rogatories, the gentleman was compelled
to hint, that an English mother of a family might be inconveniently
inquisitive about the private history of a person who was to educate
her daughters. "Oh," said the lady, "I can change my name; and, at my
age, nobody will make further inquiries."

Before we can determine how far this lady's pretensions were ill
founded, and before we can exactly decide what qualifications are most
desirable in a governess, we must form some estimate of the positive
and relative value of what are called accomplishments.

We are not going to attack any of them with cynical asperity, or with
the ambition to establish any new dogmatical tenets in the place of
old received opinions. It can, however, do no harm to discuss this
important subject with proper reverence and humility. Without alarming
those mothers, who declare themselves above all things anxious for
the rapid progress of their daughters in every fashionable
accomplishment, it may be innocently asked, what price such mothers
are willing to pay for these _advantages_. Any price within the limits
of our fortune! they will probably exclaim.

There are other standards by which we can measure the value of
objects, as well as by money. "Fond mother, would you, if it were in
your power, accept of an opera dancer for your daughter's governess,
upon condition that you should live to see that daughter dance the
best minuet at a birth-night ball?"

"Not for the world," replies the mother. "Do you think I would hazard
my daughter's innocence and reputation, for the sake of seeing her
dance a good minuet? Shocking! Absurd! What can you mean by such an
outrageous question?"

"To fix your attention. Where the mind has not precisely ascertained
its wishes, it is sometimes useful to consider extremes; by
determining what price you will _not_ pay, we shall at length
ascertain the value which you set upon the object. Reputation and
innocence, you say, you will not, upon any account, hazard. But would
you consent that your daughter should, by universal acclamation, be
proclaimed the most accomplished woman in Europe, upon the simple
condition, that she should pass her days in a nunnery?"

"I should have no right to make such a condition; domestic happiness I
ought certainly to prefer to public admiration for my daughter. Her
accomplishments would be of little use to her, if she were to be shut
up from the world: who is to be the judge of them in a nunn