University of Virginia Library

LETTER XXIX.
Mrs. HOLMES to MYRA.

I AM sometimes mortified to find
the books which I recommend to your
perusal, are not always applicable to the situation
of an American lady. The general
observations of some English books are the
most useful things contained in them; the
principal parts being chiefly filled with local

deseriptions, which a young woman here is
frequently at a loss to understand.

I SEND you a little work, entitled “A Lady
of Quality's Advice to her Children” which,
though not altogether free from this exception,
is highly worthy of your attention. A
parent who is represented struggling with the
distress of a lingering illness, bequeaths a
system of education to her offspring. I do
not recommend it to you as a Novel, but as
a work that speaks the language of the heart
and that inculcates the duty we owe to ourselves,
to society and the Deity.

DIDACTICK essays are not always capable
of engaging the attention of young ladies.
We fly from the laboured precepts of the
essayist, to the sprightly narrative of the novelist.

Habituate your mind to remark the
difference between truth and fiction. You
will then always be enabled to judge of the
propriety and justness of a thought; and
never be misied to form wrong opinions, by
the meretricious dress of a pleasing tale. You
will then be capable of deducing the most
profitable lessons of instruction, and the design
of your reading will be fully accomplished.—

HENCE you will be provided with a key to
the characters of men: To unlock these curious
cabinets is a very useful, as well as entertaining
employment. Of those insidious
gentlemen, who plan their advances towards
us on the Chesterfieldian system, let me advise
you to beware. A prudent commander

would place a double watch, if he apprehended
the enemy were more disposed to take the
fort by secresy and undermining, than by an
open assault.

I CANNOT but smile sometimes, to observe
the ridiculous figure of some of our young
gentlemen, who affect to square their conduct
by his Lordship's principles of politeness—they
never tell a story unless it be very
short—they talk of decorum and the etiquette
—they detest every thing vulgar or common—they
are on the rack if an old man
should let fall a proverb—and a thousand
more trifling affectations, the ridicule of
which arises, not so much from their putting
on this foreign dress, as from their ignorance
or vanity in pretending to imitate those

rules which were designed for an English
nobleman—Unless, therefore, they have a
prospect of being called by Congress to execute
some foreign negociation, they ought
certainly to be minding their business.

THIS affectation of fine breeding is destructive
to morals. Dissimulation and insincerity
are connected with its tenets; and
are mutually inculcated with the art of pleasing.

A PERSON of this character grounds his
motives for pleasing on the most selfish
principle—He is polite, not for the honour
of obliging you, as he endeavours to make
you believe, but that he himself might be
obliged. Suspect him, therefore, of insincerity
and treachery, who sacrifices truth to

complaisance, and advises you to the pursuit
of an object, which would tend to his advantage.

ALWAYS distinguish the man of sense
from the coxcomb. Mr. Worthy is possessed
of a good understanding, and an exact judgment.
If you are united with him, let it
be the study of your life to preserve his love
and esteem. His amiable character is adorned
with modesty and a disposition to
virtue and sobriety. I never anticipate your
future happiness, but I contemplate this
part of his character with pleasure. But
remember the fidelity of a wife alone, will
not always secure the esteem of a husband;
when her personal attractions do not continue
to delight his eye, she will flatter his

judgment. I think you are enabled to perform
this, because you are solicitous to supply
your mind with those amiable qualities
which are more durable than beauty. When
you are no longer surrounded with a slattering
circle of young men, and the world shall
cease to call you beautiful, your company
will be courted by men of sense, who know
the value of your conversation.

I AM pleased with the conduct of fome agreeable
girls, and the return of civility and
attention they often make to the conceited
compliments of a certain class of beaux.
These ladies wisely consider them as the butterflies
of a day, and therefore generally
scorn to break them on a wheel!

WHEN you are in company, where the
vain and thoughtless endeavour to shew
their ingenuity by ridiculing particular orders
of men, your prudence will dictate to
you not to countenance their abuse—The
book I have just mentioned, intimates, that
“there are a great many things done and
said in company which a woman of virtue
will neither see nor hear.”—To discountenance
levity, is a sure way to guard against the
encroachment of temptation; to participate
in the mirth of a buffoon, is to render yourself
equally ridiculous. We owe to ourselves a
detestation of solly, and to the world, the appearance
of it. I would have you avoid coquetry
and affectation, and the observance of
my maxims will never make you a prude—
Pretend, therefore, should a vain youth throw

out illiberal sarcasms against Mechanicks,
Lawyers, Ministers, Virtue, Religion, or any
serious subject, not to comprehend the
point of his wit.

I HAVE seldom spoken to you on the importance
of Religion, and the veneration due
to the characters of the Clergy. I always
supposed your good sense capable of suggesting
their necessity and eligibility. The Ministers
of no nation are more remarkable
for learning and piety than those of this
country. The fool may pretend to scorn,
and the irreligious to contemn, but every
person of sense and reflection must admire
that sacred order, whose business is to inform
the understanding, and regulate the passions
of mankind. Surely, therefore, that

class of men, will continue to merit our esteem
and affection, while virtue remains upon
earth.

I AM always pleased with the reasonable
and amiable light in which the Clergy are
placed by the author of the Guardian—
“The light,” says he, “in which these points
should be exposed to the view of one who is
prejuced against the names, Religion, Church,
Priest, or the like, is to consider the Clergy
as so many Philosophers, the Churches as
Schools, and their Sermons as Lectures for the
improvement and information of the audience.
How would the heart of Tully or
Socrates have rejoiced, had they lived in a
nation where the law had made provision
for philosophers to read lectures of philosophy,

every seventh day, in several thousands
of schools, erected at the publick charge,
throughout the whole country, at which
lectures, all ranks and sexes, without distinction,
were obliged to be present, for their
general improvement?”

YOU may, perhaps, think this letter too
serious, but remember that virtue and religion
are the foundation of education.

Adieu!