a 
1797 | Female Education ses. 
tions, the baneful effects. of which can 
only ceafe with the renovation of civil 
fociety. Yet, in the mean time, its de- 
plorable confequences might be amelio- 
rated, by an alteration in the fyftem of 
female education. Might not a part of 
the time .wafted in the acquifition of 
ufelefs and frivolous accomplifhments, be 
Gevoted to the attainment of fome in- 
genious art or ufeful trade, by which a 
young woman might hope to gain an 
honeft and honourable independence, and 
be freed from the difgraceful neceffity 
of bartering her perfon to procure a 
Maintenance? ivery parent having a 
family of daughters, for whom it is not 
«i his power to make-a fuitable provi- 
fion, is guilty of cruelty and vice, when 
he hazards their being expofed, helplefs 
and unprotected, to the world. There 
are a variety of trades and profeffions, 
by their nature peculiarly appropriate 
to women, exercifed, with very few ex= 
ceptions, at prefent, entirely by men4 to 
thefe many of the liberal arts might be 
added, alfo the knowledge and practice 
of arithmetic and book-keeping. <A 
woman enabled -to fupport herfelf, and 
to acquire property by her induftry, 
would gain by regular occupation, and 
the healthful exertion of her faculties, 
more firmnefs of mind and greater vi- 
gour of bodv. Marriages would be con- 
tracted from motives of affeétion, rather 
than of intereft ; and entered into with 
iefs apprehenfions, when the whole bur- 
then of providing for a family refted not 
upon the efforts of the man, but was 
cheerfully fhared between the parties. 
It may be objected, that the weaknefs 
and cares of a mother, in bearing. and 
nurfing her offspring, muft incapacitate 
her for farther exertion. This objec-, 
tion, with but few exceptions, might be 
proved futile, by the example of whole , 
cowns and communities ; not to infift on 
the number of poor hard-labouring wo- 
men, with large families (the fupport of 
which is thrown by a profligate hufband 
wholly upon them) in this and in almoft | 
every other country. The conftitution, 
ftrengthened by iabour or whclefome 
exercife, would likewife acquire greater 
vigour, and many cf thofe phyfical evils 
which afflict the female frame, in’ an 
enervated and artificial ftate of fociety, 
would be greatly alleviated, if not wholly 
removed. Thofe women whom difap- 
appointed affection, or perfonal difadvan- 
tazes, configned to celebacy, in the exer- 
cife of body and mind, im occupations 
that promifed competence or diitinétion, 
Montuity Mac. No. XV. 
Climate of India. 105 
would be préflrved from the numerous 
evils and follies, I might add, cruel in- 
fults, to which they are at prefent ex- 
pofed. ; ; 
The only Happy life,Mt’ is juttly ob- ° 
ferved, by Mr. Hume, #§ that which is 
equally divided between aétion and reft 
(or relaxation). Duties will never be 
properly performed unlefs foftened by 
pleafures ; nor can pleafures deferve the 
tirle, unlefs earned by bufinefs. 
Inequality, in the prefent ftate of 
things, is not confined to property ; while 
one part of the community, worn down 
by toil, facrifice the ed to the means, the 
remainder are funk in a ftill more de- 
ftructive incapacity or intolerable lathi- 
tude, from which there is no efcape but 
by mifchievous and dangerous experi- 
ments and exertions. 
The profperous or declining ftate of a 
nation might, perhaps, be more accurately 
deduced from the poffefion or want of 
private virtue and happinefs, than from 
the condition of its revenue or its foreign 
connections. Government is valuable on- 
ly as a mean of which individual happiness 
is the end: fhould this not be produced, 
the inftitution becomes: vain or perni- 
cious. Tull one moral and mental ftan- 
dard is eftablifhed for every rational 
agent, every member of a community, 
and a free fcope afforded for the exer- 
tion of their faculties and talents, with- 
out diftinélion of rank or fex, wirtve will 
be an empty name, and happinefs elude 
our moft anxious refearch. 
March 2, 1797- M. H. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
STR, 
OTWITHSTANDING our frequent 
intercourfe with India, there are 
many circumttances relative to it, with 
which we are but little acquainted. One 
of thefe is the temperature of the air, 
a fubjeét intumately connected with the 
climate, the natural produétions, the 
health, and, if we are to.credit Montefe 
guieu, and fome of the ableft of our wri- 
ters, with the government, difpofition, 
purfuits, and even happinefs, of the 
people. 
J have a letter now before me, from 
Mr. Duncan, to dottor ANDERSON, 
phy fician-general at Madras, dated Ware 
niore, Ot. 2d, 1795, containing * Odbjer- 
vations on the Temperature of fome Parts of 
the Peninfula of India, and on the Medium 
‘Heat of the Coaft of Coromande).” It is 
too long for infertion, but I fhall give 
| ¢ a faithfu 

