I cannot close this topic, without earnestly recommending to all claffes above poverty, and the lower employments of trade and mechanics, the cultivation of a tafte for letters. Merchants and traders, even if, from unavoidable circumtances, they have been neglected in their youth, fhould endeavour, at a fubfequent period, to acquire a love of reading. Retirement is their object. But how are they to enjoy this retirement? They promife themfelves much happinefs, but, alas! they feldom find it *. They know

cover beauties which we never imagined; and contemn for puerilities, what we once foolishly admired.

"One thing, however, in this process is indif penfably required; we are on no account to expect that fine things (ra xana) fhould defcend to us; our tafte, if poffible, must be made to afcend to them.

"This is the labour, this the work; there is pleasure in the fuccefs, and praife even in the attempt.

6.6

By only feeking and perufing what is truly excellent, and by contemplating always this, and this alone, the mind infenfibly becomes accustomed to it, and finds that in this alone it can acquiefce with content." HARRIS,

* Otium fine literis mors eft, et vivi hominis fepultura. Leifure without books, and a taste for them, is death and the burial of a man even when alive. SENECA.

Nifi ad hæc admitterer, non fuerat operæ pretium nafci . . . O quam contempta res eft homo, nifi fupra humana fe erexerit! Unless I were ad-` mitted to these things, it would not be worth while

know not how to pass that time, which was before scarcely fufficient for their occupations. They have recourfe to the bottle and to cards. Thefe, indeed, prevent reflection for a time; but they often afford no folid fatisfaction. How happy would pafs their days of eafe and affluence, if the tranquil pursuits of literature formed a part of their amufement!

The confideration, that a tafte for letters is able to furnish one of the best pleasures of old age, should induce parents of all ranks above the lowest, to give children a tincture of polite learning, whatever may be their deftination. If they are fixed in trade, and are fuccefsful, this will enable them to enjoy a fortune. It will fill up their leifure with fatisfactory employment,

to be born O how contemptible a thing is many unless be raises himself above human things!

SENECA. Religion, indeed, is the beft employment of old age, or the feafon of retirement; but a tafte for letters contributes greatly to increase the pleafures of religion.

old

Αε γηράσκω πολλὰ διδασκόμενο I grow learning fomething continually, faid Solon. Sit bona LIBRORUM et provifæ frugis in annum copia. HOR. lib. i. ep. 18. Let there be a good store of books laid up as part of the provifions for the enjoyment of the year.

News-papers feem to conftitute the only reading of a great part of the nation. I fear, notwithstanding their merit, utility, and power of pleafing, they are, upon the whole, injurious to taste and learning. They engrofs or diftract that attention which would otherwife be paid to found literature.

But

ployment, and will better enable them to fupport the character of gentlemen, than the opulence which gives them the name.

But, at the fame time, their value in a FREE COUNTRY, IS TRULY GREAT, as they form one of the beft fecurities of freedom.

The fubject of this Section calls to mind a character of Theophraftus.

Theophraftus delineates an Opfimathes, or late learner, and renders him truly ridiculous; but it must be remarked, that the qualifications which his opfimathes purfues are comparatively trifling, and puerile.

Rideat et pulfet lafciva decentiùs atas. His opfimathes is fixty years old; at that age it is a folly to begin to learn to fing, fence and ride, and more particularly foolish to be oftentatious of fuch accomplishments even before they are mastered; but it is not too late to begin to improve the mind at that or any age, if it has not been done before, because the improvement of the heart accompanies the improvement of the mind-et nunquam fera eft ad bonos mores via.

SECTION

XXVII.

ON THE LITERARY EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

Κόσμῳ ἐσιν, ὡς ἔλεγε Κράτης, τὸ κοσμῶν. Κοσμεῖ δὲ τὸ κοσμιωτερον γυναῖκα ποιέν. Ποιεῖ δὲ τοιαύτην οὔτε χρυσός, ούτε σμαραγδο, οὔτε κόκκι" άλλ' όσα σεμνότης, ἐυλαξίας, αιδοῦς ἐμφασιν περιτίθησι. Ornament, as Crates faid, is that quality which poffeffes the power of adding grace. But that quality possesses the power of adding grace, which renders a woman more graceful. Now it is neither gold, nor the emerald, nor the purple dye, which does this; but it is that, whatever it is, which exhibits indications of virgin dignity and delicacy, of a well-regulated mind, and of modesty. PLUTARCH.

TH

HERE are many prejudices entertained against the character of a learned lady; and perhaps, if all ladies were profoundly learned, fome inconveniencies might arife from it; but I must own it does not appear to me, that a woman will be rendered less acceptable in the world, or worfe qualified to perform any part of her duty in it, by having employed the time from fix to fixteen, in the cultivation of her mind. Time enough will remain after a few hours every day spent in reading, for the improvement of the perfon, and the acquifition of the ufual accomplishments. With respect to thefe accomplishments, I will not prefume to direct the method of pursuing them. I will not fo far intrude on a province, which by no means belongs to me. The ladies themselves, and their inftructors, want no directions in matters of external ornament, the end of which

is to please on intuition. However arrogant thi men have been in their claims of fuperiority they have ufually allowed the ladies the poffeffion of a delicate tafte in the improvement and perception of all kinds of beauty *.

The literary education of women ought indifputably to be varied according to their fortunes and their expectations. Much refinement, and a tafte for books, will injure her, whofe time, from prudential motives, must be entirely engroffed by œconomy. Few women are indeed exempted from all attention to domestic care. But yet the unmarried, and those who enjoy opulence, find many intervals which they often devote to fome fpecies of reading. And there is no doubt, but that the reading would be felected with more judgment, and would afford more pleafure and advantage, if the tafte were formed by early culture.

I will then venture to recommend, that ladies of this defcription fhould have a claffical. education. But let not the reader be alarmed. I mean not to advife, that they fhould be initiated, without exception, in Greek and Latin; but that they fhould be well and early acquainted with the French and the English claffics.

As foon as they can read with fluency, let them begin to learn Lowth's Grammar, and to read at the fame time fome very eafy and elegant author, with a view to exemplify the rules. They should learn a part in grammar every morning, and then proceed to read a lesson, just

It is to the men alone that what the Greeks call die, a want of fenfibility for beauty, can be imputed.