275 
EDUCATION. 
are in danger of great corruption. Vanity and vice are 
too often introduced by fome among a large number, and 
the contagion fpreads with irrefiftible violence. Who 
can be fo proper an inftrudtor and guardian, as a tender 
and a fenfible mother? Where can virgin innocence and 
delicacy be better protected, than under a parent’s root, 
and in a father’s-and a mother’s bofom? Certainly no 
where ; provided the parents are fenfible and virtuous, 
and the houfe free from improper or dangerous connec¬ 
tions. But where the parents are much engaged in plea¬ 
sure or in bufinefs; where they are ignorant or vicious; 
where a family is expofed to the vifits or conftant com¬ 
pany of libertine young perfons ; there it is certainly ex¬ 
pedient to place a daughter under the care of fome of 
thofe judicious matrons who prefide over the Seminaries 
of learning adapted to the education of young ladies. 
It too often happens, however, that young females are 
Sent from their parent’s eye to thefe Seminaries, princi¬ 
pally with a view to form connections, or to acquire ex¬ 
ternal graces. Let the heart of a feeling father deter¬ 
mine, whether it is not cruel to endanger the morals of 
his offspting from motives of intereft or vanity. But it 
mult be remembered, that only thofe parents can incur this 
penfure, who keep their daughters at School after a certain 
age. Women, from fourteen years old, are commonly flat¬ 
tered by the men. Therefore, perceiving that they are re¬ 
garded only as qualified to pleafe, they begin to adorn 
ihemfelves; and in that to place all their hopes. It would 
be better to make them fenfible, that they are much more 
efteemed for a decent, model!, and difcreet behaviour. 
One of the firongeft arguments in favour of the li¬ 
terary education of women, is, that it enables them 
to fuperintend the domeftic education of their own 
children in the earlier periods. We are told, in the 
very elegant dialogue on the caufes of the decline of elo¬ 
quence, that it was the glory of the ancient Roman ma¬ 
trons to devote themfelves to economy, and the care of 
their children’s education. As loon as a fon w'as born, 
he was not brought up in the cottage of fome hireling 
mirfe, but in the lap and the bofom of his mother, whofe 
principal merit it was to take care of the houfe, and to 
devote herfelf to the fervice of the children. But when 
the Romans had loft the virtues, together with the liber¬ 
ties, of the ancient republic, thefe generous cares, with 
every otherrational and laudable attention, gave way to the 
fafhionable didipations of thofe degenerate days. The 
children were then configned to the care of fome paltry 
female, in conjunction with two or three other domeftics, 
equally unqualified for the important office of tuition. 
From the idle tales and grofs manners of this low and 
illiterate tribe, the foft and dudtile mind was fufFered to 
receive its earlieft and deepeft impreffions. The parents 
themfelves, alfo, far from training their young families 
in the principles of virtue and knowledge, were the firft 
to lead them, by their own encouragement and example, 
into themoft luxurious indulgences, andmoft unprincipled 
licentioufnefs of manners. A paftion for races, theatrical 
entertainments, and gladiatorial fliows, the favourite oc¬ 
cupations of that frivolous age, was fown even in their 
very womb : and when once the feeds of thefe contempti¬ 
ble and unmanly pleafures had early taken root in the 
heart, they neceffarily over-ran and deftroyed every af¬ 
fection of nobler grow th. Whether this picture of de¬ 
generate Rome bears any refemblance to thofe of more 
modern days, is left to the reader’s confideration. But 
be this as it may, it ftiotild certainly be made a principal 
objeCt of female education, to reftruin young ladies, on 
coming into life, from an expenfive profufion of drefs, 
and from a baneful propenlity to the pleafures of gay life. 
To drefs, to appear gay, and to be feen in public places, 
will undoubtedly attraCt the attention of the men; but 
not of thofe, with whom a connection for life would be 
eligible. Defirous as thofe might be of an honourable 
-alliance with an elegairt and graceful woman ; yet, when 
.tthey difeover a want of economy, and a pronenefs to ex¬ 
travagance, they will have reafon to dread the fame con¬ 
duct in affairs of greater moment; which, in a married 
life, would be productive of evils truly alarming and ex¬ 
tensive. Prudential confiderations thus deter many from 
offering their hands, where their hearts are inclined, be- 
caufe they are apprehenfive of bringing on themfelves a 
train of expences, which theirfortunes could not fupport. 
They would likewife fufpect, that the love of domeftic 
retirement w'ould not be found in thofe ladies, who have 
been accuftomed to a life of gaiety and pleafure. 
There appears too much truth in the remark of Mrs. 
Hannah More, in her Treatife on Female Education, pub- 
liffied in 1799, “ that in all polidted countries, an entire 
devotednefs to the fine arts has been one grand fource of 
the corruption of women.” The w'hole time ot a young 
lady is often confumed either in the acquifttion or in the 
difplay of what are termed accomplijlments ; and ffie feems 
to regard the end of exiftence as being to ftiine rather 
than to be ufeful. If, fays this author, the life of a 
young lady formerly too much refembled the life of a 
confectioner, it now too much refembles that of an aCtrefs. 
This is a fatal extreme for female domeftic virtue, and 
little calculated for happinefs in the female circles. On 
the contrary, the prbfeffion of ladies, to which the bent 
of their inftruCtion fhould be turned, is that of daughters, 
wives, mothers, and miftreffes of families. They ftiotild 
be therefore trained with a view to thefe feveral condi¬ 
tions, and be furniffied with a ftock of ideas, and princi¬ 
ples, and qualifications, ready to be applied and appro¬ 
priated, as occafion may demand, to each of thefe refpec- 
tive fituations : for though the arts which merely embel- 
liffi life niuft claim admiration ; yet when a man of fenfe 
comes to marry, it is a companion whom he wants, and 
not an artift. It is not merely a creature who can paint, 
and play, and drefs, and dance; it is a being who can 
comfort and cottnfel him ; one who can reafon, and refleCt, 
and feel, and judge, and difeourfe, and diferiminate; one 
who can affift him in his affairs, lighten his cares, footh 
his forrows, ftrengthen his principles, and educate his 
children. This ftiotild be the view of parents in the edu¬ 
cation of their daughters; and, perhaps, if this were 
more generally done, and daughters were only allowed 
to attend day-fchools for the purpofe of acquiring ac- 
compliffiments, they would not be fo frequently educated 
above their ftation in life; and the mind of a reputable 
merchant’s child, or clergyman’s daughter, would not be 
filled with notions of pride, caught by affociating with 
the daughters of the great and the fafhionable. 
With regard to amiable manners in a young lady, much 
depends on the delicacy of her converfation, propriety 
of behaviour, modefty, and tender fenfibilities of feeling ; 
all which engaging qualities are to be acquired and mo¬ 
dified by the rules of female education. Propriety is to 
a woman what the great Roman critic fays adtion is to an 
orator : it is the firft, the fecond, the third, requifite. A 
woman may be knowing, adtive, witty, and antufing; 
but without propriety fhe cannot be amiable. Propriety is 
the centre in which all the lines of duty and of agreeable- 
nefs meet. It is to character what proportion is to figure, 
and grace to attitude. It does not depend on any one 
perfection; but it is the refult of general excellence. 
It (hews itfelf by a regular, orderly, undeviatim , courfe; 
and never Harts from its fober orbit into any fplendid ec¬ 
centricities ; for it would be affiamed of fuch praifeas it 
might extort by any aberrations from its proper path. 
It renounces all commendation but what is charadteriftic; 
and becomes the criterion of true tafte, right principle, 
and genuine feeling, in a woman, whether ffie would be 
lefs touched with all the flattery of romantic and exag¬ 
gerated panegyric, than with that beautiful picture of 
corredt and elegant propriety, which Milton draws of 
our firft mother, when he delineates 
“ Thofe thoufand decencies which daily flow 
From all her words and adtions.” 
Thefe 
