This too is from 800 years of Women's Letters, which was found, by the way, in the front tier of books on the bottom (puppy accessible) shelf in the bedroom. The only book that the puppy has eaten so far is Rick Bass's memoir, Colter, The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had, which reminds me of Christmas, when the dogs without fail unwrap just their own presents. Anyway, from 800 years,this is Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writing to her son in 1753:
You have given me a great deal of satisfaction by your account of your eldest daughter. I am particularly pleased that she is a good arithmetician... the knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and brutes... Learning, if she has a real taste for it, will not only make her contented, but happy in it. No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting... To render this amusement complete, she should be permitted to learn the languages. I have heard it lamented that boys lose so many years in the mere learning of words: this is no objection to a girl; she cannot advance herself in any profession,and has therefor more hours to spare. There are two cautions to be given on this subject: first, not to think herself learned, when she can read Latin, or even Greek. Languages are more properly to be called vehicles of learning than learning itself, as may be observed in many schoolmasters, who, though perhaps critics in grammar, are the most ignorant fellows on earth.