endowments of their minds, which it is so easy for them to improve. They are, as Montaigne says, "flowers of quick growth, and by the delicacy of their conception, catch readily and without trouble, the relation of things to each other."

The charms of their persons, how powerful soever, may attract, but cannot fix us; something more than beauty is necessary to rivet the lover's chain. By often beholding a beautiful face, the impression it first made soon wears away. When the woman whose person we admire, is incapable of pleasing us by her conversation, langour and satiety son triumph over the relish we had for her charms: hence arises the inconstancy with which men are so often reproached; that barrenness of ideas which we find in women, renders them unfaithful.

The ladies may judge of the difference there is among them, by that which they themselves make between a fool who teazes them with his impertinence, and a man of letters who entertains them agreeably; a very little labour would equal them to the last; and perhaps give them the ad vantage. This is a kind of victory which we wish to yield them.

The more they enlarge their notions, the more subjects of conversation will be found b tween them and us, and the more sprightly and affecting will that conversation be. How many delicate sentiments, how many nice sensibilities are lost by not being communicable, and what an increase of satisfaction should we feel, could we meet with women disposed to taste them.`

But what are the studies to which women may with propriety apply themselves? This question I take upon myself to answer. I would particularly recommend to them to avoid all abstract

learning, all difficult researches, which may blunt the finer edge of their wit, and change the delicacy in which they excel into pedantic coarseness. It is in such parts of learning only as afford the highest improvement that we invite women to share with us. All that may awaken curiosity, and lend graces to the imagination, suits them still better than us. This is a vast field, where we may together exercise the mind; and here they may even excel us without mortifying our pride.

History and natural philosophy are alone sufficient to furnish women with an agreeable kind of } study. The latter, in a scries of useful observations and interesting experiments, offers a spectacle well worthy the consideration of a reasonable being. But in vain does nature present her miracles to the generality of women, who have no attention but to trifles.

Yet surely it requires but a small degree of attentica to be struck with that wonderful harmony which reigns throughout the universe, and to become ambitious of investigating its secret springs. This is a large volume open to all; here a pair of beautiful eyes may employ themselves without being fatigued.* This amiable study will banish langour from the sober amusements of the country, and repair that waste of intellect which is caused by the dissipations of the town. Women cannot be too much excited to raise their eyes to objects like these, which they but too often cast down to such as are unworthy of them.

The sex is more capable of attention than we imagine: what they chiefly want is a well direct

* Read Sturm's Reflections on the Works of God and His Providence.

C

ed application. There is scarcely a young girl who has not read with eagerness a great number of idle romances, sufficient to corrupt her imagination and cloud her understanding. If she had devoted the same time to the study of history, in those varied scenes, she would have found facts more interesting, and instruction which only truth can give.

Those striking pictures, that are displayed in the annals of the human race, are highly proper to direct the judgment, and form the heart. Women have at all times had so great a share in events, that they may with reason consider our archives as their own; nay, there are many of them who have written memoirs of the several events of which they had been eye-witnesses. Christina, of Pisan, daughter to the astronomer, patronized by the emperor Charles the fifth, has given us the life of that prince; and long before her, the princess Anna Commenus wrote the history of her own times. We call upon the ladies to assert their rights, and from the study of history, to extract useful lessons for the conduct of life.

This study alike pleasing and instructive, will naturally lead to that of the fine arts. The arts are in themselves too amiable, to need any recommendation to the sex: all the objects they offer, to their view, have some analogy with women, and are like them adorned with the brightest colours. The mind is agreeably soothed by those images which poetry, painting, and music trace out, especially if they are found to agree with purity of manners.

To familiarize ourselves with the arts, is in some degree to create a new sense. So agreeably have they imitated nature; nay, so often have

they embellished it, that whoever cultivates them will, in them, always find a fruitful source of new pleasures. We ought to provide against the encroachments of languor and weariness by this addition to our natural riches; and surely when we may so easily transfer to ourselves the possession of that multitude of pleasing ideas which they have created, it would be the highest stupidity to neglect such an advantage.

There is no reason to fear that the ladies, by applying themselves to these studies, will throw a shade over the natural graces of their wit. On the contrary, those graces will be placed in a more conspicuous point of view. What can equal the pleasure we receive from the conversation of a woman who is more solicitous to adorn her mind than her person? in the company of such women there can be no satiety; every thing becomes interesting and has a secret charm which only they can give. The happy art of saying the most ingenious things with a graceful simplicity is peculiar to them; they call forth the powers of wit in men, and communicate to them that easy elegance which is never to be acquired in the closet.

But what preservative is there against disgust in the society of women of unimproved understanding? in vain do they endeavour to fill up the void of their conversation with insipid gaiety: they soon exhaust the barren fund of fashionable trifles, the news of the day, and hacknied compliments; they are at length obliged to have recourse to scandal, and it is well if they stop there: a commerce in which there is nothing solid, must be either mean or criminal.

There is but one way to make it more varied and more interesting. If ladies of rank would condescend to form their taste and collect ideas

from our best authors, conversation would take another cast: their acknowledged merit would banish that swarm of noisy impertinents who flutter about them, and endeavour to render them as contemptible as themselves: men of sense and learning would frequent their assemblies, and form a circle more worthy of the name of good company. In this new circle, gaiety would not be banished but refined, by delicacy and wit. Merit is not austere, a calm and uniform cheerfulness runs through the conversation of persons of real understanding, which is far preferable to the noisy mirth of ignorance and folly. The societies formed by the Sevignes, the Fayettes, and Rochefoucaults, were surely more pleasing than the assemblies of our days. Among them learning was not pedantic, nor wisdom severe; and subjects of the highest importance were treated with all the sprightliness of wit.

The ladies must allow me once more to repeat to them, that the only means of charming, and of charming long, is to improve their minds. good sense gives beauties which are not subject to fade like the lilies and roses of their cheeks, but will prolong the power of an agreeable woman to the autumn of her life.

RELIGION,

THE BEST FEMALE ACQUIREMENT.

WITHOUT religion no lady's education can be complete. True religion (as an elegant author observes) is the joint refulgence of all the virtues. It resembles the sun, at whose sight all the stars hide their diminished heads. It breathes