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7
Letter XXI. Schools.
Spectator or his Tatler, I forget which, suggests a contrivance for trying
virginity by means of Lions. You may there find many curious disquisitions
concerning the measures and degrees of that species of purity;
all which you will be better pleased to have from that grave author than
from me. But, without plagu plunging into any such discussions,
the highest degree possible, whatsoever that may be, is no more than any
body might make sure of, only by transferring damsels at as early an
age as may be thought sufficient, into a strict Inspection-school.
Addison's scheme was not only a penal but a bloody one: and what havoc
it might have made in the population of the country, I tremble but to think
of. Give thanks then to Diana, and the elven eleven thousand virgins,
and to whatever powers preside over virginity in either calendar calander, for so happy
a discovery as this of your friend's. There you saw blood and uncertainty: here
you see certainty without blood. What advantage might be made by setting
up a boarding school for young ladies upon this plan, and with what eagerness
gentlemen who are curious in such matters would crowd to such a
school to choose themselves wives, is too obvious to insist on. The only
inconvenience I can think of is, that if the institution were to become general
Mrs Ch. H. and other gentlewomen of her calling would be obliged
either to give up housekeeping, or to take up with low wenches or married
ladies.
Dr Brown the Estimator would have been stark mad for an
Inspection-school upon the very extremity of the principle: provided always he
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