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of neatness, and give them a notion of making up the articles of dress with taste and elegance. The love of neatness will naturally spring from the love of order and propriety, which ought, I acknowledge, to be early and assiduously cultivated in the female mind; but that it can be thus cultivated without the aid of dolls, is sufficiently evinced in the females of a respectable sect, remarkable for personal neatness as well as for propriety of conduct. And surely the inventive powers of imagination may in infancy be turned to better account than in making up a doll's cap.

Why should the imitative faculties be confined to the subject of dress, while surrounded with innumerable objects on which it may be exercised to more advantage?

A little girl, intent on imitating the leaves or flowers of a plant with her pencil or scissors, may from the habits of observation thus acquired, be laying the foundation of future taste and knowledge. The rudest imitation of the higher works of art may give some idea of design and of proportion, but the constant and habitual application of the mind to personal ornament, can introduce no ideas but those which are associated with vanity and selfishness.

Should this unfortunate association have already taken place, it is proper to inquire how it may most effectually be counteracted. Is it by formal declamations against the vanity of dress? By grave lessons? By serious arguments? No. These will be found feeble palliatives against an inveterate disease. One remedy, and one alone, remains. The mother who would have her child superior to vanity, must be superior to it herself. The girl who at19 VOL. I.

tends her mother's toilet, and is a constant witness of her anxious solicitude concerning personal appearance, must learn to consider personal appearance as an object of the first importance; should she even be employed during the tedious and momentous operation, in reading the Bible to her mother, or in committing whole chapters of it to memory; little will such studies, undertaken at such a time, affect the previous association. If the mother should even have transferred the love of personal decoration from herself to her child; if no longer vain of her own dress, she should now be only solicitous for the elegant appearance of her daughter; if this solicitude be carried too far; if it be obviously greater than that which is shown for the improvement of the heart and understanding; she may be assured she is by these means, however unintentionally, laying a snare for her daughter's virtue.

Far be it from me to recommend an ascetic contempt for the common modes of society. So insidious and deceitful are the worst of human passions, that pride generally contrives to lurk under the appearance of singularity. The affectation of it is, at least, always suspicious. It is not, therefore, by renouncing the ornaments which custom has rendered proper to her rank and station; nor is it by an affectation of plainness, nor is it by vehement declamations against the sin of vanity, that a mother is to show herself superior to the love of finery : But it is by evincing, in the whole tenor of her conduct and conversation, that dress is never considered by her as one of the material concerns of life. To give due weight to her maternal admonitions on this head, she must make it clearly evident, that while her regard for personal appearance is

connected with her notions of propriety, personal decoration occupies little of her time, less of her thoughts, and none of her affections.

Farewell.

LETTER XIV.

ASSOCIATIONS PRODUCTIVE OF PRIDE.

Danger of inspiring false notions of superiority.-Pride of birth.-Pride of station.-Consciousness of importance.-Effects of some modern improvements for shortening the road to information.-Conclusion.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

THE danger of encouraging arrogant pretensions to superiority will, I make no doubt, be acknowledged by all. Let us, however, take care, that in reprobating it, we make no partial reservations in favour of that species of pride to which early association has inclined our hearts. The pride of Wealth appears hateful to those who boast more gentility than riches: while by the purse-proud son of fortune, the pride of family is considered ridiculous. The unlettered observe the pride of learning with disgust, while the pride of ignorance is by the scholar deemed unpardonable folly and presumption. The devotee who renounces the pomps and vanities of the world, inveighs with equal zeal against the pride of all ranks and descriptions of his fellow-mortals; but whether this evil may not be sometimes tinctured with the pride he deprecates, is a question which charity forbids us to discuss.

Fully aware of the difficulty of disengaging the heart from all objects of false preference, so as to leave the judgment quite unbiassed, I have, in considering the question before us, carefully avoided trusting to its decision. The guide I have followed has been the precepts of the Gospel; for in these I have found a compendium of all that the most enlightened philosophy ever advanced-of all that the soundest wisdom has inculcated! The precepts of the Gospel I often find at variance with the precepts, aud still oftener with the practices, which prevail in polished society; but they are never at variance with themselves. They all manifestly tend to what I consider the perfection of the moral character-love towards God, and pure benevolence towards all our fellow-creatures. They teach that these ennobling affections of the human soul cannot subsist with the selfish and dissocial passions. Pride, as the most potent, as well as most insidious, of the selfish and dissocial passions, they therefore condemn in all its branches. Nor is it the moral character alone which gains by the subjugation of this powerful passion, since whatever tends to corrupt the heart has a fatal influence upon the judg

ment.

That every species of pride is really adverse to the cultivation, not only of the benevolent affections, but even of the mental faculties, observation will convince us. Family pride, which arises from associating an idea of inherent superiority, with the idea of the family from which we sprung, leads, it is by some asserted, to generosity of sentiment and dignity of conduct. But does experience confirm the truth of this assertion? As far as mine extends, I confess it goes to establish the contrary. Like every other false sentiment founded on the basis of

prejudice, it misleads the judgment and corrupts the heart. In proportion as the mind, arrogates to itself a superiority on account of extrinsic circumstances, will it generally be found destitute of real merit. What a man chiefly prizes in himself he will chiefly esteem in others; and as illustrious descent is not always attended by illustrious virtue, the associations of esteem and preference may thus be connected with the extreme of vice and folly. Where family pride predominates, I have too often seen worth and wisdom treated with contempt; and characters decidedly eminent for talents and virtues forced to endure the proud contumely of ignorance and insignificance. In such instances, it is not outraging probability to suppose, that the scorners might have risen to a level with the scorned, but for that early-imbibed notion of their own superiority, on which they indolently rested their claim to respect, and which, therefore, prevented them from pursuing the higher path to esteem, trodden by those whom pride taught them to consider their inferiors. (K)

In countries where pride is more abundant than riches, the mental mischief that is done by this deep-rooted prejudice, is, perhaps, less fatal to the representatives of ancient families, than to the collateral branches. A liberal education, if it does not conquer the prejudice here spoken of, will, by presenting new associations, counteract its pernicious tendency; while an opportunity of enlarging the sphere of observation, by mixing with the inhabitants of other countries, must subdue its offensive arrogance. But to the poorer branches of great families no such sources of improvement are open. Self satisfied with the inherent superiority to which 19* VOL. I.

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