vices. The first marks we shall perceive of our declension, will appear among our women. Their idleness, ignorance and profligacy will be the harbingers of our ruin. Then will the character and performance of a buffoon on the theatre, be the subject of more conversation and praise, than the patriot or the minister of the gospel-then will our language and pronunciation be enfeebled and corrupted by a flood of French and Italian words; then will the history of romantic amours, be preferred to the pure and immortal writings of Addison, Hawkesworth and Johnson; then will our churches be neglected, and the name of the Supreme Being never be called upon, but in prophane exclamations-then will our Sundays be appropriated only to feats and concerts-and then will begin all that train of domestic and political calamities-But, I forbear. The prospect is so painful, that I cannot help, silently, imploring the great Arbiter of human affairs, to interpose His almighty goodness, and to deliver us from these evils, that, at least, one spot of the earth may be reserved as a monument of the effects of good education, in order to show in some degree, what our species was before the fall; and what it shall be after its restoration.

DRESS.

BY far too much of a girl's time is taken up in dress. This is an external accomplishment; but I choose to consider it by itself. The body hides the mind, and it is in its turn obscured by the drapery. I hate to see the frame of a picture so glaring as to catch the eye and divide the atten

tion-dress ought to adorn the person, and not rival it. It may be simple, elegant and becoming, without being expensive: and ridiculous fashions disregarded, while singularity is avoided. The beauty of dress (I shall raise astonishment by saying so) is its not being conspicuous one way or the other; when it neither distorts or hides the human form by unnatural protuberances. If ornaments are much studied, a consciousness of being well dressed will appear in the face; and surely this mean pride does not give much sublimity to it. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." And how much conversation does dress furnish, which surely cannot be very improving or entertaining.

BENEVOLENT EMPLOYMENTS.

I BEG leave to recommend a branch of charity which is too much neglected amongst us; I mean that of visiting poor persons in sickness and affliction at their own houses.

The pleasure which accompanies benevolent actions, almost every woman, when in health, can in some measure purchase for herself; and the calls on our humanity are more frequent than on that of the other sex, as there are a variety of distresses which we only can personally relieve.

Let us begin with childing-women. We will suppose that the poor, enured to hardships from their infancy, have in general more strength than persons in superior stations to support the evils which are, in some degree, the allotted portions of all mothers: but they certainly are not exempted

from the curse denounced on their sex-they feel it in its full force. "In sorrow, (in accumulated sorrow) they bring forth children." It is therefore an act of compassion, becoming all women, who have ability to do it, to mitigate the dreadful sufferings which fall to the lot of many of their fellow creatures. It must be acknowledged that ladies in general are ready to afford pecuniary assistance whenever a poor woman can find a friend to represent her horrid situation; but instead of sending money, which may be misapplied by a drunken or sordid nurse, or even by a sottish husband, it would answer a better purpose if some, who can judge by sympathy of the feelings of these poor wretches, would enter their miserable dwellings, and view them in their uncomfortable beds.

DR. BEATTIE'S

OPINION OF ROMANCES.

ROMANCES are dangerous recreations. A few, no doubt, of the best may be friendly to good taste and good morals; but far the greater part are unskilfully written, and tend to corrupt the heart and stimulate the passions. A habit of reading them breeds a dislike to history, and all the substantial parts of knowledge, withdraws the attention from nature and truth; and fills the mind with extravagant thoughts, and too often with criminal propensities. I would, therefore, caution my young reader against them: or, if he must for the sake of amusement, and that he may

have something to say on the subject, indulge himself in this way, now and then, let it be sparingly and seldom.

THE ART OF IMPROVING BEAUTY.

MONSIEUR ST. EVREMONT, has concluded one of his essays by affirming that the last sighs of a handsome woman are not so much for the loss of her life as of her beauty. Perhaps this raillery is pursued too far: yet it is turned upon a very obvious remark, that a woman's strongest passion is for her own beauty, and that she values it as her favourite distinction. From hence it is that all arts which tend to improve or preserve it, meet with so general a reception amongst the sex. To say nothing of many false helps, and contraband wares of beauty, which are daily vended in this great mart, there is not a maiden gentlewoman of a good family in any county in South Britain, who has not heard of the virtues of May-dew, or is not furnished with some receipt or other in favour of her complexion; and I have known a physician of learning and sense, after eight years study at the university, and a course of travels into most countries of Europe, owe the first raising of his fortunes to a cosmetic wash.

This has given me occasion to consider how so universal a disposition in womankind, which springs from a laudable motive, the desire of pleasing, and proceeds upon an opinion not altoge- . ther groundless, that nature may be helped by art, may be turned to their advantage: and methinks it would be an acceptable service to take them out

of the hands of quacks and pretenders, and to prevent their imposing upon themselves, by discovering to them the true secret and art of improving beauty.

In order to this, before I touch upon it directly, it will be necessary to lay down a few preliminary maxims, viz.

That no woman can be handsome by the force of features alone, any more than she can be witty only by the help of speech.

That pride destroys all symmetry and grace, and affectation is a more terrible enemy to faces than the small-pox.

That no woman is capable of being beautiful who is not incapable of being false.

And, that what would be odious in a friend is deformity in a mistress.

From these few principles, thus laid down, it will be easy to prove that the true art of assisting beauty consists in embellishing the whole person by the proper ornaments of virtuous and commendable qualities. By this help alone it is that those who are the favourite works of nature, or, as Mr. Dryden expresses it, the porcelain clay of human kind, become animated, and are in a capacity of exerting their charms; and those who seem to have been neglected by her, like models wrought in haste, are capable, in a great measure, of finishing what she has left imperfect.

It is, methinks, a low and degraded idea of that sex, which was created to refine the joys and soften the cares of humanity by the most agreeable participation, to consider them merely as objects of sight. This is abridging them of their natural extent of power, to put them on a level with their pictures at Kneller's. How much nobler is the contemplation of beauty heightened by vir