C>- 32 Ellen Key teacher at fourteen, through whom she grew familiar with these languages in her childhood. Grammar and arithmetic were stumbling- blocks to her. The mother, who was Ellen's teacher in these branches during the first years, was not acquainted with the newer ideas of pedagogy and child psychology, and therefore could not understand that a child might find one subject hard and another easy. Conse- quently she tried with severe means to cure what she considered nothing but obstinacy a method of education which grounded Ellen's abhorrence of every kind of forcible upbringing. She learned her lessons at the last moment, and she generally knew them well, when she understood them at all. But, she, herself, declares that she was quite devoid of ambition, and that no prospect of praise could induce her to leave an interesting book for the sake of studying her lessons. And she thinks that her brain, with a true instinct for self-preservation, forgot all that did not interest her. Although she has later filled the gaps in her knowledge, she considers herself ignorant in everything, which does not, in one way or another, refer to human life—that is, history, literature, and sociology. In languages the correct phrases and shade of expression come