BOOK II. CHAP. XIII. 279 



better qualified to fill the honourable (lotion of a wife, and to head 

 their table with grace and propriety. Thole, who have been bred 

 up entirely in the fequeftercd country parts, aiul had no oppor- 

 tunity of forming themfelves either by example or tuition, are 

 truly to be pitied. \Vc may fee, in iome of thefe places, a very 

 fine young woman aukwardly dangling her arms with the air of a 

 Negroe-iervant. lolling almoft the whole day upon beds or fetters, 

 her head muffled up with two or three handkerchiefs, her drefs 

 Joofe, and without flays. At noon, we fuul her employed in o-ob- 

 bling pepper-pot, feated on the floor, with her fible hand-maids 

 around her. In the afternoon, fhe takes her _/5"£/?c/ as ufual ; while 

 two of thefe damfels refrefii her face with the gentle breathings of 

 the fan; and a third provokes the drowfy powers of Morplieus bv 

 delicious Icratchings on the Ible of either foot. W'lien (lie rouzes 

 from (lumber, her Ipeech is whinmg, languid, and childifh. When 

 arrived at maturcr years, the confcioufnefs of her ignorance makes ■ 

 her abfcond from the fight or converfation of every rational crCc-v- 

 ture. Her ideas are narrowed to the ordinary lubje^^s that pais 

 before her, the bufmels of the plantation, the tittle-tattle of the 

 parifh; the tricks, Juperftitio.is, diverfions, and profligate dif- 

 omirfes, of black fervants, equally illiterate and unpohfhcd. 



Who IS there, that does not lincerely deplore the lot of this un- 

 happy tramontane, and blame the inattention of the leglflature to 

 that important article. Education! To this defect we mull: attri- 

 bute all that cruel ridicule and farcafm, fo frequently iavifhed upon 

 thefe unfortunate females by others of their fex, who, having ex- , 

 perienced the blefliuLis of a regular courfe of inflruclion at fchool, 

 are too oflentatioufly fond of holding in derifion what thcv ou^ht 

 to look upon with candour and concern. What ornaments to fo- 

 ciety might not thefe negleclcd women have proved, if they could • 

 have received the fame degree of liberal polifli ! On tlie other 

 hand, deprived thus of the means of culture and refinement, ill- 

 furnifliej as they are with capacity for undertaking the province of 

 managing domelHc concerns, uninformed of what pe.tains to oeco- 

 iiomy, order, and decency; how unfit are they to be the compa- 

 nions of fenfible men, or the patterns of imitation to their daugh- 

 ters !. how incapable of regulating their mamiers, enlightcnijig 



their 



