Compliments, however, are
very cheap, and by no means signify success. I have always
regarded it as a better ambition to be a true woman than to
become a successful writer. To be the second would never
have seemed to me desirable, without also being the first.
In concluding, let me say to you, dear girls, for whom these
pages have been written, that if I have learned anything by
living, it is this,--that the meaning of life is education; not
through book-knowledge alone, sometimes entirely without it.
Education is growth, the development of our best possibilities
from within outward; and it cannot be carried on as it should be
except in a school, just such a school as we all find ourselves
in--this world of human beings by whom we are surrounded. The
beauty of belonging to this school is that we cannot learn
anything in it by ourselves alone, but for and with our
fellowpupils, the wide earth over. We can never expect promotion
here, except by taking our place among the lowest, and sharing
their difficulties until they are removed, and we all become
graduates together for a higher school.
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