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knowledge among fuch as are lefs diligent, or lefs advanced*. It is, however, confeffed, that the method now propofed, is impracticable in its full extent, except on the fuppofition that, during the mafter's abfence, the fenior pupils have access to books which treat more largely of the fubjects recommended to their study. The mention of this circumftance naturally leads me to advert to the great utility of a school-libraryt for the use of those scholars.

In the beft-regulated feminaries vacant hours occur, many of which will be often wafted in the perufal of pernicious, or at

beft,

*It will not, I truft, be thought irrelative to the present subject to remark in this place, that befides the method here recommended, of an attempt to diffuse, in fome small degree at least, general knowledge, through the medium of a particular branch of education, a writing-mafter has it, moreover, in his power, to introduce much mifcellaneous information into the schools which he attends, by means of a judicious choice of copies for the fenior pupils*, particularly geographical ones, and fuch as contain hiftorical facts, biographical anecdotes, &c. relative to places, rivers, and the like. Thefe examples being tranfcribed by the fcholar, committed to memory, the refpective places fought in an atlas (a purfuit which will always afford great entertainment) and then recited to the mafter, at the time above fpecified, the pupil, withal, being enjoined to relate in what particular part of the map, fection of the globe, &c. the places were found, will, in a fhort time, and with very little additional trouble to either party, be found to furnish even such as do not learn geography scientifically, with a confiderable portion of the knowledge in queflion, and tend to imprefs, almost indelibly, upon the minds of those who do, the moft valuable part of the leffons which they flatedly receive in this delightful ftudy. Let me add, that this is not a mere fpeculative, theoretical plan, but one whofe practicability and fuccefs have been long fanctioned by my own experience.

N. B. It is meant, that the recital above mentioned fhould include the copies which were written on both writing-days, to give the pupils the habit of retaining what they learnt.

* See the preface to my engraved Introduction to Arithmetic.

+ The examples here recommended fhould alfo be occafionally diverfified with extracts from eminent moral writers and the best poets, agreeably to the obfervation of Quintilian, who fays, "I would have the writing copy lines to confiit not of idle "fentences, but of fuch as should inculcate fome moral precept. The remembrance "will continue to old age, and the impreffion on a tender mind may prove conducive ❝to a virtuous life. The fayings, likewife, of illuftrious men, and felect paffages "out of poets, things very agreeable to children, may be learned by way of diver"fion."

De Infiitutione Oratoria, lib. I. cap. 1.

The following, it is apprehended, would be proper books for the formation of fuch a collection. The hiftories of Great-Britain and Ireland; of Greece and Rome, and of the moft confiderable European nations. Rollin's Ancient Hiftory. Plutarch's Lives, tranflated by Langhorne. Ruffell's Hiftory of Modern Europe. Biographical Dictionary, 12 vols. 8vo. laft edit.

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best, frivolous novels*, if better books are not at hand. We are fully fenfible with Dr. Knox, that, as a regular course of history would too much interfere with other parts of learning in the academies of young gentlemen, fome of the time of recreation must be allotted to the attainment of that invaluable acquifition. Females, in general, are exactly in the fame predicament; and should, therefore, be encouraged to devote a part

British Biography, 12 vols. 8vo. British Plutarch, 8 vols. 12mo. Good Tranflations of the Greek and Roman Claffics, fo ftrongly and forcibly recommended to the perufal of the ladies, by the late Mr. Sheridan, in his lectures. Dr. Knox is also of opinion, that ladies, fuch of them at least as poffefs genius, fhould be brought to as much knowledge of the Greek and Roman claffics, as their fituation and circumftances will permit; and others, he fays. "fhould be well and early acquainted with the French and the "English claffics.-Milton, Addifon, and Pope, must be the ftanding models "in English; Boileau, Fontenelle, and Vertot in French." The following are alfo proper books for fuch a school-library. Lempriere's Claffical Dictionary. Mortimer's Student's Dictionary. Some of the beft periodical publications. A large, but well chofen, collection of those small, but valuable tracts, exprefsly written for the improvement of youth, fuch as Sandford and Merton, Evenings at Home, &c. The Cyclopædia. The Encyclopædia Britannica. The Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, Rambler, and Adventurer. Mrs. Rowe's Letters, moral and entertaining. Gay's Fables. Moore's Fables for the Female Sex. Cotton's Vifions in verfe. Mafon's Self-knowledge. Dr. Gregory's Father's Legacy to his Daughters. Mrs. Chapone's Letters. Ancient and Modern Atlaffes. Dr. Prieftley's Hiftorical and Biographical Charts, &c. Dr. Watts, the countefs of Sillery, and other eminent writers on education, recommend that maps, charts, hiftorical prints, &c. fhould be fufpended at length, in rooms appropriated to educa

tion.

To a library thus furnished, the parents of fuch children, as are capable of benefiting by it, could not reasonably object to fubfcribe 10s. a year; a fum, which, in a tolerably large school, would, in no great length of time, completely reimburse the governefs, for the expence incursed by the first purchase of the books, and enable her to make occafional additions.

* "The frivolity of the age, fays an elegant writer, affords a very shameful encouragement to a fpecies of literary compofition called a NOVEL, which is nothing more than a romance taken from the manners of the times; and is, in gencral, worked up in fuch a form, as to corrupt the minds of young women, and to enable old ones to murder that time of which they have fo little remaining." It is, indeed, poflible, for excellent fentiments, and valuable knowledge, to be communicated in the form of a novel; but there are very few productions of this kind in our language; and, in general, it is much better for young perfons to employ fuch time, as they can spare for that purpose, in the perufal of real hiftory, and of biographical accounts of perfons eminent for virtue and for knowledge. But among moral romances, and thofe from which useful knowledge may be derived, may be mentioned the following. Telemachus. Robinfon Crufoe. Dr. Johnson's Raffelas, Prince of Abyffinia. Dr. Hawkefworth's Almoran and Hamet. Hiftory of David Simple. Julia, by Mifs Williams. Eugenius; or, Anecdotes of the Golden Vale. And the Hiflory of Philip Waldegrave, lately publifhed by T. EVANS.

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of those seasons of relaxation to the acquifition of a species of knowledge, which, however neceffary and ornamental, the multiplicity of ordinary bufinefs renders unattainable at other times. It is hoped, that the following performance will not be thought altogether ill calculated to facilitate the defirable end just mentioned; as many of the questions in it either create fome new idea, convey fome ufeful or pleafing information, or fix the date of fome memorable transaction; a circumftance deemed of fuch confequence by Mrs. Chapone, that she obferves, "It is to little << purpose that you are able to mention a fact, if you cannot "nearly ascertain the time in which it happened, which alone, "in many cafes, gives importance to the fact itself." The fame judicious writer elsewhere remarks, not inapplicably to the general defign of the following compilation, that "whatever "tends to embellifh the understanding, and to furnish the mind "with ideas to reflect upon when alone, or to converfe upon in "company, is certainly well worth the acquisition."

But let us direct our attention principally to female education, which judicious obfervers have reprefented as fo eminently conducive to the welfare of a state. Now, in order to estimate the high obligations women of cultivated minds may confer on the community, let us, first, reflect with Rouffeau, that "the edu"cation of most consequence, is that which is received in infan"cy; and this firft education belongs incontestably to the "WOMEN." The early part of education muft, therefore, be one of the mother's moft appropriate and most important duties.

To select a few examples, among the ancients, especially the Roman matrons, among whom the economical virtues, particularly indefatigable industry in the cultivation of the minds of their offspring, continued longeft to flourish. Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi; Aurelia, of Julius Cæfar; and Attia, of Auguftus, fuperintended the education of their refpective children.Among the Greeks, he of whom antiquity, fanctioned by the teftimony of an oracle, boafts itself as of the wifeft of mortals, who is called by a modern author, "the Philofophic Patriarch, and "the divinest man, who ever appeared in the heathen world," even SOCRATES himfelf, derived confiderable advantage from the converfation of Diotyma and Afpafia, women who are faid to have been excellently learned.

Why, demanded a Perfian ambassador, are women held in fuch high estimation at Lacedæmon? Because, replied the confort of Leonidas, they only are competent to form men. To a Greek lady who difplayed her jewels before Phocion's mother,

and

and expressed a defire of seeing her's, the latter introduced her CHILDREN, faying, Thefe are my jewels and ornaments; I hope one day they will be all my glory.

"Will the important bufinefs of DRESSING and going to "public places," afks Dr. Knox, "prove fo fatisfactory to "mothers, a few years hence, as the consciousness of having "fown the feeds of virtue, taste, and learning, in the infant "bofoms of their own offspring?" Pitiable, indeed, is the mother, if the deferves the name, who knows not, that such an office has sweets beyond the giddinefs of pleasure, the incenfe of admiration, and the effence of perfumes.

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If, in the next place, we obferve, how greatly the conduct of men is influenced by the other fex; what effectual discouragement their influence gives to vice and ignorance in their male relatives and acquaintance; "that" as the elegant writer just quoted pertinently obferves, "the dignity of female virtue, confiftently supported, is better calculated than any moral leffon, "to ftrike confufion and awe into the breast of the EMPTY and "ARTFUL VILLAIN; and that they may indeed become the BEST REFORMERS:" thefe, with other obvious confiderations, will abundantly evince the fingular advantages neceffarily refulting from female improvement.

Should any doubts ftill remain of the very exalted benefits, which, we contend, naturally and neceffarily flow from female influence, let an appeal be made to matter of fact, I mean to ancient and modern hiftory. To felect only two or three prominent and decifive inftances, out of the innumerable examples which the records of all nations fupply in the utmost profufion. Who is ignorant of the patriotic ardour, the invincible intrepidity, infpired by the truly laconic admonition of the Spartan matrons to their husbands and fons, when, after the last embrace that preceded an expected conflict, they charged them "to return either WITH OR UPON THEIR SHIELDS*." In Dr. Gordon's Hiftory of the American Revolution, what decifive effects do we not frequently perceive resulting from the exhortations of the DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY, on that continent, to their near kindred and others, to extirpate tyranny, and plant

It was the first and most inviolable law of war with the Spartans, never to flee, or turn their backs, whatever fuperiority of numbers the enemy's army might confift of; never to quit their poft; never to deliver up their arms; in a word, either to conquer, or to die on the spot.-And sometimes they that were flain were brought home upon their fhields.

independence

independence in the foil which the baleful weed had fo long and fo lawlessly appropriated. Our own country affords paflages equally animating. Its annals will, in the perfons of the queens Boadicea*, Matildat, Margarett, and Elizabeth§, as well as ladies of inferior rank, exemplify not only how forcibly females have exhorted, but how magnanimoufly they have achieved. Of the diftinguished fuccefs of the fame fex in alinoft every department of ftudy, even the most curfory notice is fuperfluous, at leaft in England, where we are all admiring witnelles of the deep reflection, manly eloquence, refined fentiment, and claffic wit, which are difplayed in many of their productions||. What juft appreciator, then, of the eminence of our fair countrywomen in every literary, not to fay fcientific, purfuit, will charge the author with the introduction of many queftions irrelative to female education? will cenfure him for having borrowed most of his themes from fubjects in which, at this very day, fo many adult ladies excel, rather than compofing questions in the common routine way?

In the mean time, without expecting a formal defence of the propriety of every individual queftion in this collection, I am encouraged to hope, that the candid and the ferious part of the public will approve of a defign (however imperfectly it may have been executed) which has for its chief object a defire to facilitate the path of fcience, to allure the learner to mental exertions, to imprefs an early veneration and love for civil and religious LIBERTY, to exhibit the beauty of virtue, and the fatal confequences of vice and profligacy; to hold up to the admiration of the rifing generation characters eminent for patriotifm, benevolence, and general philanthropy; and to their deteftation and abhorrence thofe of defpots, tyrants, and perfecutors; to inculcate rational and manly ideas of government, and to enforce

* Boadicea, a celebrated British heroine, who being defeated and ill used by the Romans, poifoned herfelf, A. D. 61.

Matilda defeated king Stephen, and took him prifoner at the battle of Lincoln, in 1141.

Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI. fignalized herfelf, by heading her troops, in feveral battles, againft the houfe of York.

Every hiftory of England is enriched with Elizabeth's fpeech to the troops which he had encamped at Tilbury-Fort, to oppofe the expected Spanish invafion.

To fuch of our young readers as may not be acquainted with the refpective merits and names of our most celebrated female writers, we earnestly recommend the perufal of an inftructive and entertaining performance entitled "DIALOGUES concerning the LADIES," fold by C. DILLY, in the Poultry, and T. EVANS, in Paternofter-Row.

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