the texture, therefore, or the race, (as vintners call it in a vintage,) of the human species would be in succeeding ages, if this system were pursued, it is impossible to determine: but I will venture to foretell, that it would be more exalted and elegant, and in all respects more favourable to the extension of human happiness. Fanticipate the jokes of philosophers upon these remarks, who will say, that by such means, no doubt, there might be an increase of philanthropy, with a thousand pretty little et cæteras on the subject; but, from long acquaintance with philosophers, I am raillery-proof, and subscribe myself, Mr Editor, with all due respect to the gentlemen, your constant reader,

PHILOGUNOS.

1.

T

SIR,

Female Education, continued.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BEE.

(July 27. 1791.)

AM charmed with the approbation you have done me the honour to express, with regard to my unaffected and genuine description of my way of impressing the mind of my eldest daughter, while she was yet an infant, with a just: perception and sense of her

situation, and of gently and gradually leading her to effectual and useful habits of industry and virtue; and since. I cannot but suppose that your desire to see an account of the progress of my plan arises from the suggestion of your readers I shall, with great pleasure, though with a painful mixture of anxiety, in appearing before a critical public, proceed to give you the result of my experience on this most interesting subject.

Alathea had now compleated her sixth year, Isabella was fifteen months younger, and my name-daughter Sophia was little more then three years old, when, having brought the eldest to read and understand her own language grammatically, and to perform some of the little mechanical works necessary for her sex with pleasure and precision, I began to consider the scope of my undertaking with respect, to my little scholars, as they should advance in their progress. Alathea, as the eldest, was, by the nature of my husband's estate and settlements, destined eventually to Succeed to the family estate; my younger girls to have no more than a thousand pounds a-piece; and the clergyman's daughter, whom I had undertaken to educate along with my girls, could expect no more than what her father's life and economy might be able to afford on the life-rent freehold of a rectory, little more than L.200 a-year. Here, then, I had to consider the various situations and prospects of the individuals, and to shape

their education accordingly, with due adaptation to the different courses they were probably to take in society, and the various expectations they might be permitted to entertain of their future fortunes.

The eldest I considered as it were born to a political situation, as the eventual proprie'tor of a landed estate, which she could only surrender by becoming a wife. The younger girls to have no more than a civil connection with their country, except they were destined to become mothers and widows, charged with the guardianship of children for the benefit of the state; and the clergyman's daughter I was obliged to look upon as liable to a very subordinate, or actively industrious situation; all of which considerations were to guide me in the formation of their habits, principles, and capacities.

I beheld with uneasiness the preposterous, though fashionable, method of giving a similar education to girls of every station and fortune, and was afraid of shocking the feelings of my friends and acquaintance, by forming my plan upon a different foundation from any I had seen adopted.

I resolved, however, to make the probable future duties and stations of my pupils the platform upon which to raise my structure of education; and I set myself seriously to contemplate and to examine these, not theoreti cally, with books and treatises in my hand, and far less in concert with the systems of a VOL. I.

E

Locke, a Rousseau, a Priestley, or even a Whitechurch, a Knox, a Chapman, or a Kames; but I looked every day, and every where, into the great and patent book of common life, and common occurrence in society; that from thence I might draw rules, founded upon experience, to direct me in a matter that I durst not trust to hypothesis, and that I conceived to be infinitely too complicated, from the variety of tempers, situation, and circumstances, (not to speak of climates and countries,) to be subjected to the ordinary principles of demonstration. My plan of education, I thought, if executed in this manner, would as much exceed, in beauty and utility, the mechanical systems now in fashion, as a picture of a Raphael, a Corregio, a Guido, or a Michael Angelo, would a picture made by one of Watt and Bolton's machines for drawing perspective in the field, or a polygraphic transfiguration for a stair-case. I resolved, therefore, if I saw little probability of Alathea's having the succession of her family, to educate her nearly on the same plan with her sisters; but without allowing her to perceive it, still to infuse such principles, and to provide such faculties, as might enable her to hold with propriety the situation, if it should happen to take place.

I resolved to educate the younger girls to the compleat and effectual possession of such abilities, within the compass of their talents, as should render them capable of maintaining

themselves handsomely by their own skill of handy-work; but giving them such intellectual powers, and a taste for such rational pursuits as might excite farther curiosity, and fit them for being what is commonly called, ladies of distinction, or ladies of independent fortune. With respect to my little Mary, the parson's daughter, I determined, as I saw her genius and capacity direct, either to train her up to make some clergyman, or private gentleman of small fortune, or substantial yeoman, or good honest shopkeeper, happy, as a thrifty, industrious wife; or, in case her talents should appear remarkable, to render her capable of being a first-rate instructress of young ladies upon my own plan, that I might have the happiness to foresee 'the future confirmation and improvement of my endeavours to make my sex wiser, and happier, and better.

O how happy should I be, could I but think that the result of my experience might be useful to posterity! I know how little chance an anonymous writer in a magazine has to gain attention from a public that is guided by names, and by reputation, by riches, and by honours. But if my writings, deserve the application of my name and signature, they will at least obtain attention, and their principles will be adopted. Then might I indulge the vain and fruitless thought, that if by conviction of the truth of