of fpiritual as well as temporal favours. It illuftrates the compaffionate mercies of God by familiar and domeftic images, of fuch peculiar tendernefs and exquifite endearment, as are calculated to strike upon every chord of filial fondness in the heart of an affectionate child. The fifty-firft fupplies an infinite variety of matter in whatever relates to confeflion of fin, or to fupplication for the aids of the Spirit. The twentythird abounds with captivating expreffions of the protecting goodness and tender love of their heavenly Father, conveyed by paftoral imagery of uncommon beauty and fweetnefs: in fhort, the greater part of thefe charming compofitions overflows with materials for every head of prayer.

The child who, while fhe was engaged in learning thefe Scriptures, was not aware that there was any fpecific object in view, or any farther end to be an fwered by it, will afterwards feel an unexpected pleafure arifing from the application of her petty labours, when she is called to draw out from her little treasury of knowledge the ftores fhe has been infenfibly collecting; and will be pleafed to find that without any fresh application to ftudy, for fhe is now obliged to exercise a higher faculty than memory, he has lying ready in her mind the materials with which the is at length called upon to work. Her judgment must be fet about felecting one, or more texts which fhall contain the fubftance of every specific head of prayer before noticed; and it will be a farther exercife to her underftanding to concatenate the detached parts into one regular whole, occafionally varying the arrangement as the likes; that is, changing the order, fometimes beginning with invocation, fometimes with confeffion; fometimes dwelling longer on one part, fometimes on another. As the hardships of a religious Sunday are often fo pathetically pleaded, as making one of the heavy burdens of religion; and as the friends of religion are fo often called upon to mitigate its intolerable rigours, by recommending pleasant employment, might not fuch an exercife as has been here fuggefted help, by varying its occupations, to lighter its load?

The habits of the pupil being thus early formed, her memory, attention, and intellect being bent in a right direction, and the exercise invariably maintained, may we not reafonably hope that her affections allo, through divine grace, may become intercited in the work, till fhe will be enabled "to pray with the spirit "" and with the understanding alfo?" She will now be qualified to ufe a well-composed form, if necessary, with seriousness and advantage; for the will now use it not mechanically, but rationally. That which before appeared to her a mere mafs of good words, will now appear a fignificant compofition, exhibiting variety, and regularity, and beauty; and while the will have the farther advantage of being enabled by her improved judgment to diftinguifh and felect for her own purpofe fuch prayers as are more judicious and more feriptural, it will alfo habituate her to look for plan, and defign, and lucid order, in other works.

END OF VOLUME FIRST.

STRICTURES

ON THE

MODERN SYSTEM

OF

FEMALE EDUCATION.

VOL. II.

CHAP. XIV.

The practical Use of Female Knowledge, with a Sketch of the Female Character, and a comparative View of the Sexes.

THE chief end to be proposed in cultivating the understandings of women, is to qualify them for the practical purposes of life. Their knowledge is not often like the learning of men, to be reproduced in fome literary compofition, nor ever in any learned profeffion; but it is to come out in conduct.It is to be exhibited in life and manners. A lady ftudies, not that the may qualify herfelf to become an orator or a pleader; not that the may learn to debate, but to act. She is to read the best books, not fo much to enable her to talk of them, as to bring the improvement which they furnish, to the rectification of her principles and the formation of her habits. The great uses of study to a woman are to enable her to regulate her own mind, and to be inftrumental to the good of others.

To woman, therefore, whatever be her rank, I would recommend a predominance of thofe more fober ftudies, which, not having display for their object, may make her wife without vanity, happy without witneffes, and content without panegyrifts; the exercife of which will not bring celebrity, but improve usefulness. She fhould purfue every kind of study which will teach her to elicit truth; which will lead her to be intent upon realities; will give precifion to her ideas; will make an exact mind. She fhould cultivate every study which, instead of stimulating her fenfibility, will chastise it; which will neither create an exceffive or a falfe refinement; which will give her definite notions; will bring the imagination under dominion; will lead her to think, to compare, to combine, to methodise; which will confer fuch a power of difcrimination, that her judgment fhall learn to reject what is dazzling, if it be not solid; and to prefer, not what is striking, or bright, or new, but what is juft. That kind of knowledge which is rather fitted for home consumption than foreign exportation, is peculiarly adapted to women.

It is because the fuperficial nature of their education furnishes them with a falfe and low standard of intellectual excellence, that women have too often become ridiculous by the unfounded pretenfions of literary vanity for it is not the really learned, but the fmatterers, who have generally brought their fex into difcredit, by an abfurd affectation, which has fet them on defpifing the duties of ordinary life. There have not indeed been wanting (but the character is not now common) precieuses ridicules, who, affuming a fuperiority to the fober cares which ought to occupy their fex, have claimed a lofty and fupercilious exemption from the dull and plodding drudgeries

Of this dim fpeck called earth!

There have not been wanting ill-judging females, whe have affected to establish an unnatural feparation be- !

May I be allowed to strengthen my opinion with the authority of Dr. Johnfon, that a woman cannot have too much arithmetic? It is a folid, practical acquirement, in which there is much ule and little dif ay it is a quiet, tober kind of knowledge, which the acquires for and her family, and not for the world.

tween talents and usefulness, instead of bearing in mind that talents are the great appointed inftruments of usefulness; who have acted as if knowledge were to confer on woman a kind of fantastic fovereignty, which fhould exonerate her from the discharge of female duties; whereas it is only meant the more eminently to qualify her for the performance of them. A womair of real fenfe will never forget, that while the greater part of her proper duties are fuch as the most moderately gifted may fulfil with credit, (fince Providence never makes that to be very difficult, which is generally neceffary,) yet that the most highly endowed are equally bound to fulfil them; and let her remember that the humbleft of thefe offices, performed on Chriftian principles, are wholesome for the minds even of the most enlightened, as they tend to the cafting down of those "high imaginations" which women of genius are too much tempted to indulge.

For inftance; ladies whofe natural vanity has been aggravated by a falfe education, may look down on economy as a vulgar attainment, unworthy of the attention of an highly cultivated intellect'; but this is the falfe estimate of a fhallow mind. Economy, fuch as a woman of fortune is called on to practise, is not merely the petty detail of fmall daily expences, the habby curtailments and ftinted parfimony of a little mind, operating on little concerns; but it is the exercife of a found judgment exerted in the comprehenfive outline of order, of arrangement, of diftribution; of regulations by which alone well-governed focieties, great and small, fubfift. She who has the best regulated mind will, other things being equal, have the best regulated family. As in the fuperintendance of the univerfe, wisdom is feen in its effects; and as in the vifible works of Providence that which goes on with fuch beautiful regularity is the refult not of chance but of defign; fo that management which feems the most eafy, is commonly the confequence of the best concerted plan and a well-concerted plan is feldom the offfpring of an ordinary mind. A found economy is a found understanding brought into action; it is calculation realized; it is the doctrine of proportion re