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both to fingle and matrimonial life in that part of his performance in which, whether it relates chiefly to the married or to the unmarried, they feverally will beft accord with the general fcheme already fettled. I have to requeft my readers of all defcriptions, uniformly to bear in mind, that fuch is the principle on which I have proceeded.

As my concern in the prefent work is with the female fex, an error or temptation becomes entitled to notice, when it is one to which women are exposed, though they should not be exposed to it in a greater degree than the other fex. In animadverting on fubjects of this defcription, I may not always have obferved, when the obfervation would have been well-founded, that the animadverfion might be extended to men. Sometimes too, in speaking of failings which prevail in the female world, I may not have exprefsly ftated, when I might have stated with truth, that there

is a large number of individuals who are exempt from them. Let not the former omiffion be afcribed to partiality, nor the latter to the injustice of indiscriminate cenfure. I have been generally folicitous to exprefs myself, fo as to preclude the poffibility of fuch fufpicions. But it may be better even to incur a fmall risk of occafional misconstruction, than to weary the reader with the perpetual recurrence of qualifying and explanatory phrases.

Some of the obfervations advanced in the subsequent chapters will not, I trust, appear to the generality of those who may peruse them, the less deserving of regard, in confequence of being deduced from fcriptural authority. To such perfons as, rejecting that authority, have imbibed opinions concerning female duties, and the standard of female excellence, at variance with thofe which Christianity inculcates, let me be permitted to recommend, antecedently to every ftudy and to

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every pursuit, a deliberate and candid examination of the evidence of a religion, which furnishes the wifeft rules of conduct for this life, as well as grounds of hope and confolation in looking forward to another.

CHAP. II.

GENERAL GROUNDS OF THE IMPORT-
ANCE OF THE FEMALE CHARACTER

BRIEFLY STATED.

IN

N the courfe of a work which purposes to investigate somewhat at length the feveral duties of the female fex, the importance of the female character will naturally disclose itself. It is not by attending to formal and ftudied panegyric, but by confidering in detail the various and momentous duties, to the discharge of which,

women are called both by reafon and revelation, that the influence of feminine virtues is rendered moft confpicuous. It is thus too that the responsibility attached to that influence in all its branches, in all its minutest capacities of being beneficially employed, will be placed in the strongest

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light; a circumftance of no fmall weight with regard to precluding the emotions of arrogance and the confidence of felf-fufficiency, which are ever likely to be produced by fimple eulogium. The general contempt, therefore, which is fometimes. manifested respecting women by perfons of the other fex, and moft frequently by perfons who are unworthy or incapable of forming a judgement concerning those whom they profess to defpife, would not have induced me to make any preliminary obfervations on the subject. There is, however, a prejudice which it is defirable to remove without delay, because it is found to exift in female minds, and unavoidably contributes, in proportion to its ftrength, to extinguish the defire of improvement, and to repress useful exertion. The fact is this. Young women endowed with good understandings, but defirous of juftifying the mental indolence which they have permitted themselves to indulge; or difappointed at not perceiving a way open

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