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interefting duties of her family, I cannot but look upon her as the peculiar favourite of Heaven. The objects, about which fhe employs herself, are of the most endearing and tender kind, the economy of her household and the difcipline of her children; and fo important is the part affigned her, that its faithful performance depends upon the pureft virtue, affociated to the best understanding.

Notwithstanding this ferious truth, it appears ever to have been the policy of our fex to arrogate to themfelves a fuperiority over the other, and to treat them with all the fpirit of a petty tyranny. We seem to have claimed a prefcriptive right for calling them our inferiors, and we can give no better account of our authority for treating them as fuch, than that custom has fo established it. How far this argument might go to confirm a title to a certain kind of property, I fhall not at this time in quire, but that it has the least plaufibility, when applied to the prefent fubject, I beg leave to deny. This error, however, fo degrading to humanity, is daily lofing its control, and is happily fucceeded by fentiments of a quite contrary defcription-fentiments which declare us not only more difcerning, but more virtuous, and which, while they teftify to the merit of the other fex, are highly honourable to our own gratitude. So many literary conftellations have lately appeared in the female world, that we very reafonably begin to think their fufceptibility of improvement equal, if not fuperior, to our own; and fince the ingenious theories of a Wolftoncraft have taken a rank on the shelf of our circulating libraries, we have almoft loft fight of this idea, fo derogatory so woman, that he was born to be

a household drudge, and to thrive on the fmoky atmosphere of a kitchen. Yet it must be confeffed that the rights of woman have been advocated with a zeal too inflamed to be reasonable, and, with an over-heated enthufiafm, which has rather depreffed, than promoted, a cause which is in itself good. Some have even

gone fo far as to strain her prerogative to a height really mafculine, and which belongs exclufively to man. It may therefore be an amufing, if not an useful fpeculation, to fee how far the rights of the fair sex extend in relation to ourselves.

The nice and delicate texture of the female mind is an argument highly favourable to their fuperiority, and that the fituato prove, goes tion for which Heaven defigned them in this world, is of a nature the most benevolent and engaging. The more rugged and invidious offices of life were appropriated to man, as being better fuited to his firm and fturdy difpofition. In this propofition is involved all the immunities of the two fexes; and every privilege, exercifed by either, not refolvable into it, is founded in ufurpation and arrogance. The mind of woman being compofed of the fweetest and most amiable properties, and being characterized by an animated fenfibility, entitles her to the entire management of all thofe affairs, which call for the forbearance of tenderness, and the interpofition of the gentler virtues. Under this defcription is included the government of children, and the general fuperintendence of domeftic concerns. To the cuftody of the tender mind, the, and fhe alone, is entitled; and it is her delightful province to inculcate, in all the winning language of fimplicity, that kind of obvious morality, of which the infant understanding

understanding is more immediately fufceptible. Thefe little endearing cares would ill become the hufband, who, bound by the coarfer ties of bufinefs, is utterly incapable of difcharging them. But in the hands of the wife they are fure to be difcharged; because there is a congeniality between the duty itfelf and the difpofition and abilities of the object on whom the duty falls. There is a fort of relationship between thofe fine pictures of virtue, with which the young imagination ought to be prefented, and the exquifite genius of the moral artist who holds the pencil to the thought. But the authority of the wife is by no means reftricted to thefe cares.

It extends in many inftances over the husband himself. She has a right to counsel him in all the minor duties, which arife from the obligations of etiquette and the laws of politenefs. In the little incidental proprieties of drefs, company and amufement, fhe may gently command him; for the regulation of thefe nice economics requires that delicately difcriminating mind which is peculiar to a woman. Thefe, and a thoufand other little rights, a good husband will feel a pleasure in recognizing; and he will delight in being the obedient fubject of fo gentle and amiable an authority. He will find himfelf relieved from many anxieties which muft neceffarily exift fomewhere, but which his wife, from the intereft which fhe feels in them, has voluntarily adopted.

If the above obfervations are not founded in error, we shall readily perceive the neceffity of affording to the other fex an education, although different, by no means inferior, to that which we ourselves receive. A woman need not go deeply into the feverer ftudies; but a little knowl

edge even of these will never injure her. Her exclufion from the more abftrufe sciences, however, ought to be amply counterbalanced by a full introduction into that interesting department of literature, where fancy is difciplined by philofophy, and where learning hides its pedantry under the garb of imagination. With polite letters fhe 'fhould be in timately acquainted; for they have a remarkable tendency to polifh the mind, and to give a fine turn of delicacy to the thought. They soften the heart to an engaging tenderness, and bring the understanding to a maturity, to which it would be diffi cult otherwife to arrive.

As for thofe neceffary regulations which fall under the name of houfehold economy, an ignorance of them in a woman is indeed reproachful. It would be almost a folecism to say that a mistress of a family need not understand those things which are neceffary to its very exiftence. But it might be no lefs ridiculous to fay, that to the acquifition of this know!edge, neceffary as it is, a woman fhould devote her whole attention : It is a kind of knowledge eafily gained, and hard to lofe: It lays but very little claim to the genius of invention, or the intricacy of art. The whole fcience of kitchen police is too fimple and obvious not to be attained with a moderate degree of application. It is a science which grows fo immediately out of common obfervation, that we fhould be induced to think that woman obftinately bent upon ignorance, who is unacquainted with it. An incidental regard to thefe concerns ought therefore to be deemed a fufficient discharge of this branch of her duty.

But there are some husbands who think that the excellency of a wife confifts in dexterous management

of

of the mop, or in a skilful dabbling with foap-fuds; who seem never fo much pleafed as when their wives are engaged in fome menial occupation, which reminds them of a parfimonious faving, and which fills their imaginations with the profpects of gain. Men of this clafs form a matrimonial connexion, merely to promote the mean schemes of avarice, and to gratify thofe mercenary paffions which are the fure attendants of a grovelling mind. They think if they can procure a woman of a found conftitution, whofe household genius is adequate to the most laborious drudgery of the kitchen; who can rife with the light of the day, and toil till midnight; that their fortune is fingularly propitious, because at the year's end their treafury will be enriched.

But

a man of a noble and generous mind will revolt at fentiments, fo degrading to humanity. He will ftartle at a doctrine which favours the flavery of that fex, which is the pride and ornament of the rational world. He will view with a melancholy regret the infamous prostitution of thofe qualities, which were bestowed for the noblèft purposes of our being; and he will almost weep to fee those attributes perverted to the pitiful purposes of meannefs and worthleffnefs, which ought to be cultivated for the advancement of virtue. He will feel all the fadnefs of a benevolent heart when he views that wicked defolation of moral excellency, which is exhibited in the debafement of the female mind. Altamont is fuch a man. At the age of twenty-five he fell violently in love with a young lady, whofe beauty and accomLI

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plishments were equalled only by her goodness of heart, and fuperiority of understanding. Altamont wanted a companion. He chofe Louifa, because the poffeffed a refinement of taste and delicacy of manners congenial to his own character: Whenever I visit this happy pair, I feel a certain veneration for the marriage institution, which I do not at any other time feel. When Altamont and Louifa are together, they feem captivated by a kind of holy affection, which tranfports them beyond the enjoyments of ordinary minds. I called upon them the laft evening. Altamont and his Louifa were feated under the branches of a beautiful willow: Louifa was finging a favourite air of Altamont's. After fhe had finifhed it he preffed her hand, and gently requefted her to repeat it. Louifa fmiled upon Altamont, and began the fong a fecond time.

This fcene, however infipid it may appear to my readers in defcription, was truly interefting to myfelf, who beheld it in all its reality. It would be impoffible to delineate upon paper those looks of reciprocal complacency, which paffed between Altamont and his Louifa. Their happiness appeared too perfect to admit of improvement: I returned home, fully difgufted with celibacy, and refolved upon changing my fituation as foon as I could find a Louifa to make me happy. My imagination dwelt with peculiar fondness on the fuperior merit of the fair fex; and, before I had finished my contemplations, I completely united the ideas of WOMAN and LOUISA.

THE

THE BLACK PRINCE.

THE delicacy of his mind appears from the following circumtance while reading a book to a lady, which had been recommended to him as a good book, he met with a word, fuppofed by him to convey an impure idea, on which he inftantly ftopt, and fhut the book without affigning any caufe. The lady foon after quitted the room, when his difpleafure, which her prefence had kept him from expreffing, broke forth; he dafhed the book, with a degree of fury which aftonifhed the gentleman who was prefent, againft the wall of the room, declaring, that the man who wrote the book ought to be punished for deceiving people, and putting bad thoughts into their heads; and as for the book itself, that he fhould burn it wherever he might happen to meet with it. He was foon convinced of the impropriety of his warmth, but he continued to regard the book, and its author, as highly blameable.

He was fo concerned for the credit of his country, and fo fearful of the confequence of drawing contempt upon it, that, except with particular perfons, he was averfe from giving very minute accounts of the ftate of African manners, arts, cultivation, or fociety. On the fame account, he ftudioufly avoided ftrong marks of wonder at any thing he faw in England, left an inference fhould be drawn from it to the disadvantage of Africa. When he chofe, however, to be unreserved in talking about his country, he was never known to violate truth in the accounts he gave.

Among the difficulties which

[Concluded.]

his new view of things laid upon him, one refpected his wives. He had two while in Africa, but he clearly faw the New Teftament allowed only one; his difficulty was, to know which of them it was right for him to keep. He thought, at firft, it would be right to keep her whom he had first married; but then he confidered that he had borne him no child, and that the second (who was befides the wife of his affections) had brought him a fon; this laft circumftance feemed to have decided the question in favour of the fecond; he declared himself ready, however, to make a facrifice of his feelings should it appear right to keep the first in preference.

In about a year and a half after his arrival in England, he could read fluently, (though, at first, he knew little of the English tongue) and could write a letter. He had alfo made himself acquainted with common arithmetic, and the first elements of mathematics, and had, befides, imbibed much general knowledge.

While he thus went on improv ing, the news of his father's death reached England, and called him fuddenly to Sierra Leone. He felt much anxiety when he was on the eve of returning, from the variety of new duties, which the deplorable state of his country feemed to lay upon him. He was very defirous that his future conduct might not difcredit his new religion; and it appeared to thofe with whom he converfed, that there was no perfonal facrifice which he was not ready to make for the fake of Christianity. To

have the honour of becoming himfelf a teacher of it, feemed to be the fummit of his wishes.

In the month of June, 1793, he embarked on board of one of the Sierra Leone Company's veffels, called, from him, the Naimbanna, after having taken an affectionate leave of all his friends in England.

During the paffage, his mind was almost conftantly employed in pondering over thofe difficulties which he thought he should have to combat on his return to Af rica, and in devifing the means of overcoming them. Numberlefs were the plans which he formed for the purpose of fpreading the light of the gofpel among his rude countrymen; though he feemed at the fame time to fuffer much uneafinefs, from a fear of difappointment, which became ftronger as he approached his native fhore. He had left England in perfect health, but on reaching a warmer climate, he was much affected by the heat, and caught a violent cold, which began with pains in his throat and head, and ended in a fever, which the continual working of his mind had probably contributed much to produce. He was frequently light-headed, and his intervals of fenfe were fhort and few, but they afforded to thofe around him ftriking proofs of a humble truft in the mercies of God through Christ, and of a perfect refignation to his will. During one of those intervals, he called to his bed-fide a fellow paf fenger, and obferving to him, that he began to think he fhould be called hence, before he had an opportunity of telling his mother and friends what mercies God had fhewn him, and what obliga

tions he lay under to the Sierra Leone Company, he begged of the gentleman to write his will, the fubftance of which was, that his brother should take charge of his property, till his fon, then a child, came of age; and, in the mean time, fhould reimburfe the Sierra Leone Company for the fums advanced by them on his account.

To this he fubjoined a strong request that his brother should, as far as in him lay, oppose the flave trade, and for the fatisfaction of his friends, he added, "That nothing may be imputed to the Sierra Leone Company by any evil-minded men, whofe interest may oppofe that of the worthy Company, I here declare, in the prefence of that God, in whom I place my truft, that during my ftay in England, I always enjoyed very good health, and received the greateft civilities from all thofe under whofe care I was, and at my leaving England I was in per-. fect health."

When the veffel got to Sierra Leone, he had become infenfible to every thing that paffed around him, except for very fhort intervals.

He was taken afhore to the Governor's houfe at Freetown, where his mother, with a brother and fister of his, and fome other of his relations, to whom. notice of his dangerous ftate had been fent, foon after appeared. The distracted looks of his mother, and the wildness of his fifter's grief, on feeing him, affected every one; but when at length they perceived that he breathed no more, their fhricks and cries were diftreffing beyond measure. He died about twelve hours after coming on fhore.

Thus ended the days of this amiable

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