*68 SOPHIA, ON FEMALE EDUCATION. June »9, 



wrote out a recipe from the book ; and having given it 

 to the maid, away (he goes, and all is right again. 

 Alathea, after fome very interefting filence and beautiful 

 expreffion of couufenance, looks at me with pleafing af- . 

 toniiliment, and fays, O my dear mamma ! will you 

 teach me to help poor Mary, when you are out of the 

 way, and papa has company to dinner. Yes, my dear 

 Alathea ; but this will take a long time ; for you muft 

 leam both to read and to write before you can do this. 

 Then her little foul is all on fire to learn, and I begin, 

 without delay, to initiate her in the ufe of letters, teach- 

 ing her as I go along, by illuftratlons fuited to her in^ 

 fantine capacity, the reafon as well as the mechanifm 

 of language, as far as Qie cquld underftand them ; and 

 Ihe is the bappielt of Undents, becaufe ftie fees the re- 

 ward of her fludles at a diftance, yet certainly attain- 

 able, while the road to i. is eafy and delightful. 



My girls had a play-fellow or two of the clergyman's 

 daughters in the neighbourhood, and they ufed to ad- 

 mire the i.igenuity of Eugenius, who amufed himfelf 

 with a turning-lathe, and made moll of the little trays 

 and other utenfils that were ufed in the family. 



Seeing fo many convenient things made out of Ihape- 

 lefs maffes, Alathea, looking fleadily at the moon one 

 evening on a walk with us, fhe turned to Eugenius, 

 and having kiffed his hand, looked up with timid an« 

 xiety, and faid, my dear papa, will you tell me who 

 turned the moon ? Yes, Alathea, I can tell you, that 

 at once, it was the great papa of the whole world, that 

 turned the moon ; and every thing in the world is the 

 ^orkmanihlp of his hands. 



Here the converfation ended. Alathea became im- 

 inediately thoughtful, but foon after ran off to her play, 

 and I heard no more of her query till next morning, 

 when, fitting at cur work, after the lelTon of the day was' 

 over, Alathea looked tenderly and fignificantly at me 

 for fome time, and faid, my dear mamma I what a llrange 

 ?hing that was my papa told meyeflerday about the inoon. 



