those qualities in which her claim to excellence does not consist."* But if we are superior in some of the faculties of mind, you are superior in others. If we have more vigour, you have more acuteness; if we have more perseverance, you have more penetration; if we have more inflexibility you have more feeling. We each excel in those talents which qualify us for our respective stations and duties, and it will display more wisdom to cultivate them than to contend for the palm of sexual superiority.

It is obvious to an intelligent observer, that you possess intellectual powers which are capable of great improvement. But this improvement is neither so general nor so rapid as it ought to be. To what cause must this be referred? Unquestionably to some radical defect in the mode of your education, and the permanent impressions which it produces. Finding that the acquisitions which you have made are sufficient for all the purposes of social intercourse, you deem a close attention to a course of intellectual reading and reflection, either as unnecessary or improper. You suppose, that it would be singular for a female, who does not aspire to the

Miss Moore.

Lonour of literary fame, to consume much of her time in her study; and though you may admit that extensive knowledge may be serviceable on some occasions, yet the sacrifice of health and of delicacy which its attainment requires, is too costly for you to make.

These objections, while they operate on the mind, render its improvement almost impossible. To overcome them is an achievement which you must effect, if you wish to acquire any degree of intellectual eminence. And are there not sufficient inducements to rouse your energies? The first which I shall notice, is the importance of that portion of time which falls between your leaving school, and your final settlement in life. Some imagine that when they have left school they are to abandon all attention to subsequent improvement, having finished their education; and though they sometimes read, yet it is only for amusement. Such a decision is the most injurious which you can form. It enervates the strongest mental powers, and fixes a boundary to their excursions beyond which they are forbidden to pass. At school the mere elements of knowledge were acquired, and now is the eventful time, to reduce them to a regular sys-tem of progressive operation.

You may probably look back with some strong emotions of regret, on the countless moments of mis-spent time during the period you were professedly receiving instruction, and conclude that if that period could return, you would apply with ten-fold ardour, but let me advise you not to increase their number, by neglecting the advantages which you now possess. A portion of your present time ought, certainly, to be devoted to, domestic duties, that you may be qualified to superintend the internal economy of a family, but as you are likely to occupy one of the most conspicuous stations in a household, and to move in a circle which includes within it, the intelligent as well as the polite, it is of the greatest importance to your future respectability that you should now enrich your mind with the treasures of knowledge. Your progress will be much more rapid than during former years, and though it will not be unattended by difficulties, yet they will diminish as you advance.

The gratification which you will feel in untying some knotty question, in lighting on some novel discovery, in visiting, through the medium of history, the places which have given birth to the greatest exploits and characters which adorn its pages; in springing some rich mine of intel

lectual thought, will repay the fatigue of labour, and be more permanent, because more innocent, 'than the pleasure arising from fashionable indulgencies. Impelled by an ardent desire to extend the range of your mental vision, you will not, like many of our modern females, dread retirement as the child does the darkness of the night, but hail it as the season of your most refined enjoyments.

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Conscious that knowledge and piety constitute the most valuable ornaments of your character, you will not neglect the means which Providence has ordained for their acquisition. each succeeding day will be accompanied by some peculiar circumstance to engross your attention, you will not permit the hours of the present to pass by unimproved, from a delusive expectation that the next will be more favourable to the attainment of your desire. But if under the fatal influence of an inordinate attachment to company or amusements, or from a positive inertness of mind, you should allow this springtime of your existence to elapse without attending to your mental culture, you may regret it to the close of life. In that state of union and domestic care to which you are probably hastening, the multiplicity and variety of your engagements

will absolutely preclude an attention to close or systematic study; and pangs, not less acute than those which Moses felt, when he saw his coun trymen dancing before an idol, rather than observing the precepts of heavenly wisdom, may be the just reward of your conduct.

The facility with which it will enable you to discharge the duties that are likely to devolve on you, is another reason which ought to induce you to attend to your intellectual improvement. If the law of Providence prohibit you from filling the more prominent and responsible stations in Society, it has ordained that you shall occupy stations equally conducive to its general welfare. If you are not to preside in the senate, you are to superintend the affairs of the family; if you are not to instruct from the pulpit, you are ià the parlour to communicate the rudiments of knowledge to the Ministers and Senators of a future age; if you are not to administer justice from the bench, you are to enforce the laws of order and economy within your own jurisdiction.

An aspiring female, who is anxious to ascend the pinnacle of fashion, and to command the admiration of the gazing multitude, may regard these duties as common place, which require no exertion of the intellectual powers. She sup