tented ourselves with fometimes interweaving into our text, the names and fentiments of fuch authors as have more peculiarly elucidated the fubjects we were inveftigating.

We have not vanity enough to recommend our work to the learned; they must have met with every anecdote related in it; but as the generality of the fair fex, whofe reading is more conned, now spend many of their idle hours in poring over novels and romances, which greatly tend to mislead the understanding and corrupt the heart, we cannot help expreffing a wifh, that they would spare a part of this time to look into the hiftory of their own Sex; a hiftory, which we flatter ourselves will afford them no irrational amufement, and which will more gratify the curiofity of the female mind in whatever relates to themselves, than any thing that has hitherto been published.

We do not mean by this to praise ourselves; we fubmit with the utnroit diffidence to the judgment of the Public. If we have any merit, it is only in collecting together, and prefenting in one view, a variety of anecdotes concerning the fex, which lay fcattered in a great number of authors, ancient and modern, and not within the reading of the Sex themselves; recourfe to larger libraries might have made thefe anecdotes more numerous, and better judgments would have felected them more judiciously; on thefe accounts, none can be more fenfible of the imperfections of the Work than we are, but we hope our candid Readers will make fome allowances for our having trod a path which has never been attempted before; and the Ladies, we flatter ourfelves, will treat us with fome indulgence, when we affure them, that we have exerted our utmost abilities to put their history into the moft engaging drefs, and to mingle pleasure with inftruction.'

That the Doctor has exerted his utmost abilities, we readily believe; and we hope and truft, for the credit and honour of our fex, that every man, who undertakes to give pleasure to the ladies, will do the fame. We question much, however, whether ladies of tafte and genius will be fatisfied with this Gentleman's exertions, or entertain any high opinion of his abilities; he neither has, indeed, the fuaviter in modo, nor the fortiter in re, which all ladies expect from thofe who enter into their fervice. It is really furprifing that it fhould not have occurred to the Doctor, that fuch ladies as are likely to have an opportunity of looking into his history are tolerable judges of compofition; that they expect fome degree of elegance both of fentiment and diction in fuch works as are defigned either for their amufement or their inftruction; and that they muft neceffarily be fhocked with the frequent mention of the very grofs and indelicate cuftoms which prevailed in nations that were either only emerging from barbarifm, or very little advanced in civilization. Of what ufe, of what importance, can it poffibly be to the British fair, to be informed how the Maffagetæ, the Aufi, the Lydians, the Scythians, the Bactrians, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, &c. &c. treated their women? or to be made ac

quainted

quainted with the customs and ceremonies which prevailed among them?

The sketches our Author gives of the character of the American, African, and Afiatic women, he allows to be imperfect; the vicious and the difagreeable, he tells us, are too frequently predominant in it; and almoft the whole of their character, he acknowledges, may be comprized in unremitted endeavours to fatisfy a voluptuous appetite. If this be the cafe, can it poffibly tend either to the inftruction or the amusement of the fair fex to dwell fo long as our Hiftorian does on fuch difagreeable fubjects ?

But we now proceed to lay before our Readers a few extracts from this work, that they may be enabled to judge whether the cenfure, which, in juftice to them, we have thought ourselves obliged to pafs upon it, be too fevere or not.

In his firft chapter, the Doctor gives a short sketch of the Antediluvian Hiftory of Women; and here we meet with the following very inftructive note:

Various and ridiculous are the fables related by oriental writers concerning the creation of the first pair. We fhall only mention a few of those propagated by the Jewish Rabbies, whofe ancient legends equal, if not furpafs, in abfurdity, even thofe of more modera ages.-God, fay they, at first created Adam with a long tail; but afterward, on confidering him attentively, he thought he would look better without it: refolving, however, not to lose any thing that he had made, he cut it off, and formed it into a woman: and hence the fex derive their low and inferior nature. Others of them tell us, that the first human being was created double, of both fexes, and joined fide to fide: that God improving on his original plan, feparated the male from the female part, where they had been joined together, and made them into two diftinct beings; and that from hence arose the perpetual inclination of the fexes to join themselves together again.'

It muft, undoubtedly, be very edifying and amufing to a fair reader, of taste and delicacy, to be informed, especially by an old, nafty Jewish Rabbi, that Adam was at firft created with a long tail; and very comfortable, to be fure, to be told that God Almighty himself cut it off, in order to make Adam look the better.-We leave the ladies, who are, certainly, very competent judges of the beauty of the human figure, to make their own ftrictures on this paffage.

The Doctor proceeds, very methodically, in his fecond chapter, to treat of female education; and here he confiders the obftructions to education in the early ages-the fource of education-the progrefs of education and arts.-He talks about the Ægyptians, the Phoenicians, the Babylonians, the antient ftate of Europe, the Greek women, the Roman women, the women

of

of the northern nations, the French ladies, the education of the Eastern women, of the African women, the American women, the effects of chivalry, &c.-All this, gentle Reader, in one chapter.

Where fuch a variety of dishes are ferved up at once, the temperate guest will probably be fatisfied with one or two; we wish they were better dreffed, but we are not answerable for the cookery.

• After the discovery and conqueft of America, fays our Hiftorian, immenfe treasures had been conftantly imported from thence into Europe. From the trade carried on to the East and West Indies, to Africa, and other parts of the globe, perhaps ftill greater wealth had been accumulated; thefe at last beginning to operate, turned the minds of the greateft part of Europe from that fober and œconomical plan of life, to which their poverty and imperfect knowledge of trade and agriculture had fubjected them; and fubftituted in its place, gaiety, expence, and parade. Numbers of people, who perhaps, not in the most rigid paths of juftice, had acquired immenfo fortunes in the Eaft, tranfported themfelves back to Europe, bringing along with them all the arrogance of wealth, effeminacy of manners, and love of pageantry and show, for which the eastern nations have ever been remarkable. Thefe, and feveral other caufes combining together, totally changed the manners of Europe; and inftead of fober frugality, and other domestic virtues of the women, introduced luxury and diffipation; with a tafte for all the tinfel glare of unfubftantial trifles.

The French, who have always been remarkably diftinguished for vivacity and show, took the lead in this new mode of life, and foon diffeminated it all over Europe; which, for at leaft these two centuturies paft, has aukwardly imitated every light fashion and frippery of that volatile people, with little better fuccefs than a Bear dances a hornpipe, or a Monkey puts on the gravity of an alderman.

In France, were women firft introduced to court; their education, which before that introduction confifted in reading their own language, in learning needle-work, and the offices of domestic life, was then by degrees changed to vocal and inftrumental mufic, drawing, dancing, and dreffing in the most fashionable manner; to which we may add, the art of captivating and governing their men. This flimfy pattern was copied by every other nation: fome ftrokes of improvement were from time to time added by the French; till at laft almost every thing ufeful was boldly struck out from the plan of female education; and the women of the present age thereby robbed of more than half their native excellence, and rendered objects more fought after to divert a melancholy hour, or fatisfy a lawless paffion, than to become the focial partners of a life directed by reason and religion. We muft, however, allow, that the French ladies are not all fo much devoted to fashion and pleasure, as to neglect every thing elfe. France has produced feveral women diflinguished for their judgment and learning; and even in the prefent diffipated age, while female coteries commonly meet for diverfion, or for gaming, there are in Paris focieties of women, which meet at Rated times to determine

determine the merit of every new work; and happy is the author who meets their approbation; the French being too polite to fet themselves in open oppofition to the judgment of their ladies, whether they may think it right or wrong.

Should this imperfect attempt, to write the Hiftory of the Fair, furvive the prefent, and be read in any future generation, when this . frivolous mode of female education fhall have given place to a better, that our Readers may then have fome idea of what it was towards the close of the eighteenth century, we fhall juft fketch the outlines of it as now practifed in the politeft countries of Europe. Among the first leffons, which a mother teaches her daughter, is that important article, according to the modern phrafe, of holding up her head, and learning a proper carriage: this begins to be inculcated at the age of three or four at lateft; and is ftrenuously infifted on for many years afterward. When the young lady has learned imperfely to read her own language, and fometimes even fooner, fhe is fent to a boarding-fchool, where he is inftructed in the most flimfy and ufelefs parts of needle-work; while of thofe, which fhe must need, if ever the enters into domeftic life, fhe is left entirely ignorant. While the is here, fome part of her time is also allotted to learning to read either her own language, or the languages of fome of the neighbouring kingdoms; all of which are too frequently taught without a proper attention to Grammar or Orthography. Writing, and Arithmetic, likewife employ a part of her time; but thefe, particularly the laft, are only confidered as auxiliary accomplishments, which are not to be carried into life, and confequently deserve but little attention; the grand effort is generally made to teach the girl what the woman will relinquifh; fuch as drawing, mufic, and danIcing; thefe, as they are arts agreeable to youthful fprightliness, often engage the young lady fo much, as to make her neglect, or forget every thing elfe. To thefe are added, the modes of dreffing in fashion, the punctilios of behaving in company; and we are forry to fay, that into fome fchools have been introduced mafters to teach the fashionable games at cards; a diffipation, if not a vice, which already prevails too much among both fexes, and may perhaps still gain ground by this early initiation.

Such, in general, is the education of female boarding-schools; in fome, indeed, there may be a few other things taught besides those we have mentioned; but whatever be taught, or however they be conducted, it is too true, that the girl, after having been there fome years, comes home to her parents quite a modern fine lady; with her head full of fcraps of French, names of great people, and quotations from romances and plays; and quite difgufted at the antiquated virtues of fober frugality, order, or œconomy. We cannot cait our eyes on the picture we have now drawn, without a fecret wifh, that it were lefs juft; nor fhall we drop the curtain before it, without mentioning with pleasure, that fome parents adopt a better plan; and that fome young ladies, even thus educated, have had understanding enough to lay afide the greatest part of the abovementioned frippery, and cultivate fuch knowledge, and fuch virtues, as are ornamental to fociety, and ufeful to themselves.' Ee

REV. Dec. 1779.

Such,

Such, with a few trifling variations, our Author fays, is the common courfe of European education.-We shall not anticipate the obfervations which every well-informed reader must neceffarily make upon what the Doctor advances, but proceed to fhew in what a philofophical and ingenious manner he treats the following very curious fubject:

From the earlicit ages, fays he, dancing appears to have been either a religious or an imitative exercife; David danced before the ark of the Lord, the Philiftines danced before Dagon, many of the contemporary nations frequently danced at their folemn meetings, in their groves, and on their high places; the Greeks did the fame at fome of the festivals celebrated in honour of their gods; and the travellers of our own times give us numberless accounts of the dancings of the favages before their idols. So different, however, are the ideas we have formed of religion, that we are apt to confider dancing as altogether inconfitent with its folemnity; but, perhaps, thofe who thought o herwife, introduced it as a fign of gratitude and thankfulness, for health, vigour, and agility; and, to fhew the gods, that they were cheerful and happy in the enjoyment of their bleffings, and under the adminiftration of their government; and proceeding from fuch fentiments in the worshippers, it could not be to the gods an unacceptable fervice. It has likewife been much used in an imitative or fymbolical manner. The Indians dance their wardance, to fhew the strength, the agility, and ferocity they can exert in battle; and the women we have mentioned indecently dance, what may be called their love-dance, to fhew how well they are qualified for the rapturous enjoyments of that paffion; and it is only in the polite countries of Europe that we dance purely for the fake of dancing. If rude and barbarous nations make their dances expreffive of their employments and their feelings; it is worth confidering, whether we might not improve on the plan, and add fentiment and expreffion to what we at prefent only look upon as frolic and amufement.'

In fpeaking of the Grecian women, he makes the following fage obfervation, that though the Greeks were eminent in arts, though they were illuftrious in arms, in politeness, and elegance of manners, the highest pitch to which they ever arrived, was only a few degrees above favage barbarity.-Now, how a people could be eminent in arts, illuftrious in arms, in politeness, and elegance of manners, and yet be only a few degrees above favage barbarity, we own, far exceeds our comprehenfion.-His general idea of the Greeks, in another part of his work, is as follows:

Of this fo much diftinguished, fo much admired people, who, for many ages, fhone fo illuftrious in arts and arms, and whofe panegyric has been founded fo loud in ancient and in modern history; we fincerely with that a regard for truth did not oblige us to give fo indifferent a character. But when we have faid that they thone in arts and arms, we have completed their eulogium. When we con