‘December 12, 1878.
‘Dear Lucy,—I was glad to hear you thought you could be of use in the Board School. Could you not teach the boys some mathematics? If you could, I will send you an amusing book about Euclid.
‘I have asked Miss Gore to send you a copy of what I wrote to the Bishop. I think he should have got his secretary just to send me a line. I did not do it in a perky spirit, but I felt bound to protest, and having protested, I thought I should rather say to him, why. Many women do leave undone the things they ought to do, because they shrink from coming forward. I have done so myself. If he would preach that we should do what we ought in God’s sight, and never trouble our heads about what people say, when our conscience speaks, it would be better. Perhaps he will think twice before he again quotes that, and if so, I shall be satisfied. I would not care, if he were not so good and clever that people listen to what he says. He is, too, not conventional, yet he says what may promote a wrong kind of conventionality. I have since seen such a nice bit of a sermon about the idle lives that women lead; so if you do see him, I should like you to ask him about this too.
‘You must let me know when you really get to work as manager.’
To Miss Laurie, after reading Pasteur’s Life:—
‘1902.
‘I want to have a general conference about organising our Science work better; we are using razors for stone-cutting. I should like a great deal of the correcting taken from the “Professoriate,” and young specialists entrusted with work under superintendence. Talk with M. Reid and A. Johnson. We ought to let our superior minds “expatiate,” and let me have a few notes, as I can’t talk much now. We might bring up a body of inspirers as well as workers. Pasteur’s life has specially excited me to ask what more we could do. The teachers ought to read more of the lives of discoverers, e.g. Lodge (though that is too slight, History of Matter, etc. etc.).
‘If there are disadvantages in the London changes, at least I hope we shall get more liberty; let us try to find “a soul of goodness in things evil.”
‘What a beautiful character is Pasteur’s. I find it quite a Sunday book.’