not only cured of his leprosy, but became a convert to the true religion, and worshipped the God of Elisha. And how often have persons in the highest stations been excited to good, or restrained from evil, at the instance or by the example of an inferior in the train of their own servants, who had been taught in early youth, what they perhaps had never learned, or, in the hour of passion, had forgotten!

The importance of female education will rise in our opinion, if we consider women as persons who may become wives and mistresses of families. In this situation, they have duties to perform which lie at the very foundation of human life; the support or the ruin of families depends upon their conduct. They have the direction of household affairs; they, consequently, determine the greatest concerns of mankind, and form the good or evil manners of almost all the world. A judicious woman, that is diligent and religious, is the very soul of a house; she gives orders for the good things of this life, and for those too of eternity. Men themselves, who have all the authority in public, cannot yet by their deliberations establish any effectual good, without the concurring assistance of women to carry them into execution. Besides their authority and their continual attendance in their houses, they have the advantage of being by nature careful, attentive to particulars, industrious, insinuating, and persuasive. And how can the men hope for any content in life, if their strictest friendship and alliance, which is that of marriage, be turned into disappointment and bitterness.

But a matter of more weight is still behind. As

mothers, women have, for some time, and that the most critical time too, the care of the education of their children of both sorts, who, in the next age, are to make up the great body of the world. And as the health and strength, or sickliness and weakness of our bodies, are very much owing to their methods of treating us when we are young; so the soundness or folly of our minds are not less owing to those first tempers and ways of thinking, which we eagerly received from the love, tenderness, authority, and constant conversation of our mothers. As we call our first language our mother tongue, so we may as justly call our first tempers our mother tempers; and perhaps it may be found more easy to forget the language, than to part entirely with those tempers which we learnt in the nursery.

That mothers, where they themselves have been well instructed, are more capable than men of teaching their children, will appear from these considerations-First, from their circumstances and condition of life: they are more within doors; have more time to spare; are best acquainted with their children's tempers; and always have them in their eye. Secondly, they have an advantage from their own make and frame of mind; they are generally more apprehensive of danger, and of what may come hereafter, than men are. This makes them more concerned for their children's everlasting welfare, and solicitous to teach them what they know themselves. Then, they are of a milder disposition; can bear with their children's infirmities, and correct them with a tenderness which even re

commends a necessary severity. By this means their children come to love them, and to be fond

of their instruction, and to imitate their example. Besides all this, they are more patient of this kind of labour than men are. It is not the child's dulness, nor the necessity of often repeating the same things, that will weary or discourage the pious mo ther. And, which is not to be omitted, she has an opportunity of seeing whether her instructions are apprehended and followed; of destroying vices, while they are in bud; as also, of encouraging every commendable word and action, in its season.

In one word-The mothers have an opportunity, both by their instruction and example, of fixing such lasting impressions upon their children's minds, as, by the blessing of God upon their endeavours, neither the iniquity of the age, nor the enemy of mankind, shall ever be able to blot out.*

Some very remarkable facts, confirming what has been said, deserve your utmost attention.

At this day, the children of Jews are always under the mother's care and instruction, if living, till they come to a certain age; during which time, they are taught to read the law, and so well instructed in its worth, and aim, and meaning, that they are very hardly, if ever, brought over to Chris

"A proper and effectual education of the female sex is one of the very first steps to be taken for the effectual improvement and civilization of the whole empire. For children fall inevitably into the hands and under the care of women, in their infant state: therefore their first and strongest impressions will be good or bad, salutary or destructive, according to the morals, character, and conduct of those women under whose early tuition they may fall." -Dr. Brown's sketch of a plan of legislation for the Russian empire, given in the Biographia Britannica, vol. ii, 664, ed edition.

tianity, either by the temporal or spiritual advantages which attend it.

One of the deputies at the synod of Dort informed that assembly, that in his country there was scarce a person, how poor and mean soever his condition was, but could read and give a tolerable account of his faith. This, he said, was owing chiefly to the great care that had been taken to instruct the women, who, when they came to be mothers, scarce ever failed to instruct their children.

St. Paul, addressing himself to his beloved Timothy, has these remarkable words—“That I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice ; and I am persuaded that in thee also." You see, that the faith and piety, here commended and gloried in, were continued and propagated in the fa mily by the women chiefly. That "unfeigned faith," and that zeal for the glory of God, which was found in Timothy, and which qualified him for a bishop, or overseer, in the church of God, was derived to him from his mother and grandmother, whose instruction and examples he followed; and so became an instrument of great good to the world.

Nor are examples wanting among ourselves of virtue and piety, the fear and the blessing of God, continued in families for many generations, by the religious care and concern of mothers, that have had a Christian education; who, however they may excuse themselves from some other labours, which attend the bringing up of their children, if they neglect this, are inexcusable; neither the tender

ness of their constitution, nor the care of their families (much less the pleasures of the world); neither their quality on the one hand, nor their poverty on the other, will ever free them from the guilt, and infamy, and curse, which will attend those who shall suffer their children to grow up without principles, and without morality.

To the foregoing considerations it may be added, that virtue is not more the business of men than it is of women, who are the one half of the human race, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and designed for eternal life. They are to live for themselves; they have as great a share in the rational nature as men have; they have as much reason to pretend to, and as much necessity to aspire after the highest accomplishments of a Christian and solid virtue, as the gravest and wisest among Christian philosophers. When we spoil them by a wrong education, we spoil that part of the world which would otherwise, perhaps, furnish most instances of an eminent and exalted goodness; since they are naturally possessed of tempers and dispositions which, if duly improved by proper studies, and sober methods of education, would, in all probability, carry them to greater heights of piety, than are to be found among the generality of men. That women have no souls, is an assertion, which might proceed from the teacher of a false religion; by the Founder of the true, they are regarded in a very different light. To them were communicated the first tidings of his resurrection, and they had the honour to be appointed apostles to the apostles themselves.

Whether, therefore, we consider the capacities