IN THE MIDDLE CLASSES OF ENGLAND. - 499 



devote yourself to home enjoyments, and to bear, without ennui, 

 the sameness of common-place married existence ? " 



" Oh, my dear Sir ! now you do talk nonsense : how shall I do, 

 indeed ? why, if my husband is cross, I shall laugh at him, and order 

 the carriage to drive out: as to misfortune, which is poverty I sup- 

 pose, I hope my father will take care of that ; and if he does not, 

 and my husband becomes poor, I must come home again, 1 suppose. 

 Then I shall spend my time very well : the children will be shut up in 

 the nursery; and I have a large circle of acquaintance, with whom I 

 shall visit as I do now; and you know I never spend an evening at 

 home unless I have visitors." 



" Truly, my sweet friend, your mother and your instructors, male 

 and female, have made you familiar with the arcana of human life. 

 The man who has the felicity to 'make you his bride, will, if of 

 your own rank, do, I suppose, as you do ; and therefore it is to be 

 hoped you will not thwart each other's purposes : and if the fates 

 have decreed you to die an old maid, you will doubtless take kindly 

 to scandal, cats, china, poodles, and mischief." 



" Thank you ! but the latter alternative is but a remote pro- 

 bability. Come, give me your arm, and we will join the party in 

 the drawing-room though your impertinence is quite terrible." 



" One more remark, and I am your cavalier serviente. You 

 have been educated, as is the fashion amongst your wealthy country- 

 men, from home: the education I prefer for your charming sex, is 

 home ; that single word includes all my notions of female education. 

 I would cultivate your hearts ; I would call into action all your 

 tenderness, sensibility, and sympathy ; I would make you creatures 

 to be loved, as nature meant you should be loved, and would have 

 you centres of domestic happiness. For your heads, I would furnish 

 them as I would furnish my house for use and elegance ; and now 

 allons. " 



" What a stupid wife you would have, to be sure ! Take care none 

 of us catch you ; we would plague you out of your life, with our 

 incapacity for pie and pudding making. You must go back to your 

 native country, if you would marry a clock-work woman." 



The custom of educating their children abroad I found universal : 

 had it embraced the males only, it would not have excited much 

 surprise; but to send away girls at the age of eight, ten, or twelve 

 years of age, to pass the most important era of their lives, and the 

 one upon the direction of which, all their future existence depends, 

 was one of the most singular traits I had yet discovered in this peo- 

 ple. It is an era when the sedulous eye of a mother is absolutely 

 essential ; but here they were removed from all parental control, and 

 left to the tender mercies of probably a foolish or ignorant mistress 

 and a host of fellows, not one of whom ought to be permitted 

 to approach the delicate and sensitive plant of awakening woman- 

 hood. Their education, as they called, or rather miscalled it, con- 

 sists in a ridiculous routine of forms and ceremonies, calculated only 

 to coat over with artificial gloss their natural character, and to render 

 them mere puppets; while they were at the same time hurried 

 through a rield of learning, extensive enough to occupy an entire 



