themselves, they fall into habits of insignificance without much pain: if they marry persons more accomplished, they can retain no hold of their affections. Hence many matrimonial miseries, in the midst of which the wife finds it a consolation, to be always complaining of her health and ruined nerves. In the education of young women we would saylet them be secured from all the trappings and manacles of such a system: let them partake of every active exercise not absolutely unfeminine, and trust to their being able to get into or out of a carriage with a light and graceful step, which no drilling can accomplish. Let them rise early and retire early to rest, and trust that their beauty will not need to be coined into artificial smiles in order to secure a welcome, whatever room they enter. Let them ride, walk, run, dance, in the open air. Encourage the merry and innocent diversions in which the young delight: let them, under proper guidance, explore every hill and valley: let them plant and cultivate the garden, and make hay when the summer sun shines, and surmount all dread of a shower of rain or the boisterous wind; and, above all, let them take no medicine except when the doctor orders it. The demons of hysteria and melancholy might hover over a group of young ladies so brought up but they would not find one of them upon whom they could exercise any power."-Foreign Quarterly Review. There is nothing in nature more capricious, contagious, and at the same time, contaminating, than Fashion: hence, appearances and personages, which are now beheld with approbation and complacency, would twenty years ago, have been seen with shame, disgust and execration and hence, mankind, in the different ages of the world, have practised the most unnatural and diabolical evils and vices, till they became both familar and fashionable. We will all agree, that to bring up the rising generation in the path of virtue, is an indispensable and important duty; for, on the virtue of our children, the prosperity, nay the existence of society depends. It will, of course, appear that whatever precept or example is inculcated or exhibited in the present age to our youth, will, according to its merits or demerits, have a deleterious or salutary tendency, in the subsequent generation. As rational beings, we should, both by precept and example, endeavour with indefatigable assiduity to improve the physical, intellectual and moral faculties of our offspring. By this means we will lay the foundation of a life of happiness and utility; but, by a contrary line of conduct, facilitate their ruin. For a moment, reflect on the shortness of time, the certainty of the approach of death, and the vanity of riches, (which this messenger will, sooner or later, force us to relinquish) as well as on the intrinsic excellency of virtue, and the deformity of vice. For the None but the philanthropist and sincere christian can judge of the fatality of the contagious and popular vices which at present, as well as formerly, have brought destruction upon nations, desolation upon families, discord amongst friends, and ruin upon both the bodies and souls of men. debauchee, or fashionable libertine, being a stranger to the endearing connexions and affections by which families are connected, never anticipates the afflictions and dismay which his lawless crimés produce, in the bosoms of virtuous retirement. He thinks little about the tears he will cause to flow, and the anguish and despair he will create. Not unlike the spider which spreads his fallacious snare, and watches with anxious solicitude the moment the unconscious fly approaches it, when he rushes on his innocent prey, which struggles to gain its liberty and life, but, alas! in vain; and if it should extricate itself, it is so debilitated and wounded that it never recovers strength, but lingers through life in perfect misery. Thus this pest of society lays in wait to entangle and destroy innocent females, who have no friends to defend them, and no relatives to redress their wrongs. If a solitary gleam of pity flashes across his iron mind, it is instantly effaced by the more potent call of lawless passion. I am bold to say, that some fashionable females would be less fascinating were they to go altogether naked for instance, a person may display in part an object, which will be truly captivating by exhibiting the most attracting part to view, and screening the rest as still more delightful. There is not an individual of the human family (idiots and lunatics excepted,) who has not one or more talents imparted, and a portion of salutary labour appropriated for the exercise 1 of such talent or talents, by the improvement of which he may, in a greater or less degree, promote the glory of God, in the cause of virtue, and the good of mankind. The Eternal prohibits his children from nothing but what would be injurious to them. Those who obey his requirings, enjoy a paradise on earth, in reflecting that they, with a sincere heart, endeavour to do his will. Thus, in the midst of misfortune and disappointment, the virtuous are crowned with joy and peace, while the vicious are tormented with the thoughts of their present guilt, and the prospect of their future misery. The injudicious farmer suffers his colt to remain in the woodlands (instead of raising and nurturing it under his im mediate inspection) till it has gained its native strength, with accumulated fierceness. The owner, being pressed by his wants, now pursues, endeavouring to recover his horse, but in vain. The horse is rendered useless to him, and dangerous to the public through his neglect. Thus thousands of chil dren are not only useless to their parents, but bring their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, through their wildness and disobedience. And they not only endanger the peace of others by their blind impetuosity, but hurry themselves headlong into excesses which terminate in their ruin. The child of a savage, and that of a sage, are (excepting their hereditary dispositions) the same by nature. By letting them remain uncultivated, they will both be wild, though it may be, their quickness of cultivation may not be the same on their intellectual improvement. Let us for a moment cast our eyes on the theatre of war in Europe, and ask our hearts the cause of all this havoc, slaughter, discord, devastation, and anarchy which we behold. -While individuals, families, and nations arm for war, and, on the most trifling occasions, rush against each other with the fury of roaring lions, and with the impetuosity of maniacs, malevolent and furious to spill each other's blood, the answer is ready, the reason is obvious, to wit, PASSION! unrestrained, unhallowed PASSION. And it is not the present age only that has been famous, or rather infamous, for the depredations of sanguinary warfare, but also former generations have tinged the native green with cruel red; have cast libations of human blood into the briny deep; have raised whole hecatombs of human bodies, as trophies in honour of the goddess of victory. And when we descend from national to individual suicide, we behold with an equal degree of horror, the tragical catastrophes resulting from domestic and individual discord: here we see revenge, envy, covetousness, jealousy, rage, with unbridled license: here the outlawed villain sends the glittering death through the guiltless body of the inoffensive traveller; robs him of his money, while his blood is yet warm on the reeking blade. There the legal villain, on account of some trifling misunderstanding, calls his brother into the field, and sends the leaden ball through his body with impunity, while he screens himself from all imputation under the august canopy of public patronage or popular custom. I do, indeed, exalt the female character higher than the male, in those qualifications which ennoble human nature, and assimilate it to the angelic; benevolence, sympathy, commiseration, and in every other acquirement which men have, or ever will succeed, the natural genius of women can, if improved, make, with equal opportunities, the same attainments. My object is to show women themselves what noble, exalted, glorious beings they are, while they act conformably to their high vocation. In most parts of the world, females are considered by the male part of society, merely as objects of sensual convenience and domestic accommodation; possessed with animal, but destitute of immortal spirits; and even in christendom, many degrade and represent them as inferior, in point of intellectual faculties to the male. I must impute this strange infatuation, this unnatural conclusion, to error in education, a wrong association of ideas in youth, which is handed down from one generation to another, as it were, by hereditary succession; till that hypothesis, which is in fact, an insult to common sense, daily experience, and the nature of things, is, by custom, reduced to a natural supposition, a received opinion. Is not a judicious, education the best fortune a child, whether male or female, can receive? Why then, have a large majority of the sons of men adopted the most spurious, the most unjust, and ungenerous sentiments respecting the female character, and the most farcical and ludicrous notions respecting female education? Why in the name of wonder, is the cultivation of the female mind, even by the refined sons of Europe, considered merely as a matter of secondary consideration, except it is amongst the rich and affluent; and even then one would suppose, by the education that many parents give their daughters, that they intend them to be playactors or dancing girls, instead of being the prudent and judicious mothers of respectable families; and this, I will be bold to say, is the radical cause that multitudes of these characters called ladies, are the most useless beings, the most vain, capricious, versatile, gaudy, and affected mortals in the creation. Let ardent heroes seek renown in arms, Nor thund'ring drums provoke the sanguine war: The ruffling cares which the vex'd soul annoy, |