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diff --git a/19595.txt b/19595.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..724df5c --- /dev/null +++ b/19595.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3248 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays on Various Subjects, by Hannah More + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Essays on Various Subjects + Principally Designed for Young Ladies + +Author: Hannah More + +Release Date: October 21, 2006 [EBook #19595] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +ESSAYS +FOR +YOUNG LADIES. + + + + +ESSAYS +ON +VARIOUS SUBJECTS, +Principally designed for +YOUNG LADIES. + + AS for you, I shall advise you in a few words: aspire only to + those virtues that are PECULIAR TO YOUR SEX; follow your natural + modesty, and think it your greatest commendation not to be talked + of one way or the other. + + _Oration of Pericles to the Athenian Women._ + + + + +LONDON: +Printed for J. WILKIE, in St. Paul's Church-Yard; +and T. CADELL, in the Strand. +MDCCLXXVII. + + + + +TO +MRS. MONTAGU. + + +MADAM, + +IF you were only one of the finest writers of your time, you would +probably have escaped the trouble of this address, which is drawn on +you, less by the lustre of your understanding, than by the amiable +qualities of your heart. + +AS the following pages are written with an humble but earnest wish, to +promote the interests of virtue, as far as the very limited abilities +of the author allow; there is, I flatter myself, a peculiar propriety in +inscribing them to you, Madam, who, while your works convey instruction +and delight to the best-informed of the other sex, furnish, by your +conduct, an admirable pattern of life and manners to your own. And I can +with truth remark, that those graces of conversation, which would be the +first praise of almost any other character, constitute but an inferior +part of yours. + + I am, MADAM, + With the highest esteem, + Your most obedient + Humble Servant, + +_Bristol_, HANNAH MORE. +_May 20, 1777._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +INTRODUCTION Page 1 +ON DISSIPATION 15 +ON CONVERSATION 37 +ON ENVY 63 +ON SENTIMENTAL CONNEXIONS 77 +ON TRUE AND FALSE MEEKNESS 107 +ON EDUCATION 123 +ON RELIGION 158 +MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS ON WIT 178 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +IT is with the utmost diffidence that the following pages are submitted +to the inspection of the Public: yet, however the limited abilities of +the author may have prevented her from succeeding to her wish in the +execution of her present attempt, she humbly trusts that the uprightness +of her intention will procure it a candid and favourable reception. The +following little Essays are chiefly calculated for the younger part of +her own sex, who, she flatters herself, will not esteem them the less, +because they were written immediately for their service. She by no means +pretends to have composed a regular system of morals, or a finished plan +of conduct: she has only endeavoured to make a few remarks on such +circumstances as seemed to her susceptible of some improvement, and on +such subjects as she imagined were particularly interesting to young +ladies, on their first introduction into the world. She hopes they will +not be offended if she has occasionally pointed out certain qualities, +and suggested certain tempers, and dispositions, as _peculiarly +feminine_, and hazarded some observations which naturally arose from the +subject, on the different characters which mark the sexes. And here +again she takes the liberty to repeat that these distinctions cannot be +too nicely maintained; for besides those important qualities common to +both, each sex has its respective, appropriated qualifications, which +would cease to be meritorious, the instant they ceased to be +appropriated. Nature, propriety, and custom have prescribed certain +bounds to each; bounds which the prudent and the candid will never +attempt to break down; and indeed it would be highly impolitic to +annihilate distinctions from which each acquires excellence, and to +attempt innovations, by which both would be losers. + +WOMEN therefore never understand their own interests so little, as when +they affect those qualities and accomplishments, from the want of which +they derive their highest merit. "The _porcelain_ clay of human kind," +says an admired writer, speaking of the sex. Greater delicacy evidently +implies greater fragility; and this weakness, natural and moral, clearly +points out the necessity of a superior degree of caution, retirement, +and reserve. + +IF the author may be allowed to keep up the allusion of the poet, just +quoted, she would ask if we do not put the finest vases, and the +costliest images in places of the greatest security, and most remote +from any probability of accident, or destruction? By being so situated, +they find their protection in their weakness, and their safety in their +delicacy. This metaphor is far from being used with a design of placing +young ladies in a trivial, unimportant light; it is only introduced to +insinuate, that where there is more beauty, and more weakness, there +should be greater circumspection, and superior prudence. + +MEN, on the contrary, are formed for the more public exhibitions on the +great theatre of human life. Like the stronger and more substantial +wares, they derive no injury, and lose no polish by being always +exposed, and engaged in the constant commerce of the world. It is their +proper element, where they respire their natural air, and exert their +noblest powers, in situations which call them into action. They were +intended by Providence for the bustling scenes of life; to appear +terrible in arms, useful in commerce, shining in counsels. + +THE Author fears it will be hazarding a very bold remark, in the opinion +of many ladies, when she adds, that the female mind, in general, does +not appear capable of attaining so high a degree of perfection in +science as the male. Yet she hopes to be forgiven when she observes +also, that as it does not seem to derive the chief portion of its +excellence from extraordinary abilities of this kind, it is not at all +lessened by the imputation of not possessing them. It is readily +allowed, that the sex have lively imaginations, and those exquisite +perceptions of the beautiful and defective, which come under the +denomination of Taste. But pretensions to that strength of intellect, +which is requisite to penetrate into the abstruser walks of literature, +it is presumed they will readily relinquish. There are green pastures, +and pleasant vallies, where they may wander with safety to themselves, +and delight to others. They may cultivate the roses of imagination, and +the valuable fruits of morals and criticism; but the steeps of +Parnassus few, comparatively, have attempted to scale with success. +And when it is considered, that many languages, and many sciences, must +contribute to the perfection of poetical composition, it will appear +less strange. The lofty Epic, the pointed Satire, and the more daring +and successful flights of the Tragic Muse, seem reserved for the bold +adventurers of the other sex. + +NOR does this assertion, it is apprehended, at all injure the +interests of the women; they have other pretensions, on which to value +themselves, and other qualities much better calculated to answer their +particular purposes. We are enamoured of the soft strains of the +Sicilian and the Mantuan Muse, while, to the sweet notes of the +pastoral reed, they sing the Contentions of the Shepherds, the +Blessings of Love, or the innocent Delights of rural Life. Has it ever +been ascribed to them as a defect, that their Eclogues do not treat of +active scenes, of busy cities, and of wasting war? No: their simplicity +is their perfection, and they are only blamed when they have too little +of it. + +ON the other hand, the lofty bards who strung their bolder harps to +higher measures, and sung the _Wrath_ of _Peleus' Son_, and _Man's first +Disobedience_, have never been censured for want of sweetness and +refinement. The sublime, the nervous, and the masculine, characterise +their compositions; as the beautiful, the soft, and the delicate, mark +those of the others. Grandeur, dignity, and force, distinguish the one +species; ease, simplicity, and purity, the other. Both shine from their +native, distinct, unborrowed merits, not from those which are foreign, +adventitious, and unnatural. Yet those excellencies, which make up the +essential and constituent parts of poetry, they have in common. + +WOMEN have generally quicker perceptions; men have juster +sentiments.--Women consider how things may be prettily said; men how +they may be properly said.--In women, (young ones at least) speaking +accompanies, and sometimes precedes reflection; in men, reflection is +the antecedent.--Women speak to shine or to please; men, to convince or +confute.--Women admire what is brilliant; men what is solid.--Women +prefer an extemporaneous sally of wit, or a sparkling effusion of +fancy, before the most accurate reasoning, or the most laborious +investigation of facts. In literary composition, women are pleased with +point, turn, and antithesis; men with observation, and a just deduction +of effects from their causes.--Women are fond of incident, men of +argument.--Women admire passionately, men approve cautiously.--One sex +will think it betrays a want of feeling to be moderate in their +applause, the other will be afraid of exposing a want of judgment by +being in raptures with any thing.--Men refuse to give way to the +emotions they actually feel, while women sometimes affect to be +transported beyond what the occasion will justify. + +AS a farther confirmation of what has been advanced on the different +bent of the understanding in the sexes, it may be observed, that we have +heard of many female wits, but never of one female logician--of many +admirable writers of memoirs, but never of one chronologer.--In the +boundless and aerial regions of romance, and in that fashionable species +of composition which succeeded it, and which carries a nearer +approximation to the manners of the world, the women cannot be excelled: +this imaginary soil they have a peculiar talent for cultivating, because +here, + + Invention labours more, and judgment less. + +THE merit of this kind of writing consists in the _vraisemblance_ to +real life as to the events themselves, with a certain elevation in the +narrative, which places them, if not above what is natural, yet above +what is common. It farther consists in the art of interesting the tender +feelings by a pathetic representation of those minute, endearing, +domestic circumstances, which take captive the soul before it has time +to shield itself with the armour of reflection. To amuse, rather than to +instruct, or to instruct indirectly by short inferences, drawn from a +long concatenation of circumstances, is at once the business of this +sort of composition, and one of the characteristics of female +genius[1]. + +IN short, it appears that the mind in each sex has some natural kind of +bias, which constitutes a distinction of character, and that the +happiness of both depends, in a great measure, on the preservation and +observance of this distinction. For where would be the superior pleasure +and satisfaction resulting from mixed conversation, if this difference +were abolished? If the qualities of both were invariably and exactly the +same, no benefit or entertainment would arise from the tedious and +insipid uniformity of such an intercourse; whereas considerable +advantages are reaped from a select society of both sexes. The rough +angles and asperities of male manners are imperceptibly filed, and +gradually worn smooth, by the polishing of female conversation, and the +refining of female taste; while the ideas of women acquire strength and +solidity, by their associating with sensible, intelligent, and +judicious men. + +ON the whole, (even if fame be the object of pursuit) is it not better +to succeed as women, than to fail as men? To shine, by walking +honourably in the road which nature, custom, and education seem to have +marked out, rather than to counteract them all, by moving awkwardly in a +path diametrically opposite? To be good originals, rather than bad +imitators? In a word, to be excellent women, rather than indifferent +men? + + +[1] THE author does not apprehend it makes against her GENERAL position, +that this nation can boast a female critic, poet, historian, linguist, +philosopher, and moralist, equal to most of the other sex. To these +particular instances others might be adduced; but it is presumed, that +they only stand as exceptions against the rule, without tending to +invalidate the rule itself. + + + + +ON +DISSIPATION. + + DOGLIE CERTE, ALLEGREZZE INCERTE! + PETRARCA. + + +AS an argument in favour of modern manners, it has been pleaded, that +the softer vices of Luxury and Dissipation, belong rather to gentle +and yielding tempers, than to such as are rugged and ferocious: that +they are vices which increase civilization, and tend to promote +refinement, and the cultivation of humanity. + +BUT this is an assertion, the truth of which the experience of all +ages contradicts. Nero was not less a tyrant for being a fiddler: He[2] +who wished the whole Roman people had but one neck, that he might +dispatch them at a blow, was himself the most debauched man in Rome; and +Sydney and Russel were condemned to bleed under the most barbarous, +though most dissipated and voluptuous, reign that ever disgraced the +annals of Britain. + +THE love of dissipation is, I believe, allowed to be the reigning evil +of the present day. It is an evil which many content themselves with +regretting, without seeking to redress. A dissipated life is censured +in the very act of dissipation, and prodigality of time is as gravely +declaimed against at the card table, as in the pulpit. + +THE lover of dancing censures the amusements of the theatre for their +dulness, and the gamester blames them both for their levity. She, whose +whole soul is swallowed up in "_opera extacies_" is astonished, that her +acquaintance can spend whole nights in preying, like harpies, on the +fortunes of their fellow-creatures; while the grave sober sinner, who +passes her pale and anxious vigils, in this fashionable sort of +pillaging, is no less surprised how the other can waste her precious +time in hearing sounds for which she has no taste, in a language she +does not understand. + +IN short, every one seems convinced, that the evil so much complained of +does really exist somewhere, though all are inwardly persuaded that it +is not with themselves. All desire a general reformation, but few will +listen to proposals of particular amendment; the body must be restored, +but each limb begs to remain as it is; and accusations which concern +all, will be likely to affect none. They think that sin, like matter, is +divisible, and that what is scattered among so many, cannot materially +affect any one; and thus individuals contribute separately to that evil +which they in general lament. + +THE prevailing manners of an age depend more than we are aware, or are +willing to allow, on the conduct of the women; this is one of the +principal hinges on which the great machine of human society turns. +Those who allow the influence which female graces have, in contributing +to polish the manners of men, would do well to reflect how great an +influence female morals must also have on their conduct. How much then +is it to be regretted, that the British ladies should ever sit down +contented to polish, when they are able to reform, to entertain, when +they might instruct, and to dazzle for an hour, when they are candidates +for eternity! + +UNDER the dispensation of Mahomet's law, indeed, these mental +excellencies cannot be expected, because the women are shut out from all +opportunities of instruction, and excluded from the endearing pleasures +of a delightful and equal society; and, as a charming poet sings, are +taught to believe, that + + For their inferior natures + Form'd to delight, and happy by delighting, + Heav'n has reserv'd no future paradise, + But bids them rove the paths of bliss, secure + Of total death, and careless of hereafter. + + IRENE. + +THESE act consistently in studying none but exterior graces, in +cultivating only personal attractions, and in trying to lighten the +intolerable burden of time, by the most frivolous and vain amusements. +They act in consequence of their own blind belief, and the tyranny of +their despotic masters; for they have neither the freedom of a present +choice, nor the prospect of a future being. + +BUT in this land of civil and religious liberty, where there is as +little despotism exercised over the minds, as over the persons of women, +they have every liberty of choice, and every opportunity of improvement; +and how greatly does this increase their obligation to be exemplary in +their general conduct, attentive to the government of their families, +and instrumental to the good order of society! + +SHE who is at a loss to find amusements at home, can no longer apologize +for her dissipation abroad, by saying she is deprived of the benefit +and the pleasure of books; and she who regrets being doomed to a state +of dark and gloomy ignorance, by the injustice, or tyranny of the men, +complains of an evil which does not exist. + +IT is a question frequently in the mouths of illiterate and dissipated +females--"What good is there in reading? To what end does it conduce?" +It is, however, too obvious to need insisting on, that unless perverted, +as the best things may be, reading answers many excellent purposes +beside the great leading one, and is perhaps the safest remedy for +dissipation. She who dedicates a portion of her leisure to useful +reading, feels her mind in a constant progressive state of +improvement, whilst the mind of a dissipated woman is continually +losing ground. An active spirit rejoiceth, like the sun, to run his +daily course, while indolence, like the dial of Ahaz, goes backwards. +The advantages which the understanding receives from polite literature, +it is not here necessary to enumerate; its effects on the moral +temper is the present object of consideration. The remark may perhaps be +thought too strong, but I believe it is true, that next to religious +influences, an habit of study is the most probable preservative of the +virtue of young persons. Those who cultivate letters have rarely a +strong passion for promiscuous visiting, or dissipated society; +study therefore induces a relish for domestic life, the most desirable +temper in the world for women. Study, as it rescues the mind from an +inordinate fondness for gaming, dress, and public amusements, is an +oeconomical propensity; for a lady may read at much less expence than +she can play at cards; as it requires some application, it gives the +mind an habit of industry; as it is a relief against that mental +disease, which the French emphatically call _ennui_, it cannot fail of +being beneficial to the temper and spirits, I mean in the moderate +degree in which ladies are supposed to use it; as an enemy to indolence, +it becomes a social virtue; as it demands the full exertion of our +talents, it grows a rational duty; and when directed to the knowledge of +the Supreme Being, and his laws, it rises into an act of religion. + +THE rage for reformation commonly shews itself in a violent zeal for +suppressing what is wrong, rather than in a prudent attention to +establish what is right; but we shall never obtain a fair garden merely +by rooting up weeds, we must also plant flowers; for the natural +richness of the soil we have been clearing will not suffer it to lie +barren, but whether it shall be vainly or beneficially prolific, depends +on the culture. What the present age has gained on one side, by a more +enlarged and liberal way of thinking, seems to be lost on the other, by +excessive freedom and unbounded indulgence. Knowledge is not, as +heretofore, confined to the dull cloyster, or the gloomy college, but +disseminated, to a certain degree, among both sexes and almost all +ranks. The only misfortune is, that these opportunities do not seem to +be so wisely improved, or turned to so good an account as might be +wished. Books of a pernicious, idle, and frivolous sort, are too much +multiplied, and it is from the very redundancy of them that true +knowledge is so scarce, and the habit of dissipation so much +increased. + +IT has been remarked, that the prevailing character of the present age +is not that of gross immorality: but if this is meant of those in the +higher walks of life, it is easy to discern, that there can be but +little merit in abstaining from crimes which there is but little +temptation to commit. It is however to be feared, that a gradual +defection from piety, will in time draw after it all the bad +consequences of more active vice; for whether mounds and fences are +suddenly destroyed by a sweeping torrent, or worn away through gradual +neglect, the effect is equally destructive. As a rapid fever and a +consuming hectic are alike fatal to our natural health, so are flagrant +immorality and torpid indolence to our moral well-being. + +THE philosophical doctrine of the slow recession of bodies from the +sun, is a lively image of the reluctance with which we first abandon +the light of virtue. The beginning of folly, and the first entrance on a +dissipated life cost some pangs to a well-disposed heart; but it is +surprising to see how soon the progress ceases to be impeded by +reflection, or slackened by remorse. For it is in moral as in natural +things, the motion in minds as well as bodies is accelerated by a nearer +approach to the centre to which they are tending. If we recede slowly at +first setting out, we advance rapidly in our future course; and to have +begun to be wrong, is already to have made a great progress. + +A CONSTANT habit of amusement relaxes the tone of the mind, and renders +it totally incapable of application, study, or virtue. Dissipation not +only indisposes its votaries to every thing useful and excellent, but +disqualifies them for the enjoyment of pleasure itself. It softens the +soul so much, that the most superficial employment becomes a labour, and +the slightest inconvenience an agony. The luxurious Sybarite must have +lost all sense of real enjoyment, and all relish for true gratification, +before he complained that he could not sleep, because the rose leaves +lay double under him. + +LUXURY and dissipation, soft and gentle as their approaches are, and +silently as they throw their silken chains about the heart, enslave it +more than the most active and turbulent vices. The mightiest conquerors +have been conquered by these unarmed foes: the flowery setters are +fastened, before they are felt. The blandishments of Circe were more +fatal to the mariners of Ulysses, than the strength of Polypheme, or +the brutality of the Laestrigons. Hercules, after he had cleansed the +Augean stable, and performed all the other labours enjoined him by +Euristheus, found himself a slave to the softnesses of the heart; and +he, who wore a club and a lion's skin in the cause of virtue, +condescended to the most effeminate employments to gratify a criminal +weakness. Hannibal, who vanquished mighty nations, was himself overcome +by the love of pleasure; and he who despised cold, and want, and danger, +and death on the Alps, was conquered and undone by the dissolute +indulgences of Capua. + +BEFORE the hero of the most beautiful and virtuous romance that ever was +written, I mean Telemachus, landed on the island of Cyprus, he +unfortunately lost his prudent companion, Mentor, in whom wisdom is so +finely personified. At first he beheld with horror the wanton and +dissolute manners of the voluptuous inhabitants; the ill effects of +their example were not immediate: he did not fall into the commission +of glaring enormities; but his virtue was secretly and imperceptibly +undermined, his heart was softened by their pernicious society; and the +nerve of resolution was slackened: he every day beheld with diminished +indignation the worship which was offered to Venus; the disorders of +luxury and prophaneness became less and less terrible, and the +infectious air of the country enfeebled his courage, and relaxed his +principles. In short, he had ceased to love virtue long before he +thought of committing actual vice; and the duties of a manly piety were +burdensome to him, before he was so debased as to offer perfumes, and +burn incense on the altar of the licentious goddess[3]. + +"LET us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they be withered," said +Solomon's libertine. Alas! he did not reflect that they withered in the +very gathering. The roses of pleasure seldom last long enough to adorn +the brow of him who plucks them; for they are the only roses which do +not retain their sweetness after they have lost their beauty. + +THE heathen poets often pressed on their readers the necessity of +considering the shortness of life, as an incentive to pleasure and +voluptuousness; lest the season for indulging in them should pass +unimproved. The dark and uncertain notions, not to say the absolute +disbelief, which they entertained of a future state, is the only apology +that can be offered for this reasoning. But while we censure their +tenets, let us not adopt their errors; errors which would be infinitely +more inexcusable in us, who, from the clearer views which revelation has +given us, shall not have their ignorance or their doubts to plead. It +were well if we availed ourselves of that portion of their precept, +which inculcates the improvement of every moment of our time, but not +like them to dedicate the moments so redeemed to the pursuit of sensual +and perishable pleasures, but to the securing of those which are +spiritual in their nature, and eternal in their duration. + +IF, indeed, like the miserable[4] beings imagined by Swift, with a view +to cure us of the irrational desire after immoderate length of days, we +were condemned to a wretched earthly immortality, we should have an +excuse for spending some portion of our time in dissipation, as we +might then pretend, with some colour of reason, that we proposed, at a +distant period, to enter on a better course of action. Or if we never +formed any such resolution, it would make no material difference to +beings, whose state was already unalterably fixed. But of the scanty +portion of days assigned to our lot, not one should be lost in weak +and irresolute procrastination. + +THOSE who have not yet determined on the side of vanity, who, like +Hercules, (before he knew the queen of Lydia, and had learnt to spin) +have not resolved on their choice between VIRTUE and PLEASURE, may +reflect, that it is still in their power to imitate that hero in his +noble choice, and in his virtuous rejection. They may also reflect with +grateful triumph, that Christianity furnishes them with a better guide +than the tutor of Alcides, and with a surer light than the doctrines of +pagan philosophy. + +IT is far from my design severely to condemn the innocent pleasures of +life: I would only beg leave to observe, that those which are criminal +should never be allowed; and that even the most innocent will, by +immoderate use, soon cease to be so. + +THE women of this country were not sent into the world to shun society, +but to embellish it; they were not designed for wilds and solitudes, but +for the amiable and endearing offices of social life. They have useful +stations to fill, and important characters to sustain. They are of a +religion which does not impose penances, but enjoins duties; a religion +of perfect purity, but of perfect benevolence also. A religion which +does not condemn its followers to indolent seclusion from the world, but +assigns them the more dangerous, though more honourable province, of +living uncorrupted in it. In fine, a religion, which does not direct +them to fly from the multitude, that they may do nothing, but which +positively forbids them to follow a multitude to do evil. + + +[2] The Emperor Caligula. + +[3] NOTHING can be more admirable than the manner in which this allegory +is conducted; and the whole work, not to mention its images, machinery, +and other poetical beauties, is written in the very finest strain of +morality. In this latter respect it is evidently superior to the works +of the ancients, the moral of which is frequently tainted by the +grossness of their mythology. Something of the purity of the Christian +religion may be discovered even in Fenelon's heathens, and they catch a +tincture of piety in passing through the hands of that amiable prelate. + +[4] The Struldbrugs. See Voyage to Laputa. + + + + +THOUGHTS +ON +CONVERSATION. + + +IT has been advised, and by very respectable authorities too, that in +conversation women should carefully conceal any knowledge or learning +they may happen to possess. I own, with submission, that I do not +see either the necessity or propriety of this advice. For if a young +lady has that discretion and modesty, without which all knowledge is +little worth, she will never make an ostentatious parade of it, because +she will rather be intent on acquiring more, than on displaying what she +has. + +I AM at a loss to know why a young female is instructed to exhibit, in +the most advantageous point of view, her skill in music, her singing, +dancing, taste in dress, and her acquaintance with the most fashionable +games and amusements, while her piety is to be anxiously concealed, and +her knowledge affectedly disavowed, lest the former should draw on her +the appellation of an enthusiast, or the latter that of a pedant. + +IN regard to knowledge, why should she for ever affect to be on her +guard, lest she should be found guilty of a small portion of it? She +need be the less solicitous about it, as it seldom proves to be so very +considerable as to excite astonishment or admiration: for, after all the +acquisitions which her talents and her studies have enabled her to make, +she will, generally speaking, be found to have less of what is called +_learning_, than a common school-boy. + +IT would be to the last degree presumptuous and absurd, for a young +woman to pretend to give the _ton_ to the company; to interrupt the +pleasure of others, and her own opportunity of improvement, by talking +when she ought to listen; or to introduce subjects out of the common +road, in order to shew her own wit, or expose the want of it in others: +but were the sex to be totally silent when any topic of literature +happens to be discussed in their presence, conversation would lose +much of its vivacity, and society would be robbed of one of its most +interesting charms. + +HOW easily and effectually may a well-bred woman promote the most useful +and elegant conversation, almost without speaking a word! for the modes +of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence. The +silence of listless ignorance, and the silence of sparkling +intelligence, are perhaps as separately marked, and as distinctly +expressed, as the same feelings could have been by the most +unequivocal language. A woman, in a company where she has the least +influence, may promote any subject by a profound and invariable +attention, which shews that she is pleased with it, and by an +illuminated countenance, which proves she understands it. This obliging +attention is the most flattering encouragement in the world to men of +sense and letters, to continue any topic of instruction or entertainment +they happen to be engaged in: it owed its introduction perhaps to +accident, the best introduction in the world for a subject of ingenuity, +which, though it could not have been formally proposed without pedantry, +may be continued with ease and good humour; but which will be frequently +and effectually stopped by the listlessness, inattention, or +whispering of silly girls, whose weariness betrays their ignorance, and +whose impatience exposes their ill-breeding. A polite man, however +deeply interested in the subject on which he is conversing, catches at +the slightest hint to have done: a look is a sufficient intimation, and +if a pretty simpleton, who sits near him, seems _distraite_, he puts an +end to his remarks, to the great regret of the reasonable part of the +company, who perhaps might have gained more improvement by the +continuance of such a conversation, than a week's reading would have +yielded them; for it is such company as this, that give an edge to each +other's wit, "as iron sharpeneth iron." + +THAT silence is one of the great arts of conversation is allowed by +Cicero himself, who says, there is not only an art but even an eloquence +in it. And this opinion is confirmed by a great modern[5], in the +following little anecdote from one of the ancients. + +WHEN many Grecian philosophers had a solemn meeting before the +ambassador of a foreign prince, each endeavoured to shew his parts by +the brilliancy of his conversation, that the ambassador might have +something to relate of the Grecian wisdom. One of them, offended, no +doubt, at the loquacity of his companions, observed a profound silence; +when the ambassador, turning to him, asked, "But what have you to say, +that I may report it?" He made this laconic, but very pointed reply: +"Tell your king, that you have found one among the Greeks who knew how +to be silent." + +THERE is a quality infinitely more intoxicating to the female mind than +knowledge--this is Wit, the most captivating, but the most dreaded of +all talents: the most dangerous to those who have it, and the most +feared by those who have it not. Though it is against all the rules, yet +I cannot find in my heart to abuse this charming quality. He who is +grown rich without it, in safe and sober dulness, shuns it as a disease, +and looks upon poverty as its invariable concomitant. The moralist +declaims against it as the source of irregularity, and the frugal +citizen dreads it more than bankruptcy itself, for he considers it as +the parent of extravagance and beggary. The Cynic will ask of what use +it is? Of very little perhaps: no more is a flower garden, and yet it is +allowed as an object of innocent amusement and delightful recreation. A +woman, who possesses this quality, has received a most dangerous +present, perhaps not less so than beauty itself: especially if it be not +sheathed in a temper peculiarly inoffensive, chastised by a most +correct judgment, and restrained by more prudence than falls to the +common lot. + +THIS talent is more likely to make a woman vain than knowledge; for as +Wit is the immediate property of its possessor, and learning is only +an acquaintance with the knowledge of other people, there is much more +danger, that we should be vain of what is our own, than of what we +borrow. + +BUT Wit, like learning, is not near so common a thing as is imagined. +Let not therefore a young lady be alarmed at the acuteness of her own +wit, any more than at the abundance of her own knowledge. The great +danger is, lest she should mistake pertness, flippancy, or imprudence, +for this brilliant quality, or imagine she is witty, only because she +is indiscreet. This is very frequently the case, and this makes the name +of wit so cheap, while its real existence is so rare. + +LEST the flattery of her acquaintance, or an over-weening opinion of her +own qualifications, should lead some vain and petulant girl into a false +notion that she has a great deal of wit, when she has only a redundancy +of animal spirits, she may not find it useless to attend to the +definition of this quality, by one who had as large a portion of it, as +most individuals could ever boast: + + 'Tis not a tale, 'tis not a jest, + Admir'd with laughter at a feast, + Nor florid talk, which can that title gain, + The proofs of wit for ever must remain. + Neither can that have any place, + At which a virgin hides her face; + Such dross the fire must purge away; 'tis just, + The author blush there, where the reader must. + + COWLEY. + +BUT those who actually possess this rare talent, cannot be too +abstinent in the use of it. It often makes admirers, but it never makes +friends; I mean, where it is the predominant feature; and the +unprotected and defenceless state of womanhood calls for friendship more +than for admiration. She who does not desire friends has a sordid and +insensible soul; but she who is ambitious of making every man her +admirer, has an invincible vanity and a cold heart. + +BUT to dwell only on the side of policy, a prudent woman, who has +established the reputation of some genius will sufficiently maintain +it, without keeping her faculties always on the stretch to say _good +things_. Nay, if reputation alone be her object, she will gain a more +solid one by her forbearance, as the wiser part of her acquaintance will +ascribe it to the right motive, which is, not that she has less wit, but +that she has more judgment. + +THE fatal fondness for indulging a spirit of ridicule, and the injurious +and irreparable consequences which sometimes attend the _too prompt +reply_, can never be too seriously or too severely condemned. Not to +offend, is the first step towards pleasing. To give pain is as much an +offence against humanity, as against good breeding; and surely it is as +well to abstain from an action because it is sinful, as because it is +impolite. In company, young ladies would do well before they speak, to +reflect, if what they are going to say may not distress some worthy +person present, by wounding them in their persons, families, connexions, +or religious opinions. If they find it will touch them in either of +these, I should advise them to suspect, that what they were going to say +is not so _very_ good a thing as they at first imagined. Nay, if even it +was one of those bright ideas, which _Venus has imbued with a fifth part +of her nectar_, so much greater will be their merit in suppressing it, +if there was a probability it might offend. Indeed, if they have the +temper and prudence to make such a previous reflection, they will be +more richly rewarded by their own inward triumph, at having suppressed +a lively but severe remark, than they could have been with the +dissembled applauses of the whole company, who, with that complaisant +deceit, which good breeding too much authorises, affect openly to admire +what they secretly resolve never to forgive. + +I HAVE always been delighted with the story of the little girl's +eloquence, in one of the Children's Tales, who received from a friendly +fairy the gift, that at every word she uttered, pinks, roses, diamonds, +and pearls, should drop from her mouth. The hidden moral appears to be +this, that it was the sweetness of her temper which produced this pretty +fanciful effect: for when her malicious sister desired the same gift +from the good-natured tiny Intelligence, the venom of her own heart +converted it into poisonous and loathsome reptiles. + +A MAN of sense and breeding will sometimes join in the laugh, which has +been raised at his expence by an ill-natured repartee; but if it was +very cutting, and one of those shocking sort of truths, which as they +can scarcely be pardoned even in private, ought never to be uttered in +public, he does not laugh because he is pleased, but because he wishes +to conceal how much he is hurt. As the sarcasm was uttered by a lady, so +far from seeming to resent it, he will be the first to commend it; but +notwithstanding that, he will remember it as a trait of malice, when the +whole company shall have forgotten it as a stroke of wit. Women are so +far from being privileged by their sex to say unhandsome or cruel +things, that it is this very circumstance which renders them more +intolerable. When the arrow is lodged in the heart, it is no relief to +him who is wounded to reflect, that the hand which shot it was a fair +one. + +MANY women, when they have a favourite point to gain, or an earnest wish +to bring any one over to their opinion, often use a very disingenuous +method: they will state a case ambiguously, and then avail themselves of +it, in whatever manner shall best answer their purpose; leaving your +mind in a state of indecision as to their real meaning, while they +triumph in the perplexity they have given you by the unfair conclusions +they draw, from premises equivocally stated. They will also frequently +argue from exceptions instead of rules, and are astonished when you are +not willing to be contented with a prejudice, instead of a reason. + +IN a sensible company of both sexes, where women are not restrained by +any other reserve than what their natural modesty imposes; and where the +intimacy of all parties authorises the utmost freedom of communication; +should any one inquire what were the general sentiments on some +particular subject, it will, I believe, commonly happen, that the +ladies, whose imaginations have kept pace with the narration, have +anticipated its end, and are ready to deliver their sentiments on it as +soon as it is finished. While some of the male hearers, whose minds were +busied in settling the propriety, comparing the circumstances, and +examining the consistencies of what was said, are obliged to pause and +discriminate, before they think of answering. Nothing is so +embarrassing as a variety of matter, and the conversation of women is +often more perspicuous, because it is less laboured. + +A MAN of deep reflection, if he does not keep up an intimate commerce +with the world, will be sometimes so entangled in the intricacies of +intense thought, that he will have the appearance of a confused and +perplexed expression; while a sprightly woman will extricate herself +with that lively and "rash dexterity," which will almost always please, +though it is very far from being always right. It is easier to confound +than to convince an opponent; the former may be effected by a turn that +has more happiness than truth in it. Many an excellent reasoner, well +skilled in the theory of the schools, has felt himself discomfited by a +reply, which, though as wide of the mark, and as foreign to the +question as can be conceived, has disconcerted him more than the most +startling proposition, or the most accurate chain of reasoning could +have done; and he has borne the laugh of his fair antagonist, as well as +of the whole company, though he could not but feel, that his own +argument was attended with the fullest demonstration: so true is it, +that it is not always necessary to be right, in order to be applauded. + +BUT let not a young lady's vanity be too much elated with this false +applause, which is given, not to her merit, but to her sex: she has not +perhaps gained a victory, though she may be allowed a triumph; and it +should humble her to reflect, that the tribute is paid, not to her +strength but her weakness. It is worth while to discriminate between +that applause, which is given from the complaisance of others, and that +which is paid to our own merit. + +WHERE great sprightliness is the natural bent of the temper, girls +should endeavour to habituate themselves to a custom of observing, +thinking, and reasoning. I do not mean, that they should devote +themselves to abstruse speculation, or the study of logic; but she who +is accustomed to give a due arrangement to her thoughts, to reason +justly and pertinently on common affairs, and judiciously to deduce +effects from their causes, will be a better logician than some of those +who claim the name, because they have studied the art: this is being +"learned without the rules;" the best definition, perhaps, of that sort +of literature which is properest for the sex. That species of +knowledge, which appears to be the result of reflection rather than of +science, sits peculiarly well on women. It is not uncommon to find a +lady, who, though she does not know a rule of Syntax, scarcely ever +violates one; and who constructs every sentence she utters, with more +propriety than many a learned dunce, who has every rule of Aristotle by +heart, and who can lace his own thread-bare discourse with the golden +shreds of Cicero and Virgil. + +IT has been objected, and I fear with some reason, that female +conversation is too frequently tinctured with a censorious spirit, and +that ladies are seldom apt to discover much tenderness for the errors of +a fallen sister. + + If it be so, it is a grievous fault. + +NO arguments can justify, no pleas can extenuate it. To insult over the +miseries of an unhappy creature is inhuman, not to compassionate them +is unchristian. The worthy part of the sex always express themselves +humanely on the failings of others, in proportion to their own +undeviating goodness. + +AND here I cannot help remarking, that young women do not always +carefully distinguish between running into the error of detraction, and +its opposite extreme of indiscriminate applause. This proceeds from the +false idea they entertain, that the direct contrary to what is wrong +must be right. Thus the dread of being only suspected of one fault makes +them actually guilty of another. The desire of avoiding the imputation +of envy, impels them to be insincere; and to establish a reputation for +sweetness of temper and generosity, they affect sometimes to speak of +very indifferent characters with the most extravagant applause. With +such, the hyperbole is a favourite figure; and every degree of +comparison but the superlative is rejected, as cold and inexpressive. +But this habit of exaggeration greatly weakens their credit, and +destroys the weight of their opinion on other occasions; for people very +soon discover what degree of faith is to be given both to their judgment +and veracity. And those of real merit will no more be flattered by that +approbation, which cannot distinguish the value of what it praises, than +the celebrated painter must have been at the judgment passed on his +works by an ignorant spectator, who, being asked what he thought of such +and such very capital but very different pieces, cried out in an +affected rapture, "All alike! all alike!" + +IT has been proposed to the young, as a maxim of supreme wisdom, to +manage so dexterously in conversation, as to appear to be well +acquainted with subjects, of which they are totally ignorant; and this, +by affecting silence in regard to those, on which they are known to +excel.--But why counsel this disingenuous fraud? Why add to the +numberless arts of deceit, this practice of deceiving, as it were, on a +settled principle? If to disavow the knowledge they really have be a +culpable affectation, then certainly to insinuate an idea of their +skill, where they are actually ignorant, is a most unworthy artifice. + +BUT of all the qualifications for conversation, humility, if not the +most brilliant, is the safest, the most amiable, and the most feminine. +The affectation of introducing subjects, with which others are +unacquainted, and of displaying talents superior to the rest of the +company, is as dangerous as it is foolish. + +There are many, who never can forgive another for being more agreeable +and more accomplished than themselves, and who can pardon any offence +rather than an eclipsing merit. Had the nightingale in the fable +conquered his vanity, and resisted the temptation of shewing a fine +voice, he might have escaped the talons of the hawk. The melody of his +singing was the cause of his destruction; his merit brought him into +danger, and his vanity cost him his life. + + +[5] Lord Bacon. + + + + +ON +ENVY. + + Envy came next, Envy with squinting eyes, + Sick of a strange disease, his neighbour's health; + Best then he lives when any better dies, + Is never poor but in another's wealth: + On best mens harms and griefs he feeds his fill, + Else his own maw doth eat with spiteful will, + Ill must the temper be, where diet is so ill. + + FLETCHER'S PURPLE ISLAND. + + +"ENVY, (says Lord Bacon) has no holidays." There cannot perhaps be a +more lively and striking description of the miserable state of mind +those endure, who are tormented with this vice. A spirit of emulation +has been supposed to be the source of the greatest improvements; and +there is no doubt but the warmest rivalship will produce the most +excellent effects; but it is to be feared, that a perpetual state of +contest will injure the temper so essentially, that the mischief will +hardly be counterbalanced by any other advantages. Those, whose progress +is the most rapid, will be apt to despise their less successful +competitors, who, in return, will feel the bitterest resentment against +their more fortunate rivals. Among persons of real goodness, this +jealousy and contempt can never be equally felt, because every +advancement in piety will be attended with a proportionable increase of +humility, which will lead them to contemplate their own improvements +with modesty, and to view with charity the miscarriages of others. + +WHEN an envious man is melancholy, one may ask him, in the words of +Bion, what evil has befallen himself, or what good has happened to +another? This last is the scale by which he principally measures his +felicity, and the very smiles of his friends are so many deductions from +his own happiness. The wants of others are the standard by which he +rates his own wealth, and he estimates his riches, not so much by his +own possessions, as by the necessities of his neighbours. + +WHEN the malevolent intend to strike a very deep and dangerous stroke of +malice, they generally begin the most remotely in the world from the +subject nearest their hearts. They set out with commending the object of +their envy for some trifling quality or advantage, which it is scarcely +worth while to possess: they next proceed to make a general +profession of their own good-will and regard for him: thus artfully +removing any suspicion of their design, and clearing all obstructions +for the insidious stab they are about to give; for who will suspect them +of an intention to injure the object of their peculiar and professed +esteem? The hearer's belief of the fact grows in proportion to the +seeming reluctance with which it is told, and to the conviction he has, +that the relater is not influenced by any private pique, or personal +resentment; but that the confession is extorted from him sorely +against his inclination, and purely on account of his zeal for truth. + +ANGER is less reasonable and more sincere than envy.--Anger breaks out +abruptly; envy is a great prefacer--anger wishes to be understood at +once: envy is fond of remote hints and ambiguities; but, obscure as its +oracles are, it never ceases to deliver them till they are perfectly +comprehended:--anger repeats the same circumstances over again; envy +invents new ones at every fresh recital--anger gives a broken, vehement, +and interrupted narrative; envy tells a more consistent and more +probable, though a falser tale--anger is excessively imprudent, for it +is impatient to disclose every thing it knows; envy is discreet, for it +has a great deal to hide--anger never consults times or seasons; envy +waits for the lucky moment, when the wound it meditates may be made the +most exquisitely painful, and the most incurably deep--anger uses more +invective; envy does more mischief--simple anger soon runs itself out of +breath, and is exhausted at the end of its tale; but it is for that +chosen period that envy has treasured up the most barbed arrow in its +whole quiver--anger puts a man out of himself: but the truly malicious +generally preserve the appearance of self-possession, or they could +not so effectually injure.--The angry man sets out by destroying his +whole credit with you at once, for he very frankly confesses his +abhorrence and detestation of the object of his abuse; while the envious +man carefully suppresses all his own share in the affair.--The angry +man defeats the end of his resentment, by keeping _himself_ continually +before your eyes, instead of his enemy; while the envious man artfully +brings forward the object of his malice, and keeps himself out of +sight.--The angry man talks loudly of his own wrongs; the envious of his +adversary's injustice.--A passionate person, if his resentments are +not complicated with malice, divides his time between sinning and +sorrowing; and, as the irascible passions cannot constantly be at +work, his heart may sometimes get a holiday.--Anger is a violent act, +envy a constant habit--no one can be always angry, but he may be always +envious:--an angry man's enmity (if he be generous) will subside when +the object of his resentment becomes unfortunate; but the envious man +can extract food from his malice out of calamity itself, if he finds his +adversary bears it with dignity, or is pitied or assisted in it. The +rage of the passionate man is totally extinguished by the death of his +enemy; but the hatred of the malicious is not buried even in the grave +of his rival: he will envy the good name he has left behind him; he will +envy him the tears of his widow, the prosperity of his children, the +esteem of his friends, the praises of his epitaph--nay the very +magnificence of his funeral. + +"THE ear of jealousy heareth all things," (says the wise man) frequently +I believe more than is uttered, which makes the company of persons +infected with it still more dangerous. + +WHEN you tell those of a malicious turn, any circumstance that has +happened to another, though they perfectly know of whom you are +speaking, they often affect to be at a loss, to forget his name, or to +misapprehend you in some respect or other; and this merely to have an +opportunity of slily gratifying their malice by mentioning some unhappy +defect or personal infirmity he labours under; and not contented "to +tack his every error to his name," they will, by way of farther +explanation, have recourse to the faults of his father, or the +misfortunes of his family; and this with all the seeming simplicity and +candor in the world, merely for the sake of preventing mistakes, and to +clear up every doubt of his identity.--If you are speaking of a lady, +for instance, they will perhaps embellish their inquiries, by asking if +you mean her, whose great grandfather was a bankrupt, though she has the +vanity to keep a chariot, while others who are much better born walk on +foot; or they will afterwards recollect, that you may possibly mean +her cousin, of the same name, whose mother was suspected of such or +such an indiscretion, though the daughter had the luck to make her +fortune by marrying, while her betters are overlooked. + +TO _hint at a fault_, does more mischief than speaking out; for whatever +is left for the imagination to finish, will not fail to be overdone: +every hiatus will be more then filled up, and every pause more than +supplied. There is less malice, and less mischief too, in telling a +man's name than the initials of it; as a worthier person may be involved +in the most disgraceful suspicions by such a dangerous ambiguity. + +IT is not uncommon for the envious, after having attempted to deface the +fairest character so industriously, that they are afraid you will begin +to detect their malice, to endeavour to remove your suspicions +effectually, by assuring you, that what they have just related is only +the popular opinion; they themselves can never believe things are so bad +as they are said to be; for their part, it is a rule with them always to +hope the best. It is their way never to believe or report ill of any +one. They will, however, mention the story in all companies, that they +may do their friend the service of protesting their disbelief of it. +More reputations are thus hinted away by false friends, than are openly +destroyed by public enemies. An _if_, or a _but_, or a mortified look, +or a languid defence, or an ambiguous shake of the head, or a hasty word +affectedly recalled, will demolish a character more effectually, than +the whole artillery of malice when openly levelled against it. + +IT is not that envy never praises--No, that would be making a public +profession of itself, and advertising its own malignity; whereas the +greatest success of its efforts depends on the concealment of their end. +When envy intends to strike a stroke of Machiavelian policy, it +sometimes affects the language of the most exaggerated applause; though +it generally takes care, that the subject of its panegyric shall be a +very indifferent and common character, so that it is well aware none of +its praises will stick. + +IT is the unhappy nature of envy not to be contented with positive +misery, but to be continually aggravating its own torments, by comparing +them with the felicities of others. The eyes of envy are perpetually +fixed on the object which disturbs it, nor can it avert them from it, +though to procure itself the relief of a temporary forgetfulness. On +seeing the innocence of the first pair, + + Aside the devil turn'd, + For Envy, yet with jealous leer malign, + Eyed them askance. + +As this enormous sin chiefly instigated the revolt, and brought on the +ruin of the angelic spirits, so it is not improbable, that it will be a +principal instrument of misery in a future world, for the envious to +compare their desperate condition with the happiness of the children of +God; and to heighten their actual wretchedness by reflecting on what +they have lost. + +PERHAPS envy, like lying and ingratitude, is practised with more +frequency, because it is practised with impunity; but there being no +human laws against these crimes, is so far from an inducement to commit +them, that this very consideration would be sufficient to deter the wise +and good, if all others were ineffectual; for of how heinous a nature +must those sins be, which are judged above the reach of human +punishment, and are reserved for the final justice of God himself! + + + + +ON THE +DANGER +OF +SENTIMENTAL OR ROMANTIC +CONNEXIONS. + + +AMONG the many evils which prevail under the sun, the abuse of words is +not the least considerable. By the influence of time, and the perversion +of fashion, the plainest and most unequivocal may be so altered, as to +have a meaning assigned them almost diametrically opposite to their +original signification. + +THE present age may be termed, by way of distinction, the age of +sentiment, a word which, in the implication it now bears, was unknown to +our plain ancestors. Sentiment is the varnish of virtue to conceal the +deformity of vice; and it is not uncommon for the same persons to make a +jest of religion, to break through the most solemn ties and engagements, +to practise every art of latent fraud and open seduction, and yet to +value themselves on speaking and writing _sentimentally_. + +BUT this refined jargon, which has infested letters and tainted morals, +is chiefly admired and adopted by _young ladies_ of a certain turn, who +read _sentimental books_, write _sentimental letters_, and contract +_sentimental friendships_. + +ERROR is never likely to do so much mischief as when it disguises its +real tendency, and puts on an engaging and attractive appearance. Many a +young woman, who would be shocked at the imputation of an intrigue, is +extremely flattered at the idea of a sentimental connexion, though +perhaps with a dangerous and designing man, who, by putting on this mask +of plausibility and virtue, disarms her of her prudence, lays her +apprehensions asleep, and involves her in misery; misery the more +inevitable because unsuspected. For she who apprehends no danger, will +not think it necessary to be always upon her guard; but will rather +invite than avoid the ruin which comes under so specious and so fair a +form. + +SUCH an engagement will be infinitely dearer to her vanity than an +avowed and authorised attachment; for one of these sentimental lovers +will not scruple very seriously to assure a credulous girl, that her +unparalleled merit entitles her to the adoration of the whole world, and +that the universal homage of mankind is nothing more than the +unavoidable tribute extorted by her charms. No wonder then she should be +easily prevailed on to believe, that an individual is captivated by +perfections which might enslave a million. But she should remember, that +he who endeavours to intoxicate her with adulation, intends one day most +effectually to humble her. For an artful man has always a secret design +to pay himself in future for every present sacrifice. And this +prodigality of praise, which he now appears to lavish with such +thoughtless profusion, is, in fact, a sum oeconomically laid out to +supply his future necessities: of this sum he keeps an exact estimate, +and at some distant day promises himself the most exorbitant interest +for it. If he has address and conduct, and, the object of his pursuit +much vanity, and some sensibility, he seldom fails of success; for so +powerful will be his ascendancy over her mind, that she will soon adopt +his notions and opinions. Indeed, it is more than probable she +possessed most of them before, having gradually acquired them in her +initiation into the sentimental character. To maintain that character +with dignity and propriety, it is necessary she should entertain the +most elevated ideas of disproportionate alliances, and disinterested +love; and consider fortune, rank, and reputation, as mere chimerical +distinctions and vulgar prejudices. + +THE lover, deeply versed in all the obliquities of fraud, and skilled to +wind himself into every avenue of the heart which indiscretion has left +unguarded, soon discovers on which side it is most accessible. He +avails himself of this weakness by addressing her in a language +exactly consonant to her own ideas. He attacks her with her own weapons, +and opposes rhapsody to sentiment--He professes so sovereign a +contempt for the paltry concerns of money, that she thinks it her duty +to reward him for so generous a renunciation. Every plea he artfully +advances of his own unworthiness, is considered by her as a fresh +demand which her gratitude must answer. And she makes it a point of +honour to sacrifice to him that fortune which he is too noble to regard. +These professions of humility are the common artifice of the vain, and +these protestations of generosity the refuge of the rapacious. And among +its many smooth mischiefs, it is one of the sure and successful frauds +of sentiment, to affect the most frigid indifference to those external +and pecuniary advantages, which it is its great and real object to +obtain. + +A SENTIMENTAL girl very rarely entertains any doubt of her personal +beauty; for she has been daily accustomed to contemplate it herself, and +to hear of it from others. She will not, therefore, be very solicitous +for the confirmation of a truth so self-evident; but she suspects, that +her pretensions to understanding are more likely to be disputed, and, +for that reason, greedily devours every compliment offered to those +perfections, which are less obvious and more refined. She is persuaded, +that men need only open their eyes to decide on her beauty, while it +will be the most convincing proof of the taste, sense, and elegance of +her admirer, that he can discern and flatter those qualities in her. A +man of the character here supposed, will easily insinuate himself into +her affections, by means of this latent but leading foible, which may be +called the guiding clue to a sentimental heart. He will affect to +overlook that beauty which attracts common eyes, and ensnares common +hearts, while he will bestow the most delicate praises on the beauties +of her mind, and finish the climax of adulation, by hinting that she is +superior to it. + + And when he tells her she hates flattery, + She says she does, being then most flatter'd. + +BUT nothing, in general, can end less delightfully than these sublime +attachments, even where no acts of seduction were ever practised, but +they are suffered, like mere sublunary connexions, to terminate in the +vulgar catastrophe of marriage. That wealth, which lately seemed to be +looked on with ineffable contempt by the lover, now appears to be the +principal attraction in the eyes of the husband; and he, who but a few +short weeks before, in a transport of sentimental generosity, wished her +to have been a village maid, with no portion but her crook and her +beauty, and that they might spend their days in pastoral love and +innocence, has now lost all relish for the Arcadian life, or any other +life in which she must be his companion. + +ON the other hand, she who was lately + + An angel call'd, and angel-like ador'd, + +is shocked to find herself at once stripped of all her celestial +attributes. This late divinity, who scarcely yielded to her sisters of +the sky, now finds herself of less importance in the esteem of the man +she has chosen, than any other mere mortal woman. No longer is she +gratified with the tear of counterfeited passion, the sigh of +dissembled rapture, or the language of premeditated adoration. No +longer is the altar of her vanity loaded with the oblations of +fictitious fondness, the incense of falsehood, or the sacrifice of +flattery.--Her apotheosis is ended!--She feels herself degraded from the +dignities and privileges of a goddess, to all the imperfections, +vanities, and weaknesses of a slighted woman, and a neglected wife. +Her faults, which were so lately overlooked, or mistaken for virtues, +are now, as Cassius says, set in a note-book. The passion, which was +vowed eternal, lasted only a few short weeks; and the indifference, +which was so far from being included in the bargain, that it was not so +much as suspected, follows them through the whole tiresome journey of +their insipid, vacant, joyless existence. + +THUS much for the _completion_ of the sentimental history. If we trace +it back to its beginning, we shall find that a damsel of this cast had +her head originally turned by pernicious reading, and her insanity +confirmed by imprudent friendships. She never fails to select a beloved +_confidante_ of her own turn and humour, though, if she can help it, not +quite so handsome as herself. A violent intimacy ensues, or, to speak +the language of sentiment, an intimate union of souls immediately takes +place, which is wrought to the highest pitch by a secret and voluminous +correspondence, though they live in the same street, or perhaps in the +same house. This is the fuel which principally feeds and supplies the +dangerous flame of sentiment. In this correspondence the two friends +encourage each other in the falsest notions imaginable. They represent +romantic love as the great important business of human life, and +describe all the other concerns of it as too low and paltry to merit the +attention of such elevated beings, and fit only to employ the daughters +of the plodding vulgar. In these letters, family affairs are +misrepresented, family secrets divulged, and family misfortunes +aggravated. They are filled with vows of eternal amity, and +protestations of never-ending love. But interjections and quotations are +the principal embellishments of these very sublime epistles. Every +panegyric contained in them is extravagant and hyperbolical, and every +censure exaggerated and excessive. In a favourite, every frailty is +heightened into a perfection, and in a foe degraded into a crime. The +dramatic poets, especially the most tender and romantic, are quoted in +almost every line, and every pompous or pathetic thought is forced to +give up its natural and obvious meaning, and with all the violence of +misapplication, is compelled to suit some circumstance of imaginary woe +of the fair transcriber. Alicia is not too mad for her heroics, nor +Monimia too mild for her soft emotions. + +FATHERS _have flinty hearts_ is an expression worth an empire, and is +always used with peculiar emphasis and enthusiasm. For a favourite topic +of these epistles is the groveling spirit and sordid temper of the +parents, who will be sure to find no quarter at the hands of their +daughters, should they presume to be so unreasonable as to direct their +course of reading, interfere in their choice of friends, or interrupt +their very important correspondence. But as these young ladies are +fertile in expedients, and as their genius is never more agreeably +exercised than in finding resources, they are not without their secret +exultation, in case either of the above interesting events should +happen, as they carry with them a certain air of tyranny and persecution +which is very delightful. For a prohibited correspondence is one of the +great incidents of a sentimental life, and a letter clandestinely +received, the supreme felicity of a sentimental lady. + +NOTHING can equal the astonishment of these soaring spirits, when their +plain friends or prudent relations presume to remonstrate with them on +any impropriety in their conduct. But if these worthy people happen to +be somewhat advanced in life, their contempt is then a little softened +by pity, at the reflection that such very antiquated poor creatures +should pretend to judge what is fit or unfit for ladies of their great +refinement, sense, and reading. They consider them as wretches utterly +ignorant of the sublime pleasures of a delicate and exalted passion; +as tyrants whose authority is to be contemned, and as spies whose +vigilance is to be eluded. The prudence of these worthy friends they +term suspicion, and their experience dotage. For they are persuaded, +that the face of things has so totally changed since their parents were +young, that though they might then judge tolerably for themselves, yet +they are now (with all their advantages of knowledge and observation) by +no means qualified to direct their more enlightened daughters; who, if +they have made a great progress in the sentimental walk, will no more +be influenced by the advice of their mother, than they would go abroad +in her laced pinner or her brocade suit. + +BUT young people never shew their folly and ignorance more +conspicuously, than by this over-confidence in their own judgment, and +this haughty disdain of the opinion of those who have known more days. +Youth has a quickness of apprehension, which it is very apt to mistake +for an acuteness of penetration. But youth, like cunning, though very +conceited, is very short-sighted, and never more so than when it +disregards the instructions of the wife, and the admonitions of the +aged. The same vices and follies influenced the human heart in their +day, which influence it now, and nearly in the same manner. One who +well knew the world and its various vanities, has said, "The thing which +hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that +which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun." + +IT is also a part of the sentimental character, to imagine that none but +the young and the beautiful have any right to the pleasures of society, +of even to the common benefits and blessings of life. Ladies of this +turn also affect the most lofty disregard for useful qualities and +domestic virtues; and this is a natural consequence: for as this sort of +sentiment is only a weed of idleness, she who is constantly and usefully +employed, has neither leisure nor propensity to cultivate it. + +A SENTIMENTAL lady principally values herself on the enlargement of her +notions, and her liberal way of thinking. This superiority of soul +chiefly manifests itself in the contempt of those minute delicacies and +little decorums, which, trifling as they may be thought, tend at once to +dignify the character, and to restrain the levity of the younger part of +the sex. + +PERHAPS the error here complained of, originates in mistaking +_sentiment_ and _principle_ for each other. Now I conceive them to be +extremely different. Sentiment is the virtue of _ideas_, and principle +the virtue of _action_. Sentiment has its seat in the head, principle in +the heart. Sentiment suggests fine harangues and subtile distinctions; +principle conceives just notions, and performs good actions in +consequence of them. Sentiment refines away the simplicity of truth and +the plainness of piety; and, as a celebrated wit[6] has remarked of his +no less celebrated contemporary, gives us virtue in words and vice in +deeds. Sentiment may be called the Athenian, who _knew_ what was right, +and principle the Lacedemonian who _practised_ it. + +BUT these qualities will be better exemplified by an attentive +consideration of two admirably drawn characters of Milton, which are +beautifully, delicately, and distinctly marked. These are, Belial, who +may not improperly be called the _Demon of Sentiment_; and Abdiel, who +may be termed the _Angel of Principle_. + +SURVEY the picture of Belial, drawn by the sublimest hand that ever held +the poetic pencil. + + A fairer person lost not heav'n; he seem'd + For dignity compos'd, and high exploit, + But all was false and hollow, tho' his tongue + Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear + The better reason, to perplex and dash + Maturest counsels, for his thoughts were low, + To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds + Tim'rous and slothful; yet he pleas'd the ear. + + PARADISE LOST, B. II. + +HERE is a lively and exquisite representation of art, subtilty, wit, +fine breeding and polished manners: on the whole, of a very accomplished +and sentimental spirit. + +NOW turn to the artless, upright, and unsophisticated Abdiel, + + Faithful found + Among the faithless, faithful only he + Among innumerable false, unmov'd, + Unshaken, unseduc'd, unterrified; + His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal. + Nor number, nor example with him wrought + To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, + Though single. + + BOOK V. + +BUT it is not from these descriptions, just and striking as they are, +that their characters are so perfectly known, as from an examination of +their conduct through the remainder of this divine work: in which it is +well worth while to remark the consonancy of their actions, with what +the above pictures seem to promise. It will also be observed, that the +contrast between them is kept up throughout, with the utmost exactness +of delineation, and the most animated strength of colouring. On a +review it will be found, that Belial _talked_ all, and Abdiel _did_ all. +The former, + + With words still cloath'd in reason's guise, + Counsel'd ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, + Not peace. + + BOOK II. + +IN Abdiel you will constantly find the eloquence of action. When tempted +by the rebellious angels, with what _retorted scorn_, with what honest +indignation he deserts their multitudes, and retreats from their +contagious society! + + All night the dreadless angel unpursued + Through heaven's wide champain held his way. + + BOOK VI. + +NO wonder he was received with such acclamations of joy by the celestial +powers, when there was + + But one, + Yes, of so many myriads fall'n, but one + Return'd not lost. + + IBID. + +AND afterwards, in a close contest with the arch fiend, + + A noble stroke he lifted high + On the proud crest of Satan. + + IBID. + +WHAT was the effect of this courage of the vigilant and active seraph? + + Amazement seiz'd + The rebel throne, but greater rage to see + Thus foil'd their mightiest. + +ABDIEL had the superiority of Belial as much in the warlike combat, as +in the peaceful counsels. + + Nor was it ought but just, + That he who in debate of truth had won, + Shou'd win in arms, in both disputes alike + Victor. + +BUT notwithstanding I have spoken with some asperity against sentiment +as opposed to principle, yet I am convinced, that true genuine +sentiment, (not the sort I have been describing) may be so connected +with principle, as to bestow on it its brightest lustre, and its most +captivating graces. And enthusiasm is so far from being disagreeable, +that a portion of it is perhaps indispensably necessary in an engaging +woman. But it must be the enthusiasm of the heart, not of the senses. It +must be the enthusiasm which grows up with a feeling mind, and is +cherished by a virtuous education; not that which is compounded of +irregular passions, and artificially refined by books of unnatural +fiction and improbable adventure. I will even go so far as to assert, +that a young woman cannot have any real greatness of soul, or true +elevation of principle, if she has not a tincture of what the vulgar +would call Romance, but which persons of a certain way of thinking will +discern to proceed from those fine feelings, and that charming +sensibility, without which, though a woman may be worthy, yet she can +never be amiable. + +BUT this dangerous merit cannot be too rigidly watched, as it is very +apt to lead those who possess it into inconveniencies from which less +interesting characters are happily exempt. Young women of strong +sensibility may be carried by the very amiableness of this temper into +the most alarming extremes. Their tastes are passions. They love and +hate with all their hearts, and scarcely suffer themselves to feel a +reasonable preference before it strengthens into a violent attachment. + +WHEN an innocent girl of this open, trusting, tender heart, happens to +meet with one of her own sex and age, whose address and manners are +engaging, she is instantly seized with an ardent desire to commence a +friendship with her. She feels the most lively impatience at the +restraints of company, and the decorums of ceremony. She longs to be +alone with her, longs to assure her of the warmth of her tenderness, +and generously ascribes to the fair stranger all the good qualities she +feels in her own heart, or rather all those which she has met with in +her reading, dispersed in a variety of heroines. She is persuaded, that +her new friend unites them all in herself, because she carries in her +prepossessing countenance the promise of them all. How cruel and how +censorious would this inexperienced girl think her mother was, who +should venture to hint, that the agreeable unknown had defects in her +temper, or exceptions in her character. She would mistake these hints of +discretion for the insinuations of an uncharitable disposition. At first +she would perhaps listen to them with a generous impatience, and +afterwards with a cold and silent disdain. She would despise them as the +effect of prejudice, misrepresentation, or ignorance. The more +aggravated the censure, the more vehemently would she protest in secret, +that her friendship for this dear injured creature (who is raised much +higher in her esteem by such injurious suspicions) shall know no bounds, +as she is assured it can know no end. + +YET this trusting confidence, this honest indiscretion, is, at this +early period of life as amiable as it is natural; and will, if wisely +cultivated, produce, at its proper season, fruits infinitely more +valuable than all the guarded circumspection of premature, and therefore +artificial, prudence. Men, I believe, are seldom struck with these +sudden prepossessions in favour of each other. They are not so +unsuspecting, nor so easily led away by the predominance of fancy. They +engage more warily, and pass through the several stages of acquaintance, +intimacy, and confidence, by slower gradations; but women, if they are +sometimes deceived in the choice of a friend, enjoy even then an higher +degree of satisfaction than if they never trusted. For to be always clad +in the burthensome armour of suspicion is more painful and inconvenient, +than to run the hazard of suffering now and then a transient injury. + +BUT the above observations only extend to the young and the +inexperienced; for I am very certain, that women are capable of as +faithful and as durable friendship as any of the other sex. They can +enter not only into all the enthusiastic tenderness, but into all the +solid fidelity of attachment. And if we cannot oppose instances of equal +weight with those of Nysus and Euryalus, Theseus and Pirithous, Pylades +and Orestes, let it be remembered, that it is because the recorders of +those characters were men, and that the very existence of them is merely +poetical. + + +[6] See Voltaire's Prophecy concerning Rousseau. + + + + +ON +TRUE AND FALSE +MEEKNESS. + + +A LOW voice and soft address are the common indications of a well-bred +woman, and should seem to be the natural effects of a meek and quiet +spirit; but they are only the outward and visible signs of it: for they +are no more meekness itself, than a red coat is courage, or a black one +devotion. + +YET nothing is more common than to mistake the sign for the thing +itself; nor is any practice more frequent than that of endeavouring to +acquire the exterior mark, without once thinking to labour after the +interior grace. Surely this is beginning at the wrong end, like +attacking the symptom and neglecting the disease. To regulate the +features, while the soul is in tumults, or to command the voice while +the passions are without restraint, is as idle as throwing odours into +a stream when the source is polluted. + +THE _sapient king_, who knew better than any man the nature and the +power of beauty, has assured us, that the temper of the mind has a +strong influence upon the features: "Wisdom maketh the face to shine," +says that exquisite judge; and surely no part of wisdom is more likely +to produce this amiable effect, than a placid serenity of soul. + +IT will not be difficult to distinguish the true from the artificial +meekness. The former is universal and habitual, the latter, local and +temporary. Every young female may keep this rule by her, to enable her +to form a just judgment of her own temper: if she is not as gentle to +her chambermaid as she is to her visitor, she may rest satisfied that +the spirit of gentleness is not in her. + +WHO would not be shocked and disappointed to behold a well-bred young +lady, soft and engaging as the doves of Venus, displaying a thousand +graces and attractions to win the hearts of a large company, and the +instant they are gone, to see her look mad as the Pythian maid, and all +the frightened graces driven from her furious countenance, only because +her gown was brought home a quarter of an hour later than she expected, +or her ribbon sent half a shade lighter or darker than she ordered? + +ALL men's characters are said to proceed from their servants; and this +is more particularly true of ladies: for as their situations are more +domestic, they lie more open to the inspection of their families, to +whom their real characters are easily and perfectly known; for they +seldom think it worth while to practise any disguise before those, +whose good opinion they do not value, and who are obliged to submit to +their most insupportable humours, because they are paid for it. + +AMONGST women of breeding, the exterior of gentleness is so uniformly +assumed, and the whole manner is so perfectly level and _uni_, that it +is next to impossible for a stranger to know any thing of their true +dispositions by conversing with them, and even the very features are so +exactly regulated, that physiognomy, which may sometimes be trusted +among the vulgar, is, with the polite, a most lying science. + +A VERY termagant woman, if she happens also to be a very artful one, +will be conscious she has so much to conceal, that the dread of +betraying her real temper will make her put on an over-acted softness, +which, from its very excess, may be distinguished from the natural, by a +penetrating eye. That gentleness is ever liable to be suspected for the +counterfeited, which is so excessive as to deprive people of the +proper use of speech and motion, or which, as Hamlet says, makes them +lisp and amble, and nick-name God's creatures. + +THE countenance and manners of some very fashionable persons may be +compared to the inscriptions on their monuments, which speak nothing but +good of what is within; but he who knows any thing of the world, or of +the human heart, will no more trust to the courtesy, than he will depend +on the epitaph. + +AMONG the various artifices of factitious meekness, one of the most +frequent and most plausible, is that of affecting to be always equally +delighted with all persons and all characters. The society of these +languid beings is without confidence, their friendship without +attachment, and their love without affection, or even preference. This +insipid mode of conduct may be safe, but I cannot think it has either +taste, sense, or principle in it. + +THESE uniformly smiling and approving ladies, who have neither the noble +courage to reprehend vice, nor the generous warmth to bear their honest +testimony in the cause of virtue, conclude every one to be ill-natured +who has any penetration, and look upon a distinguishing judgment as want +of tenderness. But they should learn, that this discernment does not +always proceed from an uncharitable temper, but from that long +experience and thorough knowledge of the world, which lead those who +have it to scrutinize into the conduct and disposition of men, before +they trust entirely to those fair appearances, which sometimes veil the +most insidious purposes. + +WE are perpetually mistaking the qualities and dispositions of our own +hearts. We elevate our failings into virtues, and qualify our vices into +weaknesses: and hence arise so many false judgments respecting +meekness. Self-ignorance is at the root of all this mischief. Many +ladies complain that, for their part, their spirit is so meek they can +bear nothing; whereas, if they spoke truth, they would say, their spirit +is so high and unbroken that they can bear nothing. Strange! to plead +their meekness as a reason why they cannot endure to be crossed, and +to produce their impatience of contradiction as a proof of their +gentleness! + +MEEKNESS, like most other virtues, has certain limits, which it no +sooner exceeds than it becomes criminal. Servility of spirit is not +gentleness but weakness, and if allowed, under the specious appearances +it sometimes puts on, will lead to the most dangerous compliances. She +who hears innocence maligned without vindicating it, falsehood +asserted without contradicting it, or religion prophaned without +resenting it, is not gentle but wicked. + +TO give up the cause of an innocent, injured friend, if the popular cry +happens to be against him, is the most disgraceful weakness. This was +the case of Madame de Maintenon. She loved the character and admired the +talents of Racine; she caressed him while he had no enemies, but +wanted the greatness of mind, or rather the common justice, to protect +him against their resentment when he had; and her favourite was +abandoned to the suspicious jealousy of the king, when a prudent +remonstrance might have preserved him.--But her tameness, if not +absolute connivance in the great massacre of the protestants, in whose +church she had been bred, is a far more guilty instance of her weakness; +an instance which, in spite of all her devotional zeal and incomparable +prudence, will disqualify her from shining in the annals of good women, +however she may be entitled to figure among the great and the +fortunate. Compare her conduct with that of her undaunted and pious +countryman and contemporary, Bougi, who, when Louis would have prevailed +on him to renounce his religion for a commission or a government, +nobly replied, "If I could be persuaded to betray my God for a marshal's +staff, I might betray my king for a bribe of much less consequence." + +MEEKNESS is imperfect, if it be not both active and passive; if it +will not enable us to subdue our own passions and resentments, as well +as qualify us to bear patiently the passions and resentments of +others. + +BEFORE we give way to any violent emotion of anger, it would perhaps be +worth while to consider the value of the object which excites it, and to +reflect for a moment, whether the thing we so ardently desire, or so +vehemently resent, be really of as much importance to us, as that +delightful tranquillity of soul, which we renounce in pursuit of it. If, +on a fair calculation, we find we are not likely to get as much as we +are sure to lose, then, putting all religious considerations out of the +question, common sense and human policy will tell us, we have made a +foolish and unprofitable exchange. Inward quiet is a part of one's self; +the object of our resentment may be only a matter of opinion; and, +certainly, what makes a portion of our actual happiness ought to be too +dear to us, to be sacrificed for a trifling, foreign, perhaps imaginary +good. + +THE most pointed satire I remember to have read, on a mind enslaved by +anger, is an observation of Seneca's. "Alexander (said he) had two +friends, Clitus and Lysimachus; the one he exposed to a lion, the other +to himself: he who was turned loose to the beast escaped, but Clitus was +murdered, for he was turned loose to an angry man." + +A PASSIONATE woman's happiness is never in her own keeping: it is the +sport of accident, and the slave of events. It is in the power of her +acquaintance, her servants, but chiefly of her enemies, and all her +comforts lie at the mercy of others. So far from being willing to learn +of him who was meek and lowly, she considers meekness as the want of a +becoming spirit, and lowliness as a despicable and vulgar meanness. And +an imperious woman will so little covet the ornament of a meek and +quiet spirit, that it is almost the only ornament she will not be +solicitous to wear. But resentment is a very expensive vice. How dearly +has it cost its votaries, even from the sin of Cain, the first offender +in this kind! "It is cheaper (says a pious writer) to forgive, and save +the charges." + +IF it were only for mere human reasons, it would turn to a better +account to be patient; nothing defeats the malice of an enemy like a +spirit of forbearance; the return of rage for rage cannot be so +effectually provoking. True gentleness, like an impenetrable armour, +repels the most pointed shafts of malice: they cannot pierce through +this invulnerable shield, but either fall hurtless to the ground, or +return to wound the hand that shot them. + +A MEEK spirit will not look out of itself for happiness, because it +finds a constant banquet at home; yet, by a sort of divine alchymy, it +will convert all external events to its own profit, and be able to +deduce some good, even from the most unpromising: it will extract +comfort and satisfaction from the most barren circumstances: "It will +suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." + +BUT the supreme excellence of this complacent quality is, that it +naturally disposes the mind where it resides, to the practice of every +other that is amiable. Meekness may be called the pioneer of all the +other virtues, which levels every obstruction, and smooths every +difficulty that might impede their entrance, or retard their progress. + +THE peculiar importance and value of this amiable virtue may be farther +seen in its permanency. Honours and dignities are transient, beauty and +riches frail and fugacious, to a proverb. Would not the truly wise, +therefore, wish to have some one possession, which they might call +their own in the severest exigencies? But this wish can only be +accomplished by acquiring and maintaining that calm and absolute +self-possession, which, as the world had no hand in giving, so it +cannot, by the most malicious exertion of its power, take away. + + + + +THOUGHTS +ON THE +CULTIVATION +OF THE +HEART AND TEMPER +IN THE +EDUCATION OF DAUGHTERS. + + +I HAVE not the foolish presumption to imagine, that I can offer any +thing new on a subject, which has been so successfully treated by many +learned and able writers. I would only, with all possible deference, +beg leave to hazard a few short remarks on that part of the subject of +education, which I would call the _education of the heart_. I am well +aware, that this part also has not been less skilfully and forcibly +discussed than the rest, though I cannot, at the same time, help +remarking, that it does not appear to have been so much adopted into +common practice. + +IT appears then, that notwithstanding the great and real improvements, +which have been made in the affair of female education, and +notwithstanding the more enlarged and generous views of it, which +prevail in the present day, that there is still a very material defect, +which it is not, in general, enough the object of attention to remove. +This defect seems to consist in this, that too little regard is paid to +the dispositions of the _mind_, that the indications of the _temper_ are +not properly cherished, nor the affections of the _heart_ sufficiently +regulated. + +IN the first education of girls, as far as the customs which fashion +establishes are right, they should undoubtedly be followed. Let the +exterior be made a considerable object of attention, but let it not be +the principal, let it not be the only one.--Let the graces be +industriously cultivated, but let them not be cultivated at the expence +of the virtues.--Let the arms, the head, the whole person be carefully +polished, but let not the heart be the only portion of the human +anatomy, which shall be totally overlooked. + +THE neglect of this cultivation seems to proceed as much from a bad +taste, as from a false principle. The generality of people form their +judgment of education by slight and sudden appearances, which is +certainly a wrong way of determining. Music, dancing, and languages, +gratify those who teach them, by perceptible and almost immediate +effects; and when there happens to be no imbecillity in the pupil, nor +deficiency in the matter, every superficial observer can, in some +measure, judge of the progress.--The effects of most of these +accomplishments address themselves to the senses; and there are more who +can see and hear, than there are who can judge and reflect. + +PERSONAL perfection is not only more obvious, it is also more rapid; and +even in very accomplished characters, elegance usually precedes +principle. + +BUT the heart, that natural seat of evil propensities, that little +troublesome empire of the passions, is led to what is right by slow +motions and imperceptible degrees. It must be admonished by reproof, and +allured by kindness. Its liveliest advances are frequently impeded by +the obstinacy of prejudice, and its brightest promises often obscured by +the tempests of passion. It is slow in its acquisition of virtue, and +reluctant in its approaches to piety. + +THERE is another reason, which proves this mental cultivation to be more +important, as well as more difficult, than any other part of education. +In the usual fashionable accomplishments, the business of acquiring them +is almost always getting forwards, and one difficulty is conquered +before another is suffered to shew itself; for a prudent teacher will +level the road his pupil is to pass, and smooth the inequalities which +might retard her progress. + +BUT in morals, (which should be the great object constantly kept in +view) the talk is far more difficult. The unruly and turbulent desires +of the heart are not so obedient; one passion will start up before +another is suppressed. The subduing Hercules cannot cut off the heads +so often as the prolific Hydra can produce them, nor fell the stubborn +Antaeus so fast as he can recruit his strength, and rise in vigorous and +repeated opposition. + +IF all the accomplishments could be bought at the price of a single +virtue, the purchase would be infinitely dear! And, however startling +it may sound, I think it is, notwithstanding, true, that the labours of +a good and wise mother, who is anxious for her daughter's most important +interests, will _seem_ to be at variance with those of her instructors. +She will doubtless rejoice at her progress in any polite art, but she +will rejoice with trembling:--humility and piety form the solid and +durable basis, on which she wishes to raise the superstructure of the +accomplishments, while the accomplishments themselves are frequently of +that unsteady nature, that if the foundation is not secured, in +proportion as the building is enlarged, it will be overloaded and +destroyed by those very ornaments, which were intended to embellish, +what they have contributed to ruin. + +THE more ostensible qualifications should be carefully regulated, or +they will be in danger of putting to flight the modest train of +retreating virtues, which cannot safely subsist before the bold eye of +public observation, or bear the bolder tongue of impudent and audacious +flattery. A tender mother cannot but feel an honest triumph, in +contemplating those excellencies in her daughter which deserve applause, +but she will also shudder at the vanity which that applause may excite, +and at those hitherto unknown ideas which it may awaken. + +THE master, it is his interest, and perhaps his duty, will naturally +teach a girl to set her improvements in the most conspicuous point of +light. SE FAIRE VALOIR is the great principle industriously inculcated +into her young heart, and seems to be considered as a kind of +fundamental maxim in education. It is however the certain and effectual +seed, from which a thousand yet unborn vanities will spring. This +dangerous doctrine (which yet is not without its uses) will be +counteracted by the prudent mother, not in so many words, but by a +watchful and scarcely perceptible dexterity. Such an one will be more +careful to have the talents of her daughter _cultivated_ than +_exhibited_. + +ONE would be led to imagine, by the common mode of female education, +that life consisted of one universal holiday, and that the only contest +was, who should be best enabled to excel in the sports and games that +were to be celebrated on it. Merely ornamental accomplishments will but +indifferently qualify a woman to perform the _duties_ of life, though it +is highly proper she should possess them, in order to furnish the +_amusements_ of it. But is it right to spend so large a portion of life +without some preparation for the business of living? A lady may speak a +little French and Italian, repeat a few passages in a theatrical tone, +play and sing, have her dressing-room hung with her own drawings, and +her person covered with her own tambour work, and may, notwithstanding, +have been very _badly educated_. Yet I am far from attempting to +depreciate the value of these qualifications: they are most of them not +only highly becoming, but often indispensably necessary, and a polite +education cannot be perfected without them. But as the world seems to be +very well apprised of their importance, there is the less occasion to +insist on their utility. Yet, though well-bred young women should learn +to dance, sing, recite and draw, the end of a good education is not that +they may become dancers, singers, players or painters: its real object +is to make them good daughters, good wives, good mistresses, good +members of society, and good christians. The above qualifications +therefore are intended to _adorn_ their _leisure_, not to _employ_ their +_lives_; for an amiable and wise woman will always have something better +to value herself on, than these advantages, which, however captivating, +are still but subordinate parts of a truly excellent character. + +BUT I am afraid parents themselves sometimes contribute to the error of +which I am complaining. Do they not often set a higher value on those +acquisitions which are calculated to attract observation, and catch the +eye of the multitude, than on those which are valuable, permanent, and +internal? Are they not sometimes more solicitous about the opinion of +others, respecting their children, than about the real advantage and +happiness of the children themselves? To an injudicious and superficial +eye, the best educated girl may make the least brilliant figure, as she +will probably have less flippancy in her manner, and less repartee in +her expression; and her acquirements, to borrow bishop Sprat's idea, +will be rather _enamelled than embossed_. But her merit will be known, +and acknowledged by all who come near enough to discern, and have taste +enough to distinguish. It will be understood and admired by the man, +whose happiness she is one day to make, whose family she is to govern, +and whose children she is to educate. He will not seek for her in the +haunts of dissipation, for he knows he shall not find her there; but +he will seek for her in the bosom of retirement, in the practice of +every domestic virtue, in the exertion of every amiable accomplishment, +exerted in the shade, to enliven retirement, to heighten the endearing +pleasures of social intercourse, and to embellish the narrow but +charming circle of family delights. To this amiable purpose, a truly +good and well educated young lady will dedicate her more elegant +accomplishments, instead of exhibiting them to attract admiration, or +depress inferiority. + +YOUNG girls, who have more vivacity than understanding, will often make +a sprightly figure in conversation. But this agreeable talent for +entertaining others, is frequently dangerous to themselves, nor is it by +any means to be desired or encouraged very early in life. This +immaturity of wit is helped on by frivolous reading, which will produce +its effect in much less time than books of solid instruction; for the +imagination is touched sooner than the understanding; and effects are +more rapid as they are more pernicious. Conversation should be the +_result_ of education, not the _precursor_ of it. It is a golden fruit, +when suffered to grow gradually on the tree of knowledge; but if +precipitated by forced and unnatural means, it will in the end become +vapid, in proportion as it is artificial. + +THE best effects of a careful and religious education are often very +remote: they are to be discovered in future scenes, and exhibited in +untried connexions. Every event of life will be putting the heart into +fresh situations, and making demands on its prudence, its firmness, its +integrity, or its piety. Those whose business it is to form it, can +foresee none of these situations; yet, as far as human wisdom will +allow, they must enable it to provide for them all, with an humble +dependence on the divine assistance. A well-disciplined soldier must +learn and practise all his evolutions, though he does not know on what +service his leader may command him, by what foe he shall be attacked, +nor what mode of combat the enemy may use. + +ONE great art of education consists in not suffering the feelings to +become too acute by unnecessary awakening, nor too obtuse by the want +of exertion. The former renders them the source of calamity, and totally +ruins the temper; while the latter blunts and debases them, and produces +a dull, cold, and selfish spirit. For the mind is an instrument, which, +if wound too high, will lose its sweetness, and if not enough strained, +will abate of its vigour. + +HOW cruel is it to extinguish by neglect or unkindness, the precious +sensibility of an open temper, to chill the amiable glow of an ingenuous +soul, and to quench the bright flame of a noble and generous spirit! +These are of higher worth than all the documents of learning, of dearer +price than all the advantages, which can be derived from the most +refined and artificial mode of education. + +BUT sensibility and delicacy, and an ingenuous temper, make no part of +education, exclaims the pedagogue--they are reducible to no class--they +come under no article of instruction--they belong neither to languages +nor to music.--What an error! They _are_ a part of education, and of +infinitely more value, + + Than all their pedant discipline e'er knew. + +It is true, they are ranged under no class, but they are superior to +all; they are of more esteem than languages or music, for they are the +language of the heart, and the music of the according passions. Yet +this sensibility is, in many instances, so far from being cultivated, +that it is not uncommon to see those who affect more than usual +sagacity, cast a smile of supercilious pity, at any indication of a +warm, generous, or enthusiastic temper in the lively and the young; as +much as to say, "they will know better, and will have more discretion +when they are older." But every appearance of amiable simplicity, or of +honest shame, _Nature's hasty conscience_, will be dear to sensible +hearts; they will carefully cherish every such indication in a young +female; for they will perceive that it is this temper, wisely +cultivated, which will one day make her enamoured of the loveliness of +virtue, and the beauty of holiness: from which she will acquire a taste +for the doctrines of religion, and a spirit to perform the duties of it. +And those who wish to make her ashamed of this charming temper, and +seek to dispossess her of it, will, it is to be feared, give her +nothing better in exchange. But whoever reflects at all, will easily +discern how carefully this enthusiasm is to be directed, and how +judiciously its redundances are to be lopped away. + +PRUDENCE is not natural to children; they can, however, substitute art +in its stead. But is it not much better that a girl should discover the +faults incident to her age, than conceal them under this dark and +impenetrable veil? I could almost venture to assert, that there is +something more becoming in the very errors of nature, where they are +undisguised, than in the affectation of virtue itself, where the reality +is wanting. And I am so far from being an admirer of prodigies, that I +am extremely apt to suspect them; and am always infinitely better +pleased with Nature in her more common modes of operation. The precise +and premature wisdom, which some girls have cunning enough to assume, +is of a more dangerous tendency than any of their natural failings can +be, as it effectually covers those secret bad dispositions, which, if +they displayed themselves, might be rectified. The hypocrisy of +assuming virtues which are not inherent in the heart, prevents the +growth and disclosure of those real ones, which it is the great end of +education to cultivate. + +BUT if the natural indications of the temper are to be suppressed and +stifled, where are the diagnostics, by which the state of the mind is to +be known? The wise Author of all things, who did nothing in vain, +doubtless intended them as symptoms, by which to judge of the diseases +of the heart; and it is impossible diseases should be cured before +they are known. If the stream be so cut off as to prevent communication, +or so choked up as to defeat discovery, how shall we ever reach the +source, out of which are the issues of life? + +THIS cunning, which, of all the different dispositions girls discover, +is most to be dreaded, is increased by nothing so much as by fear. If +those about them express violent and unreasonable anger at every trivial +offence, it will always promote this temper, and will very frequently +create it, where there was a natural tendency to frankness. The +indiscreet transports of rage, which many betray on every slight +occasion, and the little distinction they make between venial errors and +premeditated crimes, naturally dispose a child to conceal, what she does +not however care to suppress. Anger in one will not remedy the faults of +another; for how can an instrument of sin cure sin? If a girl is kept in +a state of perpetual and slavish terror, she will perhaps have artifice +enough to conceal those propensities which she knows are wrong, or those +actions which she thinks are most obnoxious to punishment. But, +nevertheless, she will not cease to indulge those propensities, and to +commit those actions, when she can do it with impunity. + +GOOD _dispositions_, of themselves, will go but a very little way, +unless they are confirmed into good _principles_. And this cannot be +effected but by a careful course of religious instruction, and a +patient and laborious cultivation of the moral temper. + +BUT, notwithstanding girls should not be treated with unkindness, nor +the first openings of the passions blighted by cold severity; yet I am +of opinion, that young females should be accustomed very early in life +to a certain degree of restraint. The natural cast of character, and the +moral distinctions between the sexes, should not be disregarded, even in +childhood. That bold, independent, enterprising spirit, which is so much +admired in boys, should not, when it happens to discover itself in the +other sex, be encouraged, but suppressed. Girls should be taught to +give up their opinions betimes, and not pertinaciously to carry on a +dispute, even if they should know themselves to be in the right. I do +not mean, that they should be robbed of the liberty of private judgment, +but that they should by no means be encouraged to contract a contentious +or contradictory turn. It is of the greatest importance to their future +happiness, that they should acquire a submissive temper, and a +forbearing spirit: for it is a lesson which the world will not fail to +make them frequently practise, when they come abroad into it, and they +will not practise it the worse for having learnt it the sooner. These +early restraints, in the limitation here meant, are so far from being an +effect of cruelty, that they are the most indubitable marks of +affection, and are the more meritorious, as they are severe trials of +tenderness. But all the beneficial effects, which a mother can expect +from this watchfulness, will be entirely defeated, if it is practised +occasionally, and not habitually, and if it ever appears to be used to +gratify caprice, ill-humour, or resentment. + +THOSE who have children to educate ought to be extremely patient: it is +indeed a labour of love. They should reflect, that extraordinary talents +are neither essential to the well-being of society, nor to the +happiness of individuals. If that had been the case, the beneficent +Father of the universe would not have made them so rare. For it is as +easy for an Almighty Creator to produce a Newton, as an ordinary man; +and he could have made those powers common which we now consider as +wonderful, without any miraculous exertion of his omnipotence, if the +existence of many Newtons had been necessary to the perfection of his +wise and gracious plan. + +SURELY, therefore, there is more piety, as well as more sense, in +labouring to improve the talents which children actually have, than in +lamenting that they do not possess supernatural endowments or angelic +perfections. A passage of Lord Bacon's furnishes an admirable +incitement for endeavouring to carry the amiable and christian grace of +charity to its farthest extent, instead of indulging an over-anxious +care for more brilliant but less important acquisitions. "The desire of +power in excess (says he) caused the angels to fall; the desire of +knowledge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity is no excess, +neither can men nor angels come into danger by it." + +A GIRL who has docility will seldom be found to want understanding +enough for all the purposes of a social, a happy, and an useful life. +And when we behold the tender hope of fond and anxious love, blasted by +disappointment, the defect will as often be discovered to proceed from +the neglect or the error of cultivation, as from the natural temper; and +those who lament the evil, will sometimes be found to have occasioned +it. + +IT is as injudicious for parents to set out with too sanguine a +dependence on the merit of their children, as it is for them to be +discouraged at every repulse. When their wishes are defeated in this or +that particular instance, where they had treasured up some darling +expectation, this is so far from being a reason for relaxing their +attention, that it ought to be an additional motive for redoubling it. +Those who hope to do a great deal, must not expect to do every thing. If +they know any thing of the malignity of sin, the blindness of prejudice, +or the corruption of the human heart, they will also know, that that +heart will always remain, after the very best possible education, full +of infirmity and imperfection. Extraordinary allowances, therefore, must +be made for the weakness of nature in this its weakest state. After much +is done, much will remain to do, and much, very much, will still be left +undone. For this regulation of the passions and affections cannot be +the work of education alone, without the concurrence of divine grace +operating on the heart. Why then should parents repine, if their efforts +are not always crowned with immediate success? They should consider, +that they are not educating cherubims and seraphims, but men and women; +creatures, who at their best estate are altogether vanity: how little +then can be expected from them in the weakness and imbecillity of +infancy! I have dwelt on this part of the subject the longer, because I +am certain that many, who have set out with a warm and active zeal, have +cooled on the very first discouragement, and have afterwards almost +totally remitted their vigilance, through a criminal kind of despair. + +GREAT allowances must be made for a profusion of gaiety, loquacity, and +even indiscretion in children, that there may be animation enough left +to supply an active and useful character, when the first fermentation of +the youthful passions is over, and the redundant spirits shall come +to subside. + +IF it be true, as a consummate judge of human nature has observed, + + That not a vanity is given in vain, + +it is also true, that there is scarcely a single passion, which may +not be turned to some good account, if prudently rectified, and +skilfully turned into the road of some neighbouring virtue. It cannot be +violently bent, or unnaturally forced towards an object of a totally +opposite nature, but may be gradually inclined towards a correspondent +but superior affection. Anger, hatred, resentment, and ambition, the +most restless and turbulent passions which shake and distract the +human soul, may be led to become the most active opposers of sin, after +having been its most successful instruments. Our anger, for instance, +which can never be totally subdued, may be made to turn against +ourselves, for our weak and imperfect obedience--our hatred, against +every species of vice--our ambition, which will not be discarded, may be +ennobled: it will not change its name, but its object: it will despise +what it lately valued, nor be contented to grasp at less than +immortality. + +THUS the joys, fears, hopes, desires, all the passions and affections, +which separate in various currents from the soul, will, if directed into +their proper channels, after having fertilised wherever they have +flowed, return again to swell and enrich the parent source. + +THAT the very passions which appear the most uncontroulable and +unpromising, may be intended, in the great scheme of Providence, to +answer some important purpose, is remarkably evidenced in the character +and history of Saint Paul. A remark on this subject by an ingenious old +Spanish writer, which I will here take the liberty to translate, will +better illustrate my meaning. + +"TO convert the bitterest enemy into the most zealous advocate, is the +work of God for the instruction of man. Plutarch has observed, that the +medical science would be brought to the utmost perfection, when poison +should be converted into physic. Thus, in the mortal disease of Judaism +and idolatry, our blessed Lord converted the adder's venom of Saul +the persecutor, into that cement which made Paul the chosen vessel. +That manly activity, that restless ardor, that burning zeal for the law +of his fathers, that ardent thirst for the blood of Christians, did the +Son of God find necessary in the man who was one day to become the +defender of his suffering people.[7]" + +TO win the passions, therefore, over to the cause of virtue, answers a +much nobler end than their extinction would possibly do, even if that +could be effected. But it is their nature never to observe a neutrality; +they are either rebels or auxiliaries, and an enemy subdued is an ally +obtained. If I may be allowed to change the allusion so soon, I would +say, that the passions also resemble fires, which are friendly and +beneficial when under proper direction, but if suffered to blaze without +restraint, they carry devastation along with them, and, if totally +extinguished, leave the benighted mind in a state of cold and +comfortless inanity. + +BUT in speaking of the usefulness of the passions, as instruments of +virtue, _envy_ and _lying_ must always be excepted: these, I am +persuaded, must either go on in still progressive mischief, or else be +radically cured, before any good can be expected from the heart which +has been infected with them. For I never will believe that envy, though +passed through all the moral strainers, can be refined into a +virtuous emulation, or lying improved into an agreeable turn for +innocent invention. Almost all the other passions may be made to take +an amiable hue; but these two must either be totally extirpated, or be +always contented to preserve their original deformity, and to wear their +native black. + + +[7] Obras de Quevedo, vida de San Pablo Apostol. + + + + +ON THE +IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION +TO THE +FEMALE CHARACTER. + + +VARIOUS are the reasons why the greater part of mankind cannot apply +themselves to arts or letters. Particular studies are only suited to the +capacities of particular persons. Some are incapable of applying to +them from the delicacy of their sex, some from the unsteadiness of +youth, and others from the imbecillity of age. Many are precluded by the +narrowness of their education, and many by the straitness of their +fortune. The wisdom of God is wonderfully manifested in this happy and +well-ordered diversity, in the powers and properties of his creatures; +since by thus admirably suiting the agent to the action, the whole +scheme of human affairs is carried on with the most agreeing and +consistent oeconomy, and no chasm is left for want of an object to +fill it, exactly suited to its nature. + +BUT in the great and universal concern of religion, both sexes, and all +ranks, are equally interested. The truly catholic spirit of christianity +accommodates itself, with an astonishing condescension, to the +circumstances of the whole human race. It rejects none on account of +their pecuniary wants, their personal infirmities, or their intellectual +deficiencies. No superiority of parts is the least recommendation, nor +is any depression of fortune the smallest objection. None are too wise +to be excused from performing the duties of religion, nor are any too +poor to be excluded from the consolations of its promises. + +IF we admire the wisdom of God, in having furnished different degrees of +intelligence, so exactly adapted to their different destinations, and in +having fitted every part of his stupendous work, not only to serve its +own immediate purpose, but also to contribute to the beauty and +perfection of the whole: how much more ought we to adore that goodness, +which has perfected the divine plan, by appointing one wide, +comprehensive, and universal means of salvation: a salvation, which all +are invited to partake; by a means which all are capable of using; which +nothing but voluntary blindness can prevent our comprehending, and +nothing but wilful error can hinder us from embracing. + +THE Muses are coy, and will only be wooed and won by some +highly-favoured suitors. The Sciences are lofty, and will not stoop to +the reach of ordinary capacities. But "Wisdom (by which the royal +preacher means piety) is a loving spirit: she is easily seen of them +that love her, and found of all such as seek her." Nay, she is so +accessible and condescending, "that she preventeth them that desire +her, making herself first known unto them." + +WE are told by the same animated writer, "that Wisdom is the breath of +the power of God." How infinitely superior, in grandeur and sublimity, +is this description to the origin of the _wisdom_ of the heathens, as +described by their poets and mythologists! In the exalted strains of the +Hebrew poetry we read, that "Wisdom is the brightness of the everlasting +light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his +goodness." + +THE philosophical author of _The Defence of Learning_ observes, that +knowledge has something of venom and malignity in it, when taken without +its proper corrective, and what that is, the inspired Saint Paul +teaches us, by placing it as the immediate antidote: _Knowledge puffeth +up, but charity edifieth._ Perhaps, it is the vanity of human wisdom, +unchastised by this correcting principle, which has made so many +infidels. It may proceed from the arrogance of a self-sufficient pride, +that some philosophers disdain to acknowledge their belief in a being, +who has judged proper to conceal from them the infinite wisdom of his +counsels; who, (to borrow the lofty language of the man of Uz) refused +to consult them when he laid the foundations of the earth, when he shut +up the sea with doors, and made the clouds the garment thereof. + +A MAN must be an infidel either from pride, prejudice, or bad education: +he cannot be one unawares or by surprise; for infidelity is not +occasioned by sudden impulse or violent temptation. He may be hurried by +some vehement desire into an immoral action, at which he will blush in +his cooler moments, and which he will lament as the sad effect of a +spirit unsubdued by religion; but infidelity is a calm, considerate act, +which cannot plead the weakness of the heart, or the seduction of the +senses. Even good men frequently fail in their duty through the +infirmities of nature, and the allurements of the world; but the infidel +errs on a plan, on a settled and deliberate principle. + +BUT though the minds of men are sometimes fatally infected with this +disease, either through unhappy prepossession, or some of the other +causes above mentioned; yet I am unwilling to believe, that there is in +nature so monstrously incongruous a being, as a _female infidel_. The +least reflexion on the temper, the character, and the education of +women, makes the mind revolt with horror from an idea so improbable, and +so unnatural. + +MAY I be allowed to observe, that, in general, the minds of girls seem +more aptly prepared in their early youth for the reception of serious +impressions than those of the other sex, and that their less exposed +situations in more advanced life qualify them better for the +preservation of them? The daughters (of good parents I mean) are often +more carefully instructed in their religious duties, than the sons, and +this from a variety of causes. They are not so soon sent from under the +paternal eye into the bustle of the world, and so early exposed to the +contagion of bad example: their hearts are naturally more flexible, +soft, and liable to any kind of impression the forming hand may stamp +on them; and, lastly, as they do not receive the same classical +education with boys, their feeble minds are not obliged at once to +receive and separate the precepts of christianity, and the documents of +pagan philosophy. The necessity of doing this perhaps somewhat weakens +the serious impressions of young men, at least till the understanding +is formed, and confuses their ideas of piety, by mixing them with so +much heterogeneous matter. They only casually read, or hear read, the +scriptures of truth, while they are obliged to learn by heart, construe +and repeat the poetical fables of the less than human gods of the +ancients. And as the excellent author of _The Internal Evidence of the +Christian Religion_ observes, "Nothing has so much contributed to +corrupt the true spirit of the christian institution, as that partiality +which we contract, in our earliest education, for the manners of pagan +antiquity." + +GIRLS, therefore, who do _not_ contract this early partiality, ought to +have a clearer notion of their religious duties: they are not obliged, +at an age when the judgment is so weak, to distinguish between the +doctrines of Zeno, of Epicurus, and of Christ; and to embarrass their +minds with the various morals which were taught in the _Porch_, in the +_Academy_, and on the _Mount_. + +IT is presumed, that these remarks cannot possibly be so +misunderstood, as to be construed into the least disrespect to +literature, or a want of the highest reverence for a learned education, +the basis of all elegant knowledge: they are only intended, with all +proper deference, to point out to young women, that however inferior +their advantages of acquiring a knowledge of the belles-lettres are to +those of the other sex; yet it depends on themselves not to be +surpassed in this most important of all studies, for which their +abilities are equal, and their opportunities, perhaps, greater. + +BUT the mere exemption from infidelity is so small a part of the +religious character, that I hope no one will attempt to claim any merit +from this negative sort of goodness, or value herself merely for not +being the very worst thing she possibly can be. Let no mistaken girl +fancy she gives a proof of her wit by her want of piety, or that a +contempt of things serious and sacred will exalt her understanding, or +raise her character even in the opinion of the most avowed male +infidels. For one may venture to affirm, that with all their profligate +ideas, both of women and of religion, neither Bolingbroke, Wharton, +Buckingham, nor even _Lord Chesterfield himself_, would have esteemed a +woman the more for her being irreligious. + +WITH whatever ridicule a polite freethinker may affect to treat religion +himself, he will think it necessary his wife should entertain +different notions of it. He may pretend to despise it as a matter of +opinion, depending on creeds and systems; but, if he is a man of sense, +he will know the value of it, as a governing principle, which is to +influence her conduct and direct her actions. If he sees her +unaffectedly sincere in the practice of her religious duties, it will be +a secret pledge to him, that she will be equally exact in fulfilling the +conjugal; for he can have no reasonable dependance on her attachment to +_him_, if he has no opinion of her fidelity to GOD; for she who neglects +first duties, gives but an indifferent proof of her disposition to fill +up inferior ones; and how can a man of any understanding (whatever his +own religious professions may be) trust that woman with the care of +his family, and the education of his children, who wants herself the +best incentive to a virtuous life, the belief that she is an accountable +creature, and the reflection that she has an immortal soul? + +CICERO spoke it as the highest commendation of Cato's character, that he +embraced philosophy, not for the sake of _disputing_ like a philosopher, +but of _living_ like one. The chief purpose of christian knowledge is to +promote the great end of a christian life. Every rational woman should, +no doubt, be able to give a reason of the hope that is in her; but this +knowledge is best acquired, and the duties consequent on it best +performed, by reading books of plain piety and practical devotion, and +not by entering into the endless feuds, and engaging in the unprofitable +contentions of partial controversialists. Nothing is more unamiable than +the narrow spirit of party zeal, nor more disgusting than to hear a +woman deal out judgments, and denounce vengeance against any one, who +happens to differ from her in some opinion, perhaps of no real +importance, and which, it is probable, she may be just as wrong in +rejecting, as the object of her censure is in embracing. A furious and +unmerciful female bigot wanders as far beyond the limits prescribed to +her sex, as a Thalestris or a Joan d'Arc. Violent debate has made as few +converts as the sword, and both these instruments are particularly +unbecoming when wielded by a female hand. + +BUT, though no one will be frightened out of their opinions, yet they +may be persuaded out of them: they may be touched by the affecting +earnestness of serious conversation, and allured by the attractive +beauty of a consistently serious life. And while a young woman ought to +dread the name of a wrangling polemic, it is her duty to aspire after +the honourable character of a sincere Christian. But this dignified +character she can by no means deserve, if she is ever afraid to avow her +principles, or ashamed to defend them. A profligate, who makes it a +point to ridicule every thing which comes under the appearance of formal +instruction, will be disconcerted at the spirited yet modest rebuke of a +pious young woman. But there is as much efficacy in the manner of +reproving prophaneness, as in the words. If she corrects it with +moroseness, she defeats the effect of her remedy, by her unskilful +manner of administring it. If, on the other hand, she affects to defend +the insulted cause of God, in a faint tone of voice, and studied +ambiguity of phrase, or with an air of levity, and a certain +expression of pleasure in her eyes, which proves she is secretly +delighted with what she pretends to censure, she injures religion much +more than he did who publickly prophaned it; for she plainly indicates, +either that she does not believe, or respect what she professes. The +other attacked it as an open foe; she betrays it as a false friend. No +one pays any regard to the opinion of an avowed enemy; but the desertion +or treachery of a professed friend, is dangerous indeed! + +IT is a strange notion which prevails in the world, that religion only +belongs to the old and the melancholy, and that it is not worth while to +pay the least attention to it, while we are capable of attending to any +thing else. They allow it to be proper enough for the clergy, whose +business it is, and for the aged, who have not spirits for any business +at all. But till they can prove, that none except the clergy and the +aged _die_, it must be confessed, that this is most wretched +reasoning. + +GREAT injury is done to the interests of religion, by placing it in a +gloomy and unamiable light. It is sometimes spoken of, as if it would +actually make a handsome woman ugly, or a young one wrinkled. But can +any thing be more absurd than to represent the beauty of holiness as the +source of deformity? + +THERE are few, perhaps, so entirely plunged in business, or absorbed in +pleasure, as not to intend, at some future time, to set about a +religious life in good earnest. But then they consider it as a kind of +_dernier ressort_, and think it prudent to defer flying to this +disagreeable refuge, till they have no relish left for any thing else. +Do they forget, that to perform this great business well requires all +the strength of their youth, and all the vigour of their unimpaired +capacities? To confirm this assertion, they may observe how much the +slightest indisposition, even in the most active season of life, +disorders every faculty, and disqualifies them for attending to the most +ordinary affairs: and then let them reflect how little able they will be +to transact the most important of all business, in the moment of +excruciating pain, or in the day of universal debility. + +WHEN the senses are palled with excessive gratification; when the eye +is tired with seeing, and the ear with hearing; when the spirits are so +sunk, that the _grasshopper is become a burthen_, how shall the blunted +apprehension be capable of understanding a new science, or the worn-out +heart be able to relish a new pleasure? + +TO put off religion till we have lost all taste for amusement; to refuse +listening to the "voice of the charmer," till our enfeebled organs can +no longer listen to the voice of "singing men and singing women," and +not to devote our days to heaven till we have "no pleasure in them" +ourselves, is but an ungracious offering. And it is a wretched sacrifice +to the God of heaven, to present him with the remnants of decayed +appetites, and the leavings of extinguished passions. + + + + +MISCELLANEOUS +OBSERVATIONS +ON +GENIUS, TASTE, GOOD +SENSE, &c.[8] + + +GOOD _sense_ is as different from _genius_ as perception is from +invention; yet, though distinct qualities, they frequently subsist +together. It is altogether opposite to _wit_, but by no means +inconsistent with it. It is not science, for there is such a thing as +unlettered good sense; yet, though it is neither wit, learning, nor +genius, it is a substitute for each, where they do not exist, and the +perfection of all where they do. + +Good sense is so far from deserving the appellation of _common sense_, +by which it is frequently called, that it is perhaps one of the rarest +qualities of the human mind. If, indeed, this name is given it in +respect to its peculiar suitableness to the purposes of common life, +there is great propriety in it. Good sense appears to differ from taste +in this, that taste is an instantaneous decision of the mind, a sudden +relish of what is beautiful, or disgust at what is defective, in an +object, without waiting for the slower confirmation of the judgment. +Good sense is perhaps that confirmation, which establishes a suddenly +conceived idea, or feeling, by the powers of comparing and reflecting. +They differ also in this, that taste seems to have a more immediate +reference to arts, to literature, and to almost every object of the +senses; while good sense rises to moral excellence, and exerts its +influence on life and manners. Taste is fitted to the perception and +enjoyment of whatever is beautiful in art or nature: Good sense, to the +improvement of the conduct, and the regulation of the heart. + +YET the term good sense, is used indiscriminately to express either a +finished taste for letters, or an invariable prudence in the affairs of +life. It is sometimes applied to the most moderate abilities, in which +case, the expression is certainly too strong; and at others to the +most shining, when it is as much too weak and inadequate. A sensible man +is the usual, but unappropriated phrase, for every degree in the scale +of understanding, from the sober mortal, who obtains it by his decent +demeanor and solid dullness, to him whose talents qualify him to rank +with a Bacon, a Harris, or a Johnson. + +GENIUS is the power of invention and imitation. It is an incommunicable +faculty: no art or skill of the possessor can bestow the smallest +portion of it on another: no pains or labour can reach the summit of +perfection, where the seeds of it are wanting in the mind; yet it is +capable of infinite improvement where it actually exists, and is +attended with the highest capacity of communicating instruction, as well +as delight to others. + +IT is the peculiar property of genius to strike out great or beautiful +things: it is the felicity of good sense not to do absurd ones. Genius +breaks out in splendid sentiments and elevated ideas; good sense +confines its more circumscribed, but perhaps more useful walk, within +the limits of prudence and propriety. + + The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling, + Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; + And, as imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen + Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing + A local habitation and a name. + +THIS is perhaps the finest picture of human genius that ever was drawn +by a human pencil. It presents a living image of a creative imagination, +or a power of inventing things which have no actual existence. + +WITH superficial judges, who, it must be confessed, make up the +greater part of the mass of mankind, talents are only liked or +understood to a certain degree. Lofty ideas are above the reach of +ordinary apprehensions: the vulgar allow those who possess them to be +in a somewhat higher state of mind than themselves; but of the vast gulf +which separates them, they have not the least conception. They +acknowledge a superiority, but of its extent they neither know the +value, nor can conceive the reality. It is true, the mind, as well as +the eye, can take in objects larger than itself; but this is only true +of great minds: for a man of low capacity, who considers a consummate +genius, resembles one, who seeing a column for the first time, and +standing at too great a distance to take in the whole of it, concludes +it to be flat. Or, like one unacquainted with the first principles of +philosophy, who, finding the sensible horizon appear a plain surface, +can form no idea of the spherical form of the whole, which he does not +see, and laughs at the account of antipodes, which he cannot comprehend. + +WHATEVER is excellent is also rare; what is useful is more common. How +many thousands are born qualified for the coarse employments of life, +for one who is capable of excelling in the fine arts! yet so it ought +to be, because our natural wants are more numerous, and more +importunate, than the intellectual. + +WHENEVER it happens that a man of distinguished talents has been drawn +by mistake, or precipitated by passion, into any dangerous +indiscretion; it is common for those whose coldness of temper has +supplied the place, and usurped the name of prudence, to boast of their +own steadier virtue, and triumph in their own superior caution; only +because they have never been assailed by a temptation strong enough to +surprise them into error. And with what a visible appropriation of the +character to themselves, do they constantly conclude, with a cordial +compliment to _common sense_! They point out the beauty and usefulness +of this quality so forcibly and explicitly, that you cannot possibly +mistake whose picture they are drawing with so flattering a pencil. The +unhappy man whose conduct has been so feelingly arraigned, perhaps acted +from good, though mistaken motives; at least, from motives of which his +censurer has not capacity to judge: but the event was unfavourable, nay +the action might be really wrong, and the vulgar maliciously take the +opportunity of this single indiscretion, to lift themselves nearer on a +level with a character, which, except in this instance, has always +thrown them at the most disgraceful and mortifying distance. + +THE elegant Biographer of Collins, in his affecting apology for that +unfortunate genius, remarks, "That the gifts of imagination bring the +heaviest task on the vigilance of reason; and to bear those faculties +with unerring rectitude, or invariable propriety, requires a degree of +firmness, and of cool attention, which does not always attend the higher +gifts of the mind; yet difficult as Nature herself seems to have +rendered the task of regularity to genius, it is the supreme consolation +of dullness, and of folly to point with gothic triumph to those +excesses which are the overflowing of faculties they never enjoyed." + +WHAT the greater part of the world mean by common sense, will be +generally found, on a closer enquiry, to be art, fraud, or selfishness! +That sort of saving prudence which makes men extremely attentive to +their own safety, or profit; diligent in the pursuit of their own +pleasures or interests; and perfectly at their ease as to what becomes +of the rest of mankind. Furies, where their own property is concerned, +philosophers when nothing but the good of others is at stake, and +perfectly resigned under all calamities but their own. + +WHEN we see so many accomplished wits of the present age, as remarkable +for the decorum of their lives, as for the brilliancy of their writings, +we may believe, that, next to principle, it is owing to their _good +sense_, which regulates and chastises their imaginations. The vast +conceptions which enable a true genius to ascend the sublimest heights, +may be so connected with the stronger passions, as to give it a +natural tendency to fly off from the strait line of regularity; till +good sense, acting on the fancy, makes it gravitate powerfully towards +that virtue which is its proper centre. + +ADD to this, when it is considered with what imperfection the Divine +Wisdom has thought fit to stamp every thing human, it will be found, +that excellence and infirmity are so inseparably wound up in each other, +that a man derives the soreness of temper, and irritability of nerve, +which make him uneasy to others, and unhappy in himself, from those +exquisite feelings, and that elevated pitch of thought, by which, as the +apostle expresses it on a more serious occasion, he is, as it were, +out of the body. + +It is not astonishing, therefore, when THE spirit is carried away by the +magnificence of its own ideas, + + Not touch'd but rapt, not waken'd but inspir'd, + +that the frail body, which is the natural victim of pain, disease, and +death, should not always be able to follow the mind in its aspiring +flights, but should be as imperfect as if it belonged only to an +ordinary soul. + +BESIDES, might not Providence intend to humble human pride, by +presenting to our eyes so mortifying a view of the weakness and +infirmity of even his best work? Perhaps man, who is already but a +little lower than the angels, might, like the revolted spirits, totally +have shaken off obedience and submission to his Creator, had not God +wisely tempered human excellence with a certain consciousness of its own +imperfection. But though this inevitable alloy of weakness may +frequently be found in the best characters, yet how can that be the +source of triumph and exaltation to any, which, if properly weighed, +must be the deepest motive of humiliation to all? A good-natured man +will be so far from rejoicing, that he will be secretly troubled, +whenever he reads that the greatest Roman moralist was tainted with +avarice, and the greatest British philosopher with venality. + +IT is remarked by Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, that, + + Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss. + +But I apprehend it does not therefore follow that to judge, is more +difficult than to write. If this were the case, the critic would be +superior to the poet, whereas it appears to be directly the contrary. +"The critic, (says the great champion of Shakespeare,) but fashions the +body of a work, the poet must add the soul, which gives force and +direction to its actions and gestures." It should seem that the reason +why so many more judge wrong, than write ill, is because the number of +readers is beyond all proportion greater than the number of writers. +Every man who reads, is in some measure a critic, and, with very common +abilities, may point out real faults and material errors in a very well +written book; but it by no means follows that he is able to write any +thing comparable to the work which he is capable of censuring. And +unless the numbers of those who write, and of those who judge, were more +equal, the calculation seems not to be quite fair. + +A CAPACITY for relishing works of genius is the indubitable sign of a +good taste. But if a proper disposition and ability to enjoy the +compositions of others, entitle a man to the claim of reputation, it is +still a far inferior degree of merit to his who can invent and produce +those compositions, the bare disquisition of which gives the critic no +small share of fame. + +THE president of the royal academy in his admirable _Discourse_ on +_imitation_, has set the folly of depending on unassisted genius, in +the clearest light; and has shewn the necessity of adding the +knowledge of others, to our own native powers, in his usual striking and +masterly manner. "The mind, says he, is a barren soil, is a soil soon +exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be +continually fertilized, and enriched with foreign matter." + +YET it has been objected that study is a great enemy to originality; but +even if this were true, it would perhaps be as well that an author +should give us the ideas of still better writers, mixed and +assimilated with the matter in his own mind, as those crude and +undigested thoughts which he values under the notion that they are +original. The sweetest honey neither tastes of the rose, the +honeysuckle, nor the carnation, yet it is compounded of the very +essence of them all. + +IF in the other fine arts this accumulation of knowledge is necessary, +it is indispensably so in poetry. It is a fatal rashness for any one to +trust too much to their own stock of ideas. He must invigorate them by +exercise, polish them by conversation, and increase them by every +species of elegant and virtuous knowledge, and the mind will not fail to +reproduce with interest those seeds, which are sown in it by study and +observation. Above all, let every one guard against the dangerous +opinion that he knows enough: an opinion that will weaken the energy and +reduce the powers of the mind, which, though once perhaps vigorous and +effectual, will be sunk to a state of literary imbecility, by cherishing +vain and presumptuous ideas of its own independence. + +FOR instance, it may not be necessary that a poet should be deeply +skilled in the Linnaean system; but it must be allowed that a general +acquaintance with plants and flowers will furnish him with a delightful +and profitable species of instruction. He is not obliged to trace Nature +in all her nice and varied operations, with the minute accuracy of a +Boyle, or the laborious investigation of a Newton; but his _good sense_ +will point out to him that no inconsiderable portion of philosophical +knowledge is requisite to the completion of his literary character. The +sciences are more independent, and require little or no assistance +from the graces of poetry; but poetry, if she would charm and instruct, +must not be so haughty; she must be contented to borrow of the sciences, +many of her choicest allusions, and many of her most graceful +embellishments; and does it not magnify the character of true poesy, +that she includes within herself all the scattered graces of every +separate art? + +THE rules of the great masters in criticism may not be so necessary to +the forming a good taste, as the examination of those original mines +from whence they drew their treasures of knowledge. + +THE three celebrated Essays on the Art of Poetry do not teach so much +by their laws as by their examples; the dead letter of their rules is +less instructive than the living spirit of their verse. Yet these rules +are to a young poet, what the study of logarithms is to a young +mathematician; they do not so much contribute to form his judgment, as +afford him the satisfaction of convincing him that he is right. They do +not preclude the difficulty of the operation; but at the conclusion of +it, furnish him with a fuller demonstration that he has proceeded on +proper principles. When he has well studied the masters in whose +schools the first critics formed themselves, and fancies he has caught a +spark of their divine Flame, it may be a good method to try his own +compositions by the test of the critic rules, so far indeed as the +mechanism of poetry goes. If the examination be fair and candid, this +trial, like the touch of Ithuriel's spear, will detect every latent +error, and bring to light every favourite failing. + +GOOD taste always suits the measure of its admiration to the merit of +the composition it examines. It accommodates its praises, or its +censure, to the excellence of a work, and appropriates it to the nature +of it. General applause, or indiscriminate abuse, is the sign of a +vulgar understanding. There are certain blemishes which the judicious +and good-natured reader will candidly overlook. But the false sublime, +the tumour which is intended for greatness, the distorted figure, the +puerile conceit, and the incongruous metaphor, these are defects for +which scarcely any other kind of merit can atone. And yet there may be +more hope of a writer (especially if he be a a young one), who is now +and then guilty of some of these faults, than of one who avoids them +all, not through judgment, but feebleness, and who, instead of deviating +into error is continually falling short of excellence. The meer absence +of error implies that moderate and inferior degree of merit with which a +cold heart and a phlegmatic taste will be better satisfied than with the +magnificent irregularities of exalted spirits. It stretches some minds +to an uneasy extension to be obliged to attend to compositions +superlatively excellent; and it contracts liberal souls to a painful +narrowness to descend to books of inferior merit. A work of capital +genius, to a man of an ordinary mind, is the bed of Procrustes to one of +a short stature, the man is too little to fill up the space assigned +him, and undergoes the torture in attempting it: and a moderate, or low +production to a man of bright talents, is the punishment inflicted by +Mezentius; the living spirit has too much animation to endure patiently +to be in contact with a dead body. + +TASTE sesms to be a sentiment of the soul which gives the bias to +opinion, for we feel before we reflect. Without this sentiment, all +knowledge, learning and opinion, would be cold, inert materials, whereas +they become active principles when stirred, kindled, and inflamed by +this animating quality. + +THERE is another feeling which is called Enthusiasm. The enthusiasm of +sensible hearts is so strong, that it not only yields to the impulse +with which striking objects act on it, but such hearts help on the +effect by their own sensibility. In a scene where Shakespeare and +Garrick give perfection to each other, the feeling heart does not merely +accede to the delirium they occasion: it does more, it is enamoured of +it, it solicits the delusion, it sues to be deceived, and grudgingly +cherishes the sacred treasure of its feelings. The poet and performer +concur in carrying us + + Beyond this visible diurnal sphere, + +they bear us aloft in their airy course with unresisted rapidity, if +they meet not with any obstruction from the coldness of our own +feelings. Perhaps, only a few fine spirits can enter into the detail of +their writing and acting; but the multitude do not enjoy less acutely, +because they are not able philosophically to analyse the sources of +their joy or sorrow. If the others have the advantage of judging, these +have at least the privilege of feeling: and it is not from complaisance +to a few leading judges, that they burst into peals of laughter, or melt +into delightful agony; their hearts decide, and that is a decision from +which there lies no appeal. It must however be confessed, that the +nicer separations of character, and the lighter and almost imperceptible +shades which sometimes distinguish them, will not be intimately +relished, unless there be a consonancy of taste as well as feeling in +the spectator; though where the passions are principally concerned, +the profane vulgar come in for a larger portion of the universal +delight, than critics and connoisseurs are willing to allow them. + +YET enthusiasm, though the natural concomitant of genius, is no more +genius itself, than drunkenness is cheerfulness; and that enthusiasm +which discovers itself on occasions not worthy to excite it, is the mark +of a wretched judgment and a false taste. + +NATURE produces innumerable objects: to imitate them, is the province of +Genius; to direct those imitations, is the property of Judgment; to +decide on their effects, is the business of Taste. For Taste, who sits +as supreme judge on the productions of Genius, is not satisfied when she +merely imitates Nature: she must also, says an ingenious French writer, +imitate _beautiful_ Nature. It requires no less judgment to reject than +to choose, and Genius might imitate what is vulgar, under pretence that +it was natural, if Taste did not carefully point out those objects which +are most proper for imitation. It also requires a very nice discernment +to distinguish verisimilitude from truth; for there is a truth in Taste +nearly as conclusive as demonstration in mathematics. + +GENIUS, when in the full impetuosity of its career, often touches on the +very brink of error; and is, perhaps, never so near the verge of the +precipice, as when indulging its sublimest flights. It is in those +great, but dangerous moments, that the curb of vigilant judgment is most +wanting: while safe and sober Dulness observes one tedious and insipid +round of tiresome uniformity, and steers equally clear of eccentricity +and of beauty. Dulness has few redundancies to retrench, few +luxuriancies to prune, and few irregularities to smooth. These, though +errors, are the errors of Genius, for there is rarely redundancy without +plenitude, or irregularity without greatness. The excesses of Genius +may easily be retrenched, but the deficiencies of Dulness can never be +supplied. + +THOSE who copy from others will doubtless be less excellent than those +who copy from Nature. To imitate imitators, is the way to depart too far +from the great original herself. The latter copies of an engraving +retain fainter and fainter traces of the subject, to which the earlier +impressions bore so strong a resemblance. + +IT seems very extraordinary, that it should be the most difficult thing +in the world to be natural, and that it should be harder to hit off the +manners of real life, and to delineate such characters as we converse +with every day, than to imagine such as do not exist. But caricature is +much easier than an exact outline, and the colouring of fancy less +difficult than that of truth. + +PEOPLE do not always know what taste they have, till it is awakened by +some corresponding object; nay, genius itself is a fire, which in many +minds would never blaze, if not kindled by some external cause. + +NATURE, that munificent mother, when she bestows the power of judging, +accompanies it with the capacity of enjoying. The judgment, which is +clear sighted, points out such objects as are calculated to inspire +love, and the heart instantaneously attaches itself to whatever is +lovely. + +IN regard to literary reputation, a great deal depends on the state of +learning in the particular age or nation, in which an author lives. In a +dark and ignorant period, moderate knowledge will entitle its +possessor to a considerable share of fame; whereas, to be +distinguished in a polite and lettered age, requires striking parts and +deep erudition. + +WHEN a nation begins to emerge from a state of mental darkness, and to +strike out the first rudiments of improvement, it chalks out a few +strong but incorrect sketches, gives the rude out-lines of general art, +and leaves the filling up to the leisure of happier days, and the +refinement of more enlightened times. Their drawing is a rude _Sbozzo_, +and their poetry wild minstrelsy. + +PERFECTION of taste is a point which a nation no sooner reaches, than it +overshoots; and it is more difficult to return to it, after having +passed it, than it was to attain when they fell short of it. Where the +arts begin to languish after having flourished, they seldom indeed fall +back to their original barbarism, but a certain feebleness of exertion +takes place, and it is more difficult to recover them from this dying +languor to their proper strength, than it was to polish them from their +former rudeness; for it is a less formidable undertaking to refine +barbarity, than to stop decay: the first may be laboured into elegance, +but the latter will rarely be strengthened into vigour. + +TASTE exerts itself at first but feebly and imperfectly: it is +repressed and kept back by a crowd of the most discouraging +prejudices: like an infant prince, who, though born to reign, yet holds +an idle sceptre, which he has not power to use, but is obliged to see +with the eyes, and hear through the ears of other men. + +A WRITER of correct taste will hardly ever go out of his way, even in +search of embellishment: he will study to attain the best end by the +most natural means; for he knows that what is not natural cannot be +beautiful, and that nothing can be beautiful out of its own place; for +an improper situation will convert the most striking beauty into a +glaring defect. When by a well-connected chain of ideas, or a judicious +succession of events, the reader is snatched to "Thebes or Athens," +what can be more impertinent than for the poet to obstruct the operation +of the passion he has just been kindling, by introducing a conceit +which contradicts his purpose, and interrupts his business? Indeed, we +cannot be transported, even in idea, to those places, if the poet does +not manage so adroitly as not to make us sensible of the journey: the +instant we feel we are travelling, the writer's art fails, and the +delirium is at an end. + +PROSERPINE, says Ovid, would have been restored to her mother Ceres, +had not Ascalaphus seen her stop to gather a golden apple, when the +terms of her restoration were, that she should taste nothing. A story +pregnant with instruction for lively writers, who by neglecting the main +business, and going out of the way for false gratifications, lose sight +of the end they should principally keep in view. It was this false taste +that introduced the numberless _concetti_, which disgrace the brightest +of the Italian poets; and this is the reason, why the reader only feels +short and interrupted snatches of delight in perusing the brilliant but +unequal compositions of Ariosto, instead of that unbroken and +undiminished pleasure, which he constantly receives from Virgil, from +Milton, and generally from Tasso. The first-mentioned Italian is the +Atalanta, who will interrupt the most eager career, to pick up the +glittering mischief, while the Mantuan and the British bards, like +Hippomenes, press on warm in the pursuit, and unseduced by temptation. + +A WRITER of real taste will take great pains in the perfection of his +style, to make the reader believe that he took none at all. The writing +which appears to be most easy, will be generally found to be least +imitable. The most elegant verses are the most easily retained, they +fasten themselves on the memory, without its making any effort to +preserve them, and we are apt to imagine, that what is remembered with +ease, was written without difficulty. + +To conclude; Genius is a rare and precious gem, of which few know the +worth; it is fitter for the cabinet of the connoisseur, than for the +commerce of mankind. Good sense is a bank-bill, convenient for change, +negotiable at all times, and current in all places. It knows the value +of small things, and considers that an aggregate of them makes up the +sum of human affairs. It elevates common concerns into matters of +importance, by performing them in the best manner, and at the most +suitable season. Good sense carries with it the idea of equality, while +Genius is always suspected of a design to impose the burden of +superiority; and respect is paid to it with that reluctance which always +attends other imposts, the lower orders of mankind generally repining +most at demands, by which they are least liable to be affected. + +AS it is the character of Genius to penetrate with a lynx's beam into +unfathomable abysses and uncreated worlds, and to see what is _not_, +so it is the property of good sense to distinguish perfectly, and judge +accurately what really _is_. Good sense has not so piercing an eye, but +it has as clear a sight: it does not penetrate so deeply, but as far as +it _does_ see, it discerns distinctly. Good sense is a judicious +mechanic, who can produce beauty and convenience out of suitable means; +but Genius (I speak with reverence of the immeasurable distance) bears +some remote resemblance to the divine architect, who produced perfection +of beauty without any visible materials, _who spake, and it was +created_; who said, _Let it be, and it was_. + + +[8] THE Author begs leave to offer an apology for introducing this +Essay, which, she fears, may be thought foreign to her purpose. But she +hopes that her earnest desire of exciting a taste for literature in +young ladies, (which encouraged her to hazard the following remarks) +will not OBSTRUCT her general design, even if it does not actually +PROMOTE it. + + +THE END. + + +Transcriber's Note: +Two small typos have been corrected. + + + + +_Lately published by the same Author_, + + +ODE TO DRAGON, Mr. GARRICK'S +House-Dog at Hampton. Price 6d. + + +SIR ELDRED OF THE BOWER, and the +BLEEDING ROCK. Legendary +Tales. 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