I mentioned our daughters, as well as mothers; because I would not have them think that they have nothing to learn from the picture we have just surveyed. Would the Virtuous Woman, so sweetly portrayed by Lemuel's mother, and so particularly marked by the characters of married and maternal excellence, have been what she was, if in her single state she had not studied the necessary principles ?

After looking at so sublime a standard, I am well aware that any thing I can now offer on this part of my subject will appear to sink. I am sorry for it. But since it must be so, let the mortifying sentiment be felt by all, as a just satire on the declension of this age. To say the truth, the zeal of the preacher is too much depressed by that consideration, to bear him out in urging our young women to a close imitation of what however he must always admire. In short, when we speak of good housewifery now a days, we must submit to speak in a lower key. Would to heaven, that of this science many mothers would teach their daughters but the common rudiments; that they were unfashionable enough to educate them to be fit for any thing beyond show!

What do not great families suffer daily from the incapacity, or inattention, of those mistresses that leave all to housekeepers and other servants! How many large estates might be saved from ruin by a wiser conduct! I must say it once more, that no woman in the world ought to think it beneath her to be an economist. An economist is a character truly respectable, in whatever station. To see that time which should be laid out in examining the accounts, regulating the operations, and watching over the interests of perhaps a numerous familyto see it lost, worse than lost, in writing and gam

ing, "in chambering and wantonness," is shocking. It is so, let the incomes be as certain, as consider able, or as immense as you will, though by the way they are hardly ever so immense in reality, as they often appear. But where, on the contrary, they are both moderate and precarious, a conduct of this kind we have no words to stigmatize as it deserves.

Merchants and tradesmen that marry such women are surely objects of singular compassion, if indeed they were deceived into an opinion, that the women they have chosen for their partners were taught this necessary piece of knowledge. But very seldom, as matters are managed at present, have they such deception to plead for their choice. Is it possible they can be ignorant in what manner young ladies are bred at most of our Boarding-schools? And do they not see in what manner they generally behave on coming home? Some of them, I acknowledged before, when placed in houses of their own, appear to much more advantage than could be reasonably expected. But I repeat the question I then asked, Is so great a chance, in an affair of such consequence, to be relied upon?

It must be owned also, that in this age, the order or figure of a table is pretty well understood, as far as relates to splendour and parade. But would it not be worth your while to improve upon the art, by learning to connect frugality with elegance; to produce a genteel, or however a good appearance, from things of less expense; I know it is difficult, especially in great cities; but I am sure it is laudable, and deserves to be attempted. This you may depend upon that most men are highly pleased to observe such economical talents in a young woman; and those talents in one that is married will scarce ever fail to animate the applica

tion, excite the generosity, and heighten the confi dence of a husband. The contrary discourages and disgusts beyond expression; I mean, where the husband has any sobriety, or any prudence. The follies inseparable from profusion, and the miseries daily produced by it, I do not pretend to enumerate. A moment's consideration will convince you, that it is always unwise, and must be generally de

structive.

Next to direct profusion is that indisposition to family affairs, which too commonly follows on habits of dissipation contracted early. A young woman who has turned her thoughts to those matters in her father's house, or in many other where Providence may have disposed her lot, and who has been accustomed to acquit herself well in any lesser department entrusted to her care, will afterwards, when her province is enlarged slide into the duties of it with readiness and pleasure. The particulars have already passed through her mind. The different scenes, as they rise, will not disconcert her. Being acquainted with the leading rules, and having had some opportunities of applying them, or seeing them applied, her own good sense will dictate the rest, and render easy and agreeable to her that which, to a modish lady, is all strange, perplexing, and irksome. How strong the contrast! Who does not perceive, where the preference is due ?

Hear what a masterly writer, who seems to have been well acquainted with the world, and particularly with the commercial part of it, has advanced on this head in his advice to a son, where he is directing him as to the choice of a wife. "This bear "always in mind, that if she is not frugal, if she "is not what is called a good manager, if she does

not pique herself on her knowledge of family af"fairs, and laying out her money to the best advantage; let her be ever so sweetly tempered, "gracefully made, or elegantly accomplished, she 66 is no wife for a tradesman: and," he even adds, "all those otherwise amiable talents will but open "just so many ways to ruin." After relating a little story, full of instruction, he thus goes on "In short, remember your mother, who was so "exquisitely versed in this art, that her dress, her "table, and every other particular, appeared rather splendid than otherwise; and yet good house"wifery was the foundation of all; and her bills, "to my certain knowledge, were a fourth less "than most of her neighbours, who had hardly "cleanliness to boast, in return for their awkward "prodigality."

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But perhaps you will tell me, that you may never have occasion to exert such qualities in any sphere of consequence. The answer is obvious. As the future is uncertain, you ought to acquire them in case of need; besides, in fact, there is no situation, where the general principles of frugality are not necessary, on the score both of discretion and charity. In the mean while, the acquisition will be honourable, and the study useful. It not only becomes your sex, but will employ your minds innocently, and virtuously, at hours which you might be tempted to spend in a very different manner. The subject is not intricate; yet it admits of a considerable detail, and will take up some time. The learning to write a fair hand, and to cast accounts with facility; the looking into the dispositions and practices of servants; the informing yourselves about the prices of every thing needful for a family, together with the best methods, and properest

seasons, for providing it; the observing whatever relates to cleanliness and neatness in the furniture and apartments of a house; the understanding how to deal with domestics, tradesmen, and others; above all, the obtaining every possible light with relation to the nursing, management and education of children-these and such like articles will, if I mistake not, furnish ample scope for the exercise of your faculties, in the pursuit of what I have deemed Domestic Accomplishments. Nor would I have you despise any one of them as trivial or dull. If they should seem either, you must give me leave to say the fault is in you. If on any pretence whatever you should affect to call them so, I should deem it a mark of But I forbear; and, for your encouragement to such application, would take notice, that from what is thus necessary and beneficial, you may, time after time, pass, with a transition often imperceptible, to what is also pretty and entertaining. Which leads me to speak,

In the second place, of the Elegant Accomplish ments I proposed to recommend. Of these all will be found consistent with Christian Sobriety, and several conducive to it. Where morals are not in some measure concerned, the peculiar modes of an age can occasion no material difference. Some particulars, I am now to touch upon, might not suit that unsettled and persecuted state which the first possessors of christianity were in, nor that distinguished severity of manners which would naturally. arise out of such a condition, as well as out of their late separation from paganism; and yet those things may be no way improper in a christian woman of these times, when religion is established, when property is secured, and when the prevalence of a system supremely benevolent has nothing