H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

Ifcelle eftoille ne fe muet,

Un arts font qui ne mentir ne puet
Par la vertu de la Manete,
Une pierre laide er brunete,
Ou li fers volontiers fe joint,
Ont refgardent lors droit point.
Puez c'une aguile l'ont touchie,
Et en un feftu l'ont fichie,
En langue la mette fens plus,
Et li feftuiz la tient defus;
Puis fe torne la pointe toute
Contre l'eftoille fens doubte;
Quant li nuis eft tenebre et brüne,
Con ne voit eftoille ne lüne;
Lor font a l' aguille alūmer,
Puiz ne puent il affarrer
Contre l'eftoille vers la pointe.
Por ce fort li marinier cointe
De la droite voie tenir :

C'est uns ars qui ne puet mentir.

Literal Tranflation.

This ftar is unchangeable †,

But there is an art which cannot err,
By the virtue of the Magnet,
A ftone, ugly and brown in colour,
To which iron kindly unites,

And points then right to that direction.
As foon as a needle has been touched,
And properly fixed upon a pivot,
It fets itself in motion immediately,
And the pivot holding it in balance,
It turneth itself to the precife point,
Directed towards the ftar without doubt
When the night is dark and brown,

When one fees nor ftar nor moon,

Then one betakes oneself to the needle as a beacon,

Since this cannot go aftray

In turning itself to the point of the star.

By this is the mariner made acquainted

With the right way to hold:

This is an art that cannot err.

* Alluding, no doubt, to the polear.

SIR

To the Editor of the Bee.

On female Education."

I AM the Sophia who troubled you fome time ago with a fummary of my history under the title of a fortunate daughter of idleness, and fome further thoughts on female education.

I have good reafon to confider education, when properly conducted, as the panacea of the moral difpenfary; and as it has in general been miferably neglected in all ages and all countries with respect to my fex, I have little doubt of your female readers paying fome attention to my method of educating my daughter Alathea, as it was undertaken in confequence of my own experience, set forth in my remarks on the differtation on the art of idleness, and may be particularly useful to those who are still in doubt with respect to the propriety of treating us women as rational creatures.

In the fixth year of my fecond marriage, I found myself poffeffed of three daughters, all of whom I had fuckled myself, and I had no other children; fo that I began to grow uneafy about the future fortunes of a great fleece of miffes, that my foreboding difpofition led me to expect, I imparted my uneafinefs to my dear Eugenius: We were walking out together in a lovely fummer evening, and we ftopped to look at foine fwallows teaching their little brood to fly, forcing them from the eves of a houfe where they neftled; the parents twittering and fluttering, and banging with their wings, and the little ones chirping and returning to the nest.

O my dear friend, faid 1, would that we were like fwallows; but how do you think we fhall ever be able to manage our children this way? I fear I fhall never be able to teach my little hen fwallows to catch flies and shift for themfelves when they become too big for the nest.

My husband then cafting upon me a look of inexpreffible fenfe and benevolence, and gently squeezing my hand faid to me, my deareft Sophia, you have performed hitherto the part of the old hen fo exactly according to nature, that you have only to go on by her instructions and all will be well; hereafter you will teach your young fwallows to be independent, and to catch flies for themselves. Continuing our delightful walk, our converfation was fixed on the subject of female education: My dear Sophia, faid Eugenius, it is difficult indeed for us to teach that which we ourfelves have not been taught either by experience or institution; but you have been taught by the firft and the beft, and disregarding the prejudices of fociety, you will form the minds of your daughters to virtue, induftry, rational curiofity, refpectable employment, to happiness and heaven. You know very well, that the foibles which we men afcribe to the fex, are not inherent, but artificial; they have sprung from the vicious nature of civil governments, from our jealoufies, and from our careleff nefs to remove them ;'I might say from our difpofition to fofter and increase them for our glory and your abafeWomen, it is faid, from the relaxed and feeble nature of their conftitution, are incapable of high mental attainments; they are cowardly, revengeful, obftinate, inquifitive, fenfual, diffipated and idle, fond of dress and show, of change of place, of admiration of their perfonal charms only. The poet has fatirically faid,

ment.

"Some men to business, some to pleasure take,
"But every woman is at heart a rake."

All these defects and vices, fuppofing them to be true in their utmost extent with refpect to women, are to be traced to neglect, or vicious education.

All weak creatures not provided with natural defence, must be cowardly; cowardice begets revenge, and cunning devises the way to bring it to bear. Obffinacy and ignorance must ever be infeparable in men as well as women. Curiofity is an inherent principle, and when divested of knowledge and prudence, and unfupported by science, it must be foolish, troublesome, and violent. Senfual pleasure is a real good, the defire of it is inherent in our nature, and it must remain our chief good till we find a better, and that better cannot be attained but by philofophy and intellectual refinement. Appetite predominates in all children, in savages, and in all ill educated men as well as women. As to diffipation, idlenefs, love of fhow, of dress, change of place, and every kind of amusement, these are the neceffary confequences of the whetting and refining of appetite, without being poffeffed of the powers of higher enjoyment; and as to the defire of admiration for perfonal charms, how fhould it be otherwife, when all other ambition is induftrioufly excluded by the nature of your education, or by the prepofterous prejudices of fociety.

My dear Sophia, educate your daughters on principles oppofite to these foibles and vices, and make them like yourfelf. You will then establish a foundation for the happiness of the men who fhall have them for wives or mothers; and if they shall never be married, they will become refpectable ufeful women, and indifferent about the old curfe of leading apes on the other fide of the Styx.

O my dearest Eugenius, faid I, you have lifted me up into the third heaven ; I will endeavour to fulfil your flattering defire.

My eldest daughter Alathea had now completed her fifth year; healthy, beautiful and good natured, but without any extraordinary appearance of capacity. I fet myself to confider the most effectual way of teachVOL. III.

t

L1

1

ing the lovely" young ideas how to fhoot" in the mind of my daughter.

I confidered with the excellent Dr. Beattie, that the mental faculties of children ftand as much in need of improvement, and confequently of excercise, as their bodily powers: That it is of high importance to devise some mode of discipline to fix their attention; and that, when this is not done, they become thoughtless and diffipated to a degree, that generally unfits them for the bufinefs of life.

I adopted the inherent and ftrong principle of curiofity, as the basis of my power, and influence over the mind of my pupil. I did not trouble her with maxims and lectures, but infufed knowledge in proportion to the defire of it, which I took every poffible way to excite.

The defire I had to keep a genteel good table for my hufband at a moderate expence, made me particularly attentive to the garden, dairy, and poultry, and all thofe advantages which are furnished to a good housewife in the country. Alathea and her fifter (for the youngest was quite an infant) generally attended me in these occupations, and they produced thousands of little questions, all of which I aufwered in a manner fuited to their capacities, drawing from them inferences in the fame manner, that were perfectly understood, and afforded infinite pleasure.

Mamma, faid Alathea one day, what is the reason that my pretty crested hen has forgotten her chickens that fhe was fo fond of long ago, and is going along like a fool with the ducklings. My dear, I will tell you how this happens; the henwife cheated her, and put the duck's eggs into her neft, and she thought the eggs were. her own, and hatched them; by and bye the ducks will take the water, and the hen will forfake them. A hen would not do this if he were at home and had learnt to shift for herself in the fields by gathering feeds and corn, but we have brought hens about the house, and

« TrướcTiếp tục »