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ART. IX. Emily, a Moral Tale, including Letters from a Father to his Daughter, upon the most important Subjects. By the Rev. Henry Kett, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and Author of the Elements of General Knowledge, Sc. 2 Vols. Svo. 14s. Rivingtons. 1809.

JOB faid, "O that mine adverfary had written a book *!"→

Frequently muft a reviewer fay, with little lefs feeling of distress, O that my friend had not written one! for, if, the book be not good, he ftands in the unfortunate dilemma of lofing either his credit or his friend. If he cenfure, the private tie is broken for ever. If he praife, even without exceeding the truth, the public will detect the fecret bias, which keeps back the harsher part of the truth; or, if not, the determined adverfary of the unfortunate author will be fure to remark upon it; and when he is dealing forth his farcafms at the writer, will hardly fuffer the critic to escape. This we have already experienced with refpect to Mr. Keit's Elements of General Knowledge, though the public has thought well enough of the book, with the imperfections it may have, to carry it through feven editions; and fomething fimilar we may expect on the fubject of Emily, because it is decided that the tutor of a college fhould not write books for young ladies; and becaufe the cenfure thrown upon a more unfortunate publication rebounds in fome degree upon this. We fhall, however, venture to review Emily as if we had not heard of the other, and leave the author's enemies to triumph in a few mistakes, which we shall not make it our business to detect.

The object of this tale, which is furely of high importance, is fo diftinctly and fairly stated by the author, that we fhall transcribe his words, as the beft mode of explaining. it to our readers.

"To point severe and indifcriminate cenfures against the times in which we live, is, perhaps, rather the part of an illBatured fatyrift than of a candid obferver of mankind; for every age, like every individual, is marked by characteristic virtues and defects. But we cannot, it is prefumed, take a view of the present state of fociety, without obferving that too many young

*Job xxxi. 35. It means, we must confefs, in that place, "O that he had drawn up a written accufation against me." Though often quoted in the fenfe here used,

perfons

perfons of both fexes are difpofed to look upon the restraints of parental authority as an intolerable check to the freedom of their actions; to reft their claims to diftinétion and praise too much upon trifling accomplishments; and to think that constant appearance in public, and a continual round of amufements are effential to their well-being.

"If fuch be, in any refpect, a true defcription of the fentiments and the manners of the young, that writer cannot be fairly cenfured as aiming at an unworthy, or a trivial object,as mifemploying his time, or degrading his talents, who endeavours to correct fuch difpofitions by difplaying the advantages, and defcribing the pleafures that refult from the perfevering cultivation of filial love, from the acquirement of elegant and useful knowledge, and from the exercife of fuch virtues as are calcu lated to thed luftre on the walks of domeftic and private life.” Advert.

This difplay Mr. Kett exhibits in the hiftory of Colonel Lorton and his only child Emily, whom he conducts, through various adventures and trials, to the fummit of earthly happinefs. As that happiness refults naturally from her uniform practice of the duties of a Chriftian in the various ftations in which the appears, and as the whole is meant for a picture of real life, the reader will be difappointed who looks in this tale for those furprifing and unnatural adventures, which, to a vitiated taste, are fo interesting in fome novels. Colonel Lorton and his daughter, with Dr. Marriott and Edward, and indeed every other perfon who takes a figure in these volumes, are real men and women of this world; and though often involved in difficulties, are never expofed to fuch as men of the world ought not to be always ready to encounter, or which piety, refignation, and fortitude, may not over

come.

As Colonel Lorton fuperintends the inftruction of his daughter, much of the information to be derived from thele volumes is in the form of converfations between the father and his child, on religion, morality, Belles Lettres, and various fciences. From the nature and object of the work, we did not expect that the fpeakers were to enter far into the profounder fciences; but we fhould have hoped that the Colonel, if he undertook to give his daughter any infight into thefe, would have taken care to acquire for that purpose the lateft information. Yet we find him affirming pofitively, that no other heavenly bodies, befides the fever great primary planets (including the Georgium Sidus), with their fatellites, and the comets, move round our fun. Long before the publication of this book, Ceres and Pallas, &c.

had

had been difcovered; and, though Dr. Herfchel calls them afferiods, and diftinguishes them from planets, the difcovery was furely of fufficient importance to have been mentioned on fuch an occafion. We are likewife or opinion, that enough is not faid to remove the doubts, which, when converfing on ftronomy, Emily, not unnaturally entertains, of man's being worthy of that care which the Scriptures affure us is taken of him by the God of fo many worlds. The fubject is of the highest importance; and fince it was introduced, it ought to have been freed from every difficulty, which we truff it will be in any future edition of the work. The fubject has indeed been already treated in a moft mafterly manner by Warburton, in one of those Sermons which he preache before the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn; and till Mr. Ket thall have an opportunity of fupplying, what we think clearly a defe&t in the work before us, we beg leave to recommend that Sermon to the youthful and ferious readers of Emily *.

As a fpecimen of the inftruction which our author has prepared for fuch readers, we fhall extract fome paffages froin the Colonel's firft letter to his daughter, on the improvement of the mind. To us they appear at least as worthy of the attention of parents, as of children.

"Your remarks upon the practice of the young ladies of your acquaintance in London, as well as my own obfervations upon thofe I meet with in the country, convince me, that the eagerness for acquiring accomplishments is become a general fafhion; and girls are obliged to employ by far too much of their time in attempting to be proficients in dancing, drawing, and more particularly in mufic. I can fee no objection to a girl in a genteel fituation in life, learning and purfuing any of them, if fhe have a genius for it; but in the name of propriety, I wifh to protest against that indifcriminate rage for accomplishments, which now pervades all ranks, from the daughter of a duke to the daughter of a farmer; as if female education could not be complete, unless all girls above the degree of a peafant, were educated exactly in the fame manner, and the whole harmony and welfare of fociety depended upon being taught to play upon the piano-forte, and fing Italian fongs.

"At the time I make this obfervation, I am not at all in

* It will be found in Warburton's Sermons, published in two volumes 8vo. by himfelf, in 1753, and in his Works, by Bishop Hurd. We recommend alfo, to the more learned enquirer, the Eis Oeds, tis Medis, of the Rev. E. Nares, of Biddenden, Kent. Sce Brit. Crit. Vol. xxviii. p. 405.

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BRIT, CRIT. VOL. XXXV, JAN. 1810.

clined

clined to detract from the advantages that are generally afcribed to accomplishments. They undoubtedly ferve to fill up, in an - agreeable and harmless manner, many vacant hours. Mufic and dancing are excellent fubftitutes for card-playing, which, though it may anfwer the purpofe of thofe who are advancing in life, as the most agreeable method of paffing many of their hours, is cer. tainly not fo well adapted to the active difpofition, and the vivacity of the young. Mufic, the most fashionable of all ac. complishments, has a tendency to foften the temper, and improve the taste; and if a girl have a genius for it, fhe cannot fail to acquire in the progrefs of her improvement a refined pleasure, which is much heightened by the confideration, that the communicates to others, while the is playing, a great share of the delight fhe feels.

Having made thefe allowances in favour of accomplishments, I now with you to confider their relative value. By relative, I mean as they are connected with the well being and happiness of mortals, whofe life is short, who are accountable for the ufe of their time, and have various duties to perform; who are fent into the world not only to attract the attention of admirers by external graces, but are defigned to infpire affection, and de ferve efteem by their amiable tempers, good fenfe, and improved. understandings and if they enter into the married ftate, the difcharge of the moft ufeful and important duties may reasonably be expected from them, as the mothers of families, and the guides of their children, in the paths of religion and useful knowledge.

:

"A little reflection will, I hope, convince you, that mere accomplishments cannot fecure the qualifications neceffary to form thofe important characters, as they afford no moral or literary improvement to the mind: they can neither make you more vir tuous, nor more wife; they have more of the mechanical than the intellectual in them, and they employ the eyes, the hands, and the feet, rather than the understanding, the head, and the heart." Vol. i. p. 213.

In order to make the neceffary intellectual and moral acquirements, the Colonel exhorts his child to attend to the converfation of the virtuous, the ingenuous, the wife, and the experienced; and to perufe with attention well chofen books.

"The former is highly defirable, and one of the most rational objects of your ambition; but as you cannot always gain admittance into the most improving company, you must find out the beft fubftitute for it you can. Deprived of the fociety of your excellent friends Mrs. Mapleton and Dr. Marriott; you must seek inftruction and entertainment in the pages of Addison, Johnfon, and the Marchionefs de Lambert. And you may be affured, that as long as I can command money, after providing for the fupply of our common comforts, you shall never be with

out the company of thofe filent monitors of life, thofe inoffenfive. and pleafing companions, thofe anodynes of the troubled mind, which a well chofen library can always fupply." P.219.

The Colonel is very anxious, whilft he fo earneftly preffes on his daughter the cultivation of her mind, to guard her against that felf-conceit which a little learning is fo apt to excite both in male and female students.

"If I thought," fays he, "that your reading would have the most distant tendency to make you vain and arrogant, I fhould caution you againft looking into any books, except your Bible and Prayer-book." P. 225.

To the Bible indeed no woman or man can pay too much attention; and, befides the awful importance of the doctrines which it teaches, there are no books extant at once fo inftructive and amufing as the hiftorical books of the Old Teftament. They are the only records of the earliest ages of the world, in which any confidence can be placed; and as it is a fhame for a well-educated woman to be ignorant of all that has paffed on this globe previous to her own age, and at a distance from her own country, we have often wished that a judicious courfe of facred and profane history made an essential branch of female education. The ways of Providence are indeed difplayed in the revolutions of ftates and empires, and above all in the prophetical history of the Old and New Teftaments, in a light fo ftriking as must make the deepest and most ufeful impreffions on every youthful mind. In fuch ftudies, and in that of natural hiftory, fays Colonel Lorton,

"Wisdom opens her treasures to you, fhe difclofes the fublime truths of Christianity, the hiftory of paft ages, the productions of genius, and the leffons of experience. Nature difplays to you. her beauties and her wonders vifible in the fertile earth, the starry heavens, and the wide ocean. All these are objects that invite refearch, and will reward your enquiries; objects worthy of the ftudy and the contemplation of a rational being,-an accountable agent an heir of immortality.

From thefe copious treafures endeavour, my Emily, to draw the true riches of the mind, fuch as are fuperior to the levities of

* This has been lately propofed by a lady, whom we know to be equal to all that he has undertaken to perform, and of whofe courfe of reading a Profpectus may be had by applying to Mr. Hatchard, Bookfeller to her Majefty. Rev.

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