virtue may be learned and practised at home, and it is
only because we do not choose to have either virtue or religion among us
that so many adventurers are yearly sent out to smuggle foreign graces.
As to various languages, I do not see the necessity of them for a woman.
My niece is to marry an Englishman, and to live in England. To what
purpose, then, should I labour to take off the difficulty of conversing
with foreigners, and to promote her intercourse with barbers, valets,
dancing-masters, and adventurers of every description, that are
continually doing us the honour to come among us? As to the French
nation, I know and esteem it on many accounts, but I am very doubtful
whether the English will ever gain much by adopting either their manners
or their government, and when respectable foreigners choose to visit us,
I see no reason why they should not take the trouble of learning the
language of the country."

Such had been the education of Miss Simmons, who was the only one of all
the genteel company at Mr Merton's that thought Harry deserving the
least attention. This young lady, who possessed an uncommon degree of
natural benevolence of character, came up to him in such a manner as
set him perfectly at his ease. Harry was destitute of the artificial
graces of society, but he possessed that natural politeness and good
nature, without which all artificial graces are the most disgusting
things in the world. Harry had an understanding naturally strong; and Mr
Barlow, while he had with the greatest care preserved him from all false
impressions had taken great pains in cultivating the faculties of his
mind. Harry, indeed, never said any of those brilliant things which
render a boy the darling of the ladies; he had not that vivacity, or
rather impertinence, which frequently passes for wit with superficial
people; but he paid the greatest attention to what was said to him, and
made the most judicious observations upon subjects he understood. For
this reason, Miss Simmons, although much older and more improved,
received great satisfaction from conversing with him, and thought little
Harry infinitely more agreeable and judicious than any of the smart
young gentlemen she had hitherto seen at Mr Merton's.

But now the company was summoned to the important business of dinner.
Harry could not help sighing when he reflected on what he had to
undergo; however, he determined to bear it with all imaginable
fortitude, for the sake o