Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 1.djvu/69

Rh "Heaven forbid that I should think so!" I interrupted at last.

"Well then, it must be that you think they are both weak and prone to err, and the slightest error, the merest shadow of polution [sic] will ruin the one, while the character of the other will be strengthened and embellished—his education properly finished by a little practical acquaintance with forbidden things. Such experience, to him, (to use a trite simile,) will be like the storm to the oak, which, though it may scatter the leaves, and snap the smaller branches, serves but to rivet the roots, and to harden and condence [sic] the fibres of the tree. You would have us encourage our sons to prove all things by their own experience, while our daughters must not even profit by the experience of others. Now I would have both so to benefit by the experience of others, and the precepts of a higher authority, that they should know beforehand to refuse the evil and choose the good, and require no experimental proofs to teach