their youth, and to regret the years which they have so idly misspent.

These strictures on female education may seem too severe; but I have myself observed so many fine girls spoiled by this mistaken course, that I cannot but think ita subject deserving the most serious consideration. There are few more lovely objects in creation than an ingenuous, virtuously brought-up, well-educated young woman. Learning in our sex is, or ought to be, a matter of course. An ignorant man is, or ought to be, a laughing-stock to society. In the present age of the world, for men to be learned is no great merit; but a very great disgrace it is to be ignorant. But when we find a young female, with learning suitable to her station and sex, able to converse on literary matters, not with pedantry, but with modest intelligence, having taste to occupy the hours not devoted to necessary household cares, in pursuits and studies that improve and elevate her mind; skilled to

"Range from grave to gay, from lively to severe;"

freed from the plague of ennui in her moments of leisure, pleased herself, and therefore able to give pleasure to all around her, and within her influence-such a creature merits, and has, our warmest approbation: we behold in her now, the affectionate sister, or loving and duteous child; we look forward, and hail in her the future wife and mother, whose influence will overpass the limits even of the present life.

I have hitherto treated this subject simply with reference to the present, and as a mere matter of taste and opinion whether females may be educated in one mode or another. But I should think my remarks would be very imperfect, if I were to end them here, and to adduce the sanction of no higher motives. In all matters of conduct, whether it be the policy of the statesman, whose councils may affect the happiness of thousands

and tens of thousands-or whether it be the concern of the humblest individual, which apparently is confined to his own narrow sphere-in all ranks of life, and all its conversation, there is but one rule of right and wrong, and that is, the Word of God. This is a consideration which it may be fashionable or convenient in the present day to overlook, or not to acknowledge; but it is not the less true. And if we bring to this standard many of the parts of a modern education, I fear they will be found unworthy, not merely of a rational, but much more, of an immortal being; not merely of one born to adorn society, and to preside with grace over the family circle; but much more, of one destined to give an account of the time past here, and to be allotted accordingly in the great award hereafter.

Let it not be thought, from what I have said, that I despise certain elegant accomplishments: such is by no means my intention; but I wish to see their proper value and due place assigned to them: they are trifles at the best; let them not, then, usurp the place of more serious and important matters. The whole system of public female education appears to me to require reformation would that it received the attention it claims, and that some prudent, and skilful, and resolute hands would rescue it from the fangs of fashion. And again, let it not be imagined that the system I would advocate should be repulsive, and severe in its nature, and debarring the pupils from innocent recreation and amusements. No; I love the merry laugh, and the joyous mirth of girlhood: alas! they will have cares soon enough; it would be cruel to cloud the sunshine of their youth.

I have two young friends, Laura and Matilda, in the same rank of life, about the same age, and intimate from their early years. The parents of Laura sent her, when she was fourteen, to a fashionable academy in England; while Matilda was educated at home by a governess, under the superintendence of her mother.

When Laura returned periodically at the vacations, I was struck with little alterations in her manner, and certain observations which escaped her, at which I could not feel pleased. I thought no more of it, until she came home for the last time, as I was informed, with her education finished and complete, I hastened to see her, and what did I find?—instead of the artless, unsophisticated, girl who had left her father's house some years ago, I saw before me a creature whose every word and gesture seemed the effect of study, with a courtsey at the most approved angle, and an arm and fingers extended for salutation not an inch beyond the warrant of fashion. With the privilege of an old friend I examined into her attainments, and was greatly grieved to find her, in all useful knowledge, sadly deficient; while she laid much stress upon some favourite accomplishments, which I knew to be of little intrinsic worth. She was pale and languid, debilitated both in mind and body. But her parents seemed to think her the very glass of refined elegance and ton.

Matilda about the same time dismissed her governess. She was now in her eighteenth year, and as lovely a young person as you could meet. Natural, unaffected, she had acquired a taste for many branches of useful knowledge, while she had not neglected the accomplishments which adorn the well-educated lady. It was a pleasure to contemplate her calm brow, and a face bright with intelligence, when, with modest diffidence, she answered on the subjects of her studies. Matilda, thou mayest not be able to arrange thy features in a settled simper, and to attitudinize as well according to the newest modes of art, but thou art worth a thousand Lauras !

CHAPTER VII.

ON THE THEATRE.

It appears from the history of the English stage, that, amid various fluctuations of fortune, it was first in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that the tide set in strongly in favour of stage plays; when sundry licences were granted and privileges bestowed, which showed, in no small measure, the royal_predilection for such amusements. Her successor, James, espoused their cause with no less warmth; and Charles continued the patronage, until a violent opposition arose from a party which was now struggling into power, and which, in the course of a few years, learned to think players and their concerns but petty game, when they had kings and sceptres trodden under their feet.

In the reign of the first Charles, the Puritans made a furious attack upon the theatre, and Prynne, a barrister,

published his " Histrio-Mastyx," an enormous quarto of a thousand pages, denouncing the stage as an entertainment in which Christians could not lawfully indulge. His professed purpose was to attack and lash the stage in every form-plays, comedies, interludes, music, dancing-nothing escaped his scourge. His intention appears to have been good, but the style and taste with which he executed it will serve to excite a smile at the present day. I have not the book myself, and therefore depend upon Hume for an account of it. "His zeal against all these levities," he says, was first moved by observing that plays sold better than the choicest sermons, and that they were frequently printed on finer paper than the Bible itself. Besides, that the players were often Papists, and desperately wicked; the playhouses, he affirms, are Satan's chapels; the play-haunters

little better than incarnate devils; and so many steps in a dance, so many paces to hell. The chief crime of Nero he represents to have been the frequenting and acting of plays; and those who nobly conspired his death were principally moved to it, as he affirms, by their indignation at that enormity." The rest of his thousand pages, if Hume describes him truly, is of a like strain; and it must be acknowledged, that it is not the best style for making converts, and we cannot greatly wonder at the small success he met with. At the same time, we must agree with those who "thought it somewhat hard, that general invectives against plays should be interpreted into satires against the King and Queen, merely because they frequented these amusements, and because the Queen sometimes acted a part in pastorals and interludes, which were represented at court." It seems that Prynne had aggravated the matter by additional provocations, such as a censure upon Archbishop Laud's innovations, and the like. However this may be, what shall we say to the following sentence:-"Prynne was sentenced by the Star-chamber to be put from the bar; to stand on the pillory in two places-Westminster and Cheapside; to lose both his ears, one in each place; to pay £5,000 fine to the King; and to be imprisoned during life!" Surely it was high time for the people to bestir themselves, and, by a judicious, temperate reform, if they could have stopped there, to put an end to these barbarous abuses of arbitrary power. A short time elapsed, and the party, among which Prynne was a hero, had the destinies of England in their hands, and it was not likely that the playhouse and its frivolities should receive any indulgence at the hands of the stern and unbending Protector. A few years again brought another change over England, and everything that had been discountenanced during the Commonwealth was sure, for that very reason, to find favor at the Restoration. The Puritans had given such disgust to the nation by the outrages they had committed,