lot. And infinitely more blessed will her condition be than my own, if I confine my sense of christianity to the easy labour of teaching others, without recollecting that I also am required to fight the same good fight of faith; for it is not the orator who encourages the combatants to buckle on their arms, but the victor who subdues his spiritual enemies, that will recieve the crown.

My motives for addressing these admonitions to one who so little requires to be taught her duty, have been stated. I have most happily experienced the effects which I predicted. By keeping you principally in my eye, I have felt my thoughts flow in a natural and easy train; and I flatter myself that you have been interested by topics remote from those in which your immediate utility was concerned. The judges to whom I am going to appeal will

determine how I have executed the extensive design that I formed. Should this work be destined to celebrity, I shall be much gratified by the public, attestation that will then be given to the sincere affection which is borne to you

by,

My dear Miss M

Your faithful and hereditary friend.

THE END.

f

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

PREFATORY ADDRESS.

Reasons for the present work. General inattention to the middle orders, in moral compositions. These Letters, though addressed to an individual, were originally composed for publication.

LETTER I.

INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF THE DESIGN.

Lively recollection of a lost friend. The attempts of revolutionists in this kingdom have hitherto met with more success in morals than in politics: Instanced in the reception of bad characters, free behaviour of married women, universal increase of luxury and expensiveness, dangerous.

sophisms, unsettled and erroneous notions of
religion, which are introduced into all kinds of
writings. Delicacy of the female character.
Women most fitted for domestic life. Their
duties, resources, and rewards; their degrada-
tion and fictitious trials. These subjects

proposed as the ground-work of a diffuse
correspondence.

LETTER II.

ORIGINAL DESTINATION OF WOMEN.

P. 34

Universal subjection of women. Their happy
situation in England. Portrait of the sex ful-
filling their required duties. Intended by nature
to be domestic. As accountable beings, must
be religious. Should possess a competent know-
ledge of the world, and of common transactions
in business. Their conduct traced through the
different ages of life. Women the refiners of
morals, the conservators of manners, the arbi-
ters of taste, might reform public amusements.
Simplicity, decency. The trials of the sex.
Subjection to man in every situation of life.
Their most acute miseries result from the mis-
conduct of those whom they love. How these
may be softened. Trials of temper in manag-
ing servants and children. Ill health,illregulated