amongst whom was Mrs. Montague, at once admirers of Miss Aikin and patrons of a more enlarged system of female education than was then prevalent, were induced to propose to her to establish under their auspices what might almost have been called a College for young ladies. On a distant view, the idea had something noble and striking, but it was not calculated to bear a close examination; and it called forth from her the following remarks, well worthy of preservation, as a monument of her acuteness and good sense, and of the just and comprehensive ideas which, at a rather early age, and with slender opportunities of acquainting herself with the great world, she had been enabled to form of the habits and acquirements most important to females, and particularly to those of rank and fashion. It is also interesting as an instance of the humility with which she estimated her own accomplishments. "A kind of Literary Academy for ladies (for that is what you seem to propose), where they are to be taught in a regular systematic manner the various branches of science, appears to me better calculated to form such characters as the "Precieuses' or the 'Femmes sçavantes' of Moliere, than good wives or agreeable companions. Young gentlemen, who are to display their knowledge to the world, should have every motive of emulation, should be formed into regular classes, should read and dispute together, should have all the honors and, if one may so say, the pomp of learning set before them, to call up their ardour:- it is their business, and they should apply to it as such. But young ladies, who ought only to have such a general tincture of knowledge as to make them agreeable companions to a man of sense, and to enable them to find rational entertainment for a solitary hour, should gain these accomplishments in a more quiet and unobserved manner: subject to a regulation like that of the ancient Spartans, the thefts of knowledge in our sex are only connived at while carefully concealed, and if displayed, punished with disgrace. The best way for women to acquire knowledge is from conversation with a father, a brother or friend, in the way of family intercourse and easy conversation, and by such a course of reading as they may recommend. If you add to these an attendance upon those masters which are usually provided in schools, and perhaps such a set of lectures s Mr. Ferguson's, which it is not uncommon for ladies to attend, I think a woman will be in a way to acquire all the learning that can be of use to those who are not to teach or engage in any learned profession. Perhaps you may think, that having myself stepped out of the bounds of female reserve in becoming an author, it is with an ill grace I offer these sentiments but though this circumstance may destroy the grace, it does not the justice of the remark; and I am full well convinced that to have a too great fondness for books is little favorable to the happiness of a woman, especially one not in affluent circumstances. My situation has been peculiar, and would be no rule for others. “I should likewise object to the age proposed. Their knowledge ought to be acquired at an earlier period, - geography, those languages it may be proper for them to learn, grammar, &c., are best learned from about nine to thirteen or fourteen, and will then interfere less with other duties. I should have little hopes of cultivating a love of knowledge in a young lady of fifteen, who came to me ignorant and untaught; and if she has laid a foundation, she will be able to pursue her studies without a master, or with such a one only as Rousseau gives his Sophie. It is too late then to begin to learn. The empire of the passions is coming on; a new world opens to the youthful eye; those attachments begin to be formed which influence the happiness of future life ; — the care of a mother, and that alone, can give suitable attention to this important period. At this period they have many things to learn which books and systems never taught. The grace and ease of polished society, with the established modes of behaviour to every different class of people; the detail of domestic economy, to which they must be gradually introduced; the duties, the proprieties of behaviour which they must practise in their own family, in the families where they 3 visit, to their friends, to their acquaintance: - lastly, their behaviour to the other half of their species, with whom before they were hardly acquainted, and who then begin to court their notice; the choice of proper acquaintance of that sex, the art to converse with them with a happy mixture of easy politeness and graceful reserve, and to wear off by degrees something of the girlish bashfulness without injuring virgin delicacy. These are the accomplishments which a young woman has to learn from fourteen or fifteen till she is married, or fit to be so; and surely these are not to be learned in a school. They must be learned partly at home, and partly by visits in genteel families: they cannot be taught where a number are together; they cannot be taught without the most intimate knowledge of a young lady's temper, connexions, and views in life; nor without an authority and influence established upon all the former part of her life. For all these reasons, it is my full opinion that the best public education cannot at that period be equally serviceable with - I had almost said an indifferent private one. "My next reason is, that I am not at all qualified for the task. I have seen a good deal of the manner of educating boys, and know pretty well what is expected in the care of them; but in a girls' boarding-school I should be quite a novice: I never was at one myself, have not even the advantage of younger sisters, which might have given me some notion of the management of girls; indeed, for the early part of my life I conversed little with my own sex. In the village where I was, there were none to converse with; and this, I am very sensible, has given me an awkwardness in many common things, which would make me most peculiarly unfit for the education of my own sex. But suppose I were tolerably qualified to instruct those of my own rank; — consider, that these must be of a class far superior to those I have lived amongst and conversed with. Young ladies of that rank ought to have their education superintended by a woman perfectly well-bred, from whose manner they may catch that ease and gracefulness which can only be learned from the best company; and she should be able to direct them, and judge "The arguments thus forcibly urged, appear to have convinced all parties concerned, that she was right in declining the proposal. Mr. Barbauld soon after accepted the charge of a dissenting congregation at Palgrave near Diss, and immediately before his marriage, announced his intention of opening a boarding-school at the neighbouring village of Palgrave in Suffolk. "The rapid and uninterrupted success which crowned this undertaking, was doubtless in great measure owing to the literary celebrity attached to the name of Mrs. Barbauld, and to her active participation with her husband in the task of instruction. It fortunately happened, that two of the eight pupils with which Palgrave school commenced, were endowed with abilities worthy of the culture which such an instructress could alone bestow. One of these, William Taylor, Esq. of Norwich, known by his "English Synonyms," his exquisite "Iphigenia in Tauris," from the German, his "Leonora," from Bürger, and many other fruits of genius and extensive learning, has constantly acknowledged her, with pride and affection, for the "mother of his mind;" and in a biogra phical notice prefixed to "The collected works of Frank Sayers, M.D." of the same city, author of the "Dramatic Sketches of Northern Mythology," he has thus recorded the congenial sentiments of his friend. Among the instructions bestowed at Palgrave, Dr. Sayers has repeatedly observed to me, that he most valued the lessons of English composition superintended by Mrs. Barbauld. On Wednesdays and Saturdays the boys were called in separate classes to her apartment: she read a fable, a short story, or a moral essay, to them aloud, and then sent them back into the school-room to write it out on the slates in their own words. Each exercise was separately overlooked by her; the faults of grammar were obliterated, the vulgarisms were chastised, the idle epithets were cancelled, and a distinct reason was always assigned for every correction; so that the arts of enditing and of criticising, were in some degree learnt together. Many a lad from the great schools, who excels in Latin and Greek, cannot write properly a vernacular letter, for want of some such discipline.' "The department of geography was also undertaken by Mrs. Barbauld; and she relieved the dryness of a study seldom rendered interesting to children, by so many lively strokes of description, and such luminous and attractive views of the connexion of this branch of knowledge with the revolutions of empires, with national manners, and with the natural history of animals, that these impressive lectures were always remembered by her auditors less among their tasks than their pleasures. "A public examination of the boys was always held at the close of the winter session: at the termination of the summer one they performed a play; and upon Mrs. Barbauld principally devolved, together with the contrivance of dresses and decorations, and the composition of prologues, epilogues, and interludes the instruction of the young exhibitors in the art of declamation. In this branch she likewise excelled; and the neglected though delightful arts of good reading and grace |