she adds
as an after-thought, grammar and arithmetic.

Nevertheless, when in 1838, six of the Sedgwick family travelled
together through France and Italy, doing much of those sunny lands on
foot, Miss Sedgwick was interpreter for the party in both countries,
apparently easy mistress of their respective languages. It is
remarkable what fine culture seems to have been attainable by a New
England child born more than a hundred years ago, when Harvard and
Yale were, as we are told, mere High Schools, and Radcliffe and
Wellesley were not even dreamed of. Instead of Radcliffe or Wellesley,
Miss Sedgwick attended a boarding school in Albany, at the age of
thirteen and, at the age of fifteen, another in Boston, the latter for
six months, and the former could not have been more than two years.
Both, according to her, gave her great social advantages, and did
little for her scholarship. Miss Bell, the head of the Albany school,
"rose late, was half the time out of the school, and did very little
when in it."

Miss Paine's school in Boston, let us hope, was better; but "I was at
the most susceptible age. My father's numerous friends in Boston
opened their doors to me. I was attractive in my appearance"--she is
writing this to a niece and it is probably all true--"and, from always
associating on equal terms with those much older than myself, I had a
mental maturity rather striking, and with an ignorance of the world, a
romantic enthusiasm, an aptitude at admiring and loving that
altogether made me an object of general interest. I was admired and
flattered. Harry and Robert were then resident graduates at Cambridge.
They were too inexperienced to perceive the mistake I was making; they
were naturally pleased with the attentions I was receiving. The winter
passed away in a series of bewildering gayeties. I had talent enough
to be liked by my teachers, and good nature to secure their good will.
I gave them very little trouble in any way. When I came home from
Boston I felt the deepest mortification at my waste of time and money,
though my father never said one word to me on the subject. For the
only time in my life I rose early to read French, and in a few weeks
learned more by myself than I had acquired all winter."

It will be seen that she had the ability to study without a teacher,
and that is an art which, with time at one's disposal and the stimulus
at hand, assures education. Intellectual stimulus was precisely what
her hom