Miss Brodie and John Stuart Mill

On Saturday afternoons an hour was spent on her Greek lessons, for she had insisted that Jenny and Sandy should teach her Greek at the same time as they learned it. "There is an old tradition for this practice," said Miss Brodie. "Many families in the olden days could afford to send but one child to school, whereupon that one scholar of the family imparted to the others in the evening what he had learned in the morning. I have long wanted to know the Greek language, and this scheme will also serve to impress your knowledge on your own minds. John Stuart Mill used to rise at dawn to learn Greek at the age of five, and what John Stuart Mill would do as an infant at dawn, I too can do on a Saturday afternoon in my prime." [86]

Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. HarperPerennial, 1999. ISBN: 0060931736.