that our modes of female education are not univerfally calculated to preferve that modefty, which is the guardian and protector of innocence, and, in courfe, of all that is lovely and endearing in the fex. Perhaps, on the contrary, they have a tendency .to form a certain confident eafe and af furance, with that unblushing countenance, which befpeaks a want of fenfibility, or a want of principle. When a girl ceases to bluth,' fays Dr. Gre gory, fhe has loft the most powerful charm of beauty. That extreme fenfibility which it indicates, may be a weaknefs and incumbrance in our fex, as I have too often felt; but in yours

who think themfelves philofophers, afk why a woman should blush when

eye,

In every gefture dignity and love, would have been but imperfectly beautiful, had he not given her the charms, ftill more divinely feminine, of innocence and virgin modefty:'

her heavenly form Angelic, but more foft and feminine Her graceful innocence.

To preferve this innocence, while the youthful, mind is yet uncorrupted by the contagion of vicious connexions and vicious manners, the greatest care fhould be taken by parents, guardians, or governeffes, to inculcate that modefty of deportment, which is not enly fo natural and becoming, but fo effential in the fex. Indeed, one of the chief beauties in a female character, is that modeft referve, that retiring delicacy, which avoids the public eye, and is difconcerted even at the gaze of admiration:

• Not obvious, not obtrufive, but retired.

That confident eafe, and unabashed countenance, to which too many young women have been accustomed, is not only inexpreffibly difgufting, but may have a fatal influence on all their happinefs in maturer life.

I am very apprehenfive, however,

fufficient anfwer, that Nature has made you to blush when you are guilty of no fault, and has forced us to love you because you do fo. Blushing is fo far from being neceffarily an attendant on guilt, that, it is the ufual companion of innocence.'. To this, let me add the fentiment of the Poet of the Seafons, when he reprobates as utterly unbecoming the British Fair, all our mafculine fports and mafculine attire:

In these they roughen to the fenfe, and all The winning foftnefs of their fex is loft. In them 'tis graceful to diffolve at woe ; With every motion, every word, to wave Quick o'er the kindling cheek the ready

blush.

The mode of educating young ladies in our modern boarding schools, and the manner of introducing them into polite life, among the more fafhionable claffes of fociety, have been so repeatedly the subject of animadverfion, that I fhall take no notice of them here. I hope, at leaft, that in this country, no writer will ever have room for fo univerfal and fo fevere a fatire as is contained in a French wri ter's definition of the word Modefte.

To be modeft,' he says, was formerly the diftinction of youth; but

modesty is now to be found only in the convent, where it is left to the nuns, and to the young women they educate *.'-What led me particularly into this train of thought, was a fight I beheld lately, which excited fome very painful fenfations; as it appeared to me to affect the morals of the middling and inferior claffes of females, whole virtues are not of lefs confequence to fociety at large, than if they were educated to make a figure in the most fplendid and fashionable circles. It was in one of the villages contiguous to the metropolis. A proceffion of young females appeared, preceded from the age of fix to four teen, by a clarinet and French horn, and many of them carrying flags, in which I could difcover neither propriety nor meaning. Of a few of the girls, the complexion and features were fo beautiful, as to indicate, that, when arrived at years of maturity, they would unquestionably be fine women; but no delightful artleffness of youthful innocence, no exquifite fenfibility of innate modefty, could I perceive, to indicate, that, at a future period, they would be as much diftinguished for the virtues of the mind as for the charms of perfon. Many of them were fantastically dreffed with wreaths of flowers on the head, and their hair powdered and formed into a profufion of small curls; and, instead of being, as Milton fo beautifully expreffes it, not obvious, not obtrufive,' these little heroines of the day, fo far from fhrinking from the public gaze, could look at the fpectators, not only with a confident ease and unabashed countenance,' but with a certain intrepidity of eye, not eafily to be imagined at their tender years. I find that fuch proceffions have

lately become as common at the breaking-up of the day-fchools for girls, as they are, on the fame occafion, among the boys in our village academies. The latter, perhaps, may af ford fome pleafare to the fpectator, who, in the active bustle of the day, may perceive the promises of more important action, when, in future life, they may have been rendered afeful members of fociety, by the requifite alternations of ftudy and play, and a proper preparatory introduction. But, in the female fex, that modeft referve, which I have endeavoured to inculcate, is in danger of being loft, when young women can be brought to meet the public gaze with an unabashed countenance. Whenever they are introduced into places of public refort, they should be taught to confider themselves as merely prefent at fome fpectacle; and that drefs and deportment fhould new ver be permitted, which may lead their tender minds to fuppofe that, instead of being the mere fpectators of what is paffing, they themselves are the fpectacle. Every parent, I fhould fuppofe, will feel the fentiments which, I fear, I have but imperfectly expreffed; and not one, I trust, that confiders the charms of uncontaminated innocence and unaffected modefty, will ever permit a daughter to appear in fuch an unbecoming procef fion.

I remember to have feen an excellent letter from a gentlewoman, who was fo far reduced from a fate of affluence, as to be obliged to fend one of her daughters into the world in the perilous fituation of a lady's maid. I will give a fhort extract from it. After expatiating, for fome time, on the miferies that attend and follow what is called a life of pleasure, and the in

expreffible bleffings, which, on the contrary, are the concomitants of a virtuous conduct, she thus proceeds: But is it not a charming thing to have youth and beauty? To be followed and admired? To have prefents offered from all fides to one? To be invited to all diverfions, and to be diftinguished by the men from all the reft of the company?'-Yes, my dear child, all this would be charming, if we had nothing to do but to dance and receive prefents; and if this diftinction of you were to laft always; but the mifchief of it is, that thefe things cannot be enjoyed without increafing your vanity every time you enjoy them, or fwelling up a paffion in you that must foon be balked and difappointed. How long is this beauty to laft? There are few faces that can keep it to the other fide of five-andtwenty; and how could you bear it, after having been accustomed to be thus diftinguished and admired for fome time, to fink out of the notice of people, and to be neglected, and perhaps affronted, by the very perfons who ufed to pay the greateft adoration to you ?

Do you remember the gentleman that was with us laft autumn, and his prefenting you with that pretty flower, one day, on his coming out of the garden? I do not know whether you understood him or not; but I could read, in his looks, that he meant it as a leffon to you. It is true, that the flower was a very pretty one; but though you put it in water, you know it faded, and grew difagreeable, in four or five days; and had it not been plucked, but left to continue growing in the garden, it would have done the fame in nine or ten. Now a year is to a beauty, what a day was to that flower; and who would value themselves much on the poffeffion of what they are certain to lofe in fo fhort a time?

Nine or ten y fyears is what we may call the natural term of life for beauty in a young woman; but, by accidents or mischarious, it may die long be

fore that time. The greater part of what people call beauty, in your face, for instance, is owing to that air of innocence and modefty that is in it : if once you should fuffer yourself to be ruined by any bafe man, all that would foon vanifh; and affurance and ugli nefs would come in the room of it. And if other bad confequences fhould follow (for other bad confequences there are, of more forts than one) you would lofe your bloom too, and then all is gone!

But keep your reputation as you have hitherto kept it, and that will be a beauty that will last to the end of your days; for it will be only the more confirmed and brightened by time. That will fecure you efteem, when all the prefent form of your face is vanished away, and will be always mellowing into greater and greater charms.'

From the advice of this excellent mother, I muft return to my principal fubject, the inexpreffible charms of innocence and virgin modefty. It was an obfervation of lord Bacon's, that the best part of beauty is what a picture cannot exprefs; and I could. never read fome paffages in Thomson's defcription of his Lavinia, without thinking how much truth there was in this obfervation; for the exquifite beauties of her perfon are fo blended by the poet with the fweet expreffion of mental charms, that it is impoffible for the greatest mafters to delineate them on canvaís.

Her form was fresher than the morning

rofe,

When the dew wets its leaves; unstain' and pure,'

As is the lily, or the mountain fnow.
The modeft virtues mingled in her eyes,
Still on the ground dejected, darting all
Their humid beams into the blooming

flowers.

And again, when Palemon firft beheld her, as he was walking in the fields among his reapers: Unconscious of her power, and turning quick With unaffected blushes from his gaze,