142 Education. [Chap. XXV, 



reason ; to contradict experience ; to trample on 

 the divine authority ; and to diminish the useful- 

 ness, the respectabilit}', and the real enjoyment 

 of the female sex. 



The increased intelligence and the taste for 

 readnig, which remarkably characterise the fe- 

 male sex of the present day, compared with their 

 condition a century ago, are attended with some 

 circumstances, which the friends of virtue and 

 happiness cannot contemplate with unmingled 

 pleasure. By far too great a portion of the read- 

 ing of females is directed to Novels, and other pro- 

 ductions of light and frivolous character, which 

 at best can only amuse, and which often exert a 

 corrupt influence, instead of enlightening the 

 mind, and forming it to a love of wisdom and 

 virtue. Hence the frequent complaint, among 

 the sober and discerning, that modern female 

 education is calculated to make superficial, as- 

 suming, and dissipated, rather than wise and use- 

 ful women ; and that they have just learning 

 enough to detach them from the peculiar and 

 proper duties of their sex, but not sufficient to 

 expand, enrich, and regulate their minds. This 

 complaint has, doubtless, some foundation *. But 



* If the statement given in a former page, respecting the cha- 

 racter and destination of the finale sex, be just, then engaging 

 in literary pursuits of such a kind, or to such a degree, as will 

 render them either unfit or indisposed to act in their peculiar 

 domestic sphere, is, in ordinary cases, unwise and mischievous. 

 This remark applies with particular force to that kind of read- 

 ing, which has a tendency to consume time, without conferring a 

 single advantage of solid information, or of real wisdom. Those 

 young ladiea who, instead of studying theology, morals, gram- 



