But the excellent and pottering father proved to be no disciple of the new education.Greece was his theme and he got his questions, and his answers too, from the ancient school history in his hand.
The lesson went on:
"Who was Alcibiades?
"A Greek."
"Yes.When did he flourish?"
"I can't think."
"Can't think? What was he noted for?"
"I don't remember."
"Don't remember? I don't believe you studied this.""Yes, I did."
"Well, take it now, and study it hard, and then I'll hear you again."The young girl, who is put to shame by this open persecution, begins to study, while the peevish and small tyrant, her pa, is nagging her with such soothing remarks as, "I thought you'd have more respect for your pride;" "Why don't you try to come up to the expectations of your teacher?" By and by the student thinks she has "got it," and the public exposition begins again.The date at which Alcibiades "flourished" was ascertained, but what he was "noted for" got hopelessly mixed with what Thernistocles was "noted for." The momentary impression that the battle of Marathon was fought by Salamis was soon dissipated, and the questions continued.
"What did Pericles do to the Greeks?"
"I don't know."
"Elevated 'em, did n't he? Did n't he elevate Pem?""Yes, sir."
"Always remember that; you want to fix your mind on leading things.
Remember that Pericles elevated the Greeks.Who was Pericles?
"He was a"--
"Was he a philosopher?"
"Yes, sir."
"No, he was n't.Socrates was a philosopher.When did he flourish?
And so on, and so on.
O my charming young countrywomen, let us never forget that Pericles elevated the Greeks; and that he did it by cultivating the national genius, the national spirit, by stimulating art and oratory and the pursuit of learning, and infusing into all society a higher intellectual and social life! Pa was this day sailing through seas and by shores that had witnessed some of the most stirring and romantic events in the early history of our continent.He might have had the eager attention of his bright daughter if he had unfolded these things to her in the midst of this most living landscape, and given her an "object lesson" that she would not have forgotten all her days, instead of this pottering over names and dates that were as dry and meaningless to him as they were uninteresting to his daughter.At least, O Pa, Educator of Youth, if you are insensible to the beauty of these summer isles and indifferent to their history, and your soul is wedded to ancient learning, why do you not teach your family to go to sleep when they go to bed, as the classic Greeks used to?
Before the travelers reached Shediac, they had leisure to ruminate upon the education of American girls in the schools set apart for them, and to conjecture how much they are taught of the geography and history of America, or of its social and literary growth; and whether, when they travel on a summer tour like this, these coasts have any historical light upon them, or gain any interest from the daring and chivalric adventurers who played their parts here so long ago.We did not hear pa ask when Madame de la Tour "flourished,"though "flourish" that determined woman did, in Boston as well as in the French provinces.In the present woman revival, may we not hope that the heroic women of our colonial history will have the prominence that is their right, and that woman's achievements will assume their proper place in affairs? When women write history, some of our popular men heroes will, we trust, be made to acknowledge the female sources of their wisdom and their courage.But at present women do not much affect history, and they are more indifferent to the careers of the noted of their own sex than men are.
We expected to approach Shediac with a great deal of interest.It had been, when we started, one of the most prominent points in our projected tour.It was the pivot upon which, so to speak, we expected to swing around the Provinces.Upon the map it was so attractive, that we once resolved to go no farther than there.It once seemed to us that, if we ever reached it, we should be contented to abide there, in a place so remote, in a port so picturesque and foreign.But returning from the real east, our late interest in Shediac seemed unaccountable to us.Firmly resolved as I was to note our entrance into the harbor, I could not keep the place in mind; and while we were in our state-room and before we knew it, the steamboat Jay at the wharf.Shediac appeared to be nothing but a wharf with a railway train on it, and a few shanty buildings, a part of them devoted to the sale of whiskey and to cheap lodgings.This landing, however, is called Point du Chene, and the village of Shediac is two or three miles distant from it; we had a pleasant glimpse of it from the car windows, and saw nothing in its situation to hinder its growth.The country about it is perfectly level, and stripped of its forests.At Painsec Junction we waited for the train from Halifax, and immediately found ourselves in the whirl of intercolonial travel.
Why people should travel here, or why they should be excited about it, we could not see; we could not overcome a feeling of the unreality of the whole thing; but yet we humbly knew that we had no right to be otherwise than awed by the extraordinary intercolonial railway enterprise and by the new life which it is infusing into the Provinces.We are free to say, however, that nothing can be less interesting than the line of this road until it strikes the Kennebeckasis River, when the traveler will be called upon to admire the Sussex Valley and a very fair farming region, which he would like to praise if it were not for exciting the jealousy of the "Garden of Nova Scotia." The whole land is in fact a garden, but differing somewhat from the Isle of Wight.