"from any peculiar deficiency of intellect, but because my attention "had never been directed to the exa"mination of any natural objects. "Indeed, from my own experience "and from all that I have since ob"served, I am inclined to think that “much of the stupidity which we mis"take for natural deficiency, is purely "accidental; and solely owing to neglecting the faculties, till they have The gentleman fully assented to the observation, but still could not imagine how the misfortune should have been experienced by Albert; or, if it was, how the person they had just seen could have contributed to remedy it. "I shall tell you," replied Albert. "I was just turned of six, when Bell "came into the family. I had been "taught 26 taught to read English by my sis"ter's governess, who went over the "routine of lessons, exactly as the "horse which you see in yonder farm"yard, goes round in turning the "threshing-mill. The horse thinks as "much of the price of the wheat, as "she did of the progress of the mind ; " and, like him, when she had gone "her appointed rounds, she thought "she had fully done her duty. "In fact Mrs. Middleditch did all "that could with justice be expected. "She had served an apprenticeship "to certain accomplishments, and by "teaching them she was to gain her "bread. To these her time and atten❝tion had been exclusively devoted; "she considered them as her trade, and every thing beyond them as out of "the way of her business. For above twenty years this woman had lived "in the houses of persons of rank, an " insulated 66 66 66 « insulated being, removed to an equal "distance from those above her, and "from those below; without ever hav"ing experienced the sympathies of friendship, or the heart-improving pleasure of a free communication of "sentiment. In such a state the delicacy of the moral feeling can scarcely fail of being lost. Complete "selfishness becomes in a manner necessary. It was impossible that "she should conciliate my affection "who never treated me with tender"ness; impossible that she should inspire me with respect, whom I knew "to be by others disrespected.* 66 "An * It is not to be supposed that Albert, in what he here said, intended to cast any reflection upon a very deserving and very unfortunate class of persons, among whom may often be found virtues of most sterling value, and talents of the highest order. He seems merely to allude to the VOL. I. I situation "An accident of a broken leg "which I got by a childish frolick, "released me from lessons, and placed "me entirely under the care of Bell, "to whose watchful assiduity I was "more indebted than to the skill of "all my medical attendants. She gave up nothing to peevishness, no thing to caprice; but without, on "her part, exerting any of the ty "ranny of control, she taught me to "control myself. She opened my "heart to religious sentiment, she "prepared my mind for religious "truths. By a thousand ingenious "contrivances, she elucidated things situation of governesses in families of distinction, as unfavourable to the culture of the sympathetic and benevolent affections; and of the education which is thought to qualify them for the undertaking, as foreign to the cultivation of the heart and understanding. "that f "that appeared at first so entirely "above my capacity, as to have ren"dered the case hopeless to any that "was not inspired with an equal "zeal. I am even now surprised when "I reflect on all that was taught me by this unlearned and simple girl; "for never through life have I been "able to detect a fallacy in any of the. precepts she enjoined, or to perceive "an error in any of the judgments on "which she had formed them. 66 66 66 During the two years that elapsed "between the period of my accident 66 and my being sent to school, a deli "cate state of health rendered it neces 66 66 66 sary that I should live much by the sea-side; and thither I was attended by Bell, who had thus an opportunity "of acquiring an ascendancy over my 66 mind, which she used for the noblest 66 purposes. Never have I in any "station met with a person so com |