terpret her own. Indeed, I have often pondered over that strange anomaly in our nature, by which, so far from imbibing the faults and foibles of our parents and preceptors, we, for the most part, rush into the very contrary extreme; and so it was, that day and night are not more diametrically opposed to each other than were the feelings, pursuits, and dispositions of Mrs. Sidney and her daughter. Theirs was indeed the very antithesis of character. In truth, Viola was romantic, ardent, affectionate to a degree little common, but then she had an energy of mind, a moral rectitude of disposition, a firm and undeviating resolve, which acted as a powerful counterpoise, and together, gave a unity of character which I have rarely seen equalled.

Mrs. Sidney spared neither pains nor expense in the education of her daughters: she was most anxious that they should be instructed in every varied science, and proficients in all the branches of learning. By the bye, it is surely matter of marvel, that sciences to which a Locke, a Boyle, a Cuvier, gave every energy of their colossal minds, nor paused until they had sounded with their plummet nature's profoundest abysses, and forced earth and ocean to yield their hidden treasures; sciences, too, over which a Bacon paled by the midnight lamp, and a Newton sat outwatching the stars, are at this present day (by a subtle process in which the vivifying principle is supposed to be concentrated within the pages of a catechism) brought down to the comprehension of every young lady at a cheap expenditure of one half hour's labour per diem; whilst four or five hours are diurnally allotted by her to the manual exercise called practising; a division of labour this (where the hands work so much more than the head) which would cause the political economist's blood to run cold. "O monstrous! but one poor halfpenny-worth of bread to all this intolerable deal of sack."

It may be owing to old associations, that I never enter a genuine, bona fide schoolroom with its instruments of torture, rivalling the Chinese punishments, its reclining boards, and its back-boards, its Sheldrake collars, and its perpendicular chairs, its callisthenics and its gymnastics, that, notwithstanding this garish light, this noonday blaze of learning, which is illuminating with portentous rays our intellectual horizon, and which the eaglet's eye alone could gaze on without blinking;-notwithstanding all this, no sooner do I enter one of these sanctums, than images of the dark ages, of the stern Dominicans and gloomy inquisition, present themselves in dim array before me. The schoolmaster is indeed abroad, but our children or our children's children will live to see him fettered, incarcerated.

O what a reaction there will be one of these days, what a fell destruction, what a dire conflagration of miniature libraries, of homoeopathic encyclopedias, of microscopic lexicons, of "Shakspeare abridged for the use of young ladies !"—which laudable process, by the way, always reminds me of the notable annunciation of the play of Hamlet, "the part of the Prince of Denmark omitted by particular desire." Alas! the burning of the Alexandrian Library was but a faint type of the stores of recondite learning and profound philosophy which will then be lost to the world.*

* We fear lest, in the above passage, Cousin Dorothy should have laid herself open to the charge of illiberality: we have an affection for the good lady, and should be sorry to find her so misconceived. If we rightly understand her meaning, it is not the diffusion of knowledge which she deprecates, but only the superficial manner in which that knowledge is conveyed; few indeed there are who, being thus easily enabled to obtain the show of learning, will give themselves the trouble of acquiring the substance. We may indeed be told that the lady's virtuous indignation, instead of being levelled at the books in question, ought rather to be directed towards those persons who thus perversely mistake "the means for the end :" but we would, in

O English mothers! English governesses! seek not to make your daughters, your pupils, so universally accomplished; let the fabric of learning be raised on its alone solid foundation,-sound religious knowledge. Heaven forbid that they should enter the lists of theological controversy, or plunge into the fierce clamour of polemical debate, or mingle in the gall and strife of the schools, but when pressed by the bold scorner, or subtler infidel, let them at least be enabled to "give a reason of the hope that is in them." Teach them whose nature is dark and desponding, whose pathway of life is rugged and thorny, whose experience is sown in tears and reaped in bitterness,-teach them early to flee to that Rock whose o'erspreading shadow shall screen them from the fervid rays of prosperity, and be unto them a stronghold in the day of adversity. Cultivate their reasoning powers somewhat more, their imaginative faculties somewhat less; let their minds acquire vigour as their bodies gain strength; let music be no longer the engrossing, allpervading business of their lives; and be not fearful. that the dread anathema of blue stockingism shall be fulminated against them. It is the parvenues in knowledge who are ridiculous; it is the "little learning that is the dangerous thing;" it was the wisest of the ancient sages who felt how little he knew, and it will be they among your daughters whose acquirements are the most solid, whose mental powers have been most sedulously exercised, in whom those twin graces, modesty and humility, will shine forth pre-eminently.

Mrs. Sidney, however, did not agree with me in

all humility, ask whether the authors of these infinitesimal works, do not themselves (in the railroad expedition with which they travel), altogether neglect the means by which that end ought to be acquired, and whether it be not indispensable for those who would obtain a juster knowledge of the sciences on which they treat, to retrace their steps instead of advancing on the beaten track.-ED.

these old fashioned, world-before-the-flood notions; and not content with having collected around her tutors and professors sufficiently numerous to have stocked a university, she considered herself most fortunate in securing the services of Miss Sharpe to aid in the education of her daughters. I know it is very silly, but I sometimes take instinctive, invincible dislikes to certain individuals; and the worst of it is, that, having generally found by experience these said persons do not improve upon acquaintance, I am afraid I shall never cure myself of the prejudice. Now I must own, that from the first moment I saw her, Miss Sharpe sadly disquieted me. She was what is usually called a strong-minded, sensible, shrewd woman (how I do dislike sensible, shrewd women!), she spoke in recitative, uttered threadbare puerilities, and faded second-hand sentimentalities in an oracular, sententious tone of voice. Then, too, she had a host of theories, countless as the stars, which theories always reminded me of the famous mansion built by the amateur architect, who, having called his friends around him to admire the spacious hall, the lofty apartments, the well planned dormitories, heard it observed, to his utter dismay, that all would have been very perfect had he not unfortunately forgotten the staircase. Now it always seemed to me that Miss Sharpe's theories sadly wanted the practical staircase; this I know, they were far above my comprehension, only perhaps, as Mrs. Sidney once observed, "how was it possible that a person with my limited education, could be any judge of these matters," and I suppose she was right. On the score of beauty, Miss Sharpe had nothing to reproach herself with. For certain it is that face and form were guiltless of ever having caused a sleepless night or uneasy moment to any sighing Strephon. When first I knew her, she had arrived at that debatable point, that borderland age, that neutral ground, when youth is fled and eld

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not yet arrived; however, she preserved a prisonhouse secrecy on this point, which might have served for as perplexing a study to the antiquary as the precise date of the pyramids. Added to all this, Miss Sharpe possessed one of those long Flamingo-like necks, which look as though the owner thereof had, at some period of her life, undergone the penal process of suspension in mid air, commonly called hanging, and been subsequently resuscitated. In fine, she had a pervading, indescribable, noli me, tangere, chevaux de frise appearance, which is sufficiently alarming. I wish I could have conquered my dislike to her; I am sure I would have done her a good turn if I could (once in a way), but those every-day civilities were very troublesome.

It was not long before I perceived how very little Viola and Miss Sharpe assimilated; and soon, every hour and half-hour that Miss Sidney could escape from that lady's jurisdiction and the technicalities of schooldom, were passed by her in my apartment: here together, we ranged through the garden of literature, culling the fairest and sweetest flowers of prose, or rarer blossoms of poetry; only those sickly, faded exotics of foreign growth, which seem as though they will not flourish in an English soil, but languish and die of the transplantation, we avoided by mutual consent: here, whilst I worked, would she read aloud, and her voice fall on my ear with a sweet lulling tone that reminded me of the flowing cadence of the "Paradise Lost:" here too did we delight our fancy with bright and glowing visions, and store our memory with images of loveliness: here likewise, as we read of holy deeds, of lofty aspirations and immortal enterprises, our eyes would fill with tears, our hearts expand with sympathy, and we would ardently desire to go forth and emulate those high and heroic achievements. Very pleasant were those morning lectures.