other is universally contemptible and odious. Who is not shocked by the flippant impertinence of a self-conceited woman, that wants to dazzle by the supposed superiority of her powers? If you, my fair ones, have knowledge and capacity; let it be seen, by your not affecting to show them, that you have something much more valuable, humility and wisdom. "Naked in nothing shall a woman be, "But yield her charms of mind with sweet delay." Must women then keep silence in the house, as well as in the church? By no means. There may indeed be many cases, in which it will particularly become a young lady to observe the apostolic rule, "Be swift to hear, and slow to speak :" but there are many too, wherein it will be no less fit, that with an unassuming air she should endeavour to support and enliven the conversation. It is the opinion of some, that girls should never speak before company, when their parents are present; and parents there are, so deficient in understanding, as to make this a rule. How then shall those girls learn to acquit themselves properly in their absence? It is hard if you cannot distinguish, and teach your daughters to distinguish, between good breeding and pertness, between an obliging study to please and an indecent desire to put themselves forward, between a laudable inquisitiveness and an improper curiosity. But this, I confess, is not the most common mistake in the education of young women; and they must permit me to say, that it were well if the generality of mothers were careful, by prudent instruction in private, to repress tha talkative humour which runs away with so many of them, and never quits them all their life after, for want of being curbed in their early years. But what words can express the impertinence of a female tongue let loose into boundless loquacity? Nothing can be more stunning, except where a number of Fine Ladies open at once-Protect us, ye powers of gentleness and decorum, protect us from the disgust of such a scene -Ah! my dear hearers, if ye knew how terrible it appears to a male ear of the least delicacy, I think you would take care never to practise it. For endless prattling, and loud discourse, no degree of capacity can atone. I join them together, because in effect they are seldom separate. But the noisy, empty, trivial chatter of everlasting folly-it is too much for human patience to sustain. How different from that playful spirit in conversation, spoken of before; which, blended with good sense and kept within reasonable bounds, contributes, like the lighter and more careless touches in a picture, to give an air of ease and freedom to the whole! This freedom and ease, when accompanied with decency and variety, a certain native prettiness and unstudied correctness, are among the most pleasing characteristics of female society in its best shape. Your talking so much about dress, and fashions, and fashionable amusements, as the far greater part of you are ever doing, in preference to better subjects, is, to say the softest thing of it, a weakness which cannot be justified, but which perhaps must, in some measure, be forgiven to your sex. As to the love of scandal and dispute, which may be called the Acid of speech, in contradistinction to the Salt recommended by our apostle, it must be reserved for a future consideration. The men indeed, are women. ready to triumph at the very mention of it. Whether they have reason to triumph on the whole, may be a difficult question. The agreeable qualities named a moment ago, they must fairly give up to the How few of them in comparison possess, or at least exercise, the power of keeping discourse alive, without assistance from wine, from politics, from business, from the news of the day, and from another theme, for which their unrestrained and inextinguishable passions in male company, argues a descent of soul, a degradation of thought, whereof men endowed with the least understanding ought to e be ashamed! I just mentioned Unstudied Correctness as appropriated to the conversation of cultivated women. I mean that easy elegance of speech, which results from clear and lively ideas, expressed with the simplicity of nature, somewhat aided by the knowledge of books. To this the best scholars amongst the men must seldom or never lay claim. It is necessarily precluded by their profounder studies, and that scrupulous attention to the minutest rules of grammar, which is induced by the turn of their education; and which, though by practice it may become in a great degree habitual and mechanical, will yet always appear deficient in the happy facility, wherewith so many females clothe their sentiments.: That they who are naturally fond of ornament in every thing else, should show a certain honest neglect of it, where it is least requisite, where it is generally hurtful by embarrassing and fettering that which ought to be free and unaffected, surely entitles them to some praise. How often have we seen very ingenious men perplexed, when they have wished to explain them I 2 selves on some topic by no means abstruse, and which they perfectly understood! With how little grace have we heard them tell a story! In these, and such like points, women of any capacity excel. To what can the difference be owing! I fancy to this, that the former, in their words and ideas, attend. too sedulously to precision and embellishment; while the latter are content to speak just what they mean, and to relate simply what they have read or heard, as it rises to their minds, without the labour of accuracy, which often hampers the faculties in their operation, and disturbs the train of nature. On this principle, I presume, is founded that maxim, which makes the perfection of art to lie in concealing it; an attainment extremely uncommon, and which, where it has taken place, has always been considered as the most difficult, and the most beautiful, of any that can distinguish the productions of taste. From this it is, that the celebrated works of ancient genius have been judged to derive a large share of the superiority usually ascribed to them. From the same source chiefly, to compare small things with great, has probably arisen that peculiar happiness in letter-writing, which the men, I think, are willing to allow to your sex. Here, indeed, they comfort themselves with their superior strength, and depth, and learned elegance in that, and other matters where intellect is concerned. Pretensions to these, with a few exceptions, I believe, to say the truth, you had better resign. For my part, I could heartily wish to see the female world more accomplished than it is; but I do not wish to see it abound with metaphysicians, historians, speculative philosophers, or Learned Ladies of any kind. I should be afraid, lest the sex should lose in softness what they gained in force; and lest the pursuit of such elevation should interfere a little with the plain duties and humble virtues of life. Amiable instances of the contrary I know there are. I think at this moment of one lady, in particular, who to an extensive knowledge in philosophy and languages ancient and modern, with some portion of poetical genius, and a considerable degree of literary fame, has the sense and worth to join every domestic quality that can adorn woman in her situation. To inculcate such qualities, together with those elegant and intellectual improvements which young ladies would do well to acquire, with a view to sobriety, usefulness, self-enjoyment, and the powers of pleasing, will be the business of some subsequent addresses. What place religion ought to have in female discourse, must be likewise a subject of inquiry under another head. In the mean while, let me intreat you to recollect, that on cultivating a proper spirit of conversation will depend a great part of your proficiency and ours; of your present acceptance amongst the wise and deserving; of your future consequence and merit in society; of your entertainment, satisfaction, and, I may add, safety, through the successive stages of life. Much of that life is spent in scenes of social intercourse. Important occasions arise but seldom. A large proportion must be consigned to trifles. Little things belong to little mortals. The virtue and happiness of the sexes are principally affected by the daily indiscriminate tenor of their commerce. What felicity, and what glory may not you, my friends, derive from those talents by which that is regulated and sweetened, refined and raised! |