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its victims. Its cold breath may chill the more ardent aspirations of the mind, and strip off many of the mere blossoms of outward accomplishment, but it as often leaves behind the richer fruits of virtue and true refinement of soul. As, therefore, gentleness of manner and disposition is indispensable in the governess to educe kindred qualities in the pupil, a young lady whose birth has given her an opportunity of mixing with the aristocracy, has been under a good system of training for her task. Her general accomplishments, too, may almost be taken for granted. And, indeed, the female character is naturally more refined than that of the opposite sex; and, if ordinarily educated, any young woman takes more readily to the duties of instruction, than a man. She has a closer sympathy with the feelings and dispositions of children, naturally gliding into their little ways, and leading them by the soft cords of affection, more than the stern airs of command. Less, therefore, of art may be necessary to fit a female teacher for her duties, so far as moral training is concerned. But this very softness and pliability in herself, rendering her own character a fitter mould for that of her pupil, requires on that account more mental enlightenment to guide the impression. Her patience and better temper may proceed from less mental acumen, and if they form a better disposition in the pupil, it may be at the expense of a vast want of mental development.

What, therefore, is most needed in this case, is an improved system of mental training for herself, and a higher tone of female education generally. What are called the "accomplishments," consist principally of drawing, music, and one or two foreign languages, all of which, as branches of study, are well enough adapted to the female character. But much more than accom

She has a "reasonable

plishment is required in woman. soul," whose wants cannot be satisfied by the gratification of mere taste: more than the desires of the palate must be studied in administering to the wants of the body; the food must be digestive and nutritious, to communicate vigour to the frame, and the perceptive faculties of the mind must imbibe not only ideas of beauty, but of truth, that the judgment may digest an aliment suited to its spiritual wants. Instead of the melody of sweet sound, it desires the harmony of sense; instead of a delicate ear, a correct understanding; instead of the fair proportions and beautiful colouring of objects, it desires to examine their structures, properties and uses, and instead of the mere words of a foreign language, to investigate the history and morals of those who speak it. There is a power in the female mind of penetrating far beneath the mere surface of nature, and a strong desire to do so, beautiful though the surface may appear. It need not quite desert the realms. of fancy, for an occasional sojourn in the domains of reason. The former may be its native province, but the latter, though a foreign possession, is equally its own, and a much richer inheritance. It need not cease contemplating the beauties of the flower garden, though it sometimes cull the fruits of the orchard. Neither is the imagination weakened, but strengthened, by an improvement of the understanding. Unless reason, indeed, guide its erratic propensities, a false taste is engendered, and foolish notions entertained. As the health of the constitution is the best foundation of external handsomeness, so is the soundness of the judgment an equally sure guarantee for the beauty and justness of the fancy.

Neither would her affections be diminished, but in

creased from the same cause. There is a class of feelings unknown to instinct, and the pure offspring of intelligence. A savage mother may regard her child with a passion as intense as a civilised parent; in all the animalism of his nature, may rejoice to see him grow up in strength and beauty, and excel in feats of bodily skill; but how inferior is it to that affection which delights to perceive the unfolding of his mental and moral nature! Without reason, a mother's affection is mere instinct, and in proportion to the cultivation of the one, does the other rise above it. Apart, therefore, from the education of circumstances, it depends upon the manifestation of this feeling whether the child grows up in a state of barbarism, or civilisation, or a being possessing the mingled nature of both. How imperative is it, therefore, that female education should be established upon the principles of reason and nature—that the useful should precede the ornamental, and the rational the imaginative! But in the tyrant laws that govern society, there must too often. be a sacrifice of mental research to mere accomplishment, of feeling to artifice, and of substance to shadow; so that an education in accordance with these conventionalities is not so much art developing nature, as a thing entirely artificial.

So little, therefore, of pure nature being required in conducting such an education, the most amiable and intellectual governess is not on that account always the best adapted for the charge. The parent wants her daughter to be a fine musician, a fine drawer, to dress and dance well, to have finished manners, and a fashionable speech, whatever be her natural genius for any of these acquirements—in a word, not only to be artificially accomplished, but superficially educated. An outward display must be made, at whatever inward sacrifice; and as

no power on earth can create genius or taste where it is not, the governess fails to satisfy, and is dismissed. Or the parent's unguided affection in the early years of her child may have induced a disposition as unsuited to the moral guidance of a governess, as its natural inaptitude for the accomplishments. In either case, whether it be the omnipotence of custom that demands compliance with its laws at whatever cost of nature, or that unreasoning instinct that leads a parent so often to take the part of her child, against the necessary restraint of the governess, the latter is placed in a false and hopeless position.

This, indeed, is only one of a thousand causes, that operate unfavourably between these parties. My present object in stating it is to show the much greater necessity that exists for improving the character of female education, than that of the female educator; that it is not so much a fault of that meek and gentle class of beings who from hard necessity conduct it upon erroneous principles, as in society tolerating the principles themselves. The dawn of a brighter day, however, has here also sprung up, and several institutions are now opening throughout the country for raising the tone of female education. Much they were wanted, and much success may they have. It must therefore be a pleasure to every one to read the prospectuses of such seminaries as those in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, for educating females upon a principle that nature herself has taught, and for teaching the art of communicating these principles to others.

CHAPTER VII.

ON the whole, therefore, the rich seem much in the rear of improvement in having no fixed principles to guide them in selecting instructors for their children, and a vast field of usefulness is here presented to them in establishing institutions for the purpose of qualifying such instructors. A want of this kind is indeed but a modern desideratum, which time will doubtless supply. It has arisen out of an advanced state of civilisation and intelligence, but affords a suitable fulcrum for an Archimedean power in still further developing the universal mind.

The rise of all the professions-the army, the church, the bar, commerce, literature, and the press-in a similar manner, may be traced to the different wants of society at different periods of the world: each marking a distinct era in the moral history of our race. Like the forming habits of an individual, the separate principles that compose these professions were long in being consolidated into a system, so as to guide the universal conduct. But, when formed, society naturally falls back upon them as a bulwark of defence against the physical anarchy of nature. They are thus the breast-works of civilisation and refinement; but the march of intellect is aggressive in its object. It carries on an incessant war against the sensualism of nature, and though for a time it may entrench itself

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