Page:The Higher Education of Women.djvu/72

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68
THINGS AS THEY ARE.

must be extraordinarily silly or self-indulgent? More than any other class, at the same age, they are exempted from direction and control—liberally gifted with the kind of freedom enjoyed by the denizens of a village pound. Within their prescribed sphere, they may wander at will, and if they 'there small scope for action see,' it is explained to them that they must not 'for this give room to discontent;' nor let their time 'be spent in idly dreaming' how they might be

'More free
From outward hindrance or impediment.
For presently this hindrance thou shalt find
That without which all goodness were a task
So slight, that virtue never could grow strong.'

In reply to such admonitions they are