Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/36

 meet with encouragement, I could never prosecute with any pleasure an undertaking to which I should know myself so unequal: I am sensible the common boarding-schools are upon a very bad plan, and believe I could project a better, but I could not execute it."

The arguments thus forcibly urged, appear to have convinced all parties concerned, that she was right in declining the proposal. Mr. Barbauld soon after accepted the charge of a dissenting congregation at Palgrave near Diss, and immediately before his marriage announced his intention of opening a boarding-school at the neighbouring village of Palgrave in Suffolk.

The rapid and uninterrupted success which crowned this undertaking was doubtless in great measure owing to the literary celebrity attached to the name of Mrs. Barbauld, and to her active participation