mals and fishes-infects-trees and herbs, may be taught by means of prints.

3. Geography, is a fimple science, and accommodated to the capacity of a boy under twelve years of age. It may be perfectly understood by means of cards-globes-and maps; for each of thefe modes of conveying inftructions, feizes upon the fenfes and imagination. The frequent application which a boy is obliged to make of his knowledge in geography, in reading, and converfation, will foon fix it upon his memory, and from the time and manner in which he will acquire it, he will never forget it.

I allow four years to be employed in acquiring thefe two fundamental branches of knowledge. After our pupil has become tolerably well acquainted with them, he should be inftructed in the

4. French and German languages. Thefe will be equally neceffary, whether commerce-phyfic-law-or diinity is the pursuit of a young man. They fhould be acquired only by the ear. Great care fhould be taken not to permit him to learn thefe languages before he is twelve years old, otherwife he will contract fo much of the French and German accents as will impair the pronunciation of his native tongue.

3. Arithmetic, and fome of the more fimple branches of the mathematics, fhould be acquired between the twelfth and fourteenth years of his life.

6. Between his fourteenth and eighteenth years, he fhould be inflructed in grammar-oratory-criticifm-the higher branches of mathematics-philofophy--chemistry-logic-metaphyfics--chronology hif tory-government-the principles of agriculture, and manufactures-and in every thing elfe that is neceffary to qualify him for public ufefulness, or private happiness.

7. Along with thefe branches of literature, let our pupil be early and fteadily inftructed in the principles of the Chriftian religion. I prefer the Chriftian religion to all others, becaufe I believe it to be the only true one; but it were better he fhould be inftructed in the religions of Mahomet or Confucius, than in none at all. I am fo fully fatisfied of the neceffity and advantages of teaching a religion of fome kind in our schools, that were 1 an arbitrary prince, I would fuffer no school to be established in my dominions, in which the duties of morality were not inculcated, from a principle of obedience to the will of God.

I fhall conclude this enquiry by two remarks on the difcipline and amufements of schools.

1. Let the government of our fchools be ftrict, that it may not be fevere, and let no corporal punishment of any kind ever be inflicted upon the boys. Private admonition fhould firft be tried upon all offenders. If this fails of fuccefs, recourse shall be had to folitude,-to low diet, and, in extreme cafes,. to darkness. If all thefe prove unfuccefsful, expulfion fhould be used. A boy, who cannot be reclaimed by the above means, will foon infect a whole school with his vices.

2. I have no objection to boys employing the intervals of their ftudies in healthy and ufeful exercises, fuch as fwimming-fcating, and the like. But it fhould be remembered that labour is the bufinefs and intereft of man, and that the fooner boys become familiar with it, the better. It will preferve their health, and keep them from many of the hurtful accidents to which moft of the fports of young people expofe them. It will, moreover, preferve their tempers from those evil paffions which competition even in play, often excites in the breasts of fchool-boys. The care of a fmall garden has been found to feize power

fully

fully upon their minds. It is the employment of the scholars of the methodist college at Abingdon, in Maryland, in the intervals of their school hours. The Moravians at Bethlehem wifely carry this idea of teaching their young people to work, fo far, that they derive a confiderable profit from their labour in feveral useful manufactures.

With these remarks I fhall clofe this enquiry-but not withont fincere

ly wifhing, that if I have advanced a fingle opinion in any part of it, that is contrary to reafon, or the best interests of my country, it may make no impreffion upon any part of my readers. On the contrary, if my opinions are juft, I have only to add my fervent withes, that their oppofition to established habits may not prevent their becoming univerfal.

Philadelphia, June 11, 1789.

THERE

HERE are few young women who confider, when they firft enter into the marriage ftate, that there should be any alteration in their deportment and behaviour, or who have experience enough to determine with propriety, to what extent it fhould be carried. There ought, however, to be a very material change. A young woman, as yet unfettled in the world, is juftified to behave in a manner that may attract the attentions, or engage the attachment of those with whom fhe may wish to be connected. A little freedom and eafinefs of behaviour is then excufable. But, when a young womau is once married, the character of a matron is that to which fhe ought to afpire, and which I shall endeavour briefly to defcribe.

A matron is one who behaves with that dignified referve to every one but her husband, as to excite, in the male-fex, a feeling of admiration and refpect, and not of attachment. She never fuffers any man, even by his looks, to pretend to any familiarity with her, as whifpering to her in company, or the like, and far lefs admits the flightest liberty with her perfon. She prudently avoids engaging too frequently in dancing, both because it is fometimes danger

ous to young women, in a certain predicament, and because many of the dances now in vogue, are a little free, if not indelicate. Attention, at any rate, is paid to the character of the partner, and to the nature of the dance; and special care is taken, that the dancing fhould appear on account of the amufement merely, and not for the fake of figuring away with any particular perfon. A prudent matron admits any freedom of intercourfe with only a few felect perfons of her own fex, with whom the affociates in the abfence of her husband, and, when alone, never permits the vifits of the other fex, unlefs from their connection, character, or age, they are intitled to that privilege. When in town, fhe occafionally mixes with other company, and attends public amufements, in order to diverfify the fcene, and to give a greater zeft to the pleasures of domeftic life, but the wifely confiders her own home to be the only place where the can enjoy any real or permanent happiness. Her behaviour to her husband in company is attentive and affectionate, but not loving. She receives, without hefitation, any little marks of gallantry, or any compliments on her looks, understanding, &c. from him, but

from

from any other perfon fhe confiders them as infults; and her whole behaviour is founded on the perfuafion, that she is intrusted with the care of the fortune, the family, and the honour of a man to whom she has fworn inviolable attachment, and whofe welfare must, in a great measure, depend upon the conduct the pursues.

Thefe ideas may feem, perhaps, too rigid, but they are unquestionably the fafeft to abide by, and are juftified by the following, among many other confiderations.

A young married woman, if fhe has any pretenfions to beauty, is more expofed to the attacks of men than when in a single state. To debauch a young girl of any rank in life, is thought to be fo infamous, that none but the most profligate will attempt it. To take advantage of the inexperience of youth, is accounted in the highest degree mean and ungenerous, and, when fuccefsful, the feducer is often defervedly punished by being compelled to marry the unhappy victim of his arts. But a married woman is fuppofed to have arrived at years of difcretion. To know the world and the artifices of it. To be guarded by attachment to her husband. To be protected by his vigilance and care, and to be fully instructed in the certain mifery thar must refult from any infringe ment on the strictness and fanctity of the marriage vow. To attack a fortrefs thus garrifoned at every quarter, is an enterprife of difficulty and danger, but, at the fame time, of fo feducing a nature, that many young men give up their whole time and talents to the purfuit. But the wild and artful libertine is not the only individual against whom a woman ought to be on her guard. For there are few of the male-fex, who would not grafp at an opportunity of conquering feminine weakness, and of enjoying the wretched triumph that might be derived from the conqueft.

Attention to the feelings of a hufband is another confideration that muft have weight with a prudent matron. A man of any real delicacy muft experience a thousand painful fenfations from the indifcretions of a wife, particularly if he feels any attachment for her. If he fees thofe fmiles, for the monopoly of which he bartered his own freedom, beltowed upon others, or thinks, that any one can fancy for a moment, that his wife gives another the preference in regard to perfon or talents, or indeed in any other refpect. For many hufbands, who are not apprehenfive of actual criminality in their wives, yet feel equal uneafinefs when they fee a foundation, however remote, laid for it, or an indiscretion of conduct that would justify the flightest fufpicion, that appearances were kept up, more from want of opportunity, than want of inclination, from the terror of infamy, rather than from attachment or love.

The vanity of the male-fex, particularly of the worthlefs and diffipated part of it, is unbounded, and ought to make a young woman very cautious in her intercourse with them. The young puppies of these times are apt enough to boast of favours from perfons they have hardly an acquaintance with, but ufe ftill greater freedoms with thofe who permit the lighteft familiarity. There is no mode of treating them, but keeping them at a diftance. The least familiarity gives them hopes, and hopes impudence, and a woman, of any delicacy, muft contemn herself for behaving in fuch a manner as to encourage the most daringly profligate to make any propofals to her, deftructive to her character, and at which her virtue must revolt.

The jealoufy of her own fex is another confideration to be attended to. If a young married woman has any pretentions to beauty, all. eyes are upon her for fome time.

Nor

Nor are there ever wanting enough of ill-natured and malicious people, who are willing to pervert even innocent actions, and ready enough to fneer if they cannot bite. If any handfome young married perfon, therefore, admits the feducing attentions of any known devotee to gallantry, a thousand stories are immediately propagated to her difadvantage, and the gay, the diffipated, and the worthlefs, rejoice in an opportunity of justifying their own folly and misconduct, by boldly incorpo

rating her in the number.

On the whole, thefe are confider ations which must have fufficient weight with any woman of prudence and good fenfe, in regard to the regulation of her conduct. By attending to which, the must preserve the attachment and confidence of her hufband, and acquire the admiration and refpect of every one with whom the is connected, and in this world. fhe muft fecure all the happiness it can afford, and all the boundlefs felicities of another.

S

EVERAL writers, both ancient and modern, having doubted the existence of the Amazons of Afia and Africa, of whom fo many wonderful stories have been told, it is not at all aftonishing, that there fhould be doubts also respecting the Amazons of America. When we confider, however, that the females in that vaft continent are fubject to the fame inclinations, and liable to the fame errors, as thofe of ours; that is to fay, to oppose the views of Nature, and to render useless the most valuable gifts of that beneficent mother, by burying with them an infinite feries of generations, after the manner of the facred virgins of Peru, it does not appear ftrange to me, that there fhould be women, who, like the bold Lemnians, formed the the refolution of feparating themselves from the men; making, however, a certain agreement with them for their reciprocal wants; and that, putting themselves in a condition to provide for their own defence, they formed a fociety among

themselves, in order to maintain their existence.

I fhall not relate upon this subject all that Schmidel, Orellana, Acugna, Barazi, and fo many others have written. I fhall confine myself to an examination of what Condamine was able to discover, after the closest refearches, upon the fpot. Condamine's account, published in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for the year 1745, is as follows:

During the long voyage which he made on the river of the Amazons, he asked feveral Indians, of different nations, if they knew a fociety of warlike females, and if they were really feparated from the men, and fuffered themselves to be feen only once in a year? They all replied in the affirmative, affuring him that they had heard it from their ancestors; and that this republic of women was towards the north, in the interior parts of the country, and near the Black River, or another which, in thofe regions, discharges itself into the Maranon.

Bat

But an Indian of St Joachim, of Omaga, having told him that he would easily find, at Coari, an old man, whofe father had really been acquainted with thefe women, Mr Condamine repaired thither with his companions. This Indian, however, was dead, and had left a fon of the age of feventy, who was then the Chief of the village, and who declared, that his grandfather had really feen and known the Amazons, at the mouth of the river Cuchivara; that they came from the Cayame, which difcharges itfelf into the Maranon, between Tefe and Coari; that his grandfather converfed particularly with four of them, and that one of thefe had a child at her breafts. He knew alfo their names, and added, that, on departing from Cuchivara, they croffed the Great River, and pursued their route towards the Black River. The information which he received from other places agreed with the proceeding. He learned, befides, that the Amazons made ufe of certain green ftones, which are called the Stones of the Amazons; and that these female warriors were named Coug nan Tainfe Couima, or, Women without Hufbands. An Indian, of Mortigura, a miffion bordering upon Para, offered to conduct him to a river, by which he might approach the country where thefe women refided; but another Indian told him, that, to arrive there, it would be neceffary, from the river Irijo, to to traverse a forest of feveral days journey, and the mountains lying towards the west.

At length Condamine met with an old foldier of Cayenne, who had been in the expedition undertaken in 1726, to explore the interior parts of the country. This foldier told him, that he had penetrated as far as the Amanes, a nation with long ears, fetVOL. X. No. 60.

3 D

tled at the fources of Oyapoc; that, having obferved fome of the women ornamented with certain green-coloured ftones, he asked fome of them where they had procured them; and that they replied, from the Women without Hufbands.

The accounts which Condamine received were conftantly uniform, and perfectly agreed with thofe which Don Diego Portalez, and Don Francis Toralva, had received in 1726. By uniting, therefore, all the information which he collected refpecting the country inhabited by thefe women, it appears that it muit be fituated in the mountains of Guyana, to which neither the Portuguese nor the French of Cayenne, have ever penetrated.

Condamine does not, however, fay that thefe Amazons fubfiit there at prefent; but he is of opinion, that there are fufficient grounds for believing that they may have formerly exifted, as thofe of Afia, or thofe lately difcovered in Africa, and of whom mention is made in the relation of Ethiopia, by Juan Don Santos, and by Father Labat. Francis Alvarez had, before these, spoken of them in his account of the voyage which he made to Ethiopia, by the orders of Emanuel, King of Portugal, which agrees with the notions entertained by the ancients on the fame subject *.

Acugna thinks that these women cut off one of their breafts. He fays, the men, with whom they had agreed to have an annual meeting for the purpofe of perpetuating their race, were named Guacari. D'Anville obferved to Condamine, that the temporary hufbands of the Amazons of the ancient hemifphere, are called Gargari, by Strabo. This refemblance of the two names ap pears to be rather fingular.

If this conformity of the name of the