^514 SOPHIA ON FEMALE EDUCATION. July 6, 



ing, and having fat do^n oft a bank of violets, Eugeni- 

 us afked me the caufe of my being difcontented whea 

 he came into the drawing room; I told him, and afked 

 him if he was moved by the arguments of his filler- 

 Eugenius, with a look of .divine complacency, addrell'ed 

 me thus : Sophia, my dear Sophia, bear with the p.'eju- 

 dices of my fiRer ; they are the prejudices of a whole 

 world, but they will be gradually removed, and can be 

 removed only by the fuccefs of experiments fuch as 

 thofe in which you are now engaged ; had I any doubts 

 of their fuccefs, I would not confent to their being tried 

 upon my daughters ; but perfuaded as I am of their 

 being founded upon the principles of eternal reafon, I 

 befeech of you to proceed with unremitting zeal and 

 application, to complete them according to your plan. 

 The great difficulty to be furmotnitcd in the foundation 

 of a new and proper I'yftem of educ:ition for women, is 

 to find a groupe of women capable of teaching their 

 own fex, that there may be no Ahclards to bring t/ie 

 ])ra6tice of it into difrepute. Form the clergymen's 

 daughters for this important- purpofe ; others foilowiog 

 their inftructions and example, will be formed in the 

 fame manner ; and fuccecding generations will feel the 

 effetls of the Catholic tradition, and blifs the apoltles of 

 the philofopliy of women. 



V The cauic, my dear Sophia, 'f the ijicfficacy of the 

 acCLmplilhnicut of women, to render theiu independent 

 and happy in their own refources, is, that the mind and 

 its philofophy enters not into the knowledge which they 

 have acquired of the mechanifm of mufic, poetry, nee- 

 dlework, or any of their amufements ; io that their en- 

 joyment is not intelleftual, and mull yield in the. thea- 

 tre of the real world to fenfual delights, which have a 

 higher influence on the nervous fyftem than they have : 

 then farewell induftry and tlie progreffive improvement 

 in fcience and the fine arts, and will come every thing 

 that can lupply their places with more fenfual enjoy- 

 ments ; farewell every thing that renders women the or- 



