66 moment. Having thus in part fignified to you the esteem and venera❝tion which I have for you, I must put you in mind of the catalogue of "books which you have promised to recommend to our fex; for I have "deferred furnishing my closet with Authors, 'till I receive your advice "In this particular, being your daily disciple and humble fervant, LEONORA In answer to my fair difciple, whom I am very proud of, I must acquaint her, and the rest of my Readers, that fince I have called out for help in my catalogue of a Lady's library, I have received many letters upon that head, fome of which I fhall give an account of. In the first class I fhall take notice of those which come to me from eminent booksellers, who every one of them mention with respect the Authors they have printed, and confequently have an eye to their own advantage more than to that of the Ladies. One tells me, that he thinks it abfolutely neceffary for women to have true notions of right and equity, and that therefore they cannot peruse à better book than Dalton's Country Justice: Another thinks they cannot be without The Compleat Jockey. A third obferving the curiofity and defire of prying into fecrets, which he tells me is natural to the fair fex, is of opinion this female inclination, if well directed, might turn very much to their advantage, and therefore recommends to me Mr. Mede upon the Revelations. A fourth lays it down as an unqueftioned truth, that a Lady cannot be thoroughly accomplished who has not read The fecret Treaties and Negociations of the Marfbal D'Eftrades. Mr. Jacob Tonfon, Jun. is of opinion, that Bayle's Dictionary might be of very great use to the Ladies, in order to make them general scholars. Another, whofe name I have forgotten, thinks it highly proper that every woman with child fhould read Mr. Wall's Hiftory of Infant Baptifm; as another is very importunate with me to recommend to all my female Readers The finishing stroke; being a vindication of the Patriarchal Scheme, &c. In the fecond clafs I fhall mention Books which are recommended by husbands, if I may believe the writers of them. Whether or no they are real husbands or perfonated ones I cannot tell, but the books they recommend are as follow. A Paraphrafe on the Hiftory of Sufanna. Rules to keep Lent. The Chriftian's overthrow prevented. A diffuafive from the Play-boufe. The virtues of Camphire, with directions to make Camphire Tea. The Pleasures of a Country Life. The Government of the Tongue. A letter dated from Cheapfide defires me that I would advise all young wives to make themselves mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetick, and concludes with a postscript, that he hopes I will not forget The Countess of Kent's receipts. I may reckon the Ladies themselves as a third clafs among these my correfpondents and privy-counsellors. In a letter from one of them, I am advised to place Pharamond at the head of my catalogue, and, if I think proper, to give the fecond place to Caffandra. Coquetilla begs me not to think of nailing women upon their knees with manuals of devotion, nor of fcorching their faces with books of housewifry. Florella defires to know if there are any books written against Prudes, and intreats me, if there are, to give them a place in my Library. Plays of all forts have their several advocates: All for Love is mentioned in above fifteen letters; Sophonisba, or Hannibal's overthrow, in a dozen; the Innocent Adultery is likewise highly approved of: Mithridates King of Pontus has many friends; Alexander the Great and Aurenzebe have the fame number of voices; but Theodofius, or the force of Love, carries it from all the rest. I should, in the last place, mention fuch books as have been propofed by men of learning, and those who appear competent judges of this matter, and muft here take occafion to thank A. B. whoever it is that conceals himself under those two letters, for his advice upon this fubject: but as I find the work I have undertaken to be very difficult, I fhall defer the executing of it till I am further acquainted with the thoughts of my judicious contemporaries, and have time to examine the feveral books they offer to me; being refolved, in an affair of this moment, to proceed with the greatest caution. In the mean while, as I have taken the Ladies under my particular care, I fhall make it my business to find out in the beft Authors ancient and modern fuch paffages as may be for their ufe, and endeavour to accommodate them as well as I can to their taste; not questioning but the valuable part of the fex will eafily pardon me, if from time to time I laugh at thofe little vanities and follies which appear in the behaviour of fome. of them, and which are more proper for ridicule than a ferious cenfure. Most books being calculated for male Readers, and generally written with an eye to men of learning, makes a work of this Nature the more neceffary; befides, I am the more encouraged, because I flatter my felf that I see the sex daily improving by these my Speculations. My fair Readers are already deeper fcholars than the Beaus: I could name fome of them who talk much better than feveral gentlemen that make a figure at at Will's; and as I frequently receive letters from the fine Ladies and pretty Fellows, I cannot but obferve that the former are fuperior to the others not only in the fenfe but in the fpelling. This cannot but have a good effect upon the female world, and keep them from being charmed by thofe empty coxcombs that have hitherto been admired among the women, though laughed at among the men. I am credibly informed that Tom Tattle paffes for an impertinent fellow, that Will. Trippit begins to be smoaked, and that Frank Smoothly himself is within a month of a coxcomb, in cafe I think fit to continue this paper. For my part, as it is my business in fome measure to detect fuch as would lead aftray weak minds by their falfe pretences to wit and judgment, humour and gallantry, I fhall not fail to lend the best lights I am able to the fair fex for the continuation of these discoveries. -Spatio brevi Spemlongam refeces: dum loquimur, fugerit invida W Hor. E all of us complain of the shortness of time, faith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, fays he, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do: we are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. That noble Philofopher has described our inconfiftency with our felves in this particular, by all thofe various turns of expreffion and thought which are peculiar to his writings. I often confider mankind as wholly inconfiftent with it felf in a point that bears fome affinity to the former. Though we feem grieved at the fhortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of bufinefs, then to make up an eftate, then to arrive at honours, then to retire. Thus although. : VOL. III. the B the whole life is allowed by every one to be fhort, the feveral divifions of it appear long and tedious. We are for lengthening our span in general, but would fain contract the parts of which it is compofed. The Ufurer would be very well fatisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the prefent moment and next quarter-day. The Politician would be contented to lose three years in his life, could he place things in the posture which he fancies they will stand in after such a revolution of time. The Lover would be glad to strike out of his existence all the moments that are to pass away before the happy meeting. Thus, as fast as our time runs, we should be very glad in moft parts of our lives that it ran much faster than it does. Several hours of the day hang ùpon our hands, nay we wish away whole years; and travel through time as through a country filled with many wild and empty wastes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at thofe feveral little fettlements or imaginary points of reft which are difperfed up and down in it. If we divide the life of moft men into twenty parts, we shall find that at least nineteen of them are meer gaps and chafms, which are neither filled with pleasure nor business. I do not however include in this calculation the life of those men who are in a perpetual hurry of affairs, but of those only who are not always engaged in fcenes of action; and I hope I shall not do an unacceptable piece of fervice to these persons, if I point out to them certain methods for the filling up their empty spaces of life. The methods I fhall propofe to them are as follow. The first is the exercise of Virtue, in the most general acceptation of the word. That particular scheme which comprehends the Social Virtues, may give employment to the most industrious temper, and find a man in business more than the most active ftation of life. To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day in our lives. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fiercenefs of a party; of doing juftice to the character of a deferving man; of foftning the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying the prejudiced; which are all of them employments suited to a reasonable nature, and bring great fatisfaction to the person who can bufy himself in them with discretion. There is another kind of Virtue that may find employment for those retired hours in which we are altogether left to our felves, and destitute of company and converfation; I mean that intercourfe and communication which every reasonable creature ought to maintain with the great Author Author of his being. The man who lives under an habitual sense of the divine presence, keeps up a perpetual chearfulness of temper, and enjoys every moment the fatisfaction of thinking himself in company with his dearest and best of friends. The time never lies heavy upon him: It is impoffible for him to be alone. His thoughts and passions are the most bufied at fuch hours, when thofe of other men are the most unactive: he no fooner steps out of the world but his heart burns with devotion, fwells with hope, and triumphs in the consciousness of that presence which every where furrounds him; or, on the contrary, pours out its fears, its forrows, its apprehenfions, to the great fupporter of its existence. I have here only confidered the neceffity of a man's being virtuous, that he may have something to do; but if we confider further, that the exercife of Virtue is not only an amusement for the time it lafts, but that' its influence extends to those parts of our existence which lie beyond the grave, and that our whole Eternity is to take its colour from those hours which we here employ in Virtue or in Vice, the argument redoubles upon us for putting in practice this method of paffing away our time. When a man has but a little stock to improve, and has opportunities of turning it all to good account, what shall we think of him if he fuffers nineteen parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employs even the twentieth to his ruine or difadvantage? But because the mind cannot be always in its fervours, nor ftrained up to a pitch of virtue, it is necessary to find out proper employments for it in its relaxations. The next method therefore that I would propofe to fill up our time, should be useful and innocent diverfions. I must confess I think it is below reasonable creatures to be altogether converfant in fuch diverfions as are merely innocent, and have nothing elfe to recommend them, but that there is no hurt in them. Whether any kind of gaming has éven thus much to say for it felf, I fhall not determine; but I think it is very wonderful to fee persons of the best sense paffing away a dozen hours together in fhuffling and dividing a pack of Cards, with no other converfation but what is made up of a few game phrases, and no other Ideas but those of black or red fpots ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of this fpecies complaining that life is fhort? The Stage might be made a perpetual fource of the most noble and ufseful entertainments, were it under proper regulations. B 2 But |
