mean to censure that lively embellishment of a humorous story, which is only intended to promote innocent mirth. There is a certain gentleness of spirit and manners extremely engaging in your sex;-not that indiscriminate attention, that unmeaning simper, which smiles on all alike. This arises, either from an affectation of softness, or from perfect insipidity. There is a species of refinement in luxury, just beginning to prevail among the gentlemen of this country, to which our ladies are yet as great strangers as any women upon earth: I hope, for the honour of the sex, they may ever continue so: -I mean, the luxury of eating. It is a despicable selfish vice in men; but in your sex it is beyond expression indelicate and disgusting. Every one who remembers a few years back, is sensible of a very striking change in the attention and respect formerly paid by the gentlemen to the ladies. Their drawing-rooms are deserted; and, after dinner and supper, the gentlemen are impatient till they retire. How they came to lose this respect, which nature and politeness so well entitle them to, I shall not here particularly inquire. The revolutions of manners in any country depend on causes very various and complicated. I shall only observe, that the behaviour of the ladies in the last age, was very reserved and stately. It would now be reckoned ridiculously stiff and formal. Whatever it was, it had certainly the effect of making them more respected. A fine woman, like other fine things in nature, has her proper point of view, from which she may be seen to most advantage. To fix this point requires great judgment, and an intimate knowledge of the human heart.-By the present mode of fe from your mouths, or even when you hear it without pain and contempt. Virgin purity is of that delicate nature, that it cannot hear certain things without contamination. It is always in your power to avoid these. No man, but a brute, or a fool, will insult a woman with conversation which he sees gives her pain, nor will he dare to do it, if she resent the injury with a becoming spirit.-There is a dignity in conscious virtue, which is able to awe the most shameless and abandoned of men. You will be reproached, perhaps, with prudery. By prudery is usually meant an affectation of delicacy. Now I do not wish you to affect delicacy; I wish you to possess it. At any rate, it is better to run the risk of being thought ridiculous, than disgusting. They The men will complain of your reserve. will assure you, that a franker behaviour would make you more amiable; but, trust me, they are not sincere when they tell you so.-I acknowledge, that on some occasions it might render you more agreeable as companions, but it would make you less amiable as women: an important distinction, which many of your sex are not aware of.-After all, I wish you to have great ease and openness in your conversation. I only point out some considerations which ought to regulate your behaviour in that respect. Have a sacred regard to truth. Lying is a mean and despicable vice. I have known some women of excellent parts, who were so much addicted to it, that they could not be trusted in the relation of any story; especially if it contained any thing of the marvellous, or if they themselves were the heroines of the tale. This weakness did not proceed from a bad heart, but was merely the effect of vanity, or an unbridled imagination. I do not mean to censure that lively embellishment of a humorous story, which is only intended to promote innocent mirth. There is a certain gentleness of spirit and manners extremely engaging in your sex;-not that indiscriminate attention, that unmeaning simper, which smiles on all alike. This arises, either from an affectation of softness, or from perfect in sipidity. There is a species of refinement in luxury, just beginning to prevail among the gentlemen of this country, to which our ladies are yet as great strangers as any women upon earth: I hope, for the honour of the sex, they may ever continue so: -I mean, the luxury of eating. It is a despicable selfish vice in men; but in your sex it is beyond expression indelicate and disgusting. Every one who remembers a few years back, is sensible of a very striking change in the attention and respect formerly paid by the gentlemen to the ladies. Their drawing-rooms are deserted; and, after dinner and supper, the gentlemen are impatient till they retire. How they came to lose this respect, which nature and politeness so well entitle them to, I shall not here particularly inquire. The revolutions of manners in any country depend on causes very various and complicated. I shall only observe, that the behaviour of the ladies in the last age, was very reserved and stately. It would now be reckoned ridiculously stiff and formal. Whatever it was, it had certainly the effect of making them more respected. A fine woman, like other fine things in nature, has her proper point of view, from which she may be seen to most advantage. To fix this point requires great judgment, and an intimate knowledge of the human heart.By the present mode of fe male manners, the ladies seem to expect that they shall regain their ascendency over us, by the fullest display of their personal charms; by being always in our eye at public places; by conversing with us with the same unreserved freedom as we do with one another; in short, by resembling us as nearly as they possibly can. But a little time and experience will shew the folly of this expectation and conduct. The power of a fine woman over the hearts of men-of men of the finest parts, is even beyond what she conceives. They are sensible of the pleasing illusion; but they cannot, nor do they wish to dissolve it. But if she is determined to dispel the charm, it certainly is in her power: she may soon reduce the angel to a very ordinary girl. There is a native dignity in ingenuous modesty to be expected in your sex, which is your natural protection from the familiarities of the men, and which you should feel previous to the reflection, that it is your interest to keep yourselves sacred from all personal freedoms. The many nameless charms and endearments of beauty should be reserved to bless the arms of the happy man to whom you give your heart; but who, if he has the least delicacy, will despise them, if he knows that they have been prostituted to fifty men before him.The sentiment, that a woman may allow all innocent freedoms, provided her virtue is secure, is both grossly indelicate and dangerous, and has proved fatal to many of your sex. Let me now recommend to your attention that elegance, which is not so much a quality itself, as the high polish of every other. It is what diffuses an ineffable grace over every look, every motion, every sentence you utter. It gives that charm to beauty, without which it generally fails to please. It is partly a personal quality; in which respect it is the gift of nature: but I speak of it principally as a quality of the mind. In a word, it is the perfection of taste in life and manners;-every virtue and every excellency in their most graceful and amiable forms. You may perhaps think that I want to throw every spark of nature out of your composition, and to make you entirely artificial. Far from it: I wish you to possess the most perfect simplicity of heart and manners. I think you may possess dignity without pride, affability without meanness, and simple elegance without affectation. Milton had my idea, when he says of Eve Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye, AMUSEMENTS. EVERY period of life has amusements which are natural and proper to it. You may indulge the variety of your tastes in these, while you keep within the bounds of that propriety which is suitable to your sex. Some amusements are conducive to health; as various kinds of exercise: some are connected with qualities really useful; as different kinds of women's work, and all the domestic concerns of a family: some are elegant accomplishments; as dress, dancing, music, and drawing.Such books as improve your understanding, enlarge your knowledge, and cultivate your taste, may be considered in a higher point of view than mere amusements. There are a |