ll the barriers of caste, the
daughter of a wholly unrefined mother may occupy a high position. In
England a clever daughter may have a stupid mother, but a refined
daughter is not very likely to have a mother who is outwardly coarse,
because class lines have been drawn so distinctly for many generations
that mother and daughter have essentially the same kind of education and
see essentially the same kind of people. In America this is the
exception instead of the rule, though now that the highest education is
open to all women, the chances are that the contrasts will be less sharp
in future.

But at present the gulf between mother and daughter is often so wide
that it requires more than tact to bridge it. A sense of duty will keep
a daughter outwardly kind and respectful to her mother, but love is the
mother's only real security; and a mother must be thoroughly good at
heart and refined in feeling to hold the warm love of a daughter whose
intellectual tastes and social standards she outrages every moment. On
the other hand, if the daughter's education has not taught her that
character is more than intellect, it is worse than useless.

"Intellect separates," said Dr. James Freeman Clarke, "but love unites."
Here lies the key to this problem.

I have said little of marriage, for the subject is difficult. A
thoroughly high-minded woman will not be likely to marry unworthily, and
she may be trusted to meet the problems that rise after marriage in a
worthy manner. The special difficulties in each pathway will depend on
temperament and circumstances, and no general rules can be laid down for
meeting them.

I hold to the old-fashioned doctrine that a true marriage opens the way
to the best and happiest life for both men and women. Anything less than
a true marriage is intolerable and debasing.

But girls can hardly choose whether they will be married or not. They
can say No to all offers, and some women do plan for opportunities to
say Yes, yet most of us feel that there are few circumstances in which
a girl of noble instincts could take the initiative.

Can parents do anything? Certainly not in the way of trying to win a
particular lover; but they may so educate their daughter as to make her
attractive to such a man as they would wish her to marry, provided that
such an education does not sacrifice higher interests; and then they may
give her the opportunity to see as many such men as possible in her own
home, and in