enjoys. A great classical scholar is an ornament, and an important acquisition to his country; but, in a place of education, we would give to all knowledge an equal chance for distinction; and would trust to the varieties of human disposition that every science worth cultivation would be cultivated. Looking always to real utility as our guide, we should see, with equal pleasure, a studious and inquisitive mind arranging the productions of nature, investigating the qualities of bodies, or mustering the difficulties of the learned languages. We should not care whether he were chemist, naturalist, or scholar; because we know it to be as necessary that matter should be studied, and subdued to the use of man, as that taste should be gratified, and imagination inflamed. In those who were destined for the church, we would undoubtedly encourage classical learning more than in any other body of men; but if we had to do with a young man going out into public life, we would exhort him to contemn, or at least not to affect, the reputation of a great scholar, but to educate himself for the offices of civil life. He should learn what the constitution of his country really was, how it had grown into its present state, the perils that had threatened it, the malignity that had attacked it, the courage that had fought for it, and the wisdom that had made it great. We would bring strongly before his mind the characters of those Englishmen who have been the steady friends of the public happiness; and by their examples, would breathe into him a pure public taste which would keep him untainted in all the vicissitudes of political fortune. We would teach him to burst through the well-paid, and the pernicious cant of indiscriminate loyalty; and to know his sovereign only as he discharged those duties, and displayed those qualities, for which the blood and the treasure of his people are confided to his hands. We should deem it of the utmost importance that his attention was directed to the true principles of legislation-what effect laws can produce upon opinions, and opinions upon laws-what subjects are fit for legislative interference, and, when men may be left to the management of their own interests. The mischief occasioned by bad laws, and the perplexity which arises from numerous laws-the causes of national wealth-the relations of foreign trade the encouragement of manufactures and agriculture-the fictitious wealth occasioned by paper credit-the laws of population-the management of poverty and mendicity-the use and abuse of monopoly the theory of taxation-the consequences of the public debt. These are some of the subjects, and some of the branches of civil education to which we would turn the minds of fature judges, future senators, and future noblemen, After the first period of life had been given up to the cultivation of the classics, and the reasoning powers were now beginning to evolve themselves, these are some of the propensities in study which we would endeavour to inspire. Great knowedge, at such a period of life, we could not convey; but we might fix a decided taste for its acquisition, and a strong disposition to respect it in others. The formation of some great scholars we should certainly prevent, and hinder many from learning what, in a few years, they would necessarily forget; but this loss would be well repaid-if we could show the future rulers of the country that thought and labour which it requires to make a nation happy, or if we could inspire them with that love of public virtue, which, after religion, we most solemnly believe to be the brightest ornament of the mind of man. of women from the trifling pursuits to which they are now condemned-and to cultivate faculties which, under the actual system of management, might almost as well not exist. To the examination of his ideas upon these points, we shall very cheerfully give up a portion of our time and attention. A great deal has been said of the original difference of capacity between men and women; as if women were more quick, and men more judicious; as if women were more remarkable for delicacy of associa tion, and men for stronger powers of attention._All this, we confess, appears to us very fanciful. That there is a difference in the understandings of the men and the women we every day meet with, every body, we suppose, must perceive; but there is none surely which may not be accounted for by the difference of circumstances in which they have been placed, with out referring to any conjectural difference of original conformation of mind. As long as boys and girls run about in the dirt, and trundle hoops together, they are both precisely alike. If you catch up one half of these creatures, and train them to a particular set of actions and opinions, and the other half to a perfectly opposite set, of course their understandings will differ, as one or the other sort of occupations has called this or that talent into action. There is surely no occasion to go into any deeper or more abstruse reasoning, in order to explain so very simple a phenomenon. Taking it, then, for granted, that nature has been as bountiful of understanding to one sex as the other, it is incumbent on us to consider what are the principal objec tions commonly made against the communication of a greater share of knowledge to women than commonly falls to their lot at present: for though it may be doubted whether women should learn all that men learn, the immense disparity which now exists between their knowledge we would hardly think could admit of any rational defence. It is not easy to ima gine that there can be any just cause why a woman of forty should be more ignorant than a boy of twelve years of age. If there be any good at all in female ignorance, this (to use a very colloquial phrase) is sure ly too much of a good thing. Something in this question must depend, no doubt, upon the leisure which either sex enjoys for the cultivation of their understandings:-and we cannot help thinking, that women have fully as much, if not more idle time upon their hands than men. Women are excluded from all the serious business of the world; men are lawyers physicians, clergymen, apothecaries, and justices of the peace-sources of exertion which consume a great deal more time than producing and suckling children; so that, if the thing is a thing that ought to be done-if the attainments of literature are objects really worthy the attention of females, they cannot plead the want of leisure as an excuse for indolence and neglect. The lawyer, who passes his day in exasperating the bickerings of Roe and Doe, is certain ly as much engaged as his lady who has the whole of the morning before her to correct the children and pay the bills. The apothecary, who rushes from an act of phlebotomy in the western parts of the town to insinuate a bolus in the east, is surely as completely absorbed as that fortunate female, who is darning the garment, or preparing the repast of her Esculapius at home; and in every degree and situation in life, it seems that men must necessarily be exposed to more serious demands upon their time and attention than can possibly be the case with respect to the other sex. We are speaking always of the fair demands which ought to be made upon the time and attention of women; for, as the matter now stands, the time of women is considered as worth nothing at all. Daughters are kept to occupations in sewing, patching mantua-making, and mending, by which it is impossible they can earn tenpence a day. The intellectual improvement of wo Advice to Young Ladies on the Improvement of the Mind. By men is considered to be of such subordinate imporTHOMAS BROADHURST. 8vo. London, 1808. MR. BROADHURST is a very good sort of a man, who has not written a very bad book, upon a very important subject. His object (a very laudable one) is to recommend a better system of female education than at present prevails in this country-to turn the attention tance, that twenty pounds paid for needle-work would give to a whole family leisure to acquire a fund of real knowledge. They are kept with nimble fingers and vacant understandings till the season of improvement is utterly passed away, and all chance of forming more important habits completely lost. We do no therefore say that women have more leisure than men, if it be necessary that they should lead the life of artisans; but we make this assertion only upon the supposition, that it is of some importance women should be instructed; and that many ordinary occupations for which a little money will find a better substitute, should be sacrificed to this consideration. We bar in this discussion, any objection which proceeds from the mere novelty of teaching women more than they are already taught. It may be useless that their education should be improved, or it may be pernicious; and these are the fair grounds on which the question may be argued. But those who cannot bring their minds to consider such an unusual extension of knowledge, without connecting with it some sensation of the ludicrous, should remember that, in the progress from absolute ignorance, there is a period when cultivation of mind is new to every rank and description of persons. A century ago, who would have believed that country gentlemen could be brought to read and spell with the ease and accuracy which we now frequently remark, or supposed that they could be carried even to the elements of ancient and modern history? Nothing is more common or more stupid, than to take the actual for the possible-to believe that all which is, is all which can be; first, to laugh at every proposed deviation from practice as impossible-then, when it is carried into effect, to be astonished that it did not take place before. It is said, that the effect of knowledge is to make women pedantic and affected; and that nothing can be more offensive than to see a woman stepping out of the natural modesty of her sex to make an ostentatious display of her literary attainments. This may be true enough; but the answer is so trite and obvious, that we are almost ashamed to make it. All affectation and display proceed from the supposition of possessing something better than the rest of the world possesses. Nobody is vain of possessing two legs and two arms; -because that is the precise quantity of either sort of limb which every body possesses. Who ever heard a lady boast that she understood French?-for no other reason, that we know of, but because every body in these days does understand French; and though there may be some disgrace in being ignorant of that language, there is little or no merit in its acquisition. Dif. fuse knowledge generally among women, and you will at once cure the conceit which knowledge occasions while it is rare. Vanity and conceit we shail of course witness in men and women as long as the world endures: but by multiplying the attainments upon which these feelings are founded, you increase the difficulty of indulging them, and render them much more tolerable, by making them the proofs of much higher merit. When learning ceases to be uncommon among women, learned women will cease to be affected. A great many of the lesser and more obscure duties of life necessarily devolve upon the female sex. The arrangement of all household matters, and the care of children in their early infancy, must of course depend upon them. Now, there is a very general notion, that the moment you put the education of women upon a better footing than it is at present, at that moment there will be an end of all domestic economy; and that if you once suffer women to eat of the tree of knowledge, the rest of the family will very soon be reduced to the same kind of aerial and unsatisfactory diet. These, and all such opinions, are referable to one great and common cause of error;-that man does everything, and that nature does nothing; and that everything we see is referable to positive institution rather than to original feeling. Can anything, for example, be more perfectly absurd than to suppose that the care and perpetual solicitude which a mother feels for her children, depends upon her ignorance of Greek and mathematics; and that she would desert an infant for a quadratic equation? We seem to imagine that we can break in pieces the solemn institution of nature, by the little laws of a boarding-school; and that the existence of the human race depends upon teaching women a little more, or a little less;-that Cimmerian ignorance can aid paternal affection, or the circle of arts and sciences produce its destruction. In the same manner, we forget the principles upon which the love of order, arrangement, and all the arts or economy depend. They depend not upon ignorance nor idleness, but upon the poverty, confusion, and ruin which would ensue from neglecting them. Add to these principles, the love of what is beautiful and magnificent, and the vanity of display :-and there can surely be no reasonable doubt but that the order and economy of private life is amply secured from the perilous inroads of knowledge. We would fain know, too, if knowledge is to produce such baneful effects upon the material and the household virtues, why this influence has not already been felt? Women are much better educated now than they were a century ago; but they are by no means less remarkable for attention to the arrange. ment of their household, or less inclined to discharge the offices of parental affection It would be very easy to show that the same objection has been made at all times to every improvement in the education of both sexes and all ranks and been as uniformly and completely refuted by experience. A great part of the objections made to the education of women, are ra ther objections made to human nature than to the fe male sex: for it is surely true that knowledge, where it produces any bad effects at all, does as much mischief to one sex as to the other, and gives birth to fully as much arrogance, inattention to common affairs, and eccentricity, among men, as it does among women. But it by no means follows that you get rid of vanity and self-conceit, because you get rid of learning. Self-complacency can never want an excuse; and the best way to make it more tolerable, and more useful, is to give to it as high and as dignified an object as possible. But, at all events, it is unfair to bring forward against a part of the world an objection which is equally powerful against the whole. When foolish women think they have any distinction, they are apt to be proud of it; so are foolish men. appeal to any one who has lived with cultivated persons of either sex, whether he has not witnessed as much pedantry, as much wrongheadedness, as much arrogance, and certainly a great deal more rudeness, produced by learning in men, than in women; there fore, we should make the accusation general-or dismiss it altogether; though, with respect to pedantry, the learned are certainly a little unfortunate, that so very emphatic a word, which is occasionally applied to all men embarked eagerly in any pursuit, should be reserved exclusively for them: for, as pedantry is an ostentatious obtrusion of knowledge, in which those who hear us cannot sympathize, it is a fault of which soldiers, sailors, sportsmen, gamesters, cultivators, and all men engaged in a particular occupation, are quite as guilty as scholars; but they have the good fortune to have the vice only of pedantry,-while scholars have both the vice and the name of it too. But we Some persons are apt to contrast the acquisition of important knowledge with what they call simple pleasures; and deem it more becoming that a woman should educate flowers, make friendships wit a birds, and pick up plants, than enter into more difficult and fatiguing studies. If a woman has no taste and genius for higher occupations, let her engage in these, to be sure, rather than remain destitute of any pursuit. But why are we necessarily to doom a girl, whatever be her taste or her capacity, to one unvaried line of petty and frivolous occupation? If she is full of strong sense and elevated curiosity, can there be any reason why she should be diluted and enfeebled down to a mere culler of simples, and fancier of birds?--why books of history and reasoning are to be torn out of her hands, and why she is to be sent, like a butterfly, to hover over the idle flowers of the field? Such amusements are innocent to those whom they can occupy; but they are not innocent to those who have too powerful understandings to be occupied by them. Light broths and fruits are innocent food only to weak or to infant stomachs; but they are poison to that organ in its perfect and mature state. But the great charm seems to be in the word simplicity-simple pleasures! If by a simple pleasure is meant an innocent pleasure, the observation is best answered by showing, that the pleasure which results from the acquisition of important knowledge is quite as innocent as any pleasure whatever: but if by a simple pleasure is meant one, the cause of which can be easily analyzed, or which does not last long, or which in itself is very faint, then simple pleasures seem to be very nearly synonymous with small pleasures; and if the simplicity were to be a little increased, the pleasure would vanish altogether. We must in candour allow that those women who begin will have something more to overcome than may probably hereafter be the case. We cannot deny the jealousy which exists among pompous and foolish men respecting the education of women. There is a class of pedants who would be cut short in the estimation of the world a whole cubit if it were generally known that a young lady of eighteen could be taught to decline the tenses of the middle voice, or acquaint herself with the Eolic varieties of that celebrated language. Then women have, of course, all ignorant men for enemies to their instruction, who being bound (as they think), in point of sex, to know more, are not well pleased, in point of fact, to know less. But, among men of sense and liberal politeness, a woman who has succesfully cultivated her mind, without diminishing the gentleness and propriety of her manners, is always sure to meet with a respect and attention bordering upon enthusiasm. stances from all necessary labour: but every numan being must do something with their existence; and the pursuit of knowledge is upon the whole, the most innocent, the most dignified, and the most useful me thod of filling up that idleness, of which there is always so large a portion in nations far advanced in civilization. Let any man reflect, too, upon the solitary situation in which women are placed,-the ill treatment to which they are sometimes exposed, and which they must endure in silence, and without the power of complaining,-and he must feel convinced that the happiness of a woman will be materially increased in proportion as education has given her the habit and the means of drawing her resources from herself. As it is impossible that every man should have industry or activity sufficiently to avail himself of the advantages of education, it is natural that men who are ignorant themselves, should view, with some degree of jealousy and alarm any proposal for improving the education of women. But such men may depend upon it, however the system of female education may There are a few common phrases in circulation, rebe exalted, that there will never be wanting a due pro- specting the duties of women, to which we wish to portion of failures; and that after parents, guardians, pay some degree of attention, because they are rather and preceptors have done all in their power to make inimical to those opinions which we have advanced on everybody wise, there will be a plentiful supply of this subject. Indeed, independently of this, there is women who have taken special care to remain other-nothing which requires more vigilance than the curwise; and they may rest assured, if the utter extinc-rent phrases of the day, of which there are always tion of ignorance and folly is the evil they dread, that some resorted to in every dispute, and from the sovetheir interests will always be effectually protected, in reign authority of which it is often vain to make any spite of every exertion to the contrary. appeal. The true theatre for a woman is the sickchamber ;'- Nothing so honourable to a woman as not to be spoken of at all. These two phrases, the delight of Noodledom, are grown into common-places upon the subject; and are not unfrequently employed to extinguish that love of knowledge in women, which, in our humble opinion, it is of o much importance to cherish. Nothing, certainly, is so ornamental and delightful in women as the benevolent affections; but time cannot be filled up, and life employed, with high and impassioned virtues. Some of these feelings are of rare occurrence-all of short duration-or nature would sink under them. A scene of distress and anguish is an oceasion where the finest qualities of the female mind may be displayed; but it is a monstrous exaggeration to tell women that they are born only for scenes of distress and anguish. Nurse father, mother, sister, and brother, if they want it ;-it would be a violation of the plainest duties to neglect them. But, when we are talking of the common occupations of life, do not let us mistake the accidents for the occupations;-when we are arguing how the twentythree hours of the day are to be filled up, it is idle to tell us of those feelings and agitations above the level of common existence, which may employ the remaining hour. Compassion, and every other virtue, are the great objects we all ought to have in view; but no man (and no woman) can fill up the twenty-four hours by acts of virtue. But one is a lawyer, and the other a ploughman, and the third a merchant; and then, acts of goodness and intervals of compassion, and fine feeling, are scattered up and down the common occu. pations of life. We know women are to be compassionate; but they cannot be compassionate from eight o'clock in the morning till twelve at night :-and what ( are they to do in the interval? This is the only question we have been putting all along, and is all that can be meant by literary education. There is in either sex a strong and permanent disposition to appear agreeable to the other; and this is the fair answer to those who are fond of supposing, that an higher degree of knowledge would make women rather the rivals than the companions of men. Presupposing such a desire to please, it seems much more probable, that a common pursuit should be a fresh source of interest than a cause of contention. Indeed, to suppose that any mode of education can create a general jealousy and rivalry between the sexes, is so very ridiculous, that it requires only to be stated in order to be refuted. The same desire of pleasing secures all that delicacy and reserve which are of such inestimable value to women. We are quite astonished, in hearing men converse on such subjects, to find them attributing such beautiful effects to ignorance. It would appear, from the tenour of such objections, that ignorance had been the great civilizer of the world. Women are delicate and refined, only because they are ignorant ;-they manage their household, only because they are ignorant; they attend to their children, only because they know no better. Now, we must really confess, we have all our lives been so ignorant as not to know the value of ignorance. We have always attributed the modesty and refined manners of women, to their being well taught in moral and religious duty--to the hazardous situation in which they are placed, to that perpetual vigilance which it is their duty to exercise over thought, and word, and action,-and to that cultiva tion of the mild virtues, which those who cultivate the stern and magnanimous virtues expect at their hands. After all, let it be remembered, we are not saying there are no objections to the diffusion of knowledge among the female sex. We would not hazard such a proposition respecting any thing; but we are saying, that, upon the whole, it is the best method of employing time; and that there are fewer objections to it than to any other method. There are, perhaps, 50,000 females in Great Britain who are exempted by circum Then, again, as to the notoriety which is incurred by literature. The cultivation of knowledge is a very distinct thing from its publication; nor does it follow that a woman is to become an author merely because she has talent enough for it. We do not wish a lady to write books, to defend and reply,-to squabble about the tomb of Achilles, or the plain of Troy,-any more than we wish her to dance at the opera, to play at a public concert, or to put pictures in the exhibition, because she has learned music, dancing, and drawing. The great use of her knowledge will be that it contributes to her private happiness. She may make it public: but it is not the principal object which the friends of female education have in view. Among men, the few who write bear no comparison to the many who read. We hear most of the former, indeed, because they are, in general, the most ostentatious part of literary men; but there are innumerable persons who, without ever laying themselves before the public, have made use of literature to add to the strength of their understandings, and to improve the happiness of their lives, After all, it may be an evil for ladies to be talked of: but we really think those | ladies who are talked of only as Mrs. Marcet, Mrs. Somerville, and Miss Martineau are talked of, may bear their misfortunes with a very great degree of Christian patience. has, she is driven out of them by diameter and deri sion. The system of female education, as it now stands, aims only at embellishing a few years of life, which are in themselves so full of grace and happiness, that they hardly want it; and then leaves the rest of Their exemption from all the necessary business of existence a miserable prey to idle insignificance. No life is one of the most powerful motives for the im- woman of understanding and reflection can possibly provement of education in women. Lawyers and conceive she is doing justice to her children by such physicians have in their professions a constant motive kind of education. The object is, to give to children to exertion; if you neglect their education, they must resources that will endure as long as life endures,in a certain degree educate themselves by their com- habits that time will ameliorate, not destroy,-occumerce with the world: they must learn caution, ac-pations that will render sickness tolerable, solitude euracy, and judgment, because they must incur re-pleasant, age venerable, life more dignified and useful, sponsibility. But if you neglect to educate the mind and therefore death less terrible: and the compensa. of a woman, by the speculative difficulties which tion which is offered for the ommission of all this, is a occur in literature, it can never be educated at all: if short-lived blaze, a little temporary effect, which has you do not effectually rouse it by education, it must no other consequence than to deprive the remainder remain for ever languid. Uneducated men may escape of life of all taste and relish. There may be women intellectual degradation; uneducated women cannot, who have a taste for the fine arts, and who evince a They have nothing to do; and if they come untaught decided talent for drawing, or for music. In that from the schools of education, they will never be in-case, there can be no objection to the cultivation of structed in the school of events. these arts; but the error is, to make such things the Women have not their livelihood to gain by know. grand and universal object, to insist upon it that ledge; and that is one motive for relaxing all those every woman is to sing, and draw, and dance-with efforts which are made in the education of men. They nature, or against nature, to bind her apprentice to certainly have not; but they have happiness to gain, some accomplishment, and if she cannot succeed in to which knowledge leads as probably as it does to oil or water-colours, to prefer gilding, varnishing, burprofit; and that is a reason against mistaken indul-nishing, box-making, to real solid improvement in taste, gence. Besides, we conceive the labour and fatigue knowledge, and understanding. of accomplishments to be quite equal to the labour and fatigue of knowledge; and that it takes quite as many years to be charming as it does to be learned. Another difference of the sexes is, that women are attended to, and men attend All acts of courtesy and politeness originate from the one sex, and are received by the other. We can see no sort of reason, in this diversity of condition, for giving to women a trifling and insignificant education; but we see in it a very powerful reason for strengthening their judgment, and inspiring them with the habit of employing time usefully. We admit many striking differences in the situation of the two sexes, and many striking differences of understanding, proceeding from the dif ferent circumstances in which they are placed: but there is not a single difference of this kind which does not afford a new argument for making the education of women better than it is. They have nothing serious to do;-is that a reason why they should be brought up to do nothing but what is trifling? They are exposed to great dangers ;-is that a reason why their faculties are to be purposely and industriously weakened? They are to form the characters of future men;-is that a cause why their own characters are to be broken and frittered down as they now are? In short, there is not a single trait in that diversity of circumstances, in which the two sexes are placed, that does not decidedly prove the magnitude of the error we commit in neglecting (as we do neglect) the education of women. whe A great deal is said in favour of the social nature of the fine arts. Music gives pleasure to others. Drawing is an art, the amusement of which does not centre in him who exercises it, but is diffused among the rest of the world. This is true; but there is no. thing, after all, so social as a cultivated mind. We do not mean to speak slightingly of the fine arts, or to depreciate the good humour with which they are sometimes exhibited; but we appeal to any man, ther a little spirited and sensible conversation-displaying, modestly, useful acquirements-and evincing rational curiosity, is not well worth the highest exertions of musical or graphical skill. A woman of accomplishments may entertain those who have the pleasure of knowing her for half an hour with great brilliancy; but a mind full of ideas, and with that elastic spring which the love of knowledge only can convey, is a perpetual source of exhilaration and amusement to all that come within its reach ;-not collecting its force into single and insulated achieve. ments, like the effort made in the fine arts-but dif fusing, equally over the whole of existence, a calm pleasure-better loved as it is longer felt-and suitable to every variety and every period of life. Therefore, instead of hanging the understanding of a woman upon walls, or hearing it vibrate upon strings,-instead of seeing it in clouds, or hearing it in the wind, we would make it the first spring and ornament of society, by enriching it with attainments upon which alone such power depends. If the objections against the better education of wo- If the education of women were improved, the edumen could be overruled, one of the great advantages cation of men would be improved also. Let any one that would ensue would be the extinction of innumera- consider (in order to bring the matter more home by ble follies. A decided and prevailing taste for one or an individual instance) of what immense importance another mode of education there must be. A century to society it is, whether a nobleman of first-rate forpast, it was for housewifery-now it is for accomplish- tune and distinction is well or ill brought up ;--what ments. The object now is, to make women artists, a taste and fashion he may inspire for private and for to give them an excellence in drawing, music, paint-political vice !-and what misery and mischief he may ing, and dancing, of which, persons who make these pursuits the occupation of their lives, and derive from them their subsistence, need not be ashamed. Now, one great evil of all this is, that it does not last. If the whole of life were an Olympic game,-if we could go on feasting and dancing to the end, this might do; but it is in truth merely a provision for the little interval between coming into life, and settling in it; while it leaves a long and dreary expanse behind, devoid both of dignity and cheerfulness. No mother, no woman who has passed over the few first years of life, sings, or dances, or draws, or plays upon musical in struments! These are merely means for displaying the grace and vivacity of youth, which every woman gives up, as she gives up the dress and the manners eighteen; she has no wish to retain them; or, if she produce to the thousand human beings who are dependent on him! A country contains no such curse within its bosom. Youth, wealth, high rank, and vice, form a combination which baffles all remonstrance and beats down all opposition. A man of high rank who combines these qualifications for corruption, is almost the master of the manners of the age, and has the public happiness within his grasp. But the most beautiful possession which a country can have is a noble and rich man, who loves virtue and knowledge; who without being feeble or fanatical is pious -and who without being factious is firm and inde. pendent ;-who, in his political life, is an equitable mediator between king and people; and, in his civil life, a firm promoter of all which can shed a lustre upon his country, or promote the peace and order of the world. But if these objects are of the importance | perils which make it necessary that such talents which we attribute to them, the education of women should be totally extinguished, or, at most, very par must be important, as the formation of character for tially drawn out. The burthen of proof does not lie the first seven or eight years of life seems to depend with those who say, increase the quantity of talent in almost entirely upon them. It is certainly in the any country as much as possible-for such a proposi power of a sensible and well-educated mother to in- tion is in conformity with every man's feelings: but spire within that period, such tastes and propensities it lies with those who say, take care to keep that unas shall nearly decide the destiny of the future man; derstanding weak and trifling, which nature has made and this is done, not only by the intentional exertions capable of becoming strong and powerful. The paraof the mother, but by the gradual and insensible imi- dox is with them, not with us. In all human reasontation of the child; for there is something extremely ing, knowledge must be taken for a good, till it can contagious in greatness and rectitude of thinking, even be shown to be an evil. But now, nature makes to us at that age; and the character of the mother with rich and magnificent presents; and we say to herwhom he passes his early infancy, is always an event You are too luxuriant and munificent-we must keep of the utmost importance to the child. A merely ac- you under, and prune you;-we have talents enough complished woman cannot infuse her tastes into the in the other half of the creation;-and, if you will not minds of her sons; and, if she could, nothing could stupefy and enfeeble the mind of women to our hands, be more unfortunate than her success. Besides, when we ourselves must expose them to a narcotic process, her accomplishments are given up, she has nothing and educate away that fatal redundance with which left for it but to amuse herself in the best way she the world is afflicted, and the order of sublunary things can; and, becoming entirely frivolous, either declines deranged. altogether the fatigues of attending to her children, One of the greatest pleasures of life is conversation; or, attending to them, has neither talents nor know--and the pleasures of conversation are of course enledge to succeed; and therefore, here is a plain and hanced by every increase of knowledge: not that we fair answer to those who ask so triumphantly, why should meet together to talk of alkalis and angles, or should a woman dedicate herself to this branch of to add to our stock of history and philology-though knowledge? or why should she be attached to such a little of these things is no bad ingredient in converscience?-Because, by having gained information on sation; but let the subject be what it may, there is these points, she may inspire her son with valuable always a prodigious difference between the conversatastes, which may abide by him through life, and car- tion of those who have been well educated and of ry him up to all the sublimities of knowledge;-be- those who have not enjoyed this advantage. Educacause she cannot lay the foundation of a great charac- tion gives fecundity of thought, copiousness of illus ter, if she is absorbed in frivolous amusements, nor tration, quickness, vigour, fancy, words, images, and inspire her child with noble desires, when a long illustrations;-it decorates every common thing, and course of trifling has destroyed the little talents which gives the power of trifling without being undignified were left by a bad education. and absurd. The subjects themselves may not be wanted upon which the talents of an educated man have been exercised; but there is always a demand for those talents which his education has rendered strong and quick. Now, really, nothing can be fur. ther from our intention than to say any thing rude and unpleasant; but we must be excused for observing that it is not now a very common thing to be interested by the variety and extent of female knowledge. but it is a very common thing to lament that the finest faculties in the world have been confined to trifles utterly unworthy of their richness and their strength. It is of great importance to a country, that there should be as many understandings as possible actively employed within it. Mankind are much happier for the discovery of barometers, thermometers, steam-engines, and all the innumerable inventions in the arts and sciences. We are every day and every hour reap ing the benefit of such talent and ingenuity. The same observation is true of such works as those of Dryden, Pope, Milton, and Shakspeare. Mankind are much happier that such individuals have lived and written; they add every day to the stock of public enjoyment-and perpetually gladden and embellish life. Now, the number of those who exercise their The pursuit of knowledge is the most innocent and understandings to any good purpose, is exactly in interesting occupation which can be given to the proportion to those who exercise it at all; but, as the female sex; nor can there be a better method of checkmatter stands at present, half the talent in the uni-ing a spirit of dissipation than by diffusing a taste for verse runs to waste, and is totally unprofitable. It literature. The way to attack vice, is by setting would have been almost as well for the world, hither-up something else against it. Give to women, in to, that women, instead of possessing the capacities early youth, something to acquire, of sufficient inthey do at present, should have been born wholly destitute of wit, genius, and every other attribute of mind, of which men make so eminent an use: and the ideas of use and possession are so united together, that, because it has been the custom in almost all countries to give to women a different and a worse education than to men, the notion has obtained that they do not possess faculties which they do not culti-supply. vate. Just as, in breaking up a common, it is some. It sometimes happens that an unfortunate man gets times very difficult to make the poor believe it will drunk with very bad wine,-not to gratify his palate, carry corn, merely because they have been hitherto but to forget his cares: he does not set any value on accustomed to see it produce nothing but weeds and what he receives, but on account of what it excludes: grass-they very naturally mistake present condition it keeps out something worse than itself. Now, for general nature. So completely have the talents though it were denied that the acquisition of serious of women been kept down, that there is scarcely a knowledge is of itself important to a woman, still it single work, either of reason or imagination, written prevents a taste for silly and pernicious works of imaby a woman, which is in general circulation either in gination; it keeps away the horrid trash of novels; the English, French, or Italian literature;-scarcely and, in lieu of that eagerness for emotion and adven. one that has crept even into the ranks of our minor ture which books of that sort inspire, promotes a calm poets. and steady temperament of mind. If the possession of excellent talents is not a conclusive reason why they should be improved, it at least amounts to a very strong presumption; and, if it can be shown that women may be trained to reason and imagine as well as man, the strongest reasons are certainly necessary to show us why we should not avail ourselves of such rich gifts of nature; and we have a right to call for the clear statement of those terest and importance to command the application of their mature faculties, and to excite their perse verance in future life-teach them that happiness is to be derived from the acquisition of knowledge, as well as the gratification of vanity: and you will raise up a much more formidable barrier against dissipation than an host of exhortations and invectives can A man who deserves such a piece of good fortune, may generally find an excellent companion for all the vicissitudes of life; but it is not so easy to find a companion for his understanding, who has similar pursuits with himself, or who can comprehend the pleasure he derives from them. We really see no reason why it should not be otherwise; nor comprehend how the pleasures of domestic life can be promoted by dimi |