SECT. XI.

Of proper Degrees of Liberty and Refraint in the Education of Daughters, illuftrated by Examples.

T is neceffary that Youth fhould be laid

under fome Reftraint. When our Inclinations are violent and our Judgment weak, it was a wife Provifion of God our Creator, that we fhould be under the Conduct of those who were born before us; and that we should be bound to obey them, who have an innate Sollicitude for our Happinefs, and are much fitter to judge for our Advantage, than we ourfelves can be in that early Part of Life.

BUT it may be faid, Liberty is fo glorious a Bleffing, that furely it ought not utterly to be taken away from the Young, left their Spirits be cramped and enflaved, and the growth of their Souls fo ftinted by à narrow and fevere Restraint, that they act all their Lives like Children under Age. Or fometimes a too rigid Confinement will have the contrary Effect, and make the Impatience of Youth break out beyond all Bounds, as foon as ever they get the first Relish of Freedom.

BUT

BUT O how exceeding difficult it is to hit the middle Way! How hard for Parents to manage their own Authority with fo much Gentleness, and to regulate the Liberties of the Children with fo wife a Difcipline, as to fall into neither Extreme, nor give unhappy Occafion for Cenfure! Though I have spoken my Opinion freely, that it is fafer to err on the Side of Restraint, than of exceffive Indulgence.

ANTIGONE had an excellent Mother, but he died young: Antigone, with her elder Sifter, from their very Infancy were placed under a Grandmother's Care. The good old Gentlewoman trained them up precifely in the Forms in which the herfelf was educated, when the Modes of Breeding had (it must be confeffed) too much Narrownefs and Aufterity. She gave them all the good Inftructions fhe had received from her Ancestors, and would fcarce ever fuffer them to be out of her Sight. She faw the Eldeft well married at five and twenty, and fettled in a Courfe of Virtue and Religion: She found her Zeal and pious Care attended with Succefs in feveral of her Pofterity, and the departed this Life in Peace.

BUT unhappy Antigone took a different Turn: She was let loofe into the World with all her Poffeffions and Powers in her own Hand; and falling into vain Company,

The

fhe

got fuch a Tafte of unbounded Liberty and modifh Vices, that he could never reflect upon the Method of her own Education without angry Remarks or Ridicule.

WHEN he came to have Children of her own, fhe still retained the Refentment which he had conceived at the Conduct of her Grandmother, and therefore be refolved that her Daughters fhould be bred up in the other Extreme.

..

"In my younger Times (faid fhe) we "were kept hard to the Labour of the Needle, and spent fix Hours a Day at it, as though I were to get my Bread by my Finger's Ends; but a little of that Buff"nefs fhall ferve thefe Children, for their "Father has left them good Fortunes of their own.

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"WE were not fuffered to read any

Thing but the Bible and Sermon-Books; "but I fhall teach mine politer Leffons out "of Plays and Romances, that they may "be acquainted with the World betimes.

"My elder Sifter was fcarce ever allow"ed to fpeak in Company till he was mar

ried, and it was a tirefome Length of "Years before that Day came. The old "Proverb ran thus, That a Maiden must be feen, and not heard: But I hope my little Daughters will not be dumb.

..

"We were always confined to dwell at "Home, unless fome extraordinary Occa"fion

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"fion called us abroad, perhaps once in a Month, or twice in a Summer. We "were taught to play the good Housewife " in the Kitchen and the Paftry, and were "well inftructed in the Conduct of the "Broom and Dufter; but we knew no"thing of the Mode of the Court, and the "Diverfions of the Town. I should be "afhamed to fee thefe young Creatures "that are under my Care, fo aukward in. Company at fourteen as I was at four and "twenty.

AND thus Antigone brought up her young Family of Daughters agreeably to her own loofe Notions; for he had formed her Sentiments of Education merely from the Averfion she had conceived to the Way of her Elders, and chofe the very reverse of their Conduct for her Rule, because their Piety and Wisdom had a little Allay of Rigour and Stiffness attending it.

THE young Things, under their Mother's Eye, could manage the Tea-Table at ten Years old, when they could fcarce read a Chapter in the New Teftament. At fourteen they learned the Airs of the World; they gad abroad at their Pleafure and will hardly fuffer Antigone to direct them or go with them; they defpife the old Woman betimes, for they can vifit without her Attendance, and prattle abundantly without her prompting.

SHE

SHE led or fent them to the Playhoufe twice or thrice a Week, where a great Part of their natural Modefty is worn off and forgotten: Modefty, the Guard of youthful Virtue! They can talk Love-ftories out of Cleopatra; they are well practifed already in the Arts of Scandal, and for want of better Fur niture of Mind, Emptiness and Impertinence, Ribbands and Fashions, gay Gentlemen and wanton Songs ever dwell upon their Tongue. They have been taught fo little to fet a Guard upon themselves, that their Virtue is much fufpected. But (be that as it will) they are feized and married before fixteen, being tempted away to bind themselves for Life, to à laced Coat and a fashionable Wig. Thus Children fet up at once to govern a Family; but fo ignorant in all thofe Concerns, that from the Garret to the Kitchen, the whole Houfe is entirely ruled by the Humour of the Servants, because the young Miftrefs knows not how to inftruct or correct them. There is neither Religion nor Prudence among them at Home or abroad. Thus they make Hafte to Ruin and Mifery in this World without Thought or Hope of the World to come, and the Heaven or the Hell that await us there.

ANTIGONE fees her own Miftake too late; and though fhe has not fo juft a Senfe and Horror of their loofe and prophane Life as would become her Years, yet she is vexed

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to