For, is not the pretty ride, and dairy house breakfasting, by which Miss Goodwin’s governess distinguishes the little ladies who excel in their allotted tasks, a fine encouragement to their ductile minds?—­Yes, it is, to be sure!—­And I have often thought of it with pleasure, and partaken of the delight with which I have supposed their pretty hearts must be filled with on that occasion.  And why may not such little triumphs be, in proportion, as incentives, to children, to make them try to master laudable tasks; as the Roman triumphs, of different kinds, and their mural and civic crowns, all which I have heard you speak of, were to their heroes and warriors of old?  For Mr. Dryden well observes, that—­

  “Men are but children of a larger growth;
  Our appetites are apt to change as theirs,
  And full as craving too, and full as vain.”

  Permit me.  Sir, to transcribe four or five lines more, for the
  beauty of the thought: 

  “And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room,
  Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing: 
  But like a mole in earth, busy and blind,
  Works all her folly up, and casts it outward
  To the world’s open view—­”

Improving the thought:  methinks I can see the dear little Miss, who has, in some eminent task, borne away the palm, make her public entry, as I may call it, after her dairy breakfast and pretty airing, into the governess’s court-yard, through a row of her school-fellows, drawn out on each side to admire her; her governess and assistants receiving her at the porch, their little capitol, and lifting her out with applauses and encomiums, with a Thus shall it be done to the Miss, whom her governess delighteth to honour! I see not why the dear Miss in this case, as she moves through her admiring school-fellows, may not have her little heart beat with as much delight, be as gloriously elated, proportionably, as that of the greatest hero in his triumphal car, who has returned from exploits, perhaps, much less laudable.

But how I ramble!—­Yet surely, Sir, you don’t expect method or connection from your girl.  The education of our sex will not permit that, where it is best.  We are forced to struggle for knowledge, like the poor feeble infant in the month, who is pinned and fettered down upon the nurse’s lap; and who, if its little arms happen, by chance, to escape its nurse’s observation, and offer but to expand themselves, are immediately taken into custody, and pinioned down to their passive behaviour.  So, when a poor girl, in spite of her narrow education, breaks out into notice, her genius is immediately tamed by trifling employments, lest, perhaps, she should become the envy of one sex, and the equal of the other.  But you.  Sir, act more nobly with your Pamela; for you throw in her way all opportunities of improvement; and she has only to regret, that she cannot make a better use of them, and, of consequence, render herself more worthy of your generous indulgence.