"I don't think it very bad either to read to 'kill time.' Though if
you go on having a family, you won't have any time to kill in a very
little while. But do read on when you can, otherwise you may be shut
in, first you know, to too small a world, and a mother needs to draw
her own nourishment from _all_ the world, past and present."




DUTY TO ONESELF


"Yes, I should say you were distinctly precocious, and that you are
almost certainly suffering from the effects of that early brilliancy.
But the degree was not so great as to permanently injure you,
especially if you see what is the matter, and guard against repeating
the mistakes of your parents. I mean that you can now treat your own
body and mind and nerves as you wish they had treated them. Pretend
that you are your own little child, and deal with yourself tenderly
and gently, making allowances for the early strain to which you were
subjected. So few of us American women, with our alert minds, and our
Puritanic consciences, have the good sense and self-control to refrain
from driving ourselves; and if, as often happens, we have formed
the bad habit early in life, reform is truly difficult, but not
impossible. We can get the good of our disability by conscientiously
driving home the principle that in order to 'love others as ourselves'
we must learn to _love ourselves as we love others_. We have literally
no right to be unreasonably exacting toward ourselves,--but perhaps I
am taking too much upon myself by preaching outside the realm of child