It seems day-schools are preferable. If parents were qualified for co-operation with teachers; if their general example was of that beneficial kind, which the gentlemen's. imaginations fondly pictured, it might be so, but the reverse was the fact The attendance at day-schools, from a variety of causes, was irregular. Indulgence, illness, both real and feigned, as well as occasional employment in the domestic works so panegyrized, all conspired to cause late attendance, and frequent absence; and only those who are experienced in practical education were aware of the consequent disadvantages to the pupil; such as the loss of time, the decline of emulation and zeal, the destruction of the habit of steady, persevering application; and the discouragement and despair resulting from observing the superior progress of the regular pupils.

These facts fully contradict the theoretic advantages of parental co-operation in the great business of education. In addition, it should be remembered, that the example of the majority of parents is more injurious than beneficial,-calculated to undo at home, what is done, or attempted to be done, at school. The irritability of temper, moroseness, incivility, and inattention, of the parents to each other, and the consequent feuds of domestic life, have an unhappy effect on the formation of the youthful character; the reverse of which is witnessed at boarding-schools, where duty and interest unite to produce self command in the teachers; and example and discipline conspire to ensure the same in the pupil. Besides, even in the case of competent, amiable, and conscientious parents, how seldom have they leisure for this co-operation! They are surrounded by children, at the very period when they are most immersed in the cares and toils of business. In the middle rank of life, this is frequently the case with both parents, but generally so with the father: discipline is therefore left to the indulgent mother, who, being also an affectionate wife, endeavours to keep from her husband whatever would be likely to occasion him uneasiness. Tired with the labours, and vexed with the disappointments of the day, she strives, and laudably strives, to soothe his agitated mind, and divert his fatigued attention. She sends the children out of the way on his return, lest their noise should be unpleasant; or, concealing their faults, presents them, lovely and amiable, to receive the tokens of his love and approbation. In his absence, she occasionally threatens to report their misconduct ; but, in welcoming his return to his peaceful home, fondness for him, and affection for the pledges of their conjugal love, overcome her resolution, and induce the breach of promise, which they remember, abuse, and imitate.

Nor must it be forgotten, that conscious incapacity, in many parents, arising from defective education, excessive business, affliction, unfavourable employment, and locality of residence in low or unhealthy neighbourhoods, constrain many parents to send their children to boarding-schools, and keep them there even beyond the usual period.

But, even waving the unavoidable disadvantages of dayschools, already referred to, with others that may be named, such as the bad influence of their frequent walks through the streets of populous towns, in company with the forward and idle, what share would gentlemen assign to children in the discharge of the domestic duties? And, seeing, that even at these favourite day-schools, the pupils have lessons to prepare at home, what leisure would they have for their discharge? Would gentlemen allow them no relaxation ?-no amusement? When, then, and how, is a knowledge of these duties to be acquired? Would gentlemen divide the labour, and refer the theory to the governess, and the practice to the mother? Would they have the precepts of the cookery-book committed to memory as are those of the English grammar? Would they disgust them by marketing-tables and other uninteresting details? Would they have them graduate from the rank of scullion to that of house-keeper? In short, how are duties to be understood and discharged which depend on good sense and judgment, when these faculties are so immature? In sacred history we are favoured with a remarkable selection of maxims, the result of the observation and experience of the wisest of men, who allowed, "there was a time for every thing" he only, then, could be wise who selected the proper time for doing them. Another distinguished character, of great intellectual strength, observes, "that when a child, he thought as a child, and spoke as a child; but when he became a man, he put away childish things;" and not till then,—and it would be cruel and unreasonable to expect more.

The art of nursing was considered to be neglected in modern education; an art, however, that would be perseveringly regarded by every tender and well-informed mother; and an art which was better practised now than half a century since. Then, no respectable mother thought of suckling her own child, but put it out to nurse; disease and death very frequently followed this unnatural neglect. Now, mothers took pleasure in rearing their own offspring; and even the weak had the wet-nurse under their own superintendence,-one consequence of which is a more numerous and healthy progeny. What, then, could our opponents wish? Would they have young ladies initiated in this wonderful art at boarding-schools? If so, they must have infants sent to be nursed. Perhaps, gentle

men, in their homely habits, would incorporate with these establishments the humble, but useful, employment of those cottagers, over whose door was inscribed, "Children taken in to nurse," transferring the simple inscription to adorn the fronts of nobler seminaries.

Let it not be imagined there was any thing so mysterious, abstruse, and profound, in the nature of those duties, as to require a considerable portion of life devoted to the study. Affection, good temper, good sense, judgment, sound principles, with a well-stored mind and accomplished manners, were the grand requisites for all the interesting characters woman could be called to fill. With these, she was fitted for every station and for every extreme of life.

It was STATED IN REPLY, that no attempt would be made to answer all that had been urged on the other side. Indeed, some of the gentlemen seemed to have adopted the maxim of the celebrated Lord Shaftsbury, that "ridicule is the test of truth;" they, therefore, laughed at some of the arguments, rather than replied to them.

It was neither the opener's intention to describe minutely the present system of education, nor to define the domestic duties. He considered that he should have been trifling with the time of the Institution so to have done. It was not, indeed it could not be, denied, that these duties were the great business of the female sex; and he considered, therefore, that he had only to do with that part of the modern system of instruction which rather unfitted than prepared them for their proper sphere of action.

It was contended, that accomplishments formed the prominent and general feature of the system; and it might be expected, as it was found, that accomplishments constituted the principal ingredient in the modern female character; and it would be most unreasonable to maintain, that accomplishment fitted for the serious, but interesting, characters of wife, mother, and mistress of a family, which united in so many women. The utmost that accomplishments could do, was to give a polish to a solid character,-it could never form one; but, made the business of life, it made a gay and frivolous creature, between whose wishes, and the domestic duties, there was no connexion.

In censuring the system, let it be distinctly understood, the speakers meant not to censure the sex, it was what they were obliged to submit to; and when it was said, that many accomplished ladies were also domestic, what did it prove, but that they were so in spite of the system? It argued nothing for the system. They had been accused of selecting extreme cases, in which the accomplishments had had an evil

influence. These, on the contrary, were the extreme cases in which intellect and principle triumphed over the natural effects of accomplishments, and showed mental powers of the first order. 'They were, therefore, to be pitied, rather than blamed, that the time, anterior to the discharge of the domestic duties, was spent in a mere system of accomplishments, —therefore a system of degradation; and required a mental effort, to which but few were equal to rise above its ordinary influence. But for this system, what might not have been expected from such women! There was not that moral and intellectual improvement of the human being which her interesting nature and sphere demanded. There was too much of the oriental tyrannical feeling lurking still, which made woman a creature of pleasure, rather than of importance and high utility.

It had been objected that the opener's view of education, in confining it to what was acquired at school, was contracted. It might, with more truth, as far as the present question is concerned, be considered, that the representation of education, as including the acquisition of general knowledge, from whatever source, and at whatever time, was too enlarged, as it extended beyond the reach of any systematic education.

The influence of the employment of leisure on the formation of the human character, is fully admitted. If, therefore, this leisure be resigned to those amusements, for which the accomplishments qualify, a trifling character must be expected as the consequence. The employment of leisure shows the taste, betrays the fond pursuits of the heart, except in those few characters who have no regular business to attend to, who seem to others to have a life of leisure, but can themselves find none. But, in modern education, the acquisition of the accomplishments is the business of early life, and the leisure at school is either spent in listlessness or light reading, Can it, therefore, be surprising, that frivolity should characterize so many women?

It has been intimated, that home should be rendered attractive; that the fatigued husband should be soothed. It is granted. The effect, however, of the accomplishments on domestic happiness, compared with that of more important acquirements, is little indeed. "When a man comes to marry,” says Mrs. H. More,* "it is a companion whom he wants, and not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint, and play, and sing, and draw, and dress, and dance; it is a being who can comfort and console him; one who can reason, and reflect, and feel, and judge, and discourse, and

* Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, vol. i. ch. 4.

discriminate; one who can assist him in his affairs, lighten his cares, and soothe his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his principles, and educate his children."

It was insinuated, that too great a value was set on youthful time. But, considering the short span of human existence; our native ignorance, and depravity; and the important purposes to which such time could be applied; this was scarcely possible. If gentlemen would take the pains to calculate the actual time spent in the acquisition of the accomplishments, they would scarcely make this objection: the time not merely spent in taking lessons of the masters, but in practising those lessons daily. Deducting the hours of sleep, of refreshment, dressing, walking, &c., they would find more than the half of youthful existence thus employed.

All that the opponents of the modern system mean is, that less time should be devoted to that, which, in maturer life, would be so little used; and more spent in storing the mind with important knowledge, that would be available in domestic life, and fit for the interesting and important characters woman has to sustain.

But youthful works are important to the fair manufacturer and her friends, on account of the delicate and interesting recollections they revive. It may be so in some few happy instances; but it is often matter of surprise, disappointment, and grief, to the affectionate teacher, that the pupil so soon. forgets her obligations; and the place and scenes of education seem so little to influence the departed scholar; and, these forgotten, or disregarded, it is hardly to be expected the works will be treated with much more real virtuous feeling. They may be preserved and exhibited as specimens of ability, but, it is feared, seldom as incentives to grateful recollections; and, considering the interested motives which originate most connubial connections, very trifling can be the effect of these performances in this connection. But, again, let it be repeated, the enemies of fashionable education are not inimical to female accomplishments, but to the degree of labour bestowed on them. But, it may be doubted, if this delicate feeling was the motive to fancy-works, whether the end is not defeated by the habitual manufacture of them: the amateur frequently feels an interest in a performance, which, the ordinary workman, pursuing it as a task, is a stranger to. The enchanting effects of music were felt and allowed on either side. Yea, it should be allowed, gentlemen, that such is its universal influence, that the soul which vibrates not with its notes; that neither gladdens, nor melts, nor rouses, at its varying harmony,-must be defective in moral feeling,—cannot have felt the love of virtue: but, did it follow, because all

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