University of Virginia Library

Ledyard was an American by birth and made himself eminent by his travels in wild and unhospitable countries. Although his “Eulogy on Woman” has been frequently published, perhaps, it ought not to be omitted in a work devoted principally to the service of the sex.

“I have always remarked that women in all countries are civil, obliging, tender and humane; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest; and that they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. Not haughty, arrogant, nor supercilious, they are all full of courtesy, and fond of society; more liable in general to err than men, but generally more virtuous, and performing more meritorious actions. To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decorum and friendship without receiving a decent and friendly answer—with men it has been otherwise.

In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, honest Sweden, and frozen Lapland, and rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide spreading regions of the wandering Tartars—if hungry, dry, cold, wet or sick, the women have been universally friendly to me: and this virtue so worthy the appellation of benevolence— these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry I eat the coarsest morsel with a double relish.”

It would transcend the limits of this work, to mention many particular instances of the successful exertions of French women, to allay the ferocity of the savages, who were the principal actors in the horrid scenes of the French revolution. They abound in every history of that period, and were most honourably conspicuous in the civil wars of La Vendee. I cannot, however, omit one instance which proves that the most flinty and ferocious bosoms are not always callous to the appeals of humanity, when urged by a female advocate.

“Among the small number of prisoners who were saved from the swords of the assassins, on the bloody second of September 1792, was M. Cazotte, a man of seventy four years of age, formerly Commissioner-General of the Marine, but who had for several years lived in retirement at his village near Epernay.

“This old gentleman had been arrested at his house in the country, and brought to the prison of the Abbaye, in consequence of letters written by him and found among the papers of a M. Pouteau, Secretary to M. de la Porte; from which it appeared that he was in correspondence with the emigrants that he advised the king to escape from Paris, and had transmitted a plan for that purpose, that he had also advised the dissolution of the National Assembly: for these, and other parts of his conduct, to the same tendency, he was detained in the Abbaye, in expectation of a legal trial

“But on the second of September, when determined murderers made a mockery of the forms of law, and chosen assassins seized the sword of Justice; when the prisoner was surrounded at his trial by pikes smoking from recent slaughter, and within hearing of the screams of those who had just been dragged from the bar where he stood: on that dreadful day, M. Cazotte was brought before the horrid tribunal within the prison. Several prisoners had already been carried there—none had survived their short examination above two minutes! A sign from the pretended Judge, or an equivocal word, was the fatal sentence, and the blow of death followed as the prisoner was led from the bar.

“When M. Cazotte appeared—the list of names were examined by these inquisitors, no mark of favour was seen at his—the signal of death was given, and he was led out to slaughter! But, before he received the stroke of death, his daughter, a beautiful young lady of seventeen, sprung upon her father's neck, exclaiming in a transport of terror and filial affection, Mercy! mercy! O, mercy!—my father! my father!

“The grey hairs of the old man, the affecting appearance and exclamations of the young lady, arrested the arms of the assassins and melted the hearts of the people! The cries of grace! grace! and Vive la Nation were heard. The old gentleman and his daughter were conducted in safety to the house of a friend, amidst the applause of the multitude!

“This admirable young woman had never separated from her father, overcoming her horror for a prison crouded with men; surmounting her terror, her delicacy, and every consideration which could reader the situation repugnant to her mind filial love, and a strong sense of duty, enabled her to attend him during his confinement in the Abbaye. and to administer every comfort and consolation in her power.

The defence of Saragossa, a city in Spain, against the French invaders, was one of the most desperate recorded history. The women signalized themselves in a most remarkable manner, and many of them were killed upon the ramparts, while exhibiting glorious proofs of active valour, and daring patriotism.

In a war between the Romans and the Sabines, the wives of the former, who were of Sabine origin and had been carried away by force from a public festival, intervened between the combatants and by their tears and entreaties persuaded the two hostile nations to unite and become one people.

Coriolanus, a noble Roman having been banished by his countrymen, was bent upon revenge and joining with Volsci, who were enemies of the Romans, took many of their towns and encamped within five miles of the city of Rome itself. The people now saw their error, and a deputation being sent to treat with him, he received them with haughtiness and refused to give them any hopes of a reconciliation. To a second and third message of the same kind he shewed himself inexorable. At length his mother, wife and children came out to plead their country's cause. To their entreaties he at length yielded. Raising his venerable parent from the ground, he exclaimed, “You have saved Rome, my mother, but you have destroyed your son.” He returned to his tent, and soon after took measures for a retreat.

Helen, a beautiful and accomplished woman, was the cause of a war between Greece and Troy or Ilion, which terminated in the destruction of the latter. Thais, a courtezan, during a debauch, instigated Alexander the Great to set fire to Persepolis, a city in Persia.

In the midst of the famous battle of Actium, between Antony and Octavius, Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, mistress to Antony fled, and her gallant Lad the weakness to follow her. He thus overwhelmed his character with perpetual ignominy, and lost his chance for the Empire of the world, which depended on the issue of the combat.

“But, it may be asked, will not penitence recsind the severe interdict which bars the doors of society against female frailty! Most unquestionably, so far as friendship or kindred are concerned. A very able instructress, of our sex has determined, that true penitence will not wish to exceed those bounds, or to mix in the crowded haunts of public life. Nor let a decision be censured for severity, which is really the dictate of mercy, sanctioned by a thorough knowledge of the human heart, and proceeding from lively sympathy for those who, though no longer offending continue to be unfortunate. When the soul is really awakened to a sense of its backslidings, when it feels the reproofs of conscience and the shame of contrition, it will naturally shrink from returning to those scenes which it knows are dangerous to reputation and peace. Convinced of her own weakness, afraid to trust her scarcely confirmed resolutions, and concluding by the publicity of her story, that all who see her will look upon her with contempt, reproach or pity, the true Magdalene wishes alike to avoid the hazard of falling into new transgressions and the contumely attending the past. She is deafer than an adder to the syren strains of adulation! she knows too well the “ills that spring from beauty;” splendor has lost its attractions; she cannot derive amusements from crowds, because she can no longer mingle in them without feeling a sense of degradation. She considers too, that if she should again aspire to fashionable celebrity, her's would be an uphill task; every eye would be fixed upon her conduct; every tongue inclined to question the sincerity of her profession; what would be thought mere vivacity in unsuspected innocence, would in her be levity; and marked reserve would be construed into a prudish vizard thrown over the worst designs. Her whispers would be supposed to convey assignations, her reproofs would be called the splenetic dictates of jealousy. Besides, can she who has so weighty a task to perform afford to trifle away the important hours? Turn thee, backsliding daughter, turn to the cool sequestered vale of life, and thy troubled day may yet have a happy close. Rational amusement, renovated esteem, friendship, contentment, tranquillity, and religious hope, may still be all thine own.

“It is not, therefore, the harsh decree of outrageous virtue, but the mild counsels of kindness and sympathy, that determines the preservation of those distinctions which custom has long preserved between unsuspected and forfeited characters. And if those in whose favour these barriers might be broken down with safety, are too well convinced of their expedience to require their abolition, let us determine to defend the privileges of innocence from the pertinacious attacks of impudence and hardened depravity. The increasing facility of intercourse between the most profligate and the most irreproachable women, which is a marked and peculiar feature of these times, threatens more than our manners. The transition is very easy, and generally very rapid from unrestrained freedom of behaviour to unrestrained freedom of conduct; and especially when the mind has not been deeply imbued with religious truths, in which case the opinion of the world forms one of the strongest bulwarks of virtue. Banishment from parties of high ton, and estrangement from amusements, which every one talks of have often intimidated the wavering fair one, and imposed a guarded decorum of manner on the determined wanton. Let us not then, when the cardinal virtue of our sex is assaulted by unusual perils, resign one of its most material outworks.”

Trophonius was an eminent Soothsayer, who is said to have dwelt in a cave, into which if any person entered, they would never afterwards feel an inclination to laugh.

Narcissa here alludes to a tale of terror, told in rhyme, by one of the late British bards, respecting a certain prince, who at a certain time wedded a beautiful lady. By an awkward accident however, the wedding ring was placed on the finger of a statue of a dead goddess, whose ghost, of course, had a legitimate claim upon the prince, and on the night of the wedding day, took the liberty to obtrude itself between the bride and bridegroom, to the unspeakable terror and discomfiture of terrestrial part of the concern. This hobgoblin story is done into poetry, I believe, by Mr. Lewis, author of the “Monk,” a novel, which is infinitely terrific, and (to some folks) not less agreeable.

It might have the appearance of flattery to name living individuals to whom the above lines would be appicable, We shall therefore mention Sir William Jones, whose literary acquisitions and dignity of character, are thus alluded to by the author of The Pursuits of Literature.

That Sir William Jones was little less a favourite of the Graces than the Muses appears from his biography by Lord Teignmouth; and, in Mrs. Piozzi's Advice to a New Married Man, is the following passage which proves that a man or woman of letters, in Great Britain, is treated with that attention and deference which are not always accorded to wealth or nobility, and that Sir William Jones held a high station in the circles of fashion as well as in those of literature.

“The age we live in pays, I think, peculiar attention to the higher distinctions of wit, knowledge, and virtue. The giddy flirt of quality frets at the respect she sees paid to Lady Edgecumbe, and the gay dunce sit pining for a partner, while Jones the Orientalist leads up the ball.”

And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands.

The Vestales Virgines, vestal virgins, of Rome, were women, devoted to the service of the goddess Vesta. They made a vow of perpetual chastity, and if they were guilty of its violation were buried alive.

The vagaries of Miss Wolstonecrost are, thus animadverted upon by a lady whose writings may be exhibited among other irrefragable proof, that nature has not disqualified the female sex from becoming eminently useful to the community, in the most arduous and honourable pursuits of literature.

An eccentric writer, who thought audacity a proof of genius, and mistook insubordination for independence and greatness of soul, seemed to suppose that the professions of a lawyer, a physician, and a merchant were no ways incompatible with women. Little ingenuity is necessary to disprove a theory, which puzzled for an hour, and sunk into oblivion, overwhelmed by the weight of its own absurdity, till it was fished up again by some second-hand dealers in paradox and innovation. That we can neither gain happiness or advantage, from renouncing the habits, which nature communicated and custom has ratified, is evident, by considering the qualities for which we have been most valued. and how far they would amalgamate with an alteration in our relative situation. Could modesty endure the stare of public attention; could meekness preserve her olive wand unbroken amid the noisy contention of the bar; could delicacy escape uninjured through the initiatory studies of medicine; could cautious discretion venture upon those hazardous experiments, which private as well as public utility often require; could melting compassion be the proper agent of impartial justice; or could gentleness dictate those severe but wholesome restraints, which often preserve a nation from ruin! Though I am inclined to think highly of my own sex, I confess that I can see nothing in this scheme of an Amazonian Republic, which is not in the highest degree ridiculous and laughable. My conviction that we should make wretched generals, patriots, politicians, legislators and advocates, proceeds from my having never yet seen a private family well conducted that has been subjected to female usurpation. Notwithstanding any degree of science or talent which may have illuminated the fair vicegerent, the awkward situation of the good man in the corner has always excited risibility, and awakened such prying scrutiny into interior arrangements, as has never failed to discover “something rotten in the state of Denmark.” It is not only the temperament of our virtues, which indicate the necessity of our being shielded from the broad glare of observation; there is, generally speaking, (and Providence acts by general rules, both in the natural and moral world) too much impetuosity of feeling, quickness of determination, and locality of observation in women, to enable us to discharge public trusts, or extensive duties with propriety. The warmth of our hearts overpowers the ductility of our judgments; and in our extreme desire to act very right, we want forbearance and accommodation, which makes our best designs often terminate exactly opposite to what we proposed. The qualities that we possess are admirably fitted to enable us to perform a second part in life's concert; but when we attempt to lead the band, our soft notes become scrannel and discordant, by being strained beyond their pitch; and our tremulous melodies cause disgusting dissonance, if they attempt to overpower the grand full tones of manly harmony, instead of agreeably filling up its pauses.”

“In the Brazils,” says a writer whose name I can not now recollect, “the females are obliged to follow their husbands to war, to supply the place of beasts of burthen, and to carry on their backs their children, provisions, hammocks, and every thing wanted in the field.

“In the isthmus of Darien, they are sent along with warriors and travellers as we do baggage horses. Even their queen appeared before some English gentlemen, carrying her sucking child wrapt up in a red blanket.

“The women among the Indians of America, were, what the Helotes were, among the Spartans, a vanquished people obliged to toil for their conquerors. Hence, on the banks of the Oronoko, we have heard of mothers slaying their daughters out of compassion, and smothering them in the hour of their birth. They consider this barbarous pity as a virtue.

“Father Joseph Gumella, reproving one of them for this inhuman crime, received the following answer. “I wish to God, Father, I wish to God that my mother had, by my death, prevented the manifold distresses that I have endured, and have yet to endure as long as I live. Had she kindly stifled me in my birth, I should not have felt the pain of death, nor the numberless other pains to which life has subjected me. Consider, Father, our deplorable condition. Our husbands go to hunt with their bows and arrows, and trouble themselves no father: we are dragged along with an infant at our breast, and another in a basket. They return in the evening without any burden. We return with the burden of our children. Though tired with long walking, we are not allowed to sleep, but must labour the whole night, in grinding maize to make chica for them. They get drunk and in their drunkenness beat us, draw us by the hair of our heads, and tread us under foot. What then have we to comfort us for a slavery, perhaps of twenty years? A young wife is brought upon us and permitted to abuse us and our children. Can human nature endure such tyranny? What kindness can we show to our female children, equal to that of relieving them from such serritude, more bitter a thousand times than death? I repeat again, would to God my mother had put me under ground the moment I was born.”

“If the great outlines of this complaint be true, they fully evince the deplorable condition of savage women; and that they are probable, similar instances among barbarous nations will not permit us to doubt.

These lines allude to Milton's Eulogy on chastity, from which the following lines are extracted.

The cestus or girdle of Venus was supposed by the ancients to be endued with peculiar powers of fascination.

The Spartan mother exulting over the body of her son, slain in battle, is thus described by a lady, whose productions add one to very many proofs, that female hands are competent to “wake to extacy the living lyre.”

Cornelia, a celebrated Roman matron, was left a widow in the flower of her age, and devoted her whole time and undivided attention, to the education of her offspring. When a lady had exhibited her jewels at Cornelia's house, and begged to be indulged with the sight of her own, the affectionate parent produced her two sons. Cains and Tiberius Gracchus, saying, “These are the only jewels I have to shew.” Too ambitious of being distinguished, she probably urged them to that career, which terminated in their destruction. She is said to have reproached them in their youth, that they had not rendered her illustrious as the mother of the Gracchi; and after their death she replied to one, who would have condoled with her on their account, that “the woman, who had given birth to the Gracchi could not be deemed unfortunate.” After her decease the Romans erected a statue to her memory, with this inscription: “To Cornelia mother of the Gracchi.”

Cæsar Borgia was a son to Pope Alexander VI. one who was initiated by his mother Vanozza, into all the mysteries of iniquity which could qualify him for a career of guilty ambition. He was made an Archbishop, and a Cardinal, which offices did not deter him from destroying those who were in any degree opposed to his nefarious projects, by poison or assassination. In 503 Borgia lost his father, who was supposed to have died by poison, which they had prepared for a rich Cardinal, whose estate they wished to appropriate to themselves, but which they both took by mistake. It proved fatal to the father; but the son, by strength of constitution escaped with life, though he long experienced its penicious effects. He was killed in a skirmish and stripped by the victors. Notwithstanding he has been held up to admiration, by Machiavel as the perfect specimen of a “great man,” “yet,” says one of his biographers, “he was hated in prosperity, detested in adversity, stripped of all his honours and possessions, even such as he fairly might have claimed, and leaving behind him a name, consigned to universal detestation, it would seem that he gained nothing by being a villain.”

When Alexander the Great had arrived at the zenith of his power, he was surrounded by a number of sycophants, who by indulging his humour and soothing his passions, precipitated him into extravagance of conduct, and deprived him of that equanimity and moderation, which were necessary for preserving the acquisitions he had made. One faithful friend declined concurring in the general adulation. At a banquet which succeeded the sacrifices performed at the anniversary festival of Bacchus, the honour of which Alexander had transferred to Castor and Pollux, some of the attendants extolled the actions of the Macedonian prince above those of the gods. Clytus remonstrated, alledging that “he could not bear to hear such indignities offered to the gods, or the credit of ancient heroes undervalued, to tickle the ears of a living prince.” As to Alexander's actions he allowed that they were great and glorious, but he maintained that they were not supernatural; that the army had shared in them, and that they had a right to participate in the praise belonging to them. Alexander was indignant; and as Clytus proceeded in the same strains, and affimed that he had preserved the life of the king at the battle of Granicus, stretching out his arm and saying, “this hand, O Alexander, has saved thee,” the king rushed upon him, and endeavoured to kill him, but was prevented by the interposition of friends. At length, however, when his friends had retired, he seized a lance and laid Clytus dead on the spot. His passion, however, soon subsided, and reflecting on the deed he had perpetrated, he indulged in excessive grief, refused food for three days, neglected his apparel, and, as some say would have killed himself with the pike that had killed Clytus.

By the common law of England, a common scold is considered as a public nuisance to her neighborhood, and may be indicted, and if convicted is sentenced to be placed in a certain engine of correction called the cucking stool, or ducking stool, because the residue of the judgment is, that when she is so placed therein, she shall be plunged into the water for her punishment.

Locke's Treatise on Education contains many excellent observations relative to the system of terror, which is too frequently employed in educating children. Miss More likewise observes that “parental severity drives the gentle spirit to artifice, and the rugged to despair. It generates deceit and cunning, the most hopeless and hateful in the whole catalogue of female failings. Ungoverned anger in the teacher, and inability to discriminate between venial errors and premeditated offence, though they may lead a timid creature to hide wrong tempers, or to conceal bad actions, will not help her to subdue the one or correct the other. Severity will drive terrified children to seek not for reformation, but for impunity. A readiness to forgive them promotes frankness. And we should above all things, encourage them to be frank, in order to come at their faults. They have not more faults for being open, they only discover more.”

The Spectator, No. 4. observes that the fair sex “compose the most powerful part of our people.” In another number he declares that the passion for admiration, which is so universal among the fair sex, had moulded them into “Idols” of all degrees and qualities. “Most of them are worshipped, like Moloch in fire and flames. Some of them, like Baal love to see their votaries cut and slashed, and shedding blood for them. Some of them, like the Idol in the Apocrypha, must have treats and collations prepared for them every night.” We are likewise informed by the same author, that females of the lowest classes were an inferior kind of “idols,” and were used by their worshippers sometimes like Chinese Idols, who are whipped and scourged when they refuse to comply with the prayers that are offered to them.

I shall not multiply authorities in support of the assertion to which this note refers, but produce one, which contains the substance of what has well been observed on the subject. The writer in the following passage is treating of the education of boys, but his observations apply with equal if not superior force to young females.

“A public education may be formed on the very best plan, may be conducted by the best rules, and yet in many points it may fall short of what may be effected by domestic instruction. The one cannot in the nature of things be so elaborate as the other: besides what tutorage can equal that which proceeds from the attentive zeal of an elightened parent? What affection less warm and intense will prescribe and follow such rules of self denial, as are necessary to preserve the pupil from receiving any impression which may be mischievous to his future innocence and peace? When the object is viewed in this light, it would be folly to give up the privilege of forming our offspring according to the brightest model of virtue, which our imagination can conceive. Indeed so forcible and so important appears in my eyes, this last urged reason for the preference of domestic education, that to those opulent idlers, who have neither the capacity, nor the inclination to fulfil in their own persons this most important of parental duties, and who consign their children over to the care of school-masters, I would recommend to them to be very liberal of their treasures to the enlightened persons who are every way qualified for the education of youth, and to insist on their limiting their pupils to a small number; for though the languages may be very well taught in large schools, yet the morals must necessarily be totally neglected.” Graham's Letters on Education.

There are cases, however, in which public schools are to be preferred, such as the want of health, knowledge or leisure in the parents, or the father's being a widower, &c.

The author of “The Pursuits of Literature” animadverts with just severity on those commentators on Shakespeare who “are peculiarly and even zealously studious in minutely explaining and declaring all the various modes and receipts which the age of the Virgin Queen afforded, or recommended for the Queen of Love and soft desire.” He likewise declares “it was very bold and very indecent in the Reverend Dr. Warton, to publish Pope's imitation of the Second Satire of the first Book of Horace. Pope never printed it in his works himself; Dr. Warburton refused to admit it; no common edition whatsoever of Pope has admitted it; and it is printed only in a vulgar appendix in two volumes.” He says “Mr. Pope's works are distinguished for peculiar correctness in taste and morals; and are intended for the most general and unqualified perusal. But, speaking of some particular passages which Pope himself had designed should be buried in oblivion, but which Dr. Warton with perverse diligence had collected and caused to be printed, the Author of the Pursuits of Literature observes. “If Mr. Pope had often written thus his works must have been consigned to the library of a brothel. This edition of Pope's works will be sent into all parts of the civilized world, and can it be said that I speak without reason? Surely I am not pleading for public decency in vain.”

Since that period, as appears by English Reviews, the looser productions of Dryden, and other eminent poets, have been drawn from the sink of oblivion, and incorporated with the body of their works, by men who have at once degraded themselves, injured the reputation of the authors whose writings they have collected, and deserved the execration of all who wish well to the morals and happiness of the community.

An Edition of the works of the principal English Poets, has been published by Arthur Aikin, from which every thing is expunged which can shock the feelings of delicacy, wound the ear of modesty, or that has a tendency to seduce the reader from the path of moral rectitude.

It may, perhaps, not be amiss to give a list of some provincial words and phrases, which ought to be avoided by all who aspire to speak or write the English language correctly.

Ant, for am not, arbs for herbs, arm'd for earned, any for any or either, ax'd for asked, bate for beet, a garden vegetable, ban't for are not or be not, beyond for beyond, bile for boil, brassels for bristles, cheer for chair, chimbly for chimney, compel for propel, as the boat is compelled by steam, cutlash for cutlass, cute for acute, come for came, disgest for digest, dicker for deal, driv for drove, drovyer for drover, drownded for drowned, eat for ate in the preterite, sit for sought, furder for further, gal for girl, greggy for intoxicated, gin for gave, hash for harsh, housen for household, hubble a rough projection or knoll, han't for have not, his'n and her'n for his and hers, jest for just, kag for keg, hiver for cover, lasses for molasses, larnt for learned, meaching for mean, million for melon, nother for neither, neeger for negro, nurly for gnarled, obstrepolous for obstreperous, ourn for ours, pesky for troublesome, popular for populous, as a popular village, popple for poplar, quoto for quota, raly for really, refuge for refuse, rid for rode, and rid for riddance, resk for risk, rutes for roots, sallet for sallads, says I, for I said, scrabble for scribble, sich, or sicher for such, sign for design, sile for soil, splosh for splash, smudder for smother, squirm for writhe, or twist, spry for nimble, stunded for stunned, tantrum for tandem, taint for it is not, tenant for tenon, timorsome for timorous, valley for volley, vinge for voyage, yender for yonder.

This catalogue may be greatly enlarged, and if teachers of youth would generally turn their attention to the subject, it would not only induce a uniformity of dialect, but prevent that ridicule, which so frequently attaches to the use of what are sometimes called yankeyisms.

Bayle was an eminent French critic and philosopher of the 17th century, Bentley was an Englishman, his cotemporary, of distinguished abilities and erudition. These are used to represent learned men in general, as warriors are sometimes denominated Alexanders, or Statesmen “Solomons in council,” &c.

The Aborigines of America inflict a variety of tortures on those young candidates for martial eminence, who aspire to take the lead in their predatory and murderous excursions. This is done to test the fortitude of the would be warriors, and to ascertain whether they have a sufficient strength of constitution to endure the privations and sufferings which result from the honourable vocation of wielding the tomahawk, and scalping knife. The savages of South America have likewise their people of quality. But as they are all nearly or quite naked, they cannot display their gentility by the shape or colour of their garments. Of course the body itself must be subjected to the operation of fashion. They pierce the nose, slit the ears, mould the head into various shapes, either round, flat, conical or lengthened out, and in short do and suffer as much or more than is performed by, or inflicted upon a pretty Miss who is training for a toast, and is intended for a leader of the ton.

Madame de Geniis recommends that children of ten or twelve years of age should be taught house keeping, cooking accounts, washing, ironing, and weighing out medicines, in their play hours, with small doll's furniture and utensils. She thinks this would save much time, and prevent their mixing with servants as those plays would be always carried on in the presence of their mother or governess or under her direction. The girls, she observes, might dress dolls according to the fashion described in their geographical lessons, and prints of the costames of various nations, might be procured for that purpose. Girls should not be excluded from active exercise. “It is a material error,” says an able writer on education, “to make that ill-founded distinction between the sexes, which condemns young females, almost from their cradles, to a sedentary life, by giving them scarcely any other playthings but dolls, and tinsel work, or trinkets, while the sprightly boy amuses himself with his noisy drum and other active diversions. Such premature modesty is dearly purchased at the expense of health and of a cheerful mind. What an infatuation to train up sickly women, debilitated mothers, and consequently a debilitated offspring! “Sedentary diversions,” says Buchan, “are of no use but to consume time. Instead of relieving the mind they often require more thought than either study or business. Every thing which induces young people to sit still, unless it be some necessary employment should be avoided.

I shall give the testimony of a few eminent writers in favour of the uses of dancing. Its abuses have been adverted to in the lines immediately preceding those to which this note refers, “I know an eminent physician who used to say, that he made his children dance, instead of giving them physic. It were well if more people followed his example.”—

I consider dancing as conducive to health, and as sometimes a mean of preventing deformity; and even when there is no danger of that, all must see that it is the mean of making young people of both sexes stand, walk and sit, and even look and speak to advantage. It should be remembered that the end of dancing is not so much to make young people shine at a ball, as to give an easy air and grace to all the motions of the body.”—

“Let opulent parents put their children, as soon as they can walk with firmness under the care of the best dancing master they can engage. But let the tutor treat the learning to dance as a pastime not as a task.”—

“Dancing is now so universal that it cannot be dispensed with in the education of a gentleman.”—

“To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven,” said the wise man; but he said it before the invention of babyballs. This modern device is a sort of triple conspiracy against the innocence, the health, and the happiness of children; thus by factitious amusements to rob them of a relish for the simple joys, the unbought delights, which naturally belong to their blooming seasons, is like blotting out spring from the year. To sacrifice the true and proper enjoyments of sprightly and happy children, is to make them pay a dear and disproportionate price for their artificial pleasures. They step at once from the nursery to the ball-room, and by a preposterous change of habits, are thinking of dressing themselves, at an age when they used to be dressing their dolls.

“To behold liliputian coquettes, projecting dresses, studying colours, assorting ribbands and feathers, their little hearts beating with hopes about partners, and fears about rivals; and to see their fresh cheeks pale, after a midnight supper, their aching heads and unbraced nerves, disqualify the little languid beings for the next day's task, and hear the grave apology “that it is owing to the wine, the crowd, the heated room of the last night's ball,” all this, I say, would be very ridiculous, if the mischief of the thing did not take off from the merriment of it.”

Queen Margaret's bans and menaces are pretty liberally strewed through several of Shakspeare's plays. Her anathemas, however, on the “humpback'd tyrant,” in Richard III, commencing

Dr. Barrow, in an essay on education, treating of novels, observes, “Many works of this description in our language, may be read with innocence and safety. The novels of Fielding, of Richardson, and of Radcliffe, no man of taste will peruse without pleasure, and no man of reflection without improvement.”

Another celebrated author says, “I would by no means exclude this kind of reading which young people are so fond of, tho' I think the greatest care should be taken in the choice of those fictitious stories, which so enchant the mind, most of which have a tendency to inflame the passions of youth, while the chief purpose of education should be to moderate and restrain them. There are, however, works of this class, in which excellent morality is joined with the most lively pictures of the human mind, and with all that can entertain the imagination and interest the heart. But young people should never read any thing of the sentimental kind, with out taking the judgment of their best friends in the choice; for I am persuaded that the indiscriminate reading of such kinds of books corrupt more female hearts than any other cause whatsoever.”

“If women knew more men must learn more— for ignorance would then be shameful—and it would be the fashion to be instructed.”