Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-10-04

Alphabet, the Multiplication Table
 and the Ten Commandments.
 BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER. tCopyright. 1905, by Joseph B. Bowles.)
 don't blame you much, Dorothy, for your great dislike of mathematics. I have never particularly enjoyed study ing them for my own part, and l have always looked with respectful wonder and almost awe on other people who have professed to find them delightful.
 Yet, my dear, the girl next you in the class may approach this subject in a quite different mood from yours. She may fully enjoy the abstract and con- crete principles of the science of num- bers; may fairly revel in difficult prop ositions, and may regard the hour for algebra, trigonometry or whatever else it may be as the most exhilarating hour of the day. Not infrequently two sisters may be entirely in contrast when the question concerns this abstruse and, on the whole, formidable study; one may love it as much as the other loathes it. You need not expect to receive much help from the people at home when you are puzzling over diagrams, examples and problems in mathematics. Most of us, after our school days, remember enough of what we learned there to en- able us to foot up household accounts, and to see that we do not overrun our weekly or monthly income. But we do not retain much more.
 If we are thoughtless persons, we are apt to regret that we were compelled to spend lot of time over things we did not like when there were so many other things that would have given us great deal of pleasure.
 But. Dorothy, stop moment before you condemn your teachers for insisting on making mathematics the test of your scholarship. In the first place, 1t is good for most of us to do what we don't very much want to do. We are better for be- ing compelled to exercise some self-de- nial. You and are bound to meet ob- stacles of one sort or another all along the road of life. If we are towards, we shall shiver and shake and turn away and look for some little by-path by which we may avoid the issue. If, on the contrary, we are brave we shall go bold ly up to the thing in our path, and see whether 1t cannot be put aside In order to get along creditably in this world, every one of us must have good supply of moral courage and real force of char acter. These tasks of the schoolroom are chiefly valuable because in them there is hidden the element which turns the raw recruit into a soldier, the ele- ment called drill. You get an enormous amount of drill for your mind when you study mathematics. You may0not find it agreeable, but that does not matter. The fruit will be reaped later on.
 
 You need not laugh at me, Dorothy, when tell you that girl who has been thoroughly trained and disciplined by struggles with mathematics, that for her mean conquest, will bear herself much more finely than one who has spent her time dawdling over lessons that never taxed her powers. For in- stance, 1t is a shame for a woman to scream when she sees poor little mouse scuttling as fast as 1t can out of the closet, or to go into fits when a bat or a spider or some other uncanny creature crosses her field of vision. Women who do this are women who have never had any practical drill in self-control. You may not know it, but there is the great est peril to women in not being able to keep good grip of themselves.
 once met lady approaching middle age, who boasted that she had never re- strained an emotion in her life. If any thing goes wrong. just go to pieces" she said, "and everybody has to fly around and wait on me" She seemed to think this a meritorius thing. In re- ality, it was disgraceful. The one duty beyond all others for you and me, Dor othy, is to be equal to the occasion when ever it comes, and to rule our own spirit. How are we ever going to rule anybody else if we do not rule ourselves?
 
 Having said this, let me add that look upon mathematics very much as the builder looks on the foundation of he house. If you are planning to build a beautiful mansion, with many rooms and corridors, with tower on the top and windows open wide to the sunshine, you must first of all dig deeply into the earth and see that your underpinning will be safe and your foundation stable.
 The whole of education is built on the alphabet, the multiplication table and the Ten Commandments. On these you may rear whatever beautiful edifice you please. It would be a very one-sided development that a girl would have who knew nothing except mathematics. Once in awhile this has been shown in the case of some mathematical prodigy who has performed astonishing feats with figures and has done nothing else. At one end of the scale place mathemat- ics for ballast; at the other give play 10 imagination and then you will have perfectly balanced character. Do not make the mistake of thinking that there Is no virtue outside the ledger. Every child who solves a difficult problem should be told a fairy story fmmedi- stely afterward as a reward. Whatever else you omit. De sure you cultivate your mind in the region of poetry and fancy.