of you, the richest, the most elevated, and the most highly favored now, can be sure that this change may never take place? We live in a world whose characteristic may be said, at all times, to be mutability; and in this our day the alternations seem to be more than usually appalling.

When it is expected that one individual should teach well all the accomplishments which young ladies are now required to possess, and to give to their minds all needful cultivation, disappointment will generally ensue. In order to make private education what it ought to be, one method alone seems to me to promise success. This is, to engage able masters for such accomplishments as you may wish your daughters to possess, and leave the time and the thoughts of your governess at liberty to attend to the regulation of their tempers, minds, and manners. Believe me, she will have no sinecure, if she do no more than this. If she do this well, you and your children will owe her everlasting gratitude. And the probability is, that she will do this well, if you are only commonly fortunate in your selection; for, whereas it is extremely difficult to meet with the phoenix generally described, the "rara avis" that unites all excellencies,-it is not hard to find many amiable women, perfectly qualified to fulfil all reasonable expectations.

Situated as I have been, I have had numberless applications from ladies wanting governesses, and from young persons wanting situations. Music has ever been the first thing specified; and for want of the requisite knowlege of this science, I have been unable to assist, in the smallest degree, many who would have been highly valuable in any family.

I know it will be objected, that my plan would involve too great an expense for large families, where the means were not very ample. It may be so; for are you not, in all purchases, obliged to give the best prices for the best things? Why seek to economise most in what is of the most vital moment to your own happiness, and that of your family?

I set out by observing, that as long as there are children to educate, there must be both public and private education; and this truism will be readily granted. If there are many who would not, "on any consideration," send their children from home, there are many also who would not, "on any consideration," that they should be without the benefits of school. So the matter has stood thus far, and so, I apprehend, it will continue to stand. Much has been written against ladies' schools, and nothing, as far as I am aware, has been said in reply to such accusations; because, in spite of all invective, they continue to florish. This is well for the owners, as far as pecuniary emolument goes; but it is not well to feel, as many mothers, I am persuaded, do feel, who are

nevertheless obliged to send their daughters to school, many doubts and scruples on the momentous subject. I have said, that it is now above thirty years since I began to keep a school. What will you give me to tell you "all the secrets of the prison-house?" Give me only your unprejudiced attention, and you shall have them all for nothing.

It is said, that, strong as personal resemblances sometimes appear, there can never be found two people exactly alike. If this observation be correct, as applied to the "outward man," it is equally just, with reference to the formation of the human mind; and thence, as I imagine, the curious and beautiful variety of its workings in all around us. Some parents say to their children, "If you are so extremely troublesome and disobedient, I will send you to school." Others, whom I have known, "If you take great pains, and improve yourself at home, you shall have the indulgence of going to school." My own excellent father and mother belonged to the last-mentioned class. As a little child, the happiest of the happy! I was told, that I must be very good at home, because my father would not be able to afford the expense of sending me to school. As I grew older, I was informed, that the indulgence, which had been accorded to my sisters, would be extended to me; and the feelings of gratitude which this intimation imparted I recollect to this moment. To school, accordingly, I went. I knew that it was not increase of happiness, or pleasure, that I was to expect, but increased opportunities of improve

On the whole, I found all things better than I had anticipated; and the favorable impression made on my mind at that time respecting schools, has continued through life. In these feelings and opinions there are many of my readers who will participate; for it is one of the strongest evidences in favor of schools, that all that have been educated in them, whether male or female, remember with peculiar pleasure and satisfaction, provided their own conduct was creditable therein, the years so employed. I have had occasion to remark, that gentlemen are usually favorers of school education; and mothers, also, for the most part, who can judge of it from their own experience. For the information. of those who cannot form an opinion on these premises, let us inquire a little into the probable advantages of an establishment solely and entirely dedicated to education. And here, let my readers and myself quite understand each other, before we proceed further.

By education I do not at all understand the word as I hear it very frequently used; namely, the medium for obtaining engaging manners and showy accomplishments; but as that which is to

form such habits, principles, and powers of the mind, as shall make the object of it respectable in life, and happy in eternity.

I have before said, that I conceive order and regularity to be the leading advantages in a good school; and I do not believe it possible that in any private family these can be obtained in the same degree, and with so little hardship to the pupil, as at school. The reasons appear to me to be so obvious, that I should think it a waste of time to enlarge on them.

The advantage next in order, perhaps, is the pleasure of having many companions in our employments. How much this "physics labor," how greatly it stimulates exertion,-all will immediately agree, that have felt its salutary influence. The very cleverest are improved by it; the indolent will scarcely work without it, and the dullest feel its beneficial influence. In a class of sisters, the difference of years, which is an unavoidable evil, and the disparity of abilities, which is a very probable one, must always prevent fair competition. But in a school, where there is a sufficient number' for selection, you can always obtain an equality of talent, adequate to your purpose. Amongst members of the same family, emulation may degenerate (alas! how often it does degenerate) into envy, that worst viper of the human heart,—that sad destroyer of sisterly affection and confidence. In a well-regulated school there is little fear of it.

The benefit of classes is, I think, now universally acknowleged; and you cannot work advantageously in this way, as I have before remarked, unless the members of them be nearly equal in power. It is true that, when you have done all you can, some will stand very much like fixtures, at the bottom of the tree, in spite of all your efforts to lift them to the branches; yet, even here, they cannot help catching some of the fruit that is shaken down by their more fortunate friends who have gained the top. When the book has failed to impress the memory, the continued repetition of its contents has acted like oral teaching, which I have ever found the most attractive to young children, and the easiest of comprehension to weak intellects.

Some affectionate mothers will here interrupt me to say, "Yes; I am aware that young persons have many advantages in acquiring learning at schools; but I am so much afraid of their morals; I have heard so many sad accounts on this head." And so have I; and if it were possible to trace them to their source, I should like to know whence they have all originated.

I was shown, several years ago, an extract in some review or

'I hold the predilection in favor of very few a most mistaken notion.

magazine (I cannot at all recollect the work which contained it), that might have been placed at the head of all scurrilous attacks on schools. The author, I believe, was a clergyman. I thought so little of its importance at the time, that I scarcely paid any attention to it; but I have so often heard expressed, or read, similar sentiments since, although clothed in less offensive language, that I am sorry I cannot recollect more of it than its general tenor. The writer considered female establishments as the hot-beds of all the vices that were ever ascribed to poor weak woman; and, amongst other assertions equally to be reprobated, declared, in words that were too disagreeable to be forgotten, "that when a party of schoolgirls got together, they had amongst them as much double-entendre as so many men over the bottle." There was more candor than delicacy evinced in his telling us, so unnecessarily, how he and his friends employed themselves "over the bottle;" whilst it would have been more to the purpose to have informed us how he came by his knowlege, lest we should question its authenticity. Was he indebted to a most pure and elegantly-minded wife for the choice intelligence that enabled him to give us the simile? How otherwise could he obtain his valuable information? Which of my male readers does not envy him the possession of a companion with so delicate a mind! However, as I dare say we have all heard aspersions which have a shade of resemblance to this highlycolored picture, we will examine how far they are likely to be well founded.

Mrs. Barbauld has said, that "education begins in the cradle," and I am afraid that we cannot contradict the assertion. I say afraid, because, if it be so, the school-governess has no power of sowing the first seeds. On the contrary, she may have, as in truth she very commonly has, to root up the weeds, before there is room for her to plant any thing of value.

Hitherto, I have spoken of schools only in general terms; perhaps I shall be better understood, and I am sure that I shall be much more at home myself, if my good-humored readers will accompany me into the school-room that once was mine, where I will perform the part of cicerone in the best manner I am able.

There stands the chair, which I occupied from the moment that the young ladies were called into school in the morning, until I gave them my nightly benediction, the intervals of meals and exercise alone excepted. "What!" say some of my female readers, "are we to understand that you confined yourself the whole of the day with your pupils? Where I was at school, the governess merely superintended the teachers and masters, and came into school only occasionally." It may have been so; I have heard that this is the case in many establishments, and where the largest sums

are paid; but I know nothing of this, except from report; and I sat down to write from my own experience alone. I must, therefore, observe, that when I was a pupil, my governesses (they were sisters) dedicated their time in the manner I have mentioned; and I saw too many advantages in it to deviate from the plan.

The masters were first-rate. My female teachers, beside their own individual merit, were of respectable families; so that even during the short periods of my absence from the young ladies, they were always under the care of gentlewomen. No intercourse with servants was ever permitted. When their services were required, all necessary orders were given to them by myself and the teachers. In an establishment so regulated, I think all candid persons will readily agree that impurity of mind could not originate; and if it be not a stain imbibed there exclusively; if the mildew be not peculiar to the place; then it is manifest injustice to charge the school with it. Rectitude demands that we inquire how the first years of life were passed; and for these early years schools are rarely if ever responsible. However, with respect to the monstrous charge alluded to, I must declare in express terms, that it is utterly unwarranted, untenable, and false. In the course of all the years which I have mentioned, I have seldom had to deplore even the slightest departure from that pure delicacy of thought and expression which is woman's brightest and most beautiful ornament. In one case (I could not instance more than three or four, if I would), the evil was traced to a female servant who was unworthy of confidence; and in the other, to a female relative who shortly after separated from her husband. I shall be told, that one impure mind is enough to taint a whole family. To which I reply, that in argument, where persons argue for victory, not conviction, words are used without their import being rightly considered. A mind really tainted with indelicacy, which is what I understand by an impure mind, must be the most repulsive and disgusting thing in the world; but I never met with such a thing, either in a school, or out of it. And is it to be supposed, that the mind of a very young female can be in such a state, unless she come from the very dregs of society? If it may, I bless my happy want of imagination, in picturing to myself such an instance; and I bless still more the happy want of experience, which never permitted me, through a tolerably long life, to witness any thing so terrific. The worst I ever saw, or rather heard, were some expressions which might have escaped censure in a boy, but which ought,

For this very reason, not so dangerous as our first alarm might lead us to expect; for, surely, this very disgust would prove an antidote to the poison.