The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-10-13


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-
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 a moment before
you condemn your teachers for insisting
on making mathematics the test of your
scholarship. In the first place, it is good
for most of us to do what we don't very
much want to do. We are better for be-
irg compelled to exercise some self-de-
NAL. You and l are bound to meet OBJ
stacles of one sort or another ali 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 it cannot be put aside. In order
to get along creditably in this world
every one of us must have a 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 may not find
1t 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, it is shame for a woman 10
scream when she sees poor little mouse
scuttling as fast as it can out of the
closet, ur 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 boosted that she had never re-
strained an emotion in her life. IF any
thing goes wrong, l just go to pieces"
she said, land everybody has to fly
around and wait on me-" She seemed to
think this meritorius thing. In re-
atty, it was disgraceful. The one duty
beyond all others for you and me, Dor
othy, is to be equal to the occasion when
ever 1t 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 I
look upo2 mathematics very much as
the builder looks on the foundation of
the house. If you are planning to build
a beautiful mansion, with many rooms
and corridors, with a tower on the ton
and windows open wide to the sunshine.
you must first of all dig deeply into the
earth and see that your underpinnlng
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. 1t would be very one-sided
development that 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-
les for ballast; at the other give play to
imagination and then you will have a
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 fairy story immeti-
ately afterward as a reward. Whatever
else you omit, be sure you cultivate
your mind in the region OF poetry and
fancy.
A traveller was vending his way over
the mountains ct Kentucky, when he
came. at nighttali to cabin in lonely