e quality which every person must possess in
order to fit them for any particular employment. "Even in this
quality," said she to Mr. Simpson, the clergyman, "I do not expect
perfection; but if they are destitute of this, whatever good
qualities they may possess besides, though they may do for some
other employment, they will not do for this. If I want a pair of
shoes, I go to a shoemaker; I do not go to a man of another trade,
however ingenious he may be, to ask him if he can not _contrive_ to
make me a pair of shoes. When I lived in London, I learned to be
much on my guard as to recommendations. I found people often wanted
to impose on me some one who was a burden to themselves. Once, I
remember, when I undertook to get a matron for a hospital, half my
acquaintance had some one to offer me. Mrs. Gibson sent me an old
cook, whom she herself had discharged for wasting her own
provisions; yet she had the conscience to recommend this woman to
take care of the provisions of a large community. Mrs. Gray sent me
a discarded housekeeper, whose constitution had been ruined by
sitting up with Mrs. Gray's gouty husband, but who she yet thought
might do well enough to undergo the fatigue of taking care of a
hundred poor sick people. A third friend sent me a woman who had no
merit but that of being very poor, and it would be charity to
provide for her. The truth is, the lady was obliged to allow her a
small pension till she could get her off her own hands, by turning
her on those of others."

"It is very true, madam," said Mr. Simpson; "the right way is always
to prefer the good of the many to the good of one; if, indeed, it
can be called doing good to any one to place them in a station in
which they must feel unhappy, by not knowing how to discharge the
duties of it. I will tell you how I manage. If the persons
recommended are objects of charity, I privately subscribe to their
wants; I pity and help them, but, I never promote them to a station
for which they are unfit, as I should by so doing hurt a whole
community to help a distressed individual."

Thus Mrs. Jones resolved that the first step toward setting up her
school should be to provide a suitable mistress. The vestry were so
earnest in recommending one woman, that she thought it worth looking
into. On inquiry, she found it was a scheme to take a large family
off the parish; they never considered that a very ignorant woman,
with a family of young children, was, of all ot