, and to disparage the cardinal virtues and the
duty of self-restraint as against impulse, are emphatically bad. They
are particularly bad for girls with their impressionable minds and
tendency to imitation, and inclination to be led on by the glamour of
the old temptation; "Your eyes shall be opened; you shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil."

To follow a doubt or a lie or a by-way of conduct with the curiosity to
see what comes of it in the end, is to prepare their own minds for
similar lines of thought and action, and in the crises of life, when
they have to choose for themselves, often unadvised and without time to
deliberate, they are more likely to fall by the doubt or the lie or the
spirit of revolt which has become familiar to them in thought and
sympathy.

CHAPTER IX.

MODERN LANGUAGES.

"All nations have their message from on high,
Each the messiah of some central thought,
For the fulfilment and delight of Man:
One has to teach that Labour is divine;
Another Freedom and another Mind;
And all, that God is open-eyed and just,
The happy centre and calm heart of all."
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

We cannot have a perfect knowledge even of our own language without some
acquaintance with more than one other, either classical or modern. This
is especially true of English because it has drawn its strength and
wealth from so many sources, and absorbed them into itself. But this
value is usually taken indirectly, by the way, and the understanding of
it only comes to us after years as an appreciable good. It is, however,
recognized that no education corresponding to the needs of our own time
can be perfected or even adequately completed in one language alone. Not
only do the actual conditions of life make it imperative to have more
than one tongue at our command from the rapid extension of facilities
for travelling, and increased intercourse with other nations; but in
proportion to the cooling down of our extreme ardour for experimental
science in the school-room we are returning to recognize in language a
means of education more adapted to prepare children for life, by fitting
them for intercourse with their fellow-creatures and giving them some
appreciative understanding of the works of man's mind. Thus languages,
and especially modern languages, are assuming more and more importance
in the education of children, not only with us, but in most other
countries of Europe. In some of them the metho