Douglas Island news., 1899-04-26

science and general literature; and in ten years he or she should be we'll informed and we'll educated person. Of course, arithmetic, history, and ge- ography, and perhaps some other branches, should receive systematic study. Technical grammar may be omitted entirely.
 Let us give one example, there are thousands, showing what can be done entirely at home in the way of an edU- cation. MT. and Mrs. Curchod were peasants in Switzerland, very poor, but ambitious to give their only child a good education, something better than that afforded by the primary subscrip- ton school their village afforded. They hoped to save up little money and send her to the university, but they never got anything ahead and MT. Curchod, who was fine scholar, com menced teaching her the higher branch es, hoping they would still be able to send her away, but that time never came, and the father alone instructed her, borrowing from the university the books he was not able to buy. She was not only more proficient in her stud ies than the university students of her age, but pursued the study of Greek and other branches not then studied by young women. Susanna developed into woman of great beauty. Her fa- ther died when she was about twenty and she commenced teaching the viii lage children to support herself and mother.
 Charles Gibbon, then in his twenty second year, met her by chance, and fell in love at once; he wrote in his diary late in life that she was the most beautiful and most accomplished young woman he had ever known. They were engaged for several years, but Gibbon was rich, just out from OK ford University, and of good family, and he broke the engagement, fearing an alliance with a poor girl, of humble birth, and foreigner, would hold him back in his literary career. By chance, James Necker, the wealthy young bank CT. of Paris. met Susanna and married her. Mime. Necker's brilliancy, schol- arship, and genius soon made her one of the first literary critics of France, and she enjoyed the sweet revenge of introducing young Gibbon to many great literary men of Europe whom he could not meet on an equality, but who considered it an honor to know Mime. Necker. Gibbon, years afterward, sent her the manuscript of his great history, and she reviewed it with an able and fearless pen.
 But the story does rot end here-the Neckers had one child, daughter, who was destined to be the most brilliant woman of any age or any nation. Of course the man who was rich enough to save France from bankruptcy by Ioaning the government some millions of francs would send his daughter to the best school and greatest teachers of that day. No, the mother, with the assistance of a tutor in few branches, was the daughters only teacher. For years, during those busy days of her life, it was almost a daily occurrence for some great parsonage to have a long wait in the reception room, while Mime. Necker was in the school room with her child. But it was time we'll spent-she saw that daughter rise to stand at the head of the most cultured and learned women of France; the most brilliant conYersationalist the world has ever known; a power in politics; a master in literature-Mme. DeStael.
 While waiting for the educational advantages which are slowly, but surely coming, do not neglect the work you can and must do at home if you would give your child symmetrical and per feet education. There are exceptions, but the ideal pen and women are reared in homes where the parents are honest, earnest and self-saCriticing.