By Helen Dawes Brown
TALKS TO FRESHMAN GIRLS.
HOW PHŒBE FOUND HERSELF. With frontispiece.
ORPHANS.
MR. TUCKERMAN’S NIECES. Illustrated.
A BOOK OF LITTLE BOYS. Illustrated.
THE PETRIE ESTATE. Also in paper binding.
TWO COLLEGE GIRLS.
LITTLE MISS PHŒBE GAY. Illustrated.
HER SIXTEENTH YEAR. A Sequel to “Little Miss Phœbe Gay.” |
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Boston and New York
TALKS TO
FRESHMAN GIRLS
BY
HELEN DAWES BROWN
Author of “Two College Girls”
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1914
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY HELEN DAWES BROWN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published September 1914
No man could have written this sentencewith more authority than FrancisBacon, for no man ever loved Studiesbetter. In his youth he had declaredpassionately that he took all knowledgefor his province, and it was his lifelongteaching that “the sovereigntyof man lieth hid in knowledge.”
“Studies serve for delight, for ornament,and for ability.” I imagineBacon writing these words with fervor,out of his own happy experience. At2the age of thirty-five, he could determinewhat Studies had been worth tohim. They had been his delight, hisornament, and the means to his usefulness.
For “delight” he wrote in his firstedition “pastimes,” as he wrote “ornaments”and “abilities,” then wiselychanged his sentence. His beautifulold word “delight” means, I take it,a heightened pleasure, a pleasuretouched with imagination, full of suggestionand invitation.
I have a far glimpse of its meaningwhen I hear a young person say thatshe is going to college “to have agood time”; a good time for the restof her life is what, I believe, Studieswill secure to her. You are so young,I may speak to you of age. There is a3new old age for women, with enlightenedcare of health and increasing intellectualinterests. As for you freshmen,I have a vision of your erect forms andof your bright faces at seventy-five,—ofyour health and your gayety andyour wisdom, you charming