liberty of action is open to
educated women; and educated women are themselves seeing, and others are
seeing for them, that they have a part to play in the world which none
others can play; if they do not play it, then work, indispensable to the
good of society, and therefore to their own good, is undone. I say to
_their own good_, for we all want happiness: but happiness is not won by
seeking for it. Make up your minds on this point, that there are certain
things only to be got by not aiming directly at them. Aim, for example,
at being influential, and you become a prig; aim at walking and posing
gracefully, and you become an affected and ludicrous object; aim even at
breathing quite regularly, and you fail.

So if you aim at happiness or self-culture or individualistic
completeness, the world seems to combine to frustrate you. People,
circumstances, opportunities, temper, everything goes wrong; and you lay
the blame on everything except the one thing that is the cause of it
all, the fact that you yourself are aiming at the wrong thing. But aim
at making everything go well where you are; aim at using this treasure
of life that God has given you for helping lame dogs over stiles, for
making schools, households, games, parishes, societies, sick-rooms,
girls' clubs, what not?--run more smoothly; wake every morning with the
thought what can I do to-day to oil the wheels of my little world; and
behold people, circumstances, opportunities, temper, even health, all
get into a new adjustment, and all combine to fill your life with
interests, warmth, affection, culture, and growth: you will find it
true: good measure, shaken down, heaped together, and running over,
shall men give into your bosoms.

Ah! but _what_ can one do? It is so hard to find out the right thing.
Yes; and no possible general rule can be given. You must fix the ideal
in your mind, and be sure that in some way or other openings will arise.
I will not touch life at school; you know more about that than I do, and
perhaps need not that I should speak of public spirit, and generous
temper, and the united life. I will only say that a girl who does not
throw herself into school life with the generous wish to give pleasure
and to lift the tone around her, does not get more than a fraction of
the good that a school life like this can give, and does not do her
duty. I speak of later years alone. And in the first instance, and
always in the first place, stand the clai