every nation. We hope, however, that
a taste for peace may, at some future period in the history of the
world, succeed to the passion for military glory; and in the mean
time, we may safely recommend it to parents, never to trust a young
man designed for a soldier, to the care of a philosopher, even if it
were possible to find one who would undertake the charge.

We hope that we have shown ourselves the friends of the public
preceptor, that we have pointed out the practicable means of improving
public institutions by parental care and parental co-operation. But,
until such a meliorating plan shall actually have been carried into
effect, we cannot hesitate to assert, that even when the abilities of
the parent are inferiour to those of the public preceptor, the means
of ensuring success preponderate in favour of private education. A
father, who has time, talents, and temper, to educate his family, is
certainly the best possible preceptor; and his reward will be the
highest degree of domestic felicity. If, from his situation, he is
obliged to forego this reward, he may select some man of literature,
sense, and integrity, to whom he can confide his children. Opulent
families should not think any reward too munificent for such a private
preceptor. Even in an economic point of view, it is prudent to
calculate how many thousands lavished on the turf, or lost at the
gaming table, might have been saved to the heirs of noble and wealthy
families by a judicious education.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] V. Barne's Essay on public and private education. Manchester
Society.

[30] V. Mr. Frend's Principles of Algebra.

[31] V. Williams's Lectures on Education.

CHAPTER XX.

ON FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, MASTERS, AND GOVERNESSES.

Some years ago, an opera dancer at Lyon's, whose charms were upon the
wane, applied to an English gentleman for a recommendation to some of
his friends in England, as a governess for young ladies. "Do you
doubt," said the lady (observing that the gentleman was somewhat
confounded by the easy assurance of her request) "do you doubt my
capability? Do I not speak good Parisian French? Have I any provincial
accent? I will undertake to teach the language grammatically. And for
music and dancing, without vanity, may I not pretend to teach them to
any young person?" The lady's excellence in all these particulars was
unquestionable. She was beyond dispute a highly accomplished woman.
Pressed by her forcible inter