...Austen quotes only the lines celebrating the joy of instructing an innocent youth ("Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, / To teach the young idea how to shoot"), ironic verse in view of the fact that Catherine hardly seems to have received a solid education....

...without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous. — CONFUCIUS Delightful task! To rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot. — JAMES THOMSON In a child's lunchbox, a mother's thoughts. — JAPANESE PROVERB I am beginning...