And any sumph that keeps up spite, In conscience I abhor him. For blythe and cheary we 'll be a,' Blythe and cheary, blythe and cheary, Blythe and cheary we 'll be a,' And make a happy quorum. For blythe and cheary we 'll be a,' What need there be sae great a phrase I wou'd na gie our ain Strathspeys They 're douff and dowie at the best, Compared wi' Tullochgorum. Shall we sae sour and sulky sit, To the reel of Tullochgorum. May choicest blessings aye attend And a' that 's gude watch o'er her. And dainties a great store o' 'em ; But for the sour and frumpish fool, And discontent devour her. Dole and sorrow, dole and sorrow, The reel of Tullochgorum. I was indeed about to observe, and it is generally true of her, that the author finds fault with the whole of modern education, and seems well inclined to abolish it; but like the republican, who would pull down every government without knowing what to erect in its room, she never informs us what the plan of instruction should be, excepting that she descants on the "corruption “of human nature." Yet I will do her the justice to quote with approbation, although she has not contrasted fairly, a sentence worth all the rest of her strictures on education; for I am certainly of Sallust's opinion, that I would not choose quite a Sempronia, nor am I like the Numidians, who among a plurality could find " nulla amica.” 品 "When a man of sense comes to marry, it is not merely a creature who can paint, and play and sing, and draw, " and dress, and dance, he wants; it is a being who can' "comfort and counsel him; one who can reason, and re❝flect, and feel, and judge, and discourse, and discriminate; "one who can assist him in his affairs, lighten his cares, "soothe his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his princi"ples, and educate his children." To make Penelope's of all our dames, by employing themselves in spinning, and making webs to clothe their husbands and families, is a proposal and recommendation very absurd from Mrs. More, who must know, that though in some parts of the kingdom this is still certainly practised, yet in the Southern counties it is impracticable. For it is cheaper to purchase. This business is now generally in the hands of manufacturers. She might as well recommend it to the ladies to do as their great grandmothers did, make their own candles, which is now contrary to law. Upon my estate in the North this is still the custom; and I well remember, that when I first went to college, my mother made me a “coat of "divers colours.' In chap. 6, of 7th vol. Mrs. More, with some light matter, gives, some not injudicious observations respecting" early habits.” The 8th chap. on "Female Study," is a chapter to tell us of the author's scattered knowledge of the title, and sometimes the contents, of books; it is a chapter of contradictions. The instructor is left to choose proper school books for their pupils; and immediately she makes a selection for her. At one time all learning is to be got by smooth measures; and then she tells us, that there is no idle or primrose path to "any acqui"sitions that deserve the name." Religion very justly is never lost sight of, and that, like learning, is introduced merely to talk about it. The "profusion of little sentimental works," to which she has so abundantly contributed, with which the libraries of youth overflows, she is apprehensive may serve to "infuse into the youthful heart "a spurious goodness, a confidence of virtue, and "a parade of charity." The "precocity of mind" produced by such a mode of education, forced in the hot-bed of circulating libraries, is inveighed against; and all works of imagination, not founded on "christian story and principles," are disapproved of. Abridgments, beauties, and compen"diums," are considered as "a receipt for form ing a superficial mind," and because the best written books have much superfluous matter in them, she says, they who abridge voluminous works judiciously, " deserve well of the community." Instead of books of English sentiment, French philosophy, Italian love songs, and the magic wonders of German imagery, she would have the ladies substitute Locke on the Human 66 Understanding, and Butler's Analogy (p. 215) with Watts's or Duncan's Logic, and she ought to have added one of the best books in the world, Watts's Improvement of the Mind. But as she has often gutted the fish (a Bishop's dory) which another caught, that she may not charge me with doing her injustice, let her serve up some of her "plaice." "Serious study serves to harden the mind for more try"ing conflicts; it lifts the reader from sensation to intel"lect; it abstracts her from the world and its vanities; it "fixes a wandering spirit, and fortifies a weak one; it di vorces from matter; it corrects that spirit of trifling "which she naturally contracts from the frivolous tuin of "female conversation, and the petty nature of female em"ployments; it concentrates her attention, assists her in a "habit of excluding trivial thoughts; and thus even helps *" to qualify her for religious pursuits.' Whilst Mrs. More professes the disinclination to make ladies school-women, and skilled in dialetics on the one hand, nor novel writers on the other, for any girl by reading three novels may herself, she says, produce a fourth; she wishes them, however, to study scholastic theology.Forgetful of her sister's novels, and her own "small beginnings" in life, she, not without cruelty and some injustice, observes "Is a lady, however destitute of talents, education, "or knowledge of the world, whose studies have been "completed by a circulating library, in any distress of mind? the writing a novel suggests itself as the best "soother of her sorrows! Does she labour under any "depression of circumstances? writing a novel occurs as "the readiest receipt for mending them! And she solaces |