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 forming 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 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 turn 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 "her imagination with the conviction that the subscription "which has been extorted by her importunity, or given to "her necessities, has been offered as an homage to her ge"nius. And this confidence instantly levies a fresh contri"bution for a succeeding work. Capacity and cultivation "are so little taken into the account, that writing a book seems to be now considered as the only sure resource "which the idle & the illiterate have always in their power." 66 "Let her who is innocent cast the first stone." What said the pot to the kettle! I feel the indig nant temper of the Sarcasm family roused in me; and if I cannot apply to Mrs. More " sugar hogs"heads and rum puncheons," I can ask, whether she and her sisters did not begin business with the produce of a subscription? I have known more than one amiable female, who wrote a novel to raise subsistence for a father, mother and sisters, all of whom would reprobate the practice of Miss "Moon," "private accusations ;" and the same feelings which then induced me to recommend the books to the public, by stating privately the application of the produce, to some literary censors, force even now, as I re-enjoy the long ago past pleasure, the tears to run down my hoary cheeks. Madam! my family is ancient; my motto is Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos; and, though I respect the merit which in the law, army, navy, or the church, raises a man to peerage and dignity, I hate that upstart pride, which attempts to make Joan a gentlewoman, intellectual imbecility a Johnson; a Lilliputian in literature a Patagon. "Miss Hannah's graces dazzle not the view "A farthing rushlight, with its winking rays. "A humming NATIVE of a Bristol pool. "Had WISDOM crush'd Miss HANNAH's forward quili, "Had silence put a gag on HANNAH's tongue "No crape had mourn'd upon the Muse's hill, "Nor Phoebus blubber'd for the loss of song. "People shou'd not run riot with applause, "Though HANNAH's prose presents us nothing new-- "I'll tell the public, what, Miss HANNAH'S strictures "Are decent things-perhaps Miss HANNAH'S plan; "But trust me, they are all some PARSON's pictures, "These, HANNAH never drew, nor coloured, "Miss HANNAH may be aptly term'd a hen, ! "Who sits on PHEASANT's eggs, to kindness prone; "Hatches the birds, a pretty brood; but then, "Weak vanity! She calls the chicks her own. "Miss HANNAH's heels are greasy, let me say; Miss HANNAH's joints are very stiff indeed: "Her form is rather fitted for the dray, "Than on NEWMARKET turf to show a speed. "Then bid Miss HANNAH MORE her pen confine : "Repress the vainly rhyming, prosing rage, "That makes us sinful damn the nerveless line, "Un-Job-like curse the pen'ry of the page. "Now, ladies, don't be in a passion, "Because I've treated in such fashion "Miss HANNAH, whom you idolize and foster: "I do assure you, SOLEMN DAMES, "Miss HANNAH with no merit flames, "No! She's a little bit of an impostor. "I know you call the nymph, the sun so bright: "Who has not seen a kind old mother CAT "Deliver a dead bird, or mouse, or rat, "To her young kitten, Miss GRIMALKIN? "Miss catches it with raptur'd claws, "Locks it at once within her jaws, "Round with cock'd tail, and round, triumphant walking; "So carefully her treasure holding, watching, 6 "And proudly purring this is all my catching.' "Has not Miss HANNAH been the kitten here? "Too strongly she resembles it, I fear! "Miss HANNAH, too, a LUCKY lift has had "On some kind PRIEST's-perchance a Bishop's pad! "Miss Hannah's work so much beprais'd, "By flattery's puff so highly rais'd; "I say Miss HANNAH's pretty EDUCATION book, "Of fishing party's starts a story, "Where one shall steal another's trout or dory, "And slily pull it in on his own hook. "Now, LADIES, as your honours are at stake, "I beg you for your reputation sake, "To sift this petty larceny of the pen; "And as ye probably may find it out, "Confront Miss HANNAH-kick up some small rout"And make her give the man his fish again." Mrs. More, p. 229, vol. 7, declares herself of opinion, that the flattering accounts given by our circumnavigators of the mild and amiable disposition of the inhabitants of new-discovered countries, and particularly the Hindoos, and the Pellew Islands, $ |
