privileges, which they are sometimes foolishly disposed to envy, consists not only their security, but their happiness. If they enjoy not the distinctions of public life and high offices, do they not escape the responsibility attached to them, and the mortification of being dismissed from them? If they have no voice in deliberative assemblies, do they not avoid the load of duty inseparably connected with such privileges? Preposterous pains have been taken to excite in women an uneasy jealousy, that their talents are neither rewarded with public honours nor emoluments in life; nor with inscriptions, statues, and mausoleums after death. It has been absurdly represented to them as a hardship, that while they are expected to perform duties, they must yet be contented to relinquish honours, and must unjustly be compelled to renounce fame while they must sedulously labour to deserve it. But for Christian women to act on the low views suggested to them by their ill-judging panegyrists; for Christian women to look up with a giddy head and a throbbing heart to honours and remunerations so little suited to the wants and capacities of an immortal spirit, would be no less ridiculous than if Christian heroes should look back with envy on the old pagan rewards of ovations, oak garlands, parsley crowns, and laurel wreaths. The Christian hope more than reconciles Christian women to these petty privations, by substituting a nobler prize for their ambition, "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus;" by substituting, for that popular and fluctuating voice, which may cry "hosanna" and "crucify" in a breath, that favour of God which is "eternal life." If women should lament it as a disadvantage attached to their sex, that their character is of so delicate a texture as to be sullied by the slightest breath of calumny, and that the stain once received is indelible; yet are they not led by that very circumstance as if instinctively to shrink from all those irregularities to which the loss of character is so certainly expected to be attached; and to shun with keener circumspection the most distant approach towards the confines of danger? Let them not lament it as a hardship, but account it to be a privilege, that the delicacy of their sex impels them more scrupulously to avoid the very "appearance of evil;" let them not regret that the consciousness of their danger serves to secure their purity, by placing them at a greater distance, and in a more deep entrenchment, from the evil itself. Though it be one main object of this little work, rather to lower than to raise any desire of celebrity in the female heart; yet I would awaken it to a just sensibility to honest fame: I would call on women to reflect that our religion has not only made them heirs to a blessed immortality hereafter, but has greatly raised them in the scale of being here, by lifting them to an importance in society unknown to the most polished ages of antiquity. The religion of Christ has even bestowed a degree of renown on the sex, beyond what any other religion ever did. Perhaps there are hardly so many virtuous women (for I reject the long catalogue whom their vices have transferred from oblivion to infamy) named in all the pages of Greek or Roman history, as are handed down to eternal fame, in a few of those short chapters with which the great apostle to the Gentiles has concluded his epistles to his converts. Of "devout and honourable women," the sacred Scriptures record "not a few," Some of the most affecting scenes, the most interesting transactions, and the most touching conversations which are recorded of the Saviour of the world, passed with women. Their examples have supplied some of the most eminent instances of faith and love. They are the first remarked as having "ministered to him of their substance." Theirs was the praise of not abandoning their despised Redeemer when he was led to execution, and under all the hopeless circumstances of his ignominious death: they appear to have been the last attending at his tomb, and the first on the morning when he arose from it. Theirs was the privilege of receiving the earliest consolation from their risen Lord; theirs was the honour of being first commissioned to announce his glorious resurrection. And even to have furnished heroic confessors, devoted saints, and unshrinking martyrs to the church of Christ, has not been the exclusive honour of the bolder sex. CHAPTER XV. CONVERSATION.- Hints suggested on the subject.—On the tempers and dispositions to be introduced in it.—Errors to be avoided.—Vanity under various shapes the cause of those errors. Tue sexes will naturally desire to appear to each other, such as each believes the other will best like; their conversation will act reciprocally; and each sex will wish to appear more or less rational, as they perceive it will more or less recommend them to the other. It is therefore to be regretted that many men, even of distinguished sense and learning, are too apt to consider the society of ladies as a scene in which they are rather to rest their understandings than to exercise them; while ladies, in return, are too much addicted to make their court by lending themselves to this spirit of trifling: they often avoid making use of what abilities they have, and affect to talk below their natural and acquired powers of mind; considering it as a tacit and welcome flattery to the understanding of men, to renounce the exercise of their own. Now, since taste and principles thus mutually operate, men, by keeping up conversation to its proper standard, would not only call into exercise the powers of mind which women actually possess, but would even awaken in them new energies which they do not know they possess; and men of sense would find their account in doing this, for their own talents would be more highly rated by companions who were better able to appreciate them, and they would be receiving as well as imparting improvement. And, on the other hand, if young women found it did not often recommend them in the eyes of those whom they most wish to please, to be frivolous and superficial, they would become more sedulous in correcting their own habits. Whenever fashionable women indicate a relish for instructive conversation, men will not be apt to hazard what is vain or unprofitable; much less will they ever presume to bring forward what is loose or corrupt, where some signal has not been previously given, that it will be acceptable, or at least that it will be pardoned. The Ladies commonly bring into company minds already too much relaxed by petty pursuits, rather than overstrained by intense application. littleness of the employments in which they are usually engaged, does not so exhaust their spirits as to make them stand in need of that relaxation from company which severe application or overwhelming business makes requisite for studious or public men. The due consideration of this circumstance might serve to bring the sexes more nearly on a level in society; and each might meet the other half way; for that degree of lively and easy conversation which is a necessary refreshment to the learned and the busy, would not decrease in pleasantness by being made of so rational a cast as would yet somewhat raise the minds of women, who commonly seek society as a scene of pleasure, not as a refuge from intense thought or exhausting labour. It is a disadvantage even to those women who keep the best company, that it is unhappily almost established into a system by the other sex, to postpone everything like instructive discourse till the ladies are withdrawn ; their retreat serving as a kind of signal for the exercise of intellect. And in the few cases in which it happens that any important discussion takes place in their presence, they are for the most part considered as having little interest in serious subjects. Strong truths, whenever such happen to be addressed to them, are either diluted with flattery, or kept back in part, or softened to their taste; or if the ladies express a wish for information on any point, they are put off with a compliment, instead of a reason. They are reminded of their beauty, when they are seeking to inform their understanding; and are considered as beings who must be contented to behold everything through a false medium, and who are not expected to see and to judge of things as they really exist. Do we then wish to see the ladies, whose want of opportunities leaves them so incompetent on many points, and the modesty of whose sex ought never to allow them even to be as shining as they are able; do we wish to see them take the lead in metaphysical disquisitions? Do we wish them to plunge into the depths of theological polemics, And find no end, in wand'ring mazes lost? Do we wish them to revive the animosities of the Bangorian controversy, or to decide the process between the Jesuits and the five propositions of Jansenius? Do we wish to enthrone them in the professor's chair, to deliver oracles, harangues, and dissertations? to weigh the merits of every new production in the scales of Quintilian, or to regulate the unities of dramatic composition by Aristotle's clock? Or, renouncing those foreign aids, do we desire to behold them vain of a native independence of soul, inflated with their original powers, labouring to strike out sparks of wit, with a restless anxiety to shine, which generally fails, and with an anxious affectation to please, which never pleases? Diseurs de bons mots, fades caractères ! All this be far from them! But we do wish to see the conversation of well-bred women rescued from vapid common-place, from uninteresting tattle, from trite and hackneyed communications, from frivolous earnestness, from false sensibility, from a warm interest about things of no moment, and an indifference to topics the most important; from a cold vanity, from the ill-concealed overflowings of self-love, exhibiting itself under the smiling mask of an engaging flattery, and from all the factitious manners of artificial intercourse. We do wish to see the time passed in polished and intelligent society, considered among the beneficial, as well as the pleasant portions of our existence, and not consigned over, as it too frequently is, to premeditated trifling, to empty dulness, to unmeaning levity, to systematic unprofitableness. Let me not, however, be misunderstood it is not meant to prescribe that ladies should affect to discuss lofty subjects, so much as to suggest that they should bring good sense, simplicity, precision, and truth, to the discussion of those common subjects, of which, after all, both the business and the conversation of mankind must be in a great measure made up. It is too well known how much the dread of imputed pedantry keeps off everything that verges towards learned, and the terror of imputed enthusiasm frightens away any that approaches to serious conversation; so that the two topics which peculiarly distinguish us as rational and immortal beings, are, by general consent, in a good degree banished from the society of rational and immortal creatures. But we might almost as consistently give up the comforts of fire because a few persons have been burnt, and the benefit of water because some others have been drowned, as relinquish the enjoyments of intellectual, and the blessings of religious intercourse, because the learned world has sometimes been infested with pedants, and the religious world with fanatics. As, in the momentous times in which we live, it is next to impossible to pass an evening in company, but the talk will so inevitably revert to politics, that, without any premeditated design, every one present shall infallibly be able to find out to which side the other inclines; why, in the far higher concern of eternal things, should we so carefully shun every offered opportunity of bearing even a casual testimony to the part we espouse in religion? Why, while we make it a sort of point of conscience to leave no doubt on the mind of a stranger, whether we adopt the party of Pitt or Fox, shall we choose to leave it very problematical whether we belong to God or Baal? Why, in religion, as well as in politics, should we not act like people who, having their all at stake, cannot forbear now and then adverting for a moment to the object of their grand concern, and dropping, at least, an incidental intimation of the side to which they belong? Even the news of the day, in such an eventful period as the present, may lend frequent occasions to a woman of principle to declare, without parade, her faith in a moral Governor of the world; her trust in a particular providence; her belief in the divine omnipotence; her confidence in the power of God, in educing good from evil, in his employing wicked nations. not as favourites but instruments; her persuasion that present success is no proof of the Divine favour; in short, some intimation that she is not ashamed to declare that her mind is under the influence of Christian faith; that she is steadily governed by an unalterable principle, of which no authority is too great to make her ashamed, which no occasion is too trivial to call into exercise. A general concurrence in habitually exhibiting this spirit of decided faith and holy trust, would inconceivably discourage that pert and wakeful infidelity which is ever on the watch to produce itself and, as we have already observed, if women, who derive authority from their rank or talents, did but reflect how their sentiments are repeated, and how their authority is quoted, they would be so on their guard, that general society might become a scene of profitable communi : cation and common improvement; and the young who are looking for models on which to fashion themselves, would become ashamed and afraid of exhibiting anything like levity, or scepticism, or profaneness. Let it be understood, that it is not meant to intimate that serious subjects should make up the bulk of conversation; this, as it is impossible, would also often be improper. It is not intended to suggest that they should be abruptly introduced, or unsuitably prolonged; but only that they should not be systematically shunned, nor the brand of fanaticism be fixed on the person who, with whatever propriety, hazards the introduction of such subjects. It is evident, however, that this general dread of serious topics arises a good deal from an ignorance of the true nature of Christianity; people avoid it, on the principle expressed by the vulgar phrase of the danger of playing with edge-tools. They conceive of religion as something which involves controversy and dispute; something either melancholy or mischievous; something of an inflammatory nature, which is to stir up ill humours and hatred; they consider it as a question which has two sides; as a sort of party-business, which sets friends at variance. So much is this notion adopted, that I have seen announced two works of considerable merit, in which it was stipulated as an attraction, that the subject of religion, as being likely to excite anger and party distinctions, should be carefully excluded. Such is the worldly idea of the spirit of that religion whose direct object it was to bring "peace and good will to men!" Women too little live or converse up to the standard of their understandings; and, however we have deprecated affectation or pedantry, let it be remembered, that, both in reading and conversing, the understanding gains more by stretching than stooping. If by exerting itself it may not attain to all it desires, yet it will be sure to gain something. The mind, by always applying itself to objects below its level, contracts its dimensions, and shrinks itself to the size, and lowers itself to the level, of the object about which it is conversant: while the understanding which is active and inspiring, expands and raises itself, grows stronger by exercise, larger by diffusion, and richer by communication. But the taste of general society is not favourable to improvement. The seriousness with which the most frivolous subjects are agitated, and the levity with which the most serious are despatched, bear a pretty exact proportion to each other. Society, too, is a sort of magic lantern; the scene is perpetually shifting. In this incessant change we must Catch, ere she fall, the Cynthia of the minute ; and the fashion of the present minute, evanescent probably like its rapid precursors, while in many it leads to the cultivation of real knowledge, has also not unfrequently led even the gay and idle to the affectation of mixing a sprinkling of science with the mass of dissipation. The ambition of appearing to be well informed, breaks out even in those triflers who will not spare time from their pleasurable pursuits sufficient for acquiring that knowledge, of which, however, the reputation is so desirable. A little smattering of philosophy often dignifies the pursuits of their day, without rescuing them from the vanities of the night. A course of lectures (that admirable assistant for enlightening the understanding) is not seldom resorted to as a means to substitute the appearance of know |