to read Mathematics from
choice by-and-by, you will work hard at the subject now, but I can quite
understand that those who are not going to do this, perhaps sometimes
feel, "What is the good? I shall never look at a Euclid again after I
leave school--I want to learn how to hold my own in after-life,--I want to
be able to talk when I come out,--I want to be a sensible woman, whose
opinion will be asked by other people,--I want to be clever at house-work
or cooking, or to be able to manage a shop,--I want to be strong enough
and wise enough to be a support and comfort to others,--I want to be a
useful woman and not a mathematician!" Well! that is just what I