MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 223 



restore to its pristine vigour. Skilful medical 

 aid may, indeed, be of use, but nothing is so 

 sure as a recurrence to a plain diet, temperance, 

 and exercise. The next obstacle to remedy, I fear, 

 will not be easily removed ; for it is built upon 

 the prejudices of mothers themselves, dictated by 

 notions of fashion and gentility which have taken 

 a deep root. When folly has given the fashion, 

 she is a persevering dame, and "folly ever dotes 

 upon her darling." Instead of impressing upon 

 the minds of girls the importance of knowing 

 household affairs, and other useful knowledge, and 

 cultivating cheerfulness and affability along with 

 the courtesies of life, they must undergo a training 

 to befit them for appearing in frivolous company. 

 To insure this, the mother, or some boarding school 

 mistress, insists that these delicate young creatures 

 be tightened up in a shape-destroying dress, and 

 sit and move in graceful stiffness. They must not 

 spring about or make use of their limbs, lest it 

 might be called romping, and might give them so 

 vulgar, so robust, and so red-cheeked a look that 

 they would not appear like ladies. The conse- 

 quence of this is, that they become like hot-house 

 plants; the air must not blow upon them; and, 

 in this state, they must attend routs and balls, 

 and midnight assemblies, which send numbers of 

 them to an untimely grave.* If they survive 

 these trials, still they leave behind a want of 

 health and vigour, which hangs upon them 

 through life, and they become the nerveless 

 outcasts of nature. They are then unfit to 



* If these assemblies must be kept up by the gentry who can 

 afford it they ought to be held in the day time, that those who 

 attend them may get their natural rest at night. 



