e few women who can devote themselves to pure literature, and
few of these can earn a living by it; so, delightful as it is, it can
hardly be counted among the bread-winning occupations. But if a woman
thinks she can be satisfied to work regularly on a newspaper or a
magazine she may often earn a large income. If money or fame is her
object she must always sign her own name to everything she writes, as it
takes genius to coerce the public into admiration of anonymous work.

A great many women have found it well to be teachers, and most of their
work is conscientiously done, though few have the highest ideal so
constantly before them as to find pleasure in the work when their own
faults are of such a nature that success depends on overcoming them. A
firm, quick-witted woman, with sufficient self-reliance to relish
responsibility, is the only one who can be happy in a large school or at
the head of a small one. Now, those are the lucrative positions for
teachers, and, indeed, the positions in which the largest results can be
accomplished, and they ought to be filled by the finest women. But the
finest women must have certain other qualities. They need to be
thoughtful even more than quick witted; they must be able to balance
conflicting interests, and that is hard to reconcile with firmness; and
if they are modest and conscientious they rarely have the self-reliance
which makes responsibility anything but a grievous burden. Yet there are
teachers who have enough of all these contradictory qualities to succeed
in doing the difficult and admirable work if they are only willing to be
unhappy for the sake of doing something noble.

But some can never be disciplinarians, however determined their
character may be, principally, I think, because the true student must
usually be occupied with a train of thought which cannot be interrupted
from moment to moment to detect the petty tricks of insubordinate
pupils. So if you mean to be a teacher, think first whether you have
quick observation; then, are you firm, and are you willing to give your
whole heart to your work? If you can answer these questions favorably,
you may persevere in your attempt to make your way to the head of a
school, even if your first trial does not succeed. If you have not the
executive ability, then turn all your energy in other directions. There
are positions as assistants in grammar schools where any woman of good
education who is conscientious and persever