stance it may be mentioned that one
copy of Colburn's "Algebra" was used by eight children in the Mitchell
family, one after the other. The eldest daughter's name was written on
the inside of the cover; seven more names followed in the order of their
ages, as the book descended.

With regard to their reading, the mother examined every book that came
into the house. Of course there were not so many books published then as
now, and the same books were read over and over. Miss Edgeworth's
stories became part of their very lives, and Young's "Night Thoughts,"
and the poems of Cowper and Bloomfield were conspicuous objects on the
bookshelves of most houses in those days. Mr. Mitchell was very apt,
while observing the heavens in the evening, to quote from one or the
other of these poets, or from the Bible. "An undevout astronomer is mad"
was one of his favorite quotations.

Among the poems which Maria learned in her childhood, and which was
repeatedly upon her lips all through her life, was, "The spacious
firmament on high." In her latter years if she had a sudden fright which
threatened to take away her senses she would test her mental condition
by repeating that poem; it is needless to say that she always remembered
it, and her nerves instantly relapsed into their natural condition.

The lives of Maria Mitchell and her numerous brothers and sisters were
passed in simplicity and with an entire absence of anything exciting or
abnormal.

The education of their children is enjoined upon the parents by the
"Discipline," and in those days at least the parents did not give up all
the responsibility in that line to the teachers. In Maria Mitchell's
childhood the children of a family sat around the table in the evenings
and studied their lessons for the next day,--the parents or the older
children assisting the younger if the lessons were too difficult. The
children attended school five days in the week,--six hours in the
day,--and their only vacation was four weeks in the summer, generally in
August.

The idea that children over-studied and injured their health was never
promulgated in that family, nor indeed in that community; it seems to be
a notion of the present half-century.

Maria's first teacher was a lady for whom she always felt the warmest
affection, and in her diary, written in her later years, occurs this
allusion to her:

"I count in my life, outside of family relatives, three aids given me on
my journey; they