ART. VIII. Letters on Education; with Obfervations on religious and metaphyfical Subjects. By Catharine Macauley Graham. 8vo. 6s. boards. Dilly. London, 1790.

[ Concluded. ]

HAVING concluded her plan of literary education, Mrs. Macauley Graham proceeds to give her reasons for advising the ftudy of the facred fcriptures to be deferred till the pupil has paffed the age of twenty-one.

The facred writings,' fays fhe, put into the hands of youth before they have acquired judgment, or a fufficient literary knowledge to comprehend them thoroughly, muft naturally give rife to doubts; and a commerce with the world will afford fufficient matter to increase and confirm thefe, without the perufal of infidel writers. Lively obfervations taken from those writers, when flung out in difcourse, are better adapted to make a strong impreffion on the mind of credulous youth, than a firing of arguments logically arranged in an elaborate treatife. Thus the feeds of fcepticism are fown in every mind; and though they may not always bring forth the fruits of a confirmed infidelity, they give rife to troublesome doubts; and the Chriftian, as he calls himfelf, is willing to compound matters between his reafon and his confcience, by never thinking seriously on the fubject. On these and similar confiderations, I do not introduce the ftudy of the facred writings till pupils have acquired the full vigour of their intellect; till they are capable of judging the fubjects laid before them with precifion; and till a full knowledge of the fyftems of religion which prevailed before Christianity, with the philofophical opinions of the ancients, enable them to difcern plainly the advantages of those lights which have been gained by revelation.'

Our authoress is of opinion that what is commonly called the tour of Europe, is generally, made at too early an age; and that this important part of the education of young men of fortune fhould be poftponed till a later period. Any objections that may be raised against this idea, the endeavours to obviate by the following reflections:

• But education, you fay, has commonly been finished, and the tour of Europe made, by the age of one-and-twenty. It has fo; but of what kind is this education, even when it has been performed in the best manner, and to the best effect? Why it is fuch a knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues, as will ferve the purpofe of going through all the claffes of a public fchool, and the taking the neceffary degrees of the univerfity with reputation. It is an acquirement of fome knowledge in mathematics, and fome acquaintance with the Latin and Greek poets, who, by the bye, at this early feafon of life, are much more apt to corrupt, than to improve the mind. When

the

the young gentleman is thus fitted for his travels, he fets out on his tour with a tutor, who ferves for no other purpose than a convenient humble companion; and whilst he is pofting through all the capital towns in France, Germany, and Italy, he forgets every part of his learning which is worth remembering. Some Italian, perhaps, he acquires, and a good pronunciation of the French language; but for thefe accomplishments he pays dear, by adding to the stock he picked up at home, a large addition of foreign follies and vices. It is now that the great career of life is commenced with all its important relations, when we might expect from the advantages arising from the best education, an example of virtue would be fet worthy of imitation; but in what inftances are fuch expectations verified? On the contrary, the hopeful pupil fpreads the contagion of folly far and wide; and having by turns figured in the character of the French petit maitre, the rake, the gamefter, and the fox-hunter, he at length, urged by neceffity or ambition, takes up that of politician; and having acted the thoughtless fool in the gay feason of life, ends his course in the character of the confirmed knave.'

This picture, we fear, is too juft; and, while we fee fo many young men of fashion return from their travels loaded with nothing but folly, vice, infidelity, and impertinence, we must lament that parents are not always fo cautious in the choice of tutors as they ought to be, for much undoubtedly depends upon them:

On the propofition of making the tour of Europe,' continues Mrs. Macauley Graham, at a feafon of life when the judgment is mature and fit for useful observation and reflection, I have Milton, Locke, and common-sense, on my fide; and as posting on the continent is now fo much the fashion, as often to oblige a man of fortune to repeat his tour, in order to gratify his family, fuch a one, who intends to enter early into the bonds of matrimony, would do well to poftpone his travels till he is married; when, if he is a wife man, he will rejoice at the having fpared himself the mortification of a double banishment from his own country.'

The multiplication of novels, a species of works, a few excepted, highly detrimental to the cause of virtue, and which, inftead of affording inftruction, tend only to corrupt the heart, is an increasing evil, and ought, if poffible, to be checked. The promifcuous reading of these compofitions, which, besides other fatal confequences, vitiate and debafe the tafte, Mrs. Macauley Graham feverely condemns, and, with much truth, obferves, that

⚫ Many trips to Scotland are undoubtedly projected and executed, and many unfortunate connexions formed, from the influence which novels gain over the mind; and though criminal amours are in general cenfured in thefe works, yet an imprudent conduct through

life

life is often the confequence of an improper affociation of ideas formed in youth. Cervantes, Le Sage, and Fielding, are undoubtedly ftrict copiers of nature, and, as fuch, will ever give delight to the judicious reader. Don Quixote may be read at every period of life, without any mischievous impreffion on the mind; but Le Sage's capital work Gil Blas, is one of the laft books which I should put into the hands of youth. It is, indeed, an admirable picture of the deceit, roguery, folly, and vice, which is to be found in every rank of fociety; and, as fuch, is capable of affording very in "ructive leffons to those who, having finished their education, are launching into the wide occan of life; but the art of the writer is exerted to please the fancy, rather than to mend the heart.'

Fielding's works, according to our authorefs, are liable to the fame objection; but his Jofeph Andrews is fo well conducted, and the hero is fuch a model of virtue and fimplicity, that this part of them may be read with safety, and even with improveCyrus' Travels fhe alfo admits; but fhe does not pay the fame compliment to Richardfon; though he is confidered as the most moral writer of the whole clafs. His hiftory of Pamela, which exhibits a pattern of chastity in low life, is conducted in such a manner as to render it totally unfit for the rufal of youth. His Clariffa Harlow, fhe thinks, is not entirely free from the fame fault; and fhe would poftpone the perufal of thefe, as well of Sir Charles Grandifon, to an age when the judgment is fufficiently ripe to feparate the wheat from the chaff.' Mrs. Macauley Graham is not, however, an enemy to novels in general:

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• There are feveral,' continues fhe, which are not devoid of the power of pleafing and improving, though written by perfons feveral degrees inferior to the capital authors juit mentioned; and were they perufed at a proper age, as a relaxation to feverer ftudies, they would throw a variety into domeftic life, and ferve as a good fuccedaneum to the unmeaning fyftem of diffipation which at present prevails. But to confine literary occupation entirely to novels, and the lighter parts of the belle lettre, is a perverfion of reafon and common fenfe which diftinguishes the prefent age from every other which has fucceeded the revival of letters, and cannot fail of having a powerful influence over the manners of fociety.'

Our authorefs next confiders the influence of impreffions; the neceffity of example coinciding with inftruction; physical prudence and indifcretion. From the letter on these subjects we fhall make only one extract, which appears to us to be the refult of accurate and just observation, though replete with the bittereft fatire:

How many parents do we know whofe example and conversation are adapted to corrupt the purest mind; who themselves indulge in

every kind of debauchery, yet fhew no clemency to the follies of youth and inexperience, if they happen to clash with the interests of family pride; who expect, in the conduct of their daughters, that prudence which, in the prefent modes of life, can never be found where neither the natural conftitution of the mind, nor the cares of education, are directed to this great end; who lead their fons into the ways of vice and error, yet vainly expect from pampered appetites and habitual extravagancies, thofe filial virtues which can alone exift with fobriety, economy, temperance, and chastity; in a word, who fashion a being, whofe artificial wants must make him be hold with regret the duration of a life which delays the expected bleffing of heirship; and when this fentiment becomes too big for concealment, thefe wife parents largely expatiate on the growing ingratitude of the age, without ever taking into the account the axiom, that an effect mult neceffarily follow its caufe; and that the caufes of difobedience, and the want of filial piety in children, are most commonly to be found in the folly and vice of parental conduct.'

Mrs. Macauley Graham, like a true literary amazon, ftands boldly forth in defence of female rights, and afferts, that there is no characteristic difference in fex. Some philosophers, however, and men of confiderable celebrity in the world, have difputed this point; but as we have neither room nor inclination at present to enter into the merits of the fubject, we shall let the authorefs fpeak for herself:

It must be confeffed,' fays fhe, that the virtues of the males among the human fpecies, though mixed and blended with a variety of vices aud errors, have difplayed a bolder and a more confiftent picture of excellence than female nature has hitherto done. It is on these reasons that, when we confider the appearance of a more than ordinary energy on the female mind, we call it mafculine; and hence it is that Pope has elegantly faid, A perfect woman's but a fofter man ; and if we take in the confideration, that there can be but one rule of moral excellence for beings made of the fame materials, organised after the fame manner, and fubjected to fimilar laws of nature, wè muft either agree with Mr. Pope, or we must reverse the propofition, and say, that a perfect man is a woman formed after a courfer mould. The difference that actually does fubfift between the fexes is too flattering for men to be willingly imputed to accident; for what accident occafions wifdom might correct; and it is better, fays pride, to give up the advantages we might derive from the perfection of our fellow affociates, than to own that nature has been jult in the equal distribution of her favours. Thefe are the fentiments of the men; but mark how readily they are yielded to by the women; not from humility I affure you, but merely to preferve with character those fond varieties on which they fet their hearts. No; fuffer them to idolize their perfons, to throw away their life in the purfuit of trifles, and to indulge in the gratification of the meaner paffions, and they will heartily join in the fentence of their degradation.

7

• Among

Among the most firenuous affertors of a sexual difference in character, Rouffeau is the most confpicuous, both on account of that warmth of fentiment which distinguishes all his writings, and the cloquence of his compofitions: but never did enthufiasm and the love of paradox, thofe enemies to philofophical difquifition, appear in a more strong oppofition to plain fenfe than in Rouffeau's difinition of the difference. He fets out with a fuppofition, that Nature intended the fubjection of the one fex to the other; that confequently there must be an inferiority of intellect in the fubjected party; but as man is a very imperfect being, and apt to play the capricious tyrant, Nature, to bring things nearer to an equality, bestowed on the woman fuch attractive graces, and such an infinuating addrefs, as to turn the balance on the other fide. Thus Nature, in a giddy mood, recedes from her purposes, and fubjects prerogative to an influence which must produce confufion and disorder in the system of human affairs. Rouffeau faw this objection; and in order to obviate it he has made up a moral perfon of the union of the two fexes, which, for contradiction and abfurdity outdoes every metaphyfical riddle that was ever formed in the schools. In fhort, it is not reason, it is not wit; it is pride and fenfuality that speak in Rouffeau, and, in this inftance, has lowered the man of genius to the licentious pedant.

But whatever might be the wife purpose intended by Providence in fuch a difpofition of things, certain it is, that some degree of inferiority, in point of corporal strength, feems always to have existed between the two fexes; and this advantage, in the barbarous ages of mankind, was abufed to fuch a degree as to destroy all the natural rights of the female fpecies, and reduce them to a state of abject flavery. What accidents have contributed in Europe to better their condition, would not be to my purpose to relate; for I do not intend to give you a history of women; I mean only to trace the fources of their peculiar foibles and vices; and thefe I firmly believe to originate in fituation and education only: for so little did a wife and just Providence intend to make the condition of flavery an unalterable law of female nature, that in the fame proportion as the male fex has confulted the intereft of their own happiness, they have relaxed in their tyranny over women; and fuch is their use in the fyftem of mundane creation, and fuch their natural influence over the male mind, that were these advantages properly exerted, they might carry every point of any importance to their honour and happiness. However, till that period arrives in which women will act wifely, we will amufe ourselves in talking of their follies.'

The second part of this work contains reflections on domeftic and national education; obfervations on the mode of education followed at Athens, Sparta, and Rome; on the state of the Romans after the fubverfion of the common wealth; on the caufes which may have hitherto prevented Christianity from having its full effect on the manners of fociety; on the duty of governments towards producing a general civilization; on

fympathy