MISCELLANEOUS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. ought to exist as to the care with ON THE EDUCATION OF FEMALES OF THE UPPER RANKS. (Continued from p. 355.) I SHALL now endeavour, as well as I am able, to supply the deficiency of which I have complained in the lecture of Mr. Sydney Smith, by stating some grounds which make it desirable both to Society and themselves, that a large portion of the youth of females in particular, should be devoted to religious exercise. These grounds, be it always remembered, are quite inferior to the considerations of eternal moment already mentioned; but they have a certain share of importance flowing from that expediency to which our philosophers are so fond of referring. And first let me urge the same argument in favour of religious instruction which I have before supposed to be alleged as an excuse for neglecting it; namely, the favourable disposition of the female mind to the reception of such ideas. We cannot, it is true, very clearly comprehend how any analogy between a material and immaterial substance should exist, and yet experimentally we find that the soul and body bear a strong resemblance to each other; and notwithstanding the variance which I suppose will always continue on this subject, I fancy the common opinion is the right one, that the difference between the male and female mind is the same as the difference between their persons; that the female is distinguished in both instances for softness, gentleness, and grace. Now these qualities must in every stage of her existence rnder her rather the better subject for receiving religious impressions. As therefore we cultivate a rich in preference to a poorer soil, it should seem, on the principles of common sense, that if any difference which religion is to be implanted into the minds of the young, the excess should be on the side of the female. But be the original advantage on which side it may, there can be no comparison as to the case with which religious feelings are kept alive in the mind of a girland of a boy. A girl is, or ought to be, nursed under the eye of her parents, sheltered by their care from every evil which can disturb the serenity of her heart, and every vice which can corrupt the fountain of her thoughts. While a boy is, practically at least, let loose upon the world, and before he is fifteen, has suffered rough fortune enough to call his passions into full play, and seen or heard, I will venture to affirm, much more of vice thau, with tolerable care, the whole of his after life will expose him to. The effects are correspondent. Girls who are educated as Christiaus come out into life with all the religious impressions which were printed on their infant minds still fresh and lively. Boys, on the contrary, shake off at school all the shackles of principle which confined their infant limbs, the bands of straw which bound these little Sampsons; and, having liberated themselves from ties which they have learnt to associate with their leading-strings, become great proficients in the gentlemanlike arts of lying, swearing, and libertine language. If they are ever reclaimed, it is the effect of after-thought and the grace of God operating on a sound understanding. "Their reasons rebaptize them when adult," but this change too rarely happens, and when it does take place, may be considered ra. ther as a new graft than any shoot from the original stock. It is, I am convinced, in many instances as completely a conversion as that of a heathen to Christianity. If, there fore, there be any doubt whether it is more easy to implant religion in the mind of a girl than of a boy, this surely is quite clear, that when implanted it is more easily preserve ed there. Now it is obviously expedient that the stock of virtue in the world should be as large as possible. As, therefore, to recur to our old metaphor, a good farmer lays out more capital on a field which is well fenced, than on one which is exposed to be browsed and poached by his neighbours; a sound philosopher would direct that a larger portion of the parental attention should be given to impress religion on the mind of a daughter than of a son. I, who am no philosopher, look more to the salvation of an immortal soul than the finest scheme of political expediency; but with respect to the well-ordering of this world only these considerations appear to have some weight. This however is not all: the same causes which produce so striking a difference between the two sexes in their youths, act with considerable force through the whole of their after lives. Even the best men have great difficulties to struggle against which oppose their progress in religion. "I never bring back at the close of day (says Seneca) the same dispositions and affections which I carried out with me in the morning." Thus it is with all of us; our tempers are soured by contest, our moral feelings deadened by constant intercourse with vice, our passions wrought up and exasperated by the temptations of ambition and the collision of interests. Above all, habits of business (though certainly a part of our duty) fatally undermine religion by employing our attention till they have fixed our affections on the perishable things of this life. But women live as it were in an hallowed land; a territory of Elis, where no hostile armies dare to enter. "Violence is not heard in their dwellings, wasting nor destruction within their borders." Woman there fore is the natural shrine of religion. For her the unfading rose of Eden blooms, If, therefore, religion be of im- But beyond the concern which the public has in the proper education of females, they have themselves an interest in it greater perhaps than they generally comprehend. It was observed by Mr. Smith, that mothers soon lose all authority over boys, and seldom retain much even of their attention. I suspect this is not quite so true as Mr. Smith imagines, or at least that the puerile petulance of which we are so proud at fourteen, is reduced by a little reflection before we are four and twenty; as in the interval we have perhaps learned to estimate things more just ly, and have discovered that our mothers know rather more than we fancied, and we ourselves rather less. However, it must be confessed, that to retain much reverence for a silly prattling woman, who at threescore still glides the ghost of beauty amid the circles of fashion, requires rather more principle than most youths possess. Let a young man theu whisper one word of admonition into older years, and assure all mothers, that, selfish and thoughtless as we are, they are never despised by their sons except when they deserve it. A good mother will preserve the reverence and affection of her children by the simple force of goodness. Why it is that even vice is delighted with virtue may be a question; I fancy there is an original sense of the beautiful which not even long habits of immorality can quite extinguish. The fact however will hardly be disputed. Indeed I believe this homage is paid in all cases where virtue is really believed to exist; but the bad are very apt to suppose hypocrisy, and sometimes obliged in self-defence to ridicule the goodness which they really venerate. This, however, only happens to those whose conduct seems to reproach their own. Now a mother never is suspected of hypocrisy; we know her too well; and the tacit reproaches which her virtues utter against her unworthy offspring, though painful, can hardly be resented: they are but in unison with those early admonitions which are always remembered with gratitude at least, if not with profit. Every secret pang, every external distress, a fit of sickness, or a gleam of heavenly grace, carry back the mind to that parent who gave us being, who nursed our infancy, and watched our manhood; whose grey hairs perhaps our vices have has tened, but whose piety and patient goodness still preserve a control over us, when fear and shame have long ceased to operate.-I believe it does not happen ten times in a century that a really virtuous mother is despised by her children. The same truth may be evinced by a different process. It is laid in the constitution of things that virtue shall possess the ascendancy over vice whenever they stand upon a level; in a mother, therefore, aided by the sanctity of age and sex, and with every early association in her favour, it must be honoured. Nor is this homage of the young towards the old easily secured on any other terms. Indeed, I believe it is exclusively the reward of goodness. Talents and knowledge may do something, but the idle and profligate seldom value acquirements highly; and though talents of a certain kind will command admiration, they are not exactly of the description which old people generally possess. Besides which, they are apt, especially among women, to decline with declining years; and though "the case may sometimes be respected for what it once contained,” this will only happen where the contents are very extraordinary. If, therefore, the mothers of the present generation feel themselves deserted by those whose strength should have been the prop of their weakness, how can they more wisely provide against the renewal of the same calamity in their daughters, than by early training them in those habits of piety and domestic virtue which will survive the lapse of time, and not only retain for their grey hairs the veneration of those they will most love, but perhaps enable them by the gentle control of influence and example, to reclaim the thoughtlessness of youth from those vices which must equally disgrace the parent and the child. But the interest which women have in the cultivation of the religious principle is not confined to their later years. Most of the smiling sylphs who are now entering upon life hope one day to become wives; and though, when I consider what beings men are, I am sometimes surprised a sensible girl should be willing to quit the cheerful ease she enjoys under her father's roof, to entrust her happiness to the care of a stranger; yet the course of the world evinces the fact, and therefore I am entitled to reason upon it. Now if they are to marry, it is obviously important they should marry well. I do not mean well in a worldly sense, that is to men of large fortune; for " godliness is great riches if a man be content with that he hath ;" but so to marry, that they may have a reasonable prospect of happiness. And yet though this is clearly the most hazardous game of their lives, I believe I am nearly right in saying, that it is played by most women in total darkness. It may be true that we know little of them, but I am apt to suspect that they know still less of us; and happy is it for our sex that this ignorance prevails. But of all men, the individual whom a girl is likely to know the least of, is that very individual on whom it is probable her happiness or misery through life may depend. Most men are guarded in the company of women, and dress themselves in their very best behaviour; but a lover becomes a different being: other men paint, but the lover wears a mask. I do not say that he is guilty of a wilful deception; but it is in the nature of things that we should strive to please those we love, and this we naturally attempt by assuming just those sentiments and manners which are best suited to the taste of our mistress. The season of courtship in short is generally a season of twilight, in which every object looks beautiful, but none is very clearly distinguished. The virgin marries one man and lives with another. Her lover was gentle, smiling, and attentive: her husband is coarse, ill-tempered, and selfish. These are melancholy realities, ascertained only when it is too late; for though the happiness of a virtuous pair is perfectly reciprocal, it is not so with the generality of men. Providence has given us some superiority, and we have taken so much care to improve the advantage in Now all this, though melancholy enough, if it were remediless must be quietly submitted to, like other unavoidable evils; but if it be possible for women by any precautions to diminish the dangers to which they are exposed, it must be rational to attempt it. I think it is possible; for I think it may be shewn that women have considerable freedom of choice, and I am much mistaken if a really religious education will not qualify them to choose well. To me it seems a great mistake to imagine that women have but little power of selection. It is true that they cannot propose themselves where they please, and in this we may be said to have the advantage. But then they have a negative; they possess this prerogative in undoubt ed right, and it is of a nature which trenches so much upon ours that the empire is nearly divided. In truth this prerogative is exercised much more frequently than appears. A young woman may have rejected a dozen suitors, who never gave one a direct refusal; for who will press his suit to its issue in defiance of repulse? A lover has an eagle eye which watches every glance of his mistress, and the sensibility either of his tenderness or his pride is generally quick enough to prevent his continuing attentions when he discovers that they are obtrusive. point of fact, therefore, though we nominally possess the privilege of proposal, that privilege is nearly neutralized. If, however, it be said, that custom has authorized rather In more freedom of advance on our side, this I believe is in some degree counterbalanced by the selfcommand which a contrary custom teaches on theirs. The liberty which men have, they in fact throw away by using it unwisely, and enjoy less only because they possess more. Thus men frequently contract marriages which they themselves disapprove, but into which they are led almost unknowingly. The first step is their own, and perhaps a hasty and foolish one; every subsequent step they make with regret, but find themselves constrained by a sense of honour and the difficulties of receding. These dilemmas women never fall into; they are preserved from falling into them by the want of that liberty which is thought so desirable; and these dilemmas are not unfrequent. But the common case is this; a youth of twenty has roving eyes, which are soon attracted to some pleasing object; and his affections become fixed before his judgment has had time to operate. His power of selection is evidently gone: but the girl whom he happens to admire still preserves hers; and after she has discovered his attachment, can coolly deliberate on the propriety of encouraging it, before she permits her own heart to be engaged. The control which custom has taught her to exercise over her feel ings, gives her this advantage, and it is the same which a cool fencer possesses over a passionate adversary. Now it is evident, that in this case, which is a common one, the advantage is on the side of the female. In short, the power of selec tion is, in one important view of it, the power of judging dispassionately; and so superior indeed are the habits of self command which women learn, that nine tenths of the precipitancy and folly which love produces in the world are to be found in our own sex. Now if it be true that the power of selection is to a considerable degree possessed by women, the next point is how they may learn to ex ercise that power wisely. And to me it is quite clear that religion is their proper instructress. In the first place, consider how much misery is produced in the world by what are called matches of expediency; into which women enter, not because their affections are engaged, but because it is not thought right to refuse a good offer. I do not say that such marriages are condemned in Scripture, but I am sure they are not encouraged. "They who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare." The contented spirit of Christianity, therefore, which is careless of pomp and bustle, has a tendency, in a considerable degree, to diminish this evil.-Again, as men are very greatly under the dominion of violent passions, women, it may be supposed, are a little so; and many foolish couples are united for life, who had better have been seated at the two poles, because neither would take time to discover that they possessed no common qualities necessary to each other's happiness. So far as this may be owing to precipitancy on the part of the female, a religious education offers an excellent corrective; for Christianity is always found to compose the mind, and prevent the overflow of swelling passions.-Another frequent cause of unhappiness is the want of taste. A woman sees marks of coarseness and indecorum in her suitor, but has not delicacy of mind enough to be disgusted with them. In after life she finds that these were in fact indexes of selfishness and sensuality; but it is too late. Now religion is peculiarly qualified to give the highest mental refinement; and one who has been early nursed in her school will probably discover before marriage, (notwithstanding the delusion prevalent at that pe riod) those faults which would have rendered her miserable after.-Lastly, the good are naturally fond of goodness, and of nothing else; for |