Part 4 (1/2)

Imitation, they say, is the sincerest flattery; and when a si an illness of Mr Woods, when no layman was available, I was first asked to read a serive soinal sermon was on ”Enoch and Columbus,” and my second on ”Content, discontent, and uncontent” I suppose I have preached more than a hundred times, in my life, mostly in the Wakefield Street pulpit; but in Melbourne and Sydney I am always asked for help; and when I went to America in 1893-4 I was offered seven pulpits--one in Toronto, Canada, and six in the United States The preparation of my sermons--for, after the first one I delivered, they were always original--has always been a joy and delight to me, for I prefer that my subjects as well as their treatment shall be as humanly helpful as it is possible to make them

In Sydney particularly I have preached to fine audiences On one occasion I ree hall, as the Unitarian Church could not have held the congregation It was during the ca and I conducted in Sydney--in 1900, and we had spent the day--a delightful one--with the present Sir George and Lady Reid at their beautiful ho service at Sydney I spoke on the advantages of international peace, and illustrated uments, drawn froress I seized the opportunity affordedsome plain home truths on the matter I was afterwards referred to by The Sydney Bulletin as ”the gallant little old lady who had er than all the Sydney ministers had in their coinal parable which pleased my friends so much that I include it in the account of my life's work ”And it came to pass after the five days of Creation which were periods of unknown length of time that God took the soul, the naked soul, hich He was to endow the highest of his creatures--into Eden to look with him on the hich He had accomplished And the Soul could see, could hear, could understand, though there were neither eyes, nor ears, nor li And God said, 'Soul, thou shalt have a body as these creatures, that thou seest around thee have

Thou art to be king, and rule over them all Thy mission is to subdue the earth, and make it fruitful and more beautiful than it is even now, in thus its dawn Which of all these living creatures wouldst thou resemble?' And the Soul looked, and the Soul listened, and the Soul understood The beauty of the birds first attracted hi care of their young called forth a response in the Prophetic Soul But the sweet singers could not subdue the earth--nay, even the strongest voice could not Then the Soul gazed on the lion in his strength; on the deer in his beauty He saw the large-eyed bull with the cow by his side, licking her calf The stately horse, the huge elephant, the ungainly camel--could any of these subdue the earth? He looked down, and they made it shake with their heavy tread, but the Soul knew that the earth could not be subdued by the a tree--the fes, and the beasts four legs planted on the ground, the monkeys had arathered nuts and cracked the the shells away--the ers The Soul saw also the larger ape with its alhed the Soul, 'they are not beautiful like the other creatures, neither are they so strong as rasp with, are what I need to subdue the earth, for they will be the servants who can best obey aze upward, and this is the body that I choose' And God said, 'Soul, thou hast chosen well, Thou shalt be larger and stronger than these creatures thou seest thou shalt stand upright, and look upward and onward And the Soul can create beauty for itself, when it shi+nes through the body' And it was so, and Adaave names to all other creatures”

In the seventies the old education system, or want of system, was broken up, and a complete department of public instruction was constructed Mr J A Hartley, head e, was placed at the head of it, and a vigorous policy was adopted When the Misses Davenport Hill came out to visit aunt and cousins, I visited with them and Miss Clark the Grote Street Model School, and I was delighted with the new administration I hoped that the instruction of the children of the people would attract the poor gentlewoovernesses in families or in schools; but ister had been most earnest in its desire for a better system of public education The late Mr John Howard Clark, its then editor, wanted soirls, and he applied toarticles on the subject, and another on the ”Ladder of Learning” from the elementary school to the university, as exemplified in my native country where ambitious lads cultivated literature on a little oatmeal For an Adelaide University was in the air, and took for to the benefactions of Capt (afterwards Sir Walter Watson) Hughes, and Mr (afterwards Sir Thomas) Elder But the opposition to Mr Hartley, which set in soon after his appointment, and his supposed drastic methods and autocratic attitude, continued I did not knew Mr

Hartley personally, but I knew he had been an admirable head teacher, and the most valuable member of the Education Board which preceded the revolution I knew, too, that the old school teachers were far inferior to ere needed for the neork, and that you cannot s A letter which I wrote to Mr Hartley, saying that I desired to help him in any way in my power, led to a friendshi+p which lasted till his lamented death in 1896 I fancied at the tiood, but I think now that the opposition had spent its force before I put in my oar by some letters to the press South Australians became afterwards appreciative of the work done by Mr Hartley, and proud of the good position this State took inthe sister States under the Southern Cross

It was due to Mrs Webster's second visit to Adelaide to exchange with Mr Woods that I made the acquaintance of Mr and Mrs E Barr Smith

They went to the church and were shown intothe eloquent preacher to Torrens Park to dine there

I discovered that they had long wanted to knowto the office to see Mr S Mr Elder instead

He pressed on h, who had cohter Mr Barr Smith ca Miss Spence she should go and call on the Blacks” ”To the acquaintance of Miss Spence About the year 1899 Miss Spence will be dropping in on the Blacks” What a house Torrens Park was for books There was no other customer of the book shops equal to the Torrens Park family Rich men and women often buy books for the prices; but the Barr Siving them where they would be appreciated On my literary side Mrs Barr Smith, a keen critic herself, fitted in with me admirably, and what I owed to her in the way of books for about 10 years cannot be put on paper, and in hted Other friendshi+ps, both literary and personal, were formed in the decade which started the elehes professor of English literature was the Rev John Davidson of Chalh Miller, the self-taught ecologist and journalist

On the day of the inauguration of the University the Davidsons asked Miss Clark and o with them, and there I met Miss Catherine Mackay (now Mrs Fred Martin), frohter of a wealthy squatter of the south-east, but when I found she was a litterateur trying toout a serial tale, ”Bohe occasional articles, I drew to her at once So long as the serial tale lasted she could hold her own; but no one canat occasional articles in Australia, and she became a clerk in the Education Office, but still cultivated literature in her leisure hours She has published two novels--”An Australian Girl” and ”The Silent Sea”--which so good a judge as F W H Myers pronounced to be on the highest level ever reached in Australian fiction, and in that opinion I heartily concur I take a very humble second place beside her, but in the seventies I wrote ”Gathered In,” which I believed to be my best novel--the novel into which I put the most of myself, the only novel I wrote with tears of emotion Mrs Oliphant says that Jeanie Deans is more real to her than any of her own creations, and probably it is the same with me, except for this one work From an old diary of the fifties, when my first novels ritten I take this extract:--”Queer that I who have such a distinct idea of what I approve in flesh-and-blood men should only achieve in pen and ink a set of iloom, instead of sublime depth as I intended Men novelists' women are as impossible creations as my men, but there is this difference--their productions satisfy them, mine fail to satisfy me” But in my last novel--still unpublished--felt quite satisfied that I had at last achieved my ambition to create characters that stood out distinctly and real Miss Clark took the MS to England, but she could not get either Bentley or Smith Elder, or Macmillan to accept it

On the death of Mr John Howard Clark, which took place at this tiister, and I becaister and The Observer He desired to keep up and if possible improve the literary side of the papers, and felt that the loss of Mr Clark ivearticles were to be written at my own risk If they suited the policy of the paper they would be accepted, otherwise not What a glorious opening for my ambition and for my literary proclivities came to me in July, 1878, when I was inarticles were rejected, but not one literary or social article Generally these last appeared in both daily and weekly papers I recollect the second original social article I wrote was on ”Equality as an influence on society and ested by Matthew Arnold Thewith Charles Clark, wrote to Mr

Finlayson froht fire aanybody, I read this delightful article in yesterday's Register When we coain to Adelaide, and we collect a few choice spirits, be sure to invite the writer of this article to join us” I felt as if the round woot at last into the round hole which fitted her; and in eon holes, andchair at the lo, I had the knowledge that she was interested in all I did I generally read the MS to her before it went to the office What is more remarkable, perhaps, is that the excellentof mine that was in the papers and read it A series of papers called ”Some Social Aspects of Early Colonial Life” I contributed under the pseudonym of ”A Colonist of 1839” From 1878 till 1893, when I went round the world via America, I held the position of outside contributor on the oldest newspaper in the State, and for these 14 years I had great latitude My friend Dr Garran, then editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, accepted reviews and articles from me Sometimes I reviewed the same books for both, but I wrote the articles differently, and made different quotations, so that I scarcely think any one could detect the saenerally they were different books and different subjects, which I treated I tried The Australasian with a short story, ”Afloat and Ashore,” and with a social article on ”Wealth, Waste, and Want” I contributed to The Melbourne Review, and later to The Victorian Reviehich began by paying well, but filtered out gradually I found journalis, and I delighted in the breadth of the canvas on which I could draw my sketches of books and of life I believe that my work on newspapers and reviews is more characteristic of me, and intrinsically better work than what I have done in fiction; but when I began to wield the pen, the novel was the line of least resistance When I was introduced in 1894 to Mrs Croly, the oldest woman journalist in the United States, as an Australian journalist, I found that her work, though good enough, was essentially woman's work, dress, fashi+ons, functions, with educational and social outlooks froht show the bias of sex, but it dealt with the larger questions which were common to humanity; and when I recall the causes which I furthered, and which in sonify the office of the anonye not only the kindness of friends who put soe-ave me such a free hand in the treatment of books, of men, and of public questions

CHAPTER XIII

MY WORK FOR EDUCATION

I was the first woman appointed on a Board of Advice under the Education Depart The powers of the board were limited to an expenditure of 5 pounds for repairs without applying to the depart the parents of children who had failed to attend the prescribed number of days, as well as those who pleaded poverty as an excuse for the non-payment of fees I always felt that the school fees were a heavy burden on the poor, and rejoiced accordingly when free education was introduced into South Australia This was the second State to adopt this great refor it by a few years I objected to the payround I felt they bore heavily on the innocent children theh the notion of caste which was created in the minds of those who paid fees to the detriain, education that is compulsory should be free

Other women have since become members of School Boards, but I was the pioneer of that branch of public work for woe that A for for ible to sit on School Boards In e In this present year of 1910 Mrs Ella, Flagg Young, at the age of 65, has been elected by the Chigago Board, Director of the Education of that great city of over two millions of inhabitants at a salary of 2,000 pounds a year, with a e e in South Australia are coo, which is said by Foster Fraser to cashi+er reat power

It is characteristic of hly what I undertake to do at all, and when, on one occasion I had not received the usual su, I complained of the omission to the Chairman ”I do not want,” I said, ”to be a o to all thethat ould say of you, Miss Spence, that you are ornamental!” It was half a minute before he discovered that he had put his disclaimer in rather a different form frohter which followed Another aentle the parents who had pleaded for exerown-up daughter who had that entle the hter out of a place?” was the first question he put to the woes, and be able to help you pay the fees” ”Oh!” came the unexpected reply, ”she had to leave old Mrs

---- thisin the house with her!” Knowing her interlocutor only as the man in authority, the unfortunate wo, and I was probably the only member of the trio who appreciated the situation I am sure many people ere poorer than this nity of such cross-questioning by the school visitors and the board--an unfortunate necessity of the system, which disappeared with the abolition of school fees

It had been suggested by the Minister of Education of that period that the children attending the State schools should be instructed in the duties of citizenshi+p, and that they should be taught so of the laws under which they lived, and I was commissioned to write a short and pithy stateent children in the fourth class; 11 or 12--it was to lead froht include the eleht make use of familiar illustrations fro It was not very easy to satisfy myself and Mr Hartley--as a severe critic--but when the book of 120 pages was completed he was satisfied

A preface I wrote for the second edition--the first 5,000 copies being insufficient for the requireive so this little book, I have aimed less at symmetrical perfection than at siement as would lead from the known to the unknown, by which the older children in our public schools ht learn not only the actual facts about the laws they live under, but also soave me an opportunity to reply to my critics that ”political economy, trades unions, insurance companies, and newspapers” were outside the scope of the lae live under But I thought that in a new State where the optional duties of the Govern citizen to understand econoreater part of life, and morality, not only the bond of social union, but the main source of individual happiness, I took the ethical part of the subject first, and tried to explain that education was of no value unless it was used for good purposes As without soht to show that national and individual wealth depends on the security that is given by law, and on the industry and the thrift which that security encourages Land tenure is of the first importance in colonial prosperity, and consideration of the land revenue and the limitations as to its expenditure led me to the necessity for taxation and the variousit

Taxation led me to the pohich imposes, collects, and expends it

This involved a consideration of those representative institutions which make the Government at once the master and the servant of the people Under this Government our persons and our prosperity are protected by a system of criminal, civil, and insolvent law--each considered in its place Although not absolutely included in the lae live under, I considered that providence, and its various outlets in banks, savings banks, joint stock companies, friendly societies, and trades unions, were matters too important to be left unnoticed; and also those influences which shape character quite as much as statute laws--public opinion, the newspaper, and amusements As the use of my little book was restricted solely to school hours, ed by its teaching was dooo, when ”The Laws We Live Under” was first published, are thethem are to be found some at least worthy and true citizens, e to on to a star” Last year an enthusiastic young Swedish teacher and journalist was so taken with this South Australian little handbook of civics that he urged onwoe, the relations of the States to the Coislation which is in h those in authority were sympathetic no steps have been taken for its reproduction Identified as I had been for so many years with elementary education in South Australia, my mind ell prepared to applaud the her education of poorer children of both sexes by the foundation of bursaries and scholarshi+ps, and the opening up of the avenues of learning to worees

Victoria was the first to take this step, and all over the Commonwealth the example has been followed I am, however, soenerally progressive in their ideas They have won solad of, but which was quite out of reach All opportunities ought to be considered as opportunities for service As arded the possession of honours and wealth as dearded special knowledge and special culture asthe culture of all It is said to be huifts are used only for egoistic ends; but the co demands that altruistic ideas should also be cultivated We see that in China an aristocracy of letters--for it is through passing difficult exa classes are appointed--is no protection to the poor and ignorant froradation It is true that the classics in China are very old, but so are the literatures of Greece and Rorees are founded; and it ought to be impressed upon all seekers after acadee is not the be-all and end-all of their pursuits In our deh there are son on colonists uished, these are not hereditary, so that an aristocracy is not hereditary There may be an upper class, based on landed estate or one on business success, or one on learning, but all tend to become conservative as conservatism is understood in Australia Safety is her But all the openings to higher education offered in high school and university do not tees as soon as the law lets thee share of the sacrifice which young Scotch lads and even Aher education is still a sort of preserve of the well-to-do, and when one thinks of how greatly this is valued it seems a pity that it is not open to the talents, to the industry, to the enthusias of both sexes But one exception I rees and professions from the preventible evils of the world, and that is in the profession that is the longest and the --the medical profession The women doctors whom I have met in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney have a keen sense of their responsibility to the less fortunate That probably is because medicine as now understood and practised is the most ineering, which is also modern

It takes us into the hoyman, and it offers remedies and palliatives as well as advice