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Judith. These damsels never spoke to their mistresses without a curtesy, and without using a title of respect. There were forty misses, as they were then called, in the house when I was brought in, a little creature in deep black, and there were two teachers under my aunts.

'The misses were all stifly laced in whalebone bodices; they wore stuff, or silk, or grogram slips, with bibs and aprons, and either black gauze caps, adorned with pink ribbons, or it might be pink tiffany roses, or quilled scull-caps, such as might be manufactured from a Manchester bed quilt. Add to these, shoes well buckled over the instep, and stockings well drawn up, and you shall have the exact figure of the neat stiff little people who made up the bulk of the younger part of our society. To be sure we had some slatterns amongst us, even in those days; but these unhappy exceptions had no peace or comfort in their lives.

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The instructions given to these little people,' continued Mrs. Latifear, may be explained in a small compass. Needle work of every sort and description ever practised by ladies, was made the principal occupation. Every stitch was to be taken by rule, and oh! the unpicking which went forward: so that our work, like Penelope's web, was often less advanced at the beginning of one day than it had been on the afternoon of the former. We sat in the old school-room over the gateway, four hours every day; viz. two in the morning and two in the evening, stitching, in perfect silence, with no other interruptions than what proceeded from certain objurgatory tones which issued from time to time from the mouth or mouths of our instructresses.'

In this place I could not refrain from drawing a long breath, to think what these little laced and buckled-up personages must have suffered under this discipline; and Mrs. Latifear observing me sigh, smiled again and went on.

'I think I may say that religious instruction, such as it was, took the place next in order and importance to the needle-work; every morning we read the bible in classes, and were required to read true, as my aunt Penelope used to call accurate reading, and were told in so many words, that the bible was the best of books: but no pains were taken to ascertain whether we knew the meaning of what we read. We were also required to repeat one of good old Dr. Watts' Hymns, and to say our catechism every Sunday morning. We were also admonished to behave with strict propriety at church. We kept many of the fast days, and went to prayers every Wednesday and Friday in Lent. So much for our religious instruction; and dark as it was, I think that there was as general a sense of the importance of religion in the house then as there ever has been since, or even is now, when the instruction is so very superior.'

'How do you account for this, dear madam?' I asked.

'I will finish,' she replied, the outline of our studies, and then answer your question; which I consider to be a most important one. We had dancing lessons once a week,' continued the old lady, ' and were made to go through all the forms of that elegant old dance, the minuet, with great care. We learnt writing and arithmetic, and read a dry old History of England. Our geographical studies were

included in the maps of England, and of the world, which we wrought on canvass; and an old French master attended to instruct a few who were to be more than commonly well finished.'

I remarked that music had not been mentioned, nor drawing; to which she answered, that these also were counted works of supererogation, but that there was a harpsichord in the parlour, and that both a French and drawing-master were ready to attend when required, which was seldom.

'But before I finish my outline,' continued the old lady, 'I must carefully point out those minutiæ of arrangements, by which the minds of youth are probably more formed than by formal lessons. Extreme attention was at that time paid to neat, orderly, and economical habits, as it regarded clothes. Between the services on Sunday, every little miss was required to pin her slip up round her, and tie on an apron ; a rumpled or confused drawer would involve a week's penance; anything littered about, or out of its place, was pinned on the back, or tied round the neck, and worn all day; and whoever did not drop a low curtesy, on going in and out of the presence of her governess or teacher, was severely reprimanded, and, on a second offence, banished to her own room. Then, as to speaking to an elder without giving a title, or even to each other, it was accounted an almost unheard of offence among the young people.

'Well do I remember-for I was a little careless thing-having my dancing-slippers pinned on my back for a whole day, and being obliged to present myself before the writing-master in this guise; but neither he nor any other person seemed to feel that I, though an orphan, was ill used, by being made to

suffer this penalty: it therefore had its due effect, and I was more careful another time.'

The venerable lady paused in this place, and I ventured, for I had not then got over a sort of awe, always inspired in my mind by wise and dignified old age, to question her respecting her opinion of what would be, or rather what were, the general results of the sort of education such as she described.

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In the first place, in the present day,' she answered, it could not be fairly tried, not even in a charity-school, because the vox populi would be against it, and every parent, every relation, every servant, every work woman, would contrive, in some way or other, to excite a suspicion of ill usage and injustice in the mind of the child subjected to this sort of system.'

'But granting, Madam,' I said, 'that an education could now be successfully carried on, according to the plan you have described, what would the result be?'

'Or rather,' she answered, let experience tell what was the general result, in former days, of the sort of education which I have described. The question is an important one, and well worthy the consideration of any female who is likely to have the smallest influence in society.' The venerable mother was proceeding, when her daughter interfered, saying, that she thought her parent had exerted herself sufficiently for one evening.

Mrs. Latifear acquiesced in the decision, and, as we arose to take our leave, she extended her hand to me, adding that she hoped soon to have the honour of seeing me again in her apartment. I replied, that I should wait only an intimation from herself that she was prepared to receive me; and we parted at her door with an expression of old-fashioned courtesy. S.

WALKS

WALK THE SECOND.

"BEAUTIFUL for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion."-O thou city of David, we have ascended the steep rocks which form thy bulwarksand hearing the blast of the silver Trumpets summoning the Levites, are thus reminded of our approach to the temple of the Lord.

The royal Solomon asked, "but will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded." With a feeling somewhat similar, I approach this sacred structurc. How attractive is it! and yet gorgeous though it be, there are recollections connected with the first temple, that throw into shade all the magnificence which the architect has presented to the eye. The lofty porch, the towers of strength and beauty; the gigantic columns, the last of which in the lengthened perspective dwindles to the height of a pigmy; the noble piazzas supporting galleries, into which, from between the fretted carvings of their graceful windows, the rays of light stream; the spray from the cooling fountains, diffused over pavements of variegated marble.-What are all these, when we recollect the awful Shechinah which once rested above the ark and between the Cherubim!

And yet after that wondrous exhibition (which we witnessed) of the heavenly host to the lowly shepherds of Bethlehem, may we not hope that this

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