o lay down the following rules for his
students, and on condition of their adhering to these rules he allowed
them great freedom in their reading, but if they were disregarded, it
was understood that the rector took no responsibility about the books
they read:--

1. "Be perfectly conscientious, and if you find a book is doing you harm
stop reading it at once. If you know you cannot stop you must be most
careful not to read anything you don't know about."

2. "Be perfectly frank with your confessor and other superiors. Don't
keep anything hidden from them."

3. "Don't recommend books to others which, although they may do no harm
to you, might do harm to them."

These rules are very short but they call for a great deal of
self-control, frankness, and discretion. They set up an inward standard
for the conscience, and, if honestly followed, they answer in practice
any difficulty that is likely to arise as to choice of reading. [1--In
the Appendix will be found a pastoral letter by Cardinal Bourne,
Archbishop of Westminster, then Bishop of Southwark, bearing on this
subject and full of instruction for all who have to deal with it.]

But the application of these rules presupposes a degree of judgment and
self-restraint which are hardly to be found in girls of school-room
years, and before they can adjust themselves to the relative standard
and use the curb for themselves, it is necessary to set before them some
fixed rules by which to judge. While life is young and character plastic
and personal valuations still in formation, the difficulty is to know
what is harmful. "How am I to know," such a one may ask, "whether what
seems harmful to me may not be really a gain, giving me a richer life, a
greater expansion of spirit, a more independent and human character? May
not this effect which I take to be harm, be no more than necessary
growing pains; may it not be bringing me into truer relation with life
as it is, and as a whole?"

There will always be on one side timid and mediocre minds, satisfied to
shut themselves up and safeguard what they already have; and on the
other more daring and able spirits who are tempted beyond the line of
safety in a thirst for discovery and adventure, and are thus swept out
beyond their own immature control. Books that foster the spirit of
rebellion, of doubt and discontent concerning the essentials and
inevitable elements of human life, that tend to sap the sense of
personal responsibility