I have for several Years had under my Care the Government and Education of young Ladies, which Trust I have endeavour’d to discharge with due regard to their several Capacities and Fortunes:  I have left nothing undone to imprint in every one of them an humble courteous Mind, accompanied with a graceful becoming Mein, and have made them pretty much acquainted with the Houshold Part of Family-Affairs; but still I find there is something very much wanting in the Air of my Ladies, different from what I observe in those that are esteemed your fine bred Women.  Now, Sir, I must own to you, I never suffered my Girls to learn to Dance; but since I have read your Discourse of Dancing, where you have described the Beauty and Spirit there is in regular Motion, I own my self your Convert, and resolve for the future to give my young Ladies that Accomplishment.  But upon imparting my Design to their Parents, I have been made very uneasy, for some Time, because several of them have declared, that if I did not make use of the Master they recommended, they would take away their Children.  There was Colonel Jumper’s Lady, a Colonel of the Train-Bands, that has a great Interest in her Parish; she recommends Mr. Trott for the prettiest Master in Town, that no Man teaches a Jigg like him, that she has seen him rise six or seven Capers together with the greatest Ease imaginable, and that his Scholars twist themselves more ways than the Scholars of any Master in Town:  besides there is Madam Prim, an Alderman’s Lady, recommends a Master of her own Name, but she declares he is not of their Family, yet a very extraordinary Man in his way; for besides a very soft Air he has in Dancing, he gives them a particular Behaviour at a Tea-Table, and in presenting their Snuff-Box, to twirl, flip, or flirt a Fan, and how to place Patches to the best advantage, either for Fat or Lean, Long or Oval Faces:  for my Lady says there is more in these Things than the World Imagines.  But I must confess the major Part of those I am concern’d with leave it to me.  I desire therefore, according to the inclosed Direction, you would send your Correspondent who has writ to you on that Subject to my House.  If proper Application this way can give Innocence new Charms, and make Virtue legible in the Countenance, I shall spare no Charge to make my Scholars in their very Features and Limbs bear witness how careful I have been in the other Parts of their Education.

  I am, SIR,
  Your most humble Servant,
  Rachael Watchful

T.

* * * * *

No. 377.  Tuesday, May 13, 1712.  Addison.

  ’Quid quisque vitet, nunquam homini satis
  Cautum est in horas—­’

  Hor.

Love was the Mother of Poetry, and still produces, among the most ignorant and barbarous, a thousand imaginary Distresses and Poetical Complaints.  It makes a Footman talk like Oroondates, and converts a brutal Rustick into a gentle Swain.  The most ordinary Plebeian or Mechanick in Love, bleeds and pines away with a certain Elegance and Tenderness of Sentiments which this Passion naturally inspires.