wisdom may be fairly applied, I shall not lose the time, or misapply the effort it may cost me.

On the value of a definite purpose in conveying instruction in reference to each subject of study, I could not express myself too strongly. For want of it, many an individual undertakes the important business of education with the irresolution of one "running uncertainly and beating the air," prosecutes it with the same indefiniteness, and with an equally unprofitable result.

You complain of the vagueness of the principles laid down in most works professing to give assistance in education, and request me to be very explicit in my remarks; to enumerate the subjects of study and acquirement proper to be brought before young ladies during the period usually allotted to tuition in the school-room; to state what I consider the best method of introducing and carrying them on; and what is the precise object to be aimed at, the advantage expected to result to the pupil from the study of each.

I consider the end of education to be simply this— to teach its subjects to think, and to furnish them, by general information, with a number of principles and precedents which shall help them to think justly and comprehensively. By constant activity in evolving such principles and precedents, the mind acquires a sensitiveness and excitability which will not suffer any subject to pass without affecting it; and a power of recognising the conclusive, and a dissatisfaction with any thing short of this; which will not allow it to deal with any subject imperfectly and partially. Hence it rises to the generalization of principles into systems, and applies to the broad and general the discriminating judgment it has acquired in its dealings with the particular.

are the true foundation of excellence, the elements of

success.

I will not now stay to inquire whether you have duly estimated the labour-accurately counted the cost. You must not expect that your present acquirements (though I know that you have been diligent and judicious) will supply you to the end of your course. As you advance you will find an imperative necessity continually to provide fresh material, continually to put forth new strength. Your wants will increase as you discover the capabilities of your position; and as experience gives you a pleasing consciousness of power as a teacher, it will also convince you that such power is only to be maintained by the supply of regular and substantial aliment for your mental vigour, with healthful stimulus to vivacious elasticity of spirit.

You express doubt respecting the utility of some departments of a polite education as they are usually taught to young ladies, and a conviction that others may be taught so as to influence mental character more decidedly; and you request me to give you the result of my experience and judgment on the several subjects you thus advert to.

Really, you impose upon me no easy task. Not that the inquiry is new to me. Since I first became sensible what is the real end of education, and learned to regard the several departments of knowledge not as the end, but merely as means valuable only as they are adapted to its accomplishment; the question has been constantly recurring, and I have entertained it with no small interest. If compliance with your request require me to collect my half-formed and indefinite opinions, and to give them tangibility, so that the test of truth and

wisdom may be fairly applied, I shall not lose the time, or misapply the effort it may cost me.

On the value of a definite purpose in conveying instruction in reference to each subject of study, I could not express myself too strongly. For want of it, many an individual undertakes the important business of education with the irresolution of one "running uncertainly and beating the air," prosecutes it with the same indefiniteness, and with an equally unprofitable result.

You complain of the vagueness of the principles laid down in most works professing to give assistance in education, and request me to be very explicit in my remarks; to enumerate the subjects of study and acquirement proper to be brought before young ladies during the period usually allotted to tuition in the school-room; to state what I consider the best method of introducing and carrying them on; and what is the precise object to be aimed at, the advantage expected to result to the pupil from the study of each.

I consider the end of education to be simply thisto teach its subjects to think, and to furnish them, by general information, with a number of principles and precedents which shall help them to think justly and comprehensively. By constant activity in evolving such principles and precedents, the mind acquires a sensitiveness and excitability which will not suffer any subject to pass without affecting it; and a power of recognising the conclusive, and a dissatisfaction with any thing short of this; which will not allow it to deal with any subject imperfectly and partially. Hence it rises to the generalization of principles into systems, and applies to the broad and general the discriminating judgment it has acquired in its dealings with the particular.

You will say if this be education, there are none thoroughly educated. The remark may be true, but it constitutes no reason why you and I should not use all our energies to educate ourselves as perfectly as possible, and to afford to our pupils advantages which shall enable them to advance further than we have found it practicable to do. To this you have pledged yourself in assuming the office of instructress, and I hope you will effect it to a very large extent.

I must, however, suggest a marked distinction between the in which way should regard your own you education as a teacher, and that you design for your pupils; especially as you are about to commence your labours as a private governess. In their education, much may be left to that quick discriminating tact which is characteristic of female intellect. If you succeed in cultivating in them a nice feeling and correct perception, which shall dictate that this is the true and that the false position, merely from an intuitive conviction that so it must be; they will have what may supply their necessities, and may in many cases be allowed to supersede the labour of searching into the laws, or penetrating to the occult foundation of the reasoning upon which such conclusions rest. But, as a Teacher, you must have a more certain standard, you must not be contented to know that it is, but be able to declare why it is; rule and reason must be criterion. your

Again, their acquirements may be more varied, and, in a certain sense, more superficial than yours, being intended for more general purposes. You require knowledge for a specific object, an object requiring such a thorough mastery as it is impossible you should acquire in every branch it is desirable your pupils

should study; and the popular error, under the influence of which the whole round of attainments is so generally demanded of private governesses, is perhaps one of the most fruitful causes of the partial and valueless results too often realized during the term of instruction.

Do not pander to this error. Be diligent in the acquirement of all that will give you power in forming and furnishing mind, and be not ashamed to disclaim what you find it impossible to acquire additionally. Those who know the cost at which such preparation is made, and who set a proper value upon it, will not ask you for more. Gladly would I save you from the loss of time and waste of energy I have sustained in the attempt to meet the unreasonable demand to which I have alluded. Were I now commencing my labour, I should adopt the course I recommend to you. I would endeavour by very extensive reading and close application, to acquire a large store of knowledge deposited in safety and order, so as to furnish a ready supply of correct and detailed information on general subjects. I would cultivate the habit of association, so as to call up from time to time any thing illustrative or confirmatory of instruction given. I would seek to acquire the faculty of conveying instruction in language appropriate, correct, and graceful; and I would secure these objects, though at the expense of ability to teach a single foreign language, or one of the many arts by which it is quite desirable that ladies should contribute to the embellishment of social life.

I do not mean to say that the one is acquired necessarily at the expense of the other; but the one is essential, the other may be dispensed with more or less