ing and thinking, for the fhare the individual might be expected to take in the general difcourfe; but that knowledge, and tafte, and wit, and erudition, seemed now to be scarcely confidered as neceffary materials to be brought into the pleasureable com merce of the world; in which there was little chance of turning them to much account; and therefore he who poffeffed them, and he who poffeffed them not, were nearly on a footing.

It is obvious alfo, that multitudinous affemblies are fo little favorable to that cheerfulness, which it fhould feem to be their very end to promote, that if there were any chymical procefs by which the quantum of fpirits animal or intellectual could be afcertained, the diminution would be found to have been inconceivably great, fince the transformation of man and woman from a focial to a grega rious animal.

But if it be true as to the injury which friendship, fociety, and cheerfulness, have sustained by this change of manners, how much more pointedly does the remark apply to family happiness!

prifed, that the guests afterward are not asked what was faid by the company, but whether the crowd was prodigious? The rule for deciding on the merit of a fashionable fociety not being by the taste or the spirit, but by the score and the hundred. The queftion of pleasure, like a parliamentary question, is now carried by numbers. And when two parties modifh, like two parties political, are run one against another on the fame night, the fame kind of mortification attends the leader of a defeated mi. nority, the fame triumph attends the exulting carrier of fuperior numbers, in the one cafe as in the other.

An eminent divine has faid, that perfeverance in prayer will either make a man leave off finning, or a continuance in fin will make him leave off prayer.' This remark may be ac commodated to thofe ladies who, while they are devoted to the enjoyments of this world, yet retain confiderable folicitude for the inftruction of their daughters. But if they are really in earneft to give them a Chriftian education, they muft themselves renounce a diffipated life. Or if they refolve to purfue the chafe of pleafure, they muft renounce this prime duty. Contraries cannot unite. The moral nurture of a tall daughter can no more be administered by a mother, whose time is abforbed by crowds abroad, than the phyfical nurture of her infant offspring can be fupplied by her in a perpetual abfence from home. And is not that a prepofterous affection, which leads a mother to devote a few months to the inferior duty of furnishing aliment to the mere animal life, and then to defert her poft when the more important moral and intellectual cravings require fuftenance? This great object is not to be effected with the fhreds and parings rounded off from the circle of a diffipated life; but in order to its adequate execution, the mother fhould carry it on with the fame spirit

and

and perseverance at home, which the father thinks it necessary to be exerting abroad in his public duty or profeffional engagements.

The ufual vindication, and in the ory it has a plaufible found, which has been offered for the large portion of time spent by women in acquiring ornamental talents is, that they are calculated to make the poffeffor love home, and that they innocently fill up the hours of leifure. The plea has indeed to promifing an appearance, that it is worth enquiring whether it be in fact true. Do we then, on fairly purfuing the enquiry, difcover that those who have spent moft time in fuch light acquifitions, are really remarkable for loving home or staying quietly there? or that when there, they are fedulous in turning time to the best account? 1 speak not of that rational and refpectable class of women who, applying (as many of them do) these elegant talents to their true purpose, employ them to fill up the vacancies of better occupations, and to embellish the leifure of a life actively good. But do we generally fee that even the most valuable and fober part of the reigning female acquifitions leads their poffeffor to fcenes most favorable to the enjoyment of them? to scenes which we fhould naturally fuppofe fhe would feek, in order to the more effectual cultivation of fuch rational pleasures?

Would not those delightful purfuits, botany and drawing, for inftance, feem likely to court the fields, the woods, and gardens of the paternal feat, as more congenial to their nature, and more appropriate to their exercise, than barren watering-places, deftitute of a tree, or an herb or a flower, or an hour's interval from fucceffive pleafures, to profit by them even if they abounded with the whole vegetable world from the " Cedar of Lebanon to the hyffop or the wall."

From the mention of watering places, may the author be allowed to

fuggeft a few remarks on the evils which have arifen from the general confpiracy of the gay to ufurp the regions of the fick; and converting the health-reftoring fountains, meant as a refuge for disease, into the resorts of vanity for those who have no difcafe but idleness?

This inability of staying at home, as it is one of the most infallible, so it is one of the most dangerous symptoms of the reigning mania. It would be more tolerable, did this epidemic malady only break out, as formerly, during the winter, or fome one feafon

Heretofore, the tenantry and the poor, the natural dependents on the rural manfions of the opulent, had fome definite period to which they might joyfully look forward for the approach of thofe patrons, part of whofe business in life it is to influence by their prefence, to inftruct by their example, to footh by their kindness, and to affiit by their liberality, those whom Providence, in the diftribution of human lots, has placed under their more immediate protection. Though it would be far from truth to affert that diffipated people are never charitable, yet I will venture to fay, that diffipation is inconfiftent with the Spirit of charity. That affecting precept followed by so gracious a promife, "Never turn away thy face from any poor man, and then the face of the Lord fhall never be turned away from thee," cannot literally mean that we should give to all, as then we fhould foon have nothing left to give: but it feems to intimate the habitual attention, the duty of enquiring out all cafes of diftrefs, in order to judge which are fit to be relieved: now for this inquiry, for this attention, the diffipated have little taste and less leisure.

Let a reasonable conjecture (for calculation would fail!) be made of how large a diminution of the general good has been effected in this fingle respect, by causes, which, tho'

they

for indolence and ignorance by ours, was, that intellectual accomplishments too much abforbed the thoughts and affections, took women off from the neceffary attention to domeftic duties, and fuperinduced a contempt or neglect of what was useful.—But it is peculiarly the character of the prefent day to detect abfurd opinions, and expofe plaufible theories by the fimple and decifive answer of experiment; and it is prefumed that this popular error, as others, is daily receiving the refutation of actual experience. For it cannot surely be maintained on ground that is any longer tenable, that acquirements truly rational are calculated to draw off the mind from real duties. Whatever removes prejudices, whatever ftimulates industry, whatever rectifies the judgment, whatever corrects felf-conceit, whatever purifies the tafte, and raises the understanding, will be like ly to contribute to moral excellence: to women moral excellence is the grand object of education; and of moral excellence, domeftic life is to women the appropriate fphere.

families are to be found who are neglected through too much fudy in the miftrefs, it will probably be proved to be Hoyle, and not Homer, who has robbed her children of her time and affections. For one family which has been neglected by the mother's paffion for books, a hundred have been deferted through her paffion for play. The hufband of a fashionable woman will not often find that the library is the apartment, the expences of which involve him in debt or difgrace. And for one literary flattern who now manifefts her indifference to her hufband by the neglect of her perfon, there are fcores of elegant spendthrifts, who iuin theirs by excess of decoration.

May 1 digrefs a little while I remark, that I am far from afferting that literature has never filled women with vanity and felf-conceit; the contrary is too obvious: but I will affert, that in general thofe whom books are fuppofed to have spoiled, would have been fpoiled in another way without them. She who is a vain pedant because he has read much, has probably that defect in her mind, which would have made her a vain fool if she had read nothing. It is not her having more knowledge, but lefs fenfe, which makes her insufferable; and ignorance would have added little to her value, for it is not what she has, but what she wants, which makes her unpleasant. These inftances too only furnish a fresh argument for the general cultivation of the female mind. The wider diffufion of found knowledge would remove that temptation to be vain which may be excited by its rarity.

(To be contiuued.)

R PENNANT was born June 14, 1726, at Downing, in Flintfhire, the feat of his family for feveral ge

nerations; he was the fon of David Pennant, and daughter of Richard Mytton of Halfton. He was

edu

educated first at Wrexham, then at Mr Croft's school at Fulham, and last at Queen's and Oriel colleges, where he took the degree of D. C. L. 1771.

A prefent of the ornithology of Francis Willoughby, made to him at the age of twelve, by the father of Mrs Piozzi, firft gave him a taste for that study, and a love for natural hiftory in general, which he afterward purfued with conftitutional ardour, and great reputation. To fuch small matters do men of talents owe their prevailing bias. In 1746-7, he made a tour into Cornwall, where he contracted a strong paffion for minerals and foffils. The first thing of his which appeared in print, though unknown to himself, was an abstract of a letter he wrote to his uncle, John Mytton, Efq. on an earthquake which was felt at Downing, April 2, 1750. This appeared in the Philofophical Tranfactions. In 1754, he was elected a fellow of the fociety of antiquaries, an honour which he refigned in 1760. I had,' fays he, married a most amiable woman; my circumftances at that time were very narrow, my worthy father being alive, and I vainly thought my happinefs would have been permanent, and that I never should have been called again from my retirement to amufe myself in town, or to be of ufe to the fociety.'

Previous to this refignation, how ever, in 1754 he vifited Ireland, but fuch was the conviviality of the country, that his journal proved as meagre as his entertainment was plentiful, fo it never was a dish fit to be of fered to the public. In 1756, he published in the Philofophical Tranfactions, a paper on feveral coralloid bodies he had collected at Cole-brook dale, in Shropshire. In 1757, at the inftance of the great Linnæus, he was elected of the Royal Society at Upfal, which he calls the first and greatest of his literary honours. He kept up a correfpondence with Linnæus, till

age and infirmities obliged the latter to defift.

In the year 1761, he began his British Zoology, which, when completed, confifted of 132 plates on imperial paper, all engraved by Mazel. Edwards, the celebrated ornithologift, conceived at first a little jealousy on this attempt, but it very foon fubfided, and they contracted a great intimacy, which ended only with the death of Mr Edwards. He dedicated the profits of the British Zoology to the Welch charity school, near Gray'sinn, London, and fupported the far greater part of the expence, but he loft confiderably by it, and the school did not gain fo much as it might if the work had been printed in a quarto, instead of a large folio fize. But he confeffes he was at that time unexperienced in these affairs.

In 1765, he made a short tour to the continent, where he enjoyed the company of the celebrated Buffon, who publicly acknowledged his favorable fentiments of Mr Pennant's ftudies in the 15th vol. of his Natural Hiftory. They had afterward a difpute on branches of their refpective ftudies, but, adds our author, our blows were light, and I hope that neither of us felt any material injury." At Ferney he vifited Voltaire, who happened to be in good humour, and was very entertaining; but in his attempt to fpeak English, fatisfied the vifitors that he was perfect matter of our oaths and curfes.

During this tour he visited alfo baron Haller, the two Gefners, the poets, and Dr. Trew, a venerable patron of Natural History. At the Hague, he met with Dr. Pallas, and this meeting gave rife to his Synopfis of Quadrupeds, and the fecond edition, under the name of the Hiftory of Quadrupeds, a work received by the naturalifts of different parts of Europe in a manner uncommonly favorable. Mr Pennant had propofed this plan to Pallas, but owing to the latter be