more than their bad performance. Shall they then be ftudiouly brought into fituations in which failure difcredits, and fuccefs difgufts? May I venture, without being accused of pedantry to conclude this chapter with another reference to Pagan examples? The Hebrews, Egyptians, and Greeks, believed that they could more effectually teach their youth maxims of virtue, by calling in the aid of music and poetry; thefe maxims, therefore, they put into verses, and thefe verfes were fet to the most popular and Ample tunes, which the children fang; thus was their love of goodness excited by the very inftruments of their pleasure; and the fenfes, the tafte, and the imagination, as it were, preffed into the fervice of religion and morals. Dare I appeal to Chriftian parents, if thefe arts are commonly used by them, as fubfidiary to religion and to a fyftem of morals much more worthy of every ingenious aid and affociation, which might tend to recommmend them to the youthful mind? Dare I appeal to Chriftian parents, whether mufic, which fills up no trifling portion of their daughters' time, does not fill it without any moral end, or even without any fpecific object?. Nay, whether fome of the favourite fongs of polifhed focieties are not amatory, are not Anacreontic, more than quite become the modeft lips of innocent youth and delicate beauty? CHAP. V. On the religious Employment of Time.-On the Manner" in which Holidays are paffed.-Selfishness and Inconfideration confidered.-Dangers arising from the World. THERE are many well-difpofed parents, who, while they attend to thefe fashionable acquirements, do not neglect to infufe religious knowledge into the minds of their children; and having done this, are but too apt to conclude that they have done all, and have fully acquitted themselves of the important duties of educa tion. For having, as they think, fufficiently grounded their daughters in religion, they do not fcruple to al or rather through want of firmnefs to refift the tyranny of fashion, fometimes fallen. It has not been unufual when mothers of rank and reputation have been afked how they ventured to entrust their daughters to foreigners, of whose principles they knew nothing, except that they were Roman Catholics, to answer, "That they had taken care to be fecure on that subject; for that it had been ftipulated that the quef"tion of religion fhould never be agitated between the teacher " and the pupil." This, it must be confefled, is a most defperate remedy; it is like ftarving to death to avoid being poifoned. And who can help trembling for the event of that education, from which religion, as far as the governess is concerned, is thus formally and systematically excluded! Surely it would not be exacting two much, to fuggeft at least that an attention no lefs fcrupulous fhould be exerted to infure the character of our children's inftructor, for piety and knowl edge, than is thought neceffary to afcertain that the has nothing patois in her dialect. I would rate a correct pronunciation, and an elegant phrafeology at their just price, and I would not rate them low; but I would not offer up piety and principles as victims to founds and accents. And the matter is now made more easy; for whatever disgrace it might once have brought on an English lady to have had it fufpected from her accent that she had the misfortune not to be born in a neighboring country; fome recent events may ferve to reconcile her to the fufpicion of having been bred in her own. A country, to which (with all its fins, which are many!) the whole world is looking up with envy and admiration as the feat of true glory and of comparative happiness! A country in which the exile, driven out by the crimes of his own, finds a home! A country, to obtain the protection of which it was claim enough to be unfortunate; and no impediment to have been the fubject of her direft foe! a country, which, in this refpect, humbly imitating the Father of compaffion, when it offered mercy to a fuppliant enemy, never conditioned for merit, nor infifted on the virtues of the miferable as a preliminary to its own bounty! England! with all thy faults I love thee ftill! CHAP. IV. Comparison of the Mode of Female Education in the laft Age with the Prefent. To return, however to the fubject of general edu * cation. We admit that a young lady may excel in fpeaking French and Italian, may repeat a few paffages from a volume of extracts; play like a profeffor, and fing like a fyren; have her dreffing-room decorated with her own drawings, tables, ftands, flower-pots, fcreens, and cabinets; nay, fhe may dance like Sempronia herself, and yes we fhall infift that she may have been very badly educated. I am far from meaning to fet no value whatever on any or all of these qualifications; they are all of them elegant, and many of them properly tend to the perfecting of a polite education. These things in their measure and degree may be done, but there are others which fhould not be left undone. Many things are becoming, but " "one thing is needful." Befides, as the world feems to be fully apprized of the value of whatever tends to embellish life, there is lefs occafion here to infift on its impor tance. But, though a well-bred young lady may lawfully learn most of the fashionable arts; yet, let me afk, does it seem to be the true end of education to make women of fashion dancers, fingers, players, painters, actreffes, fculptors, gilders, varnishers, engravers, and embroiderers? Moft men are commonly deftined to fome profeffion, and their minds are confequently turned each to its respective object. Would it not be flrange if they were called out to exercife their profeffion, or to fet up their trade, with only a little general knowledge of the trades and profeffions of all other men, without any previous definite application to their own peculiar calling? The profeffion of ladies, to which the bent of their inftruction fhould be turned, is that of daughters, wives, mothers, and miftreffes of families. They ffould be therefore trained with a view to the fe feveral * See Cataline's Confpiracy. conditions, and be furnished with a stock of ideas, an principles, and qualifications, and habits, ready to be applied and appropriated, as occafion may demand, to each of these refpective fituations. For though the arts which merely embellifh life muft claim admiration; yet, when a man of fenfe comes to marry, it is a companion whom he wants, and not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint, and play, and fing, and draw, and dress, and dance; it is a being who can comfort and counsel him; one who can reafon and reflect, and feel, and judge, and discourse, and difcriminate; one who can affift him in his affairs, lighten his cares, foothe his forrows, purify his joys, ftrengthen his principles, and educate his children. Almost any ornamental acquirement is a good thing, when it is not the best thing a woman has ; and talents are admirable when not made to ftand proxy for virtues. The writer of thefe pages is intimately acquainted with feveral ladies, who excelling most of their fex in the art of mufic, but excelling them alfo in prudence and piety, find little leifure or temptation, amid the delights and duties of a large and lovely family, for the exercife of this charming talent; they regret that fo much of their own youth was wasted in acquiring an art which can be turned to fo little account in married life, and are now confcientiously reftricting their daughters in the portion of time allotted to its acquifition. Far be it from me to difcourage the cultivation of any exifting talent; but may it not be queftioned of the fond believing mother, whether talents, like the fpirits of Owen Glendower, though conjured by parental partiality with ever fo loud a voice, Yet will they come when you do call for them? That injudicious practice, therefore, cannot be too much difcouraged, of endeavouring to create talents which do not exist in nature. That their daughters fhall learn every thing, is fo general a maternal maxim, that even unborn daughters, of whofe expected abilities and conjectured faculties, it is prefumed, no very ac curate judgment can previously be formed, are yet ; predeftined to this univerfality of accomplishments. This comprehenfive maxim, thus almost universally brought into practice, at once weakens the general powers of the mind, by drawing off its ftrength into too great a variety of directions; and cuts up time. into too many feparate portions, by fplitting it into fuch an endless multiplicity of employments. I know that I am treading on tender ground; but I cannot help thinking that the reftlefs pains we take to cram up every little vacuity of life, by crowding one new thing upon another, rather creates a thirst for novelty than knowledge; and is but a well-difguifed contrivance to anticipate the keeping us in after-life more effectually from converfing with ourselves. The care taken to prevent ennui is but a creditable plan for promoting felf-ignorance. We run from one occupation to another, (I fpeak of thofe arts to which little intellect is applied,) with a view to lighten the preffure of time above all we fly to them to fave us from our own thoughts; we fly to them to rescue us from ourselves; whereas were we thrown a little more on our own hands, we might at last be driven, by way of something to do, to try to get acquainted with our own hearts. But it is only one part of the general inconfiftency of the human character, that with the perfon A of all others we best love, we leaft like to converse, and to form an intimacy; I mean ourselves. But though our being lefs abforbed by this bufy trifling, which dignifies its inanity with the impofing name of occupation, might render us fomewhat more fenfible of the tedium of life; yet might not this very fenfation tend to quicken our pursuit of a better? For an awful thought here fuggefts itself. If life be fo long that we are driven to fet at work every engine to país away the tediousness of time; how fhall we do to get rid of the tedioufnefs of eternity? an eternity in which not one of the acquifitions which life has been exhaufted in acquiring, will be of the leaft ufe? Let not then the foul be ftarved by feeding it on fuch unfubftantial aliment, for the mind can be no more nourished by thefe empty hufks than the body can be fed with ideas and principles. e to المقري tha lities |