( 3 ) 
knowledge. They may perhaps be able to 
conftrue a few pages in the books that have 
been put into their hands ; but are totally 
loft if you try them in a Greek or Latin 
author which they have never feen. Would 
not one be hence naturally led to imagine, 
that thefe two dead languages are very diffi- 
cult to learn? Yet, you have the plea- 
fure to know a young lady to whom 
Latin and Greek are perfectly familiar; who 
Is likewife an arithmatician, an algebraift, 
a geometrician; plays the harpficord very 
finely, fmgs well, dances in a fuperior ftyle, 
and is, in (hort, with all her learning, miftrefs 
of every female accomplishment. 
Now, though I am ready to acknowledge, 
that this fingular accumulation of acquire- 
ments may, in a great degree, be afcribed 
to a fuperiority of capacity, it demonftrates, 
never thelefs, that wonderful effects may be 
produced by a proper mode of inftruction. 
The queftion, why boys learn fo little 
during feven or eight years continuance at 
a public fchool ? is not difficult of inveftiga- 
tion. Half that period is confumed in va- 
cations and fmgle holidays. It fhould feem 
therefore, that in our eftimate of the quantum 
qf learning, we muft reduce the eight years 
A 2 to 
