288 reading memorandums. Dec. 19. 
trifling efsays upon nothing, amatory plays, ahd 
corrupting novels, satirical political pamphlets, that 
abuse men’s characters without improving the know- 
ledge or principles of the times, together with a ge~ 
neral hath of these served up in some monthly mefs 
of duilnefs, are the meagre literary diet of town and 
country. . 
Of how great benefit to his country would that 
man be, who flould render virtue and rational re- 
search palatable and agreeable to people of fa- 
fhion, through the same channels that had formerly 
degraded their understandings and corrupted their 
sentiments ! 
How much is it to be regretted that that charm- 
ing sex, formed by the bountiful Author of nature 
to be the refiner and solacer of man; his amiable 
gentle, chearful, intelligent companion; and the 
guardian of his family, fhould set themselves up as 
mere toys for the public ; undervaluing their own ca- 
pacities, and levelling themselves with the insignifi- 
cant pageants of equipage ! 
That they fhould pafs their nights in fretting like 
players on the stage of fruitlefs, joylefs difsipation; 
and their days in the languor of unnatural rest, or 
in.the agitations of artificial sorrow. 
Are there any remedies for this miserable calamt- 
ty of the age and country, but storing the infant 
minds of that charming sex with useful knowledge, 
and .with resources to guard them against that 
wretched dependence upon artificial amusement, 
‘which is the disgraceful lot of the illiterate, 
