ters. It does not hence follow that girls should all have a literary education: to acquire the accomplishments more peculiarly belonging to their situation in life, will abundantly occupy their earlier years. If they be instructed in the grammar of their own tongue, and taught to read and speak it with propriety; if they learn to write a fair hand, and to perform with readiness the most useful operations of arithmetic; if they be instructed in the nature of the duties they owe to God, to themselves, and to society; this will be the main literary instruction girls will require. By this, however, it is by no means intended, that girls should be forbid the literature of their country: the periodical writers, who in so elegant and pleasing a manner have taught all the duties of morality, the decencies of life, and the principles of taste, may with the greatest propriety be put into the hands of the female pupil. Neither must she be denied the best historians, the most popular voyages and travels, and such of our British poets as may be perused without corrupting her heart or inflaming her passions. But, were it possible that any advice could have so much influence, we would strive to persuade our countrywomen and countrymen too, to banish from among them the modern tribe of Novelists, the propagators of false taste, false feeling, and false morality, with no less determined severity than that with which Plato excluded the poets from his ideal republic, or that with which the converts to Christianity, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, condemned their magical volumes to the flames. Unhappily, novels and plays are almost the only species of reading, in which the young people of the present age take delight; and nothing has contributed more effectually to bring on that dissipation and dissoluteness of manners, which so much prevail among all classes of the community. If in the room of these pernicious productions of the press, to which their admirers, however, are seldom

willing to acknowledge their attachment, we were to sub stitute plain and popular treatises on Geography, Astronomy, Natural History in its various branches, together with the principles of the French and Italian languages, now become almost indispensable, the young female, how-ever elevated in station above labour and care, would find her time abundantly occupied, and to the best of 'purposes.

It is far, however, from the purpose of these observations, to confine female education to such things as are merely plain and useful: those accomplishments which are only ornamental, and the design of which is to render females amiable in the eyes of the other sex, are not to be forbidden. When we consider the duties for which they are destined by nature, of which the art of pleasing constitutes no inconsiderable part, it would be wrong to deny them those inferior arts, the end of which is to enable them to please. Let them endeavour to acquire a taste in dress, for to dress in a neat and graceful manner, to suit colours to her complexion, and the figure of her clothes to her shape, is no small accomplishment for a young woman. Shewho is rigged -out by the dexterity of her maid and her milliner, is no better than a doll sent abroad to public places, as a sample of their handiwork. Dancing is a favorite exercise; nay, it may in some countries, be almost called the favorite study of the fair sex. So many pleasing images are connected with the idea of dancing; dress, attendance, balls, elegance and grace of motion irresistible, admiration: and these are so early inculcated by all around her, that we need not wonder if the young female consider her lessons of dancing as a matter of much greater importance than her book or her sampler. Indeed, though the public in generał seem at present to set too high a value on dancing, and though the undue estimation paid to it, seems to be owing to that taste for dissipation, and that rage for public amusements, which naturally prevail amidst such refinement and

opulence,

opulence, still dancing is an accomplishment which may be cultivated with advantage by both sexes. It has a happy effect on the figure, the air, and the carriage, and perhaps it may be even favorable to dignity of mind; yet, as to be a first-rate poet or painter, and in particular to value himself on his excellence in those arts, would be no true ornament in the character of a great Monarch, so any very superior skill in dancing, must serve rather to disparage, than to adorn, the lady or the gentleman. There are some arts, in which, though a moderate degree of skill may be useful or ornamental, yet superior taste and knowledge are rather hurtful; as they have a tendency to seduce us from the performance of the important duties we owe to society and to ourselves of those arts, dancing seems to be one.

Music also is an art in which female youth are generally instructed; and if their voice and ear be such as to enable them to attain any excellence in vocal music, it may conduce greatly to increase their influence over our sex, and may afford a pleasing and elegant amusement to their own lei sure hours. The harpsichord, the harp, are instruments often touched by female hands; nor would it be proper to forbid ladies to exercise their delicate fingers in calling forth the enchanting sounds of these instruments: but still if your daughter have no voice nor ear for music, compel her not to make it a study.

Drawing is another accomplishment which generally enters into the plan of female education. Girls are usually taught to aim at a few strokes with a pencil; but when they grow up, they either lay it wholly aside, or else apply to it, with so much assiduity, as to neglect their more important duties. A skill in drawing, like a skill in poetry, cannot be considered as an accomplishment very necessary for females; yet, as far as it contributes to improve their taste in dress, it may not be improper for them to pursue it. They may very properly be taught to sketch a landscape,

to

to colour a flower, and the like: but let them not throw aside this employment as soon as the drawing-master is withdrawn; on the contrary, let them preserve a taste for it through life, to be an useful guide in the art of personal ornament. Pride certainly never can be lovely, nor vanity estimable, even in the fairest form; yet ought a young woman to be carefully impressed with a due respect for herself: this will join with her good sense and native modesty, to be the guardian of her virtue, and to preserve her from levity and impropriety of conduct.-Such are the hints it may be proper to follow in the education of females, as far as it ought to be conducted in a manner different from that of males.

It would be improper to close these general observations on education, without taking notice of a question much agitated by men of the best intentions and first-rate abilities, concerning the respective merits of public and private systems of education: whether a young man should be brought up in a private manner at home, or sent to receive his instruction at a public school? As on this topic, nothing new can be expected to be advanced at this day, it may be sufficient just to give a hasty sketch of the principal arguments, adduced by each party, in defence of their opinion.

Those who have considered children as receiving their education in the house, and under the eye of their parents, and as secluded from the society of other children, have been sometimes led to regard this situation as particularly favorable for their acquiring useful knowledge, and being formed to virtuous habits. Though we reap many advantages from mingling in social life, yet there we are also tainted with many vices, to which he who passes his time in retirement is a stranger. At whatever period we begin to mix with the world, we still find we have not acquired sufficient strength, to resist those temptations with which we

are

No

are assailed: but if we are thus ready to be infected with folly and vice, even at any age, surely little argument will be necessary, to show the propriety of confining children from those scenes in which this infection may be so readily caught. Whoever examines the state of public schools, with careful and candid attention, even those under the most virtuous, judicious, and assiduous teachers, will soon find reason to acknowledge, that the empire of vice is there established not less fully than in the world abroad. thing, therefore, can be more negligent, more inhuman, than for parents to expose their children to those seductions which a great public school presents, at a time too, when they are particularly disposed to imitate any example set before them, and have not yet learned to distinguish between such examples as are worthy of imitation, and those which ought to be beheld with abhorrence. Even while under the parent's eye, from intercourse with servants and visitors, the native innocence of children may be considerably impaired still the parent's care will be much more likely to preserve the manners of his child uncorrupted in his own. house, than all the assiduity and watchfulness of teachers in a public school.

The morals and dispositions of a child, ought to be the first objects of concern, in conducting his education; his initiation into the principles of knowledge, is but a secondary object; and it is natural to suppose, that in a private system of education, both those great purposes may be more readily and securely attained, than in a public. Thus in fact it happens: when one or two boys are intrusted to the care of a judicious tutor, he can watch for, and seize the most favorable seasons for communicating instruction; he can awake curiosity, and command attention, by the gentle arts of insinuation: though he strive not to inflame their breasts with emulation, which often leads to envy and hatred; yet he will succeed in rendering know

ledge