day, but particularly in the length of its periods, and the inartificial connection of them. In the edition of 1726 those errors were in a great meafure corrected; the fentences are broken down, and molded with much elegance into others lefs pro depths of the human mind, to watch the progrefs of intellectual opera- · tion, and embody to the vulgar eye thofe ever fleeting forms under which the passions vary. Mores Strictures on Female Edu lix; and fharing in fome degree all Propriety in Females. From Mrs. the beauties of Addifon's ftyle, except thofe which perhaps his lordhip could not copy, its eafe and cation. ROPRIETY is woman implicity. Indeed Shafifbury, in Pot the great Roman critic PRO what the the form in which we now have him, appears to be more attentive than Addison to the harmony of his cadence, and the regular conftruction of his fentences; and certainly if he has lefs fimplicity has more ftrength. Bolingbroke, too, participating in correctnefs with Addifon, has fome topics of peculiar praife; he has more force than Addifon, and, what may appear ftrange, when we confider how much more vehement and copious he is, has more precision. The nature of the fubjects on which Bolingbroke and Shaftsbury wrote naturally tended to make them more attentive to precifion than Addison. Thefe fubjects were principally abftract morality and metaphyfics-fubjects of which no knowledge can be attained but by clofe and fteady thinking, or communicated but by words of definite and conitant meaning. The language of Addifon, however elegant in itfelf, or however admirably adapted by its ealy flow to thofe familiar topics which are generally the fubject of diurnal eflays, was too weak for the weight of abstract moral difquifition, and too vague for the niceties of metaphyfical diftinction. It was fitted for him whofe object was to catch what floated on the furface of life; but it could not ferve him who was to enter into the fays action is to an orator: it is the firf, the fecond, and the third, requifite. A woman may be knowing, active, witty, and amafing; but without propriety he cannot be amiable. Propriety is the centre in which all the lines of duty and of agreeablenefs meet. It is to character what proportion is to figure, and grace to attitude. It does not depend on any one perfection; but It fhows itfelf by a regular, orderly, it is the refult of general excellence. undeviating courfe; and never starts from its fober orbit into any fplendid eccentricities; for it would be afhamed of fuch praife as it might extort by any aberrations from its proper path. It renounces all com mendation but what is characteriftic; and I would make it the criterion of true tafte, right principle, and genuine feeling, in a woman, whether the would be lefs touched with all the flattery of romantic and that beautiful picture of correct and exaggerated panegyric, than with elegant propriety, which Milton draws of our firft mother, when he delineates "Thofe thousand decencies which daily flow From all her words and actions." To place a juft remark, hazarded by the diffident, in the most advan tageous tageous point of view; to call the attention of the inattentive to the obfervation of one, who, though of much worth, is perhaps of little note: thefe, are requifites for converfation, lefs brilliant, but far more valuable, than the power of exciting burfts of laughter by the brightest wit, or of extorting admiration by the moft poignant fallies. For wit is of all the qualities of the female mind that which requires the fevereft caftigation; yet the temperate exercife of this fafcinating quality throws an additional luftre round the character of an amiable woman; for to manage with difcreet modesty a dangerous talent, confers a higher praife than can be claimed by thofe in whom the abfence of the talent takes away the temptation to mifemploy it. But to women, wit is a peculiarly perilous poffeffion, which nothing fhort of the fobermindednefs of Chriftianity can keep in order. Intemperate wit craves admiration as its natural aliment; it lives on flattery as its daily bread. The profeffed wit is a hungry beggar that fubfifts on the extorted alms of perpetual panegyric; and, like the vulture in the Grecian fable, its appetite increases by indulgence. Simple truth and fober approbation become taftelefs and infipid to the palate, daily vitiated by the delicious poignancies of exaggerated commendation. But if it be true that fome wo men are too apt to affect brilliancy and difplay in their own difcourfe, and to undervalue the more humble pretenfions of lefs fhowy characters; it must be confefled alfo, that fome of more ordinary abilities are now and then guilty of the oppofite error, and foolishly affect to value the understanding they really poffefs. They exhibit no fmall fatiffaction in ridiculing women of high intellectual endowments, while they exclaim with much affected humility, and much real envy, that "they are thankful they are not geniufes." Now, though one is glad to hear gratitude expreffed on any occafion, yet the want of fenfe is really no fuch great mercy to be thankful for; and it would indicate a better spirit, were they to pray to be enabled to make a right ufe of the moderate understanding they poffefs, than to expofe with a too vifible pleasure the imaginary or real defects of their more fhining acquaintance. Women of the brighteft faculties fhould not only "bear thofe faculties meekly," but confider it as no derogation, cheerfully. to fulfil thofe humbler duties which make up the bufiness of common life, always taking into the account the higher refponfibility attached to higher gifts. While women of lower attainments fhould exert to the utmost fuch abilities as providence has affigned them; and while they fhould not deride excellencies which are above their reach, they fhould not defpond at an inferiority which did not depend on themfelves; nor, becaufe God has denied them ten talents, fhould they forget that they are equally refpoufible for the one he has allotted them, but fet about devoting that one with humble diligence to the glory of the giver. the fine theories in profe and NOTWITHSTANDING all themselves on not making ufe of verfe to which this topic has given Ff3 birth, Women of this caft of mind are lefs careful to avoid the charge of unbounded extremes, than to escape at all events the imputation of infenfibility. They are little alarmed at the danger of exceeding, though terrified at the fufpicion of coming fhort of what they take to be the extreme point of feeling. They will even refolve to prove the warmth of their fenfibility, though at the expenfe of their judgement, and sometimes alfo of their juftice. Even when they earnestly defire to be and to do right, they are apt to employ the wrong inftrument to accomplish the right end. They employ the paffions to do the work of the judgement; forgetting, or not knowing, that the paffions were not given us to be ufed in the fearch and discovery of truth, which is the office of a cooler and more difcriminating faculty; but that they were given to animate us to warmer zeal in the purfuit and practice of truth, when the judgement fhall have pointed out what is truth. Through this natural warmth, which they have been justly told is fo pleafing, but which, perhaps, they have not been told will be continually expofing them to peril and to fuffering, their joys and forrows are exceffive. Of this extreme irritability, as was before remarked, the ill-educated learn to boast as if it were an indication of fuperiori ty of foul inftead of labouring to reftrain it as the excefs of a tem per which ceases to be interefting when it is no longer under the control of the governing faculty. It is misfortune enough to be born more liable to fuffer and to fin, from this conformation of mind; it is too much to allow its unreftrained indulgence; it is ftill worse to be proud of fo misleading a quality. Flippancy, impetuofity, refentment, and violence of fpirit, grow out of this difpofition, which will be rather promoted than corrected, by the fyftem of education on which we have been animadverting; in which fyftem, emotions are too early and too much excited, and tastes and feelings are confidered as too exclufively making up the whole of the female character; in which the judgement is little exercised, the reafoning powers are feldom brought into action, and felf-knowledge and felf-denial scarcely included. The propenfity of the mind which we are confidering, if unchecked, lays its poffeffors open to unjust prepoffeffions, and expofes them to all the danger of unfounded attach ments. In early youth, not only love, but friendship, at firft fight, grows out of an ill-directed fenfibility; and in afterlife, women under the powerful influence of this temper, confcious that they have much to be borne with are too readily inclined to felect for their confidential connections, flexible and flattering companions, who will indulge and perhaps admire their faults, rather than firm and honeft friends, who will reprove and would affift in curing them. We may adopt it as a general maxim, that an an obliging, weak, yielding, complaifant friend, full of fmall attentions, with little religion, little judgement, and much natural acquiefcence and civility, is a most dangerous, though generally a too much defired confidant: the fooths the indolence, and gratifies the vanity of her friend, by reconciling her own faults, while fhe neither keeps the understanding nor the virtues of that friend in exercife. Thefe obfequious qualities are the "foft green" on which the foul loves to repose itself. But it is not a refreshing or a wholefome repofe: we fhould not felect, for the fake, of prefent eafe, a foothing flatterer, who will full us into a pleafing oblivion of our failings, but a friend, who valuing our foul's health above our immediate comfort, will roufe us from torpid indulgence to animation, vigilance, and virtue. Mifcellaneous Thoughts, by Montef quieu; tranflated from his PoДhumous Works, just published at Paris. O delight in It is a proof that merit is of the highest kind, when it continues to fine with accuftomed luftre, although merit of as high a rank is in its prefence. I call genius a fecret gift of the Deity, which the poffeffor difplays unknown to himself. He who runs after wit is apt to embrace folly. I once faid to Madam du Châtelet-" You poftpone your fleep to read the philofophers; you fhould read the philofophers, to haften your flumbers." Hope is the link that unites all our pleafures. The interval is too fhort between the time of our being too young and too old. It demands a great deal of ftudy to acquire moderate knowledge. Of thofe who make companions of their fervants, I have only to fay, that vice is its own punishment. Men of talents govern fools; and fome fool or other often governs a man of talent. When I reflect on our difcoveries in natural philofophy, I think we have gone very far for human beings. Idlenefs ought to have been To take the power of changing ranked among the punishments of those moments of laffitude that vifit every man, for the most delicious moments of life. What an unfortunate neceffity is it in the conftitution of man, that his understanding is fcarcely matured when the organs of his body begin to fail! A celebrated phyfician was afked -If the commerce of the fexes was prejudicial to health-"No," faid he, "if provocatives are not used." But I should rank variety among provocatives. hell; and most people place it among the joys of heaven. On friends that are tyrannical though ufeful to us, my observation is that love has compenfations which friendship has not. Ordinary graces lofe part of their beauty by being fet in competition with each other: of the graces highest rank acquire a brighter luftre when oppofed to each other. Moft virtues are relative to individuals, or to parts of the whole : fuch are friendship, love of one's Ff 4 country, country, compaffion. But juftice is relative to the whole; and when *any action interferes with that, it is vice, though ranked among the virtues. The fuccefs of moft enterprises depends upon knowing how much time is neceflary to their fuccefs. That ought never to be attempted by the laws, which can be effected by the customs and manners of a people. It is a nice point to know when to quit a company: an accurate knowledge of the world gives a readiness in perceiving it. Bravery and a love of glory are declining among us: it is of little moment to our happiness to belong to one mafter or to another; but formerly, defeat in the field, or the reduction of a man's country, was the lofs of all that was dear to him, his country, family, and friends. We shall never arrive at principles in finance, becaufe we never I have remarked that, to fucceed in the world, one must have a vacant air with a fubtle head. One's dress fhould be a little know more than that we do fomeinferior to one's condition. Supper deftroys one half of Paris, and dinner the other. I hate Verfailles, because every body is little and mean fhere; but Paris I love, for there one finds great men. If we were content to be happy, that would not be difficult; but we are ambitious to be more happy than others, and that is difficult, because others appear to be happier than they really are. Some people hate digreffions; but I think he who understands their ufe is like one with long arms he has more objects within his reach. Men are of two forts: those who think, and those who amufe themfelves. A fine action is one that is beneficial to man, and whofe accomplishment requires talent. The common people have generally good intentions and vicious manners. Hiftories are romances founded on facts. A work gives celebrity to a man's name, and after that, his name gives celebrity to his works. thing, and never what it is we do. We do not now call a minifter great, when he is an intelligent adminiftrator of the public revenue, but when he is fertile in expedients to increase the revenues, and indefatigable in their application. People love their grand-children better than their children, and it is because they can estimate tolerably well the worth of the latter; but their knowledge of the former being lefs perfect, they flatter themfelves with vain hopes refpecting them. The reafon why fools fo often fucceed in their plans is, that never diftrufting themfelves, they always perfevere. It is worthy to be obferved, that the greater part of our pleafures are unreafonable. Old men, who have ftudied in youth, need only refort to the memory for pleafure or ufe, when others are obliged to begin to ftudy. Merit is a confolation in every affliction. A figurative ftyle is fo far from difficult, that a nation emerging from ignorance firft employs the figurative and fwelling Ityle, and afterwards acquires the fimpla. The |