he has now become so
accomplished as to have made an excellent geological map of the town she
lives in. Such a map is greatly needed in any town, but how few are to
be found!

Another lady who has a taste for mineralogy has unconsciously done good
in her own village by means of it. All the boys and girls in town are
ready to help her and have learned something from her. Her collection is
open to everybody. She has formed a club of ladies for the study of the
science in the winter evenings. There is a higher intellectual and moral
tone in the place because of this new interest.

Goethe makes one of his heroines a lover of astronomy; he represents her
as living quietly with her telescope, and passing night after night in
close study of the stars. There is something ideally beautiful in his
description of her.

One of my friends chose to give most of her time to music. Without being
a genius, she played remarkably well, and she made her work available
for others by playing the organ in a church which was rich, in
everything but money. I knew another fine pianist who gave lessons to
children who could not otherwise have had them. In both these cases the
ladies were as much bound by their self-imposed tasks as if they had
been earning their living, and their characters received almost as
great benefit; but it would not have been well that they should be paid
for their work. Why should they compete with those who needed the money?

Harriet Martineau was not rich, but when she settled down in her own
little country-house she had a competence. She made her study useful to
the people around her, as well as to the world. She was skilled in
political economy, and she took pains to present its knotty problems in
a clear and simple form to the untrained minds of her poor neighbors.

All women are not born to lecture even in this small way. But the study
of history, and still more of philosophy, does something more than to
broaden the mind of the student. A woman with a clear mind looks at
every subject more wisely than if she were half educated. Her judgment
has weight with every one she comes into contact with; but however
little her influence may be, it is likely to be on the right side. What
we are is so much more than what we do! Girls who are longing to do some
great thing are impatient when they are told this. It is so much easier
to measure what we do than what we are. I know a girl with a fine
intellect who loves to stu