358 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



difference between man and woman, that the man 

 owes himfelf to his country, and the woman is de- 

 voted to the fehcity of one man alone. A young 

 woman will never attain this end, but by acquiring 

 a relifh for the employments fuitable to her fex. 

 To no purpofe would you give her a complete 

 courfe of the Sciences, and make her a Theologian 

 or a Philofopher : a hufband does not love to find 

 either a rival or an inftriiftor in his wife. Books 

 and mafters, with us, blight betimes in a young 

 female, virgin ignorance, that flower of the 

 foul, which a lover takes fuch delight in ga- 

 thering. They rob a hufband of the moft delicious 

 charm of their union, of thofe inter- communica- 

 tions of amorous fcience, and native ignorance, fo 

 proper for filling up the long days of married life. 

 They deftroy thofe contrafts of charader which 

 Nature has eftablilhed between the two fexes, in 

 order to produce the mod lovely of harmonies. 



Thefe natural contrafts are fo neceflary to love, 

 that there is not a fingle female celebrated for the 

 attachment with which fhe infpired her lovers, or 

 her hufband, who has been indebted for her em- 

 pire to any other attraflions than thjs amufements 

 or the occupations peculiar to her fex, from the 

 age of Penelope down to the prefent. We have 

 them of all ranks, and of all charaélers, but not 

 one of them learned. Such of them as have me- 

 rited 



