store your mind with that "knowledge" which, when exercised in the concerns of life, becomes indeed "power ;"—it will furnish your memory with those immutable principles which form the basis of all those rules of conduct, the adherence to which will induce a steadiness of mental resolve, and a vigour of judgment, which unexpected occurrences, calculated to stagger the weak and confound the wavering, will never be able to disconcert. And let me remind you, that you possess another great advantage over the mere man of genius. You will return to your literary pleasures with a thirst for their enjoyment to which he is often a stranger. You will feel nothing of that “tedium vita" which so frequently presses upon his spirits; and in the alternate vicissitude of mental speculation and practical application, you will gain all the knowledge which springs from the former, and command all the advantages which result from the latter.

I am, &c.

Yours very sincerely.

LETTER V.

To Mrs. G.

MY DEAR MADAM,

I SCARCELY need begin by assuring you, that I feel no small degree of pleasure in adding the name of another lady to the list of my epistolary correspondents, and more particularly so, under such circumstances as have procured me the honor of now addressing you. It certainly was with some considerable satisfaction that I understood that my late letters to my friend had not been confined to himself; and however scrupulous I might have been in some cases about the perusal of such productions being extended to those to whom they were not originally addressed, yet on such a subject, every thing that could offer itself in the shape of an objection would be at once dismissed. Letters in general, when they are really what they pretend to be, the ge

nuine expression of the sentiments of one heart designed to win their way to another, lose much of their interest when read by a third person and we have seen many instances of the injudiciousness of those biographers, who have published much that had better have remained concealed, through a foolish expectation, that whatever proceeded from the pen of their favourite must interest the public. Indeed, in the present instance, the attention which appears to have been directed in your family to the subject of early rising, at once induces me to hope, that what I have already written has not been ineffectual, and encourages me to comply with your request, by communicating to you my sentiments with regard to its application to yourself in particular.

Several of the remarks which I have already made, will apply to you as the mistress of a family, as well as to my friend as its head. But if I have considered it necessary to recommend the practice of early rising to him, as a man of business, I feel it to be a subject equally deserving your

consideration, as the mother of a family, to whom it is indeed peculiarly important. If the more public duties of life devolve on man, there are private ones of no less weight which are exclusively confined to woman; and whatever superiority may in general be attached to the more obtrusive occupations of our sex, perhaps the balance of comfort is regulated by the less specious engagements of yours. It is in vain that we devote ourselves to the concerns of business, that we are fortunate in our speculations and successful in our exertions; in vain that we toil from day to day to augment our wealth, unless the pleasures which it can purchase, and the advantages it can command, are wisely regulated by you. Our labours in the Exchange, or in the Mart, in the office, the counting-house, or the shop, are stimulated by the desire of gaining those comforts which money can procure; but it is you who must render them really deserving such an appellation, by the wisdom which is displayed in the management of the domestic economy, and the attention which is direct

ed to increase the endearments of home. The duties which devolve upon us are indeed widely different, but they are suited to the comparative strength or weakness of each. Their diversity forms one of their most pleasing features: and the very contrariety of their nature becomes a link of connection between them. And if ever I should be led to suffer pity for a person's ignorance, to assume any of the characteristics of contempt, it would be in that opinion which I should form of the man, who, proud of his own self-importance, and great in his own estimation, affected to despise what he gratuitously deemed the insignificant employments of woman, and by a consummation of meanness and cowardice, upbraided her with moving in a more contracted sphere than his own. If such be his sentiments, he has yet to learn, that the pleasure of society, and the harmony of domestic life, are dependent upon that sex whose smiles he can never deserve, and whose frowns he pretends to disregard.

Though you might very properly charge