art of hiding paffion. Such education is far from feconding the purpose of nature, that of making women fit companions for men of fenfe. Due cultivation of the female mind would add greatly to the happiness of the males, and still more to that of the females. Time runs on; and when youth and beauty vanish, a fine lady, who never entertained a thought into which an admirer did not enter, furrenders herself now to discontent and peevishness. A woman on the contrary, who has merit, improved by virtuous and refined education, retains in her decline an influence over the men, more flattering than even that of beauty: fhe is the delight of her friends, as formerly of her admirers.

Admirable would be the effects of fuch refined education, contributing no lefs to public good than to private happiness. A man, who at prefent muft degrade himfelf into a fop or a coxcomb in order to pleafe the women, would foon discover, that their favour is not to be gained but by exerting every manly talent in public and in private life; and the two fexes, inftead of corrupting each other, would be rivals in the race of virtue. Mutual eM 2

fteem

fteem would be to each a school of urbanity; and mutual defire of pleafing, would give fmoothness to their behaviour, delicacy to their fentiments, and tenderness to their paffions.

Married women in particular, deftin'd by nature to take the lead in educating children, would no longer be the greatest obftruction to good education, by their ignorance, frivolity, and disorderly manners. Even upon the breast, infants are fufceptible of impreffions *; and the mother hath opportunities without end of inftilling into them good principles, before they are fit for a male tutor. Coriolanus, who made a capital figure in the

* May not a habit of chearfulness be produced in an infant, by being trained up among chearful people? An agreeable temper is held to be a prime qualification in a nurfe. Such is the connection between the mind and body, as that the features of the face are commonly moulded into an expreffion of the internal difpofition; and is it not natural to think, that an infant in the womb may be affected by the temper of its mother? Its tender parts makes it fufceptible of the flighteft impreflions. When a woman is breeding, the ought to be doubly careful of her temper; and in particular to indulge no ideas but what are chearful, and no fentiments but what are kindly.

Roman

Roman republic, never returned from war without meriting marks of diftinction. Others behaved valiantly, in order to acquire glory he behaved valiantly, in order to give pleasure to his mother. The delight she took in hearing him praised, and her weeping for joy in his embraces, made him in his own opinion the happiest person in the universe. Epaminondas accounted it his greatest felicity, that his father and mother were ftill alive to behold his conduct, and enjoy his victory at Leuctra. In a Latin dialogue about the causes that corrupted the Roman eloquence, injudiciously afcribed to Tacitus, because obviously it is not his ftyle, the method of education in Rome while it flourished as a commonwealth, is defcribed in a lively manner. I fhall endeavour to give the fenfe in English, because it chiefly concerns the fair fex. "In that

age, children were fuckled, not in the hut of a mercenary nurse, but by the chafte mother who bore them. Their

education during nonage was in her "hands; and it was her chief care to in"ftil into them every virtuous principle.

In her prefence, a loose word or an im

66 proper

cr

proper action, were strictly prohibited. "She fuperintended, not only their fe"rious ftudies, but even their amufements; which were conducted with decency and moderation. In that manner the Gracchi, educated by Cornelia "their mother, and Auguftus, by Attia "his mother, appeared in public with "untainted minds; fond of glory, and "prepared to make a figure in the world." In the expedition of the illuftrious Bertrand du Guefelin against Peter the Cruel, King of Caftile, the governor of a town, fummoned to give it up, made the following anfwer, "That they might be

conquered, but would never tamely

yield; that their fathers had taught "them to prefer a glorious death before a dishonourable life; and that their

mothers had not only educated them in "these fentiments, but were ready to put "in practice the leffons they had inculca"ted." During the civil wars in France between the Catholics and Proteftants, Bari, governor of Leucate, having fallen by furprise into the hands of the Catholics, wrote from prifon to his fpoufe Conftance Cezelli not to furrender even tho'

they

they should threaten to put him to death. The befiegers brought him within her fight; and threatened to maffacre him if she did not instantly open the gates. She offered for his ranfom her children and and all fhe had in the world-but that the town belonged to the King, and was not at her difpofal. Would one think it poffible, that any man ever did exist so brutal as to put her husband to death? Yet this was done in cold blood. Let the most profound politician fay, what more efficacious incentive there can be to virtue and manhood, than the behaviour of the Spartan matrons, flocking to the temples, and thanking the gods that their husbands and fons had died gloriously, fighting for their country. In the war between Lacedemon and Thebes, the Lacedemonians having behaved ill, the married men, as Plutarch reports, were fo afhamed of themselves, that they durft not look their wives in the face. What a glorious prize is here exhibited, to be contended for by the female fex!

By fuch refin'd education, love would take on a new form, that which nature infpires, for making us happy, and for foftening