as I know the crime is much greater in the wife, and even detestable, modesty being the highest ornament of women, and the casting it off becomes a sin both against God and nature. For my part, if I commit a fault against my sex, in being for so much resignation, they must pardon me; for I cannot advise others to more obedience than I would wish to practise myself; and I intreat all those who despise me as being so tame a fool, that they would banish all anger out of their minds for one year, and then tell me if they have not more content in forgiving, than returning a reproach.

I fear I have already exceeded the bounds of a letter, for which I ought to make an apology, but more words would give you trouble; therefore I will only beg of you to excuse and love

Your ever sincere and affectionate friend.

LETTER 159.

From a Lady to her Friend, whose Lover had basely deserted her and married another.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Our expectation of happiness is generally so ill placed, that it is no wonder we meet with perpetual disappointments. When our choice arises from passion, we have so very blind a guide as will inevitably lead to destruction; for though love appears then gentlest, yet our affections are so much the right of our Almighty Creator, that as often as we fix them immoderately upon any of the fading objects here below, we are certainly guilty of sacrilege to the Divine goodness, which fault is commonly punished by the very thing we doat on. This, I doubt

not, has been your case, and not yours alone; for soon or late, few escape that mischief, especially amongst our weaker sex, whose tender nature leaves them most exposed to ruin; and though they see others shipwrecked before their eyes, will yet venture out to sea on the same bottom; insensible of danger, till they perish, and often fall unpitied.

But I

Men have a thousand advantages over us, but in the affair of courtship they add cunning to all their other accomplishments, and are as zealous to deceive, as if their lives would be made happy by the cheat. However, they will find it a sad mistake, at least, if perjury is to be accounted for; although your false traitor, like many others, may look on that time as at a great distance. suppose he thinks himself excused, as being more knave than fool, which title, indeed, is so highly due to him, that I believe none will do him such manifest wrong as to dispute it; and I am sure, the blacker he appears, the greater reason you have to bless that Providence which permitted him to break the contract; for without doubt, he that proved so ill a lover to the best of mistresses, would have made an intolerable husband to the best of wives; and ill usage would have cost you more than his infidelity. I am sensible a heart so generous and constant as yours cannot easily efface the deep impression he has made in it; that must be the work of time, with God's assistance, which I hope will never fail you. I do assure you I am deeply touched with every thing that concerns you; nor is it without great regret that I submit to the unhappy circumstances which detain me from being the companion of your melancholy hours, which I should endeavor, with all my power, to divert.

You say it is a daily aggravation to your trouble, to reflect that you suffered yourself to be so easily imposed upon; but that, as I told you before, is our common fate, although all impostors are not equally industrious to be wicked; and you ought not to condemn your own judg. ment, for want of sagacity to discover a cheat, as it would be to arraign the conduct of almost all the human race.

Pardon me, dear madam, for troubling you so far. Indeed I might have told you at first what I must mention now, and what you know already, that he only can give us comfort, whom we seldom regard only when we are driven to it by necessity. Solomon, who had tried all the alluring charms of love and beauty, whose quality and riches gave him an opportunity to gratify every inclination, without any bounds to his wishes, could call them all "vanity and vexation of spirit." It is no wonder then, if every one of us discover the same truth to our own cost. Let us therefore resolve, as much as we can, to submit our wills to the will of our heavenly Father, who sees all our actions, and has so decreed, that our way to everlasting happiness should be through the wilderness of affliction. Yours, affectionately.

LETTER 160.

From a Lady who had formerly kept a Boarding-school, to anotherof the same profession, on Female Education.

MADAM,

I réceived your letter, containing the following request, viz. What are the most proper methods to be used in conducting the education of young ladies, so as to avoid extravagance on the one hand, and meanness on the other?

This is a very important question, and perhaps above my poor abilities to answer. However, as I have had many years experience in female education, I shall tell you my thoughts on the subject with the greatest freedom. It is the misfortune of the present age, that almost all ranks of people are so much infatuated as to strive who shall outdo one another in extravagance, and a daughter of an ordinary tradesman can scarce be distinguished from one of the nobility. If we inquire into the causes from which such effects flow, we shall find that they are partly owing to the conduct of their mothers, and partly to those intrusted with their education. I shall mention a few things relating to both, and you can judge of their propriety.

Mothers should, on every occasion, teach their daughters that it is a duty incumbent on them not to have aspiring views beyond that station in which Providence has placed them. That humble, unaffected modesty in a stuff gown, will be preferred by every sensible person before either silks or Brussels lace. That it is a greater accomplishment for a tradesman's daughter to wash a floor than to dance on it; and much more useful to be able to dress a joint of meat, than to point out the particular merits of an actress, and applaud or condemn a song. But the keepers of boarding schools are still more culpable than parents. No sooner is Miss placed in one of these seminaries, than she is taught to consider herself a young lady, and is even honored with that appellation. Thus the seeds of vanity are sown in the first rudiments of learning, and continue to operate on her conduct, as she advances in years.

It is almost impossible for those who are any way acquainted with human nature to imagine that the girl who is taught to consider herself as a lady, can ever be a proper

wife for a tradesman, and common sense teaches her that she has nothing greater to expect.

But there is something still worse. She is not only unfit to be the wife of an honest, industrious tradesman, but she often occasions his ruin. She expects to be supported in the same extravagant manner as at the boardingschool; dissipation takes place of prudence, public diversions are more attended to than domestic duties; and the unhappy husband, to enjoy peace, is often obliged to leave his business, that his lady may be honored with his company. The fatal effects of such extravagance are soon felt, and the woman who formerly considered herself as a lady, finds, by woful experience, that she had assumed an improper name.

The best, nay, the only way to educate children, consistent with their own station in life, is, on all occasions, to teach them not to expect more than their birth entitles them to. It would likewise be very beneficial to` the nation, if those women who keep boarding schools were to instruct the girls in useful employments rather than in useless arts that cannot be of any real benefit to them, but on the contrary are a material injury in their intercourse with the world.

I have thus thrown together a few reflections upon the subject of female education, but it is impossible to treat it properly in the small compass of a letter, but I will endeavor to be more explicit in a future communication. In the mean time believe me, dear madam,

Your sincere friend..