MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 457 
_/Rowing then along the wides it is said to have been two thousan 
spread desolation of London*, they y ears ago. 
will pass through some arches of Rursus & in veterem fato revoluta figu- 
its broken bridges, standing in the 
middle of the stream. Qn the grassy 
shore, perhaps they will view, with 
admiration, the still remaining por- 
tico of St. Paul’s, and perhaps one 
of the towers of Westminster Abbey. 
They will land there; and be shewn 
the pool of water where Westmins- 
ter Hall and the Parliament-Houses 
stood. They will inquire in vain 
for St. James's Palace. On search- 
ing for it in a wrong place, they will 
accidentally discover the portico of 
St: Martin’s, then again in the 
Fields :| they will find its columns 
half buried in the earth. 
If they continue their voyage up 
the Thames, they will pass close by 
the once elegant situation of the 
brick-palace at) Hampton-Court, 
without. knowing it. Advanced 
some leagues farther, they will see 
from. their boat the stately remains 
of Windsor Castle: but perhaps 
they will not venture to laod, for 
fear of fa'ling into the hands of the 
wild inhabitants of the neighbouring 
woods. The same fear will damp 
their desire of venturing so far as 
to the much-celebrated, but little 
known, ruins of Oxford. 
And:do you really think, replied 
the eldest of the young gentlemen, 
that. the English can ever grow as 
wild as the Arabs, or the Nubians? 
It is by no means impossible, re- 
plied. Crito: length of time and a 
vatiety' of events may gradually pro- 
duce.such a change. The English 
nation two thousand years hence, 
may. very possibly, be im the same 
state of savage barbarism in which 
Bi: 2 
Anna lib. xiv. c. 33. 
+ + Virgin. Hn, vi. 149. 
ramt. 
On the prevailing Opinion of a Sexuat 
Character in Women, with Stric- 
tures on Dr. Gregory's Legacy to 
his Daughters. From a@ Vindiea- 
tion of the Rights of Woman, By 
Mary Wollstonecraft. 
Bh speak disrespectfully of love, 
is, 1 know, high treason against 
sentiment and fine feelings: but 
wish to speak the simple language 
of truth, and rather to address the 
head than the heart. To endeavour 
to reason love out of the world, 
would be to out-Quixote Cervantes, 
and equally offend agatnst common 
sense: but an endeavour to restrain 
this tumultuous passion, and to 
prove that it should not be allowed 
to dethrone superior powers, or to 
usurp the sceptre which the under- 
standing should ever coolly wield, 
appears less wild. 
Youth is the season for love in 
both sexes: but in those days: of 
thoughtless enjoyment, provision 
should be made for the more im- 
portant years of life, when reflection 
takes place of sensation. But Rous+ 
seau, and most of the male writers 
who have followed his steps, have 
warmly inculcated that the whole 
tendency of female education ought 
to be directed to one point,—to 
render them pleasing. = © ” 
Let me reason with the supporters 
of this opinion who have any know- 
ledge of buman nature: do» they 
imagine that marriage’ cat eradicate 
Londinium,—Copie: negotialorum, et commealuum, maxime celcbre, See Tacit. 
the 
