work by circumstances, are the more bound to work, because they can
choose what is best in itself.

Where a girl has many equal gifts it may be well sometimes to have
several occupations; but it is usually best to choose some one form of
daily employment as the nucleus of her life, and to persevere with that
till she accomplishes something.

Most girls would choose to devote themselves to some charity. I will
speak of that in another chapter. Here I wish to say something of
occupations which can be followed only by those who are rich enough to
dispose of their own time, and which, though at first they may not seem
to be of much use to others, are indirectly among the most powerful
factors in the progress of the world.

In New England, at least, girls often stay in school till they are
twenty, and by that time they have learned the elements of chemistry,
physics, botany, zooelogy, physiology, geology, and astronomy. If they
have learned these thoroughly, the variety of studies is an advantage,
as one science throws light on all the rest. Yet of course they have
learned only the rudiments of any of these subjects, and if they try to
carry them all on after leaving school they can hardly do very good work
in any.

Suppose a girl decides that chemistry is the most fascinating of the
group. Then let her make a special study of that. She will know enough
of the other sciences to use them when she needs their help, or she may
wish to study minerals or plants or animals chemically. If she is rich,
she ought to carry on her study with special teachers till she reaches a
point where she can do original work. Then, let her have her own little
laboratory, and give some hours every day regularly to experiments.
"Original work" sounds terrifying to most girls; they think it requires
genius. It does take genius to gather the results of experiments into
laws. But as I have elsewhere suggested, the experiments must all be
first tried; and many a girl is neat and skillful and accurate enough to
do all the drudgery necessary, leaving the man,--or woman,--of genius
free for the higher work. True, it takes genius to know what experiments
to try. But a girl who has had special teachers is sure to know one
among them who is doing original work, and who wishes the days were
twice as long that he might try more experiments. Let her ask him to
trust some work to her. She may make some discoveries herself, but at
any rate she will do work wh