LXI. History, and English History LXIII. Literature and Science of the Ancients LXIV. Progress of Civilization in Britain LXXIV. The Eye and its powers of Vision LXXVI. The Bones of the Human Body LXXVII. The Muscles and Animal Motion LXXVIII. Circulation of the Blood LXXIX. Nutriment and Intestines of Animals LXXX. Animal Bodies as a Whole LXXXI. Structure of Parts of Animals LXXXII. Moving Powers of Animals Preparing for Publication a French Translation of Also Five Hundred Questions on its Contents, intended to LETTERS FROM A RETIRED GOVERNESS TO HER PUPILS. LETTER I. Affectionate Reminiscences-State of Education. MY ESTEEMED Children, THE general state of my health, and the increase of years and infirmities, have withdrawn me from habits and affections the daily recurrence of which, during forty years, closely identified them with my existence. In yielding to the unconquerable force of time and nature, I committed violence on all my feelings; but though I am separated from you, my head is constantly employed in meditations for your benefit, and my heart still hovers over you with maternal fondness. When I commenced the establishment of which you are now the blooming members, my pupils consisted for the most part of your present grandmothers; and it is the pride of my declining years to reflect, that the affection which grew between us, led them subsequently to consign their daughters to my charge; while, by a rapid change of scene, these in their turn made me the guardian of a third generation! Under such interesting circumstances, I have never regarded you with selfish considerations, but have felt for you as a parent, and loved you as my own offspring. Those, therefore, who have genuine sympathy can alone judge of the pangs which attended our separation, and none will wonB der at my seeking still to live among you in the form and quality of an authoress. You are none of you strangers to the zeal and anxiety with which I always watched over every branch of your education, whether it applied to the improvement of your minds, the graces and accomplishments of your persons, or the implanting of correct moral and religious principles. All these duties were my constant pleasures, and no pleasures are so great as those which are accompanied by the performance of duty, and a consciousness that the performance is beneficial to those who stand in need of our aid. I therefore at all times studied the best and most improved means of conveying instruction. I was never the slave of system. I did not persevere in practices because they were old, but gave the world credit for all its improvements. It is true, I often imposed on myself much trouble, and frequently had to unlearn and to conquer early prejudices; but my motives were justly estimated, and in the satisfaction and gratitude of my pupils I had my abundant reward. · Amidst the important improvements resulting from the general attention which education has received through my time, less has, however, been effected for females than for boys. We have had few good books addressed specially to the juvenile part of our sex, and actual improvements have rather been incidental than designed. The improvements in musical instruments have enabled us to exchange the wiry spinet and harpsichord into the melodious piano-forte, and the feeble guitar into the magnificent harp; while the effective character of these instruments has rendered music more general and popular. Improved books have enabled us to introduce many subjects which had previously been rendered inaccessible by the labyrinths of pedantry; but in other respects, the general course of female education resembles that of which I was myself the object between 1770 and 1780. In some respects we have unquestionably improved, but in others we have, I fear, deteriorated. We are, at least, not better housewives and needlewomen; but we are better grammarians, better geographers, better historians, and better musicians; while our style of dancing, drawing, and our studies in French and Italian, have varied with the fashion of the day, or the theories of different masters.: * To review these studies, to estimate their worth, and to give lucid and familiar analyses of their nature and object, will be the leading purpose of these letters. I hope to be able to divest many of them of the technical and forbidding forms in which they are presented by writers and professors, and thereby to usher you into the avenues of the temple of Wisdom, where you may choose your divinity and worship at leisure, in accordance with your taste. I hope, also, to exhibit the graces of life in such manner as to render them easy of imitation, and thus by uniting the improvement of mind and person, with the loveliness of virtue, to confer on you all the attainments of which our feeble nature is susceptible, as the best chance of arriving at happiness, in this world and the next. * LETTER II. Causes of Happiness and Misery-Temper-Contentment. MY ESTEEMED CHILDREN, Happiness is the object of our hopes and wishes, and its attainment ought to be the result of all our exertions. While we are young we have no cares; and, accustomed to rely on our parents, we take no |