CONTENTS. I. Plan of the Work explained, II. General Grounds of the Importance of the Female Character briefly stated, CHAP. XII. On the Duties of matrimonial Life, XIII. Duties of matrimonial Life continued, with Circumstances of different Individuals, XIV. On Parental Duties, XV. Further Remarks on the Duties belonging to the Middle Period of Life, XVI. On the Duties of the Decline of Life. Conclufion, PAGE 246 310 362 399 412 44 t AN AN ENQUIRY INTO THE DUTIES OF THE FEMALE SEX. IN CHAP. I. PLAN OF THE WORK EXPLAINED. IN the outfet of the prefent undertaking be proper briefly to ftate the plan on which it is conducted. it may The duties of the female fex, in general, are the objects which it is proposed to inveftigate. The obfervations contained in the following pages will, in many cafes, have an especial reference to the conduct of women placed in the higher or in the middle B middle claffes of fociety; but they will feldom be directed exclusively to any rank or ftation. It has been my wifh and my endeavour, that this treatise, as far as it is capable of being useful, may be useful to readers of every defcription. The sphere of domestic life, the sphere in which female exertion is chiefly occupied, and female excellence is best displayed, admits far lefs diversity of action, and confequently of temptation, than is to be found in the widely differing profeffions and employments into which private advantage and public good require that men fhould be diftributed. The barrifter and the physician have their respective duties, and their respective trials. The fundamental principles by which both the one and the other is to regulate his conduct are the fame. The occafion, however, on which thofe principles are to operate, and the enticement, whether of pleasure or of intereft, by which their prefent effect is im-, peded, |