ftudies, which will very much contribute to the delight of them. If a lady knew a little Latin, she would find no manner of inconvenience in it, not fo much to improve herself in that language as to help her in her own. The main thing is to put good books into her hands, wherein the may find so much benefit as compenfates for the lofs of that time, which otherwife will be wafted in the ftudy of her own tongue as well as others. It is not fo ftrange as fome may imagine it, that improvement in English fhould be recommended. Our native language will not come to us by inspiration, and we fhall write and speak with rudeness or affectation, if we know no more of it than we are bred with. 'Twas a faying of a great father of our church, eminent above any in the learned world, to a gentleman who had made him a compliment on his general knowledge of tongues," that indeed "he knew enough of other languages, and would spend the "reft of his time in learning English," which he wrote with as much force and eloquence as any one. Let not the ladies then defpife the ftudy of a tongue which nature has given them, and with it a talent of speaking and writing it, with more grace than even the men themselves. La Bruyere obferves, that their conversation is one of the best methods to make men polite, and that, methinks, fhould incline them to give it as many advantages as they can; of which, to fpeak politely is not the leaft. Tho' this is often acquired by those ladies that know no tongue but their native, yet thofe furely will have it in greater perfection, who know the beauties of other languages, and how to make use of them in their natural one. The gallant writers have diftinguished themfelves as much as any by their politenefs. The poifon in them is concealed as much as poffible, and it is infenfibly that they would lead the heart to love: let them therefore be avoided with care; for there are elegant writers enough on moral and divine fubjects, and the danger of reading foft

and

and wanton writings, which warm and corrupt the imagination, is fo great, that one cannot be too careful in the choice of our author. Too much of this will be found among the works of poetry and eloquence, with which none but ladies of good taste and folid judgment fhould be trufted.

The like cautions are neceffary with refpect to mufick and painting; the fancy is often too quick in them, and the foul too much affected by the fenfes. Mufick especially fo foftens, that it enervates it, and expofes it to be conquer'd by the firft temptation which invades it. The ancients were fo well convinced of its pernicioufnefs, that they would never fuffer it in a well-regulated State. Why are languifhing airs pleafant, but because the foul gives itfelf to the charms of the fenfes? What is it you mean by tranfporting or moving in mufick, but the fury or the foftnefs of defire? If the wife magiftrate of Sparta broke all the mufical inftruments, whofe harmony was too delicious and melting, and Plato rejected all the fofter airs of the Afiatick mufick, what should we Chriftians do with the Italian, as moving as any that ever were known to antiquity? How can chafte minds delight in the lan-guishments of wanton poetry, made yet more languifhing by the graces of mufick? What great or noble is there in the dying notes of foreign ftrumpets and eunuchs? The power of mufick never appeared more in England than it has done of late; we have seen it draw after it numerous audiences of both fexes at a very extravagant expence, who knowing nothing of the language were bewitched only with the magick of the founds. Was it either vanity or pleasure? or if either, was it not alike criminal? Should Chriftians fquander away fo many precious hours in vanity, or take pleafure in gratifying a fenfe that has fo often been a traitor

to virtue?

Not that all poetry and mufick is of the fame dangerous nature. Retrench from them whatever tends not

not to the true end, and they may be very usefully employed to excite in the foul lively and fublime notions of God and religion. As for poetry, many parts of the holy fcriptures are poems, and were fung by the Hebrews. The firft precepts of morality were delivered in verse, and the finging the praife of God was the most ancient worship among men. Our church has carefully provided for the refreshment of the fouls of her children; the mufick of our choirs gives us a ravishing, tho' a faint idea, of the happy choirs in heaven. For this reafon ought not thefe arts, confecrated by the fpirit of God, to be condemned.. If a Chriftian turn was given to mufick and poetry, it would be the greatest of all helps to difrelith profane pleafures. Those ladies that are fenfible of the impreffions made by thefe two arts, fhould early be directed to put them to divine ufes. And fuch as have genius's and voices may innocently and ufefully indulge themfelves in them, if they find their fouls raifed by it in devotion, and their paffions are free from thofe irregular emotions which are the effects of all pleasures that owe their birth to the fenfes. If young gentlewomen are forbidden poetry and mufick, it will only increase their curiofity, and make them fancy there is more in them than they will find upon the experiment.. If they have no tafte nor genius, which are bleflings that every one is not endowed with, without genius and tate they will foon, be weary of them: wherefore the best way is to humour their inclinations, and take care that what talents they have, may rather serve to improve than to injure their virtue. The lefs is to be faid of painting, for that few have a genius for it, and those that have none, would reckon it ridiculous to have advice given them about a thing they defpife. All these arts, poetry, mufick and painting, are proper entertainments only for women of quality; not for fuch as the duties of their families, and what they owe to heaven, would wholly employ.

The

The common education of young gentlewomen at boarding-schools is render'd ufelefs, and indeed pernicious. Whole years are spent in teaching a taffelefs girl to paint on glafs, and fuch fort of useless knowledge, which fhould be employed in forming their minds to virtue, and the moral duties of life. To draw, or to know fomething of defign, will be useful in feveral works that pafs thro' the hands of those ladies, who do not take idlenefs to be the greatest privilege of their fex and quality. For want of knowing the rules of drawing, do we meet with fo many extravagant figures in laces, linen, ftuffs, and embroideries. Every thing is ill defigned and confused, without art, without proportion. These pafs for fine, because they coft a great deal of labour; their luftre dazzles those that see them afar off, or do not underftand them. However the ladies have their rules which they will not depart from, as irregular as they are cuftom has so habituated them to them, that they reckon nothing more fantaftical than to difpute them. The principles of painting, if known to them, would make them look with contempt on things they otherwife fet the highest value upon. This knowledge would leffen the labour and expence of their works, and give them that variety and beauty, that regularity and grace, which can only fet a price upon them.

In whatever in nocent employments they fpend their Time, certain it is, that 'tis their duty to employ, it about fomething, and that idleness is a vice as well in women as in men. The primitive Christians of the highest quality wrought with their own hands. The very apoftles themfelves, and the Saviour of the world, did the fame: they did not work to pass away their time only, they made of labour a ferious, a continued, and a profitable employment. Auguftus wore no clothes but what were wrought and made by his wife Livia, and his daughters; and a greater - than Livia, because a Chriflian, and more virtuous, our

late

late fovereign Queen Mary, of bleffed memory, was always employing her leifure hours in fome handiwork of ufe and convenience. She had an abhorrence for the idle, and fuffered none of her ladies to be fo in her prefence. She knew and practifed the duty of industry, knowing that labour is a great guard to innocence. For the mind will be bufy, and if the hands do not take off the head and beart from wandring, they will fometimes forget their duty; and having not good matter to act upon, will be bufied in that which is ill. When it wants neceffary and feful, it ftrives by all means to amufe itself with needless and ufelefs things. This, as it is the most dangerous, so it is the most ordinary cheat of the enemy; he takes from us the occafions of employing our time, by prefenting us ways of lofing it.

Idlenefs has two conftant companions, irrefolution and inconftancy. The ladies who are infected with this vice, no fooner have a defign, but they presently change it: they lay, indeed, a great many foundations, but they never finish the building; they do not fay 1 will, but I am inclined to will fo or fo; not this I defire, but this I could defire: they deliberate, but they never refolve; their motion is not progreffive, but circular; they advance no more than the perfon who walks in a labyrinth. And how fhould there be any progrefs in the labours of thofe that have no aim, and propofe nothing but to spend time : They care not what becomes of it, fo they can but get rid of it. Some perhaps work a little to pass it away, as they call it, and to divert themfelves; they overturn thus the order of nature, by which they are to reft a little, that they may work much; they, on the contrary, are for taking much reft, that they may work a little. Religion fpeaks after a quite another manner than thefe ladies feem to underftand: it does not, 'tis true, forbid us to use recreation, but it requires · that it should not be exceffive. Whether God treats

us