as comprehending whatever writings may contribute to her virtue, her usefulness, and her innocent fatisfaction, to her happiness in this world and in the next. She who believes that fhe is to furvive in another ftate of being through eternity, and is duly impressed by the awful conviction, will fix day by day her most serious thoughts on the inheritance to which she aspires. Where her treasure is, there will her heart be alfo. She will not be feduced from an habitual study of the Holy Scriptures, and of other works calculated to imprint on her bosom the comparatively small importance of the pains and pleasures of this period of existence; and to fill her with that knowledge, and inspire her with thofe views and difpofitions, which may enable her to rejoice in the contemplation of futurity. With the time allotted to the regular perufal of the word of God, and of performances which enforce and illuftrate the rules of Chriftian duty, no other kind of reading ought to be permitted to interfere. At other parts of the day let history,

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history, biography, poetry, or fome of the various branches of elegant and profitable knowledge, pay their tribute of instruction and amusement. But let her ftudies be confined within the strictest limits of purity. Let whatever the peruses in her most private hours be fuch as fhe needs not to be afhamed of reading aloud to those, whose good opinion fhe is most anxious to deferve, Let her remember that there is an all-fee

ing eye, which is ever which is ever fixed upon her, even in her closest retirement,

There is one species of writings which obtains from a confiderable proportion of the female fex a reception much more favourable than is accorded to other kinds of compofition more worthy of encouragement. It is fcarcely neceffary to add the name of romances. Works of this nature not unfrequently deferve the praise of ingenuity of plan and contrivance, of accurate and well-fupported difcrimination of character, and of force and elegance of lan

guage,

guage. Some of them have profeffedly been compofed with a defign to favour the interefts of morality. And among those which are deemed to have on the whole a moral tendency, a very few perhaps might be felected which are not liable to the disgraceful charge of being contaminated occafionally by incidents and paffages unfit to be presented to the reader. This charge, however, may so very generally be alleged with justice, that even of the novels which poffefs great and established reputation, some are totally improper, in confequence of fuch admixture, to be perused by the eye of delicacy. Poor, indeed, are the fervices rendered to virtue by a writer, however he may boast that the object of his performance is to exhibit the vicious as infamous and unhappy, who, in tracing the progrefs of vice to infamy and unhappiness, introduces the reader to fcenes and language adapted to wear away the quick feelings of modefty, which form at once the ornament and the fafeguard of innocence; and like the bloom upon a plumb,

if once effaced, commonly disappear for ever. To indulge in a practice of reading novels is, in feveral other particulars, liable to produce mischievous effects. Such compofitions are, to moft perfons, extremely engaging. That story must be uncommonly barren, or wretchedly told, of which, after having heard the beginning, we desire not to know the end. To the pleasure of learning the ultimate fortunes of the heroes and heroines of the tale, the novel commonly adds, in a greater or in a lefs degree, that which arifes from animated defcription, from lively dialogue, or from interesting fentiment. Hence the perufal of one romance leads, with much more frequency than is the cafe with refpect to works of other kinds, to the fpeedy perusal of another. Thus a habit is formed, a habit at firft, perhaps, of limited indulgence, but a habit that is continually found more for midable and more encroaching. The appetite becomes too keen to be denied; and in proportion as it is more urgent, grows less

nice and felect in its fare. What would formerly have given offence, now gives none. The palate is vitiated or made dull. The produce of the book-club, and the contents of the circulating library, are devoured with indifcriminate and infatiable avidity. Hence the mind is fecretly corrupted. Let it be observed too, that in exact correfpondence with the increase of a paffion for reading novels, an averfion to reading of a more improving nature will gather ftrength. There is yet another con'fequence too important to be overlooked. The catastrophe and the incidents of these fictitious narratives commonly turn on the viciffitudes and effects of a paffion the moft powerful of all those which agitate the human heart. Hence the study of them frequently creates a fufceptibility of impreffion and a premature warmth of tender emotions, which, not to speak of other poffible effects, have been known to betray young women into a fudden attachment to perfons unworthy of their affection, and thus to

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