hurry them into marriages terminating in unhappiness.

In addition to the regular habit of useful reading, the custom of committing to the memory select and ample portions of poetic compofitions, not for the purpose of oftentatiously quoting them in mixed company, but for the fake of private improvement, deferves, in confequence of its beneficial tendency, to be mentioned with a very high degree of praise. The mind is thus ftored with a lafting treasure of fentiments and ideas, combined by writers of transcendent genius and vigorous imagination; clothed in appropriate, nervous, and glowing language; and impreffed by the powers of cadence and harmony. Let the poetry, however, be well chofen. Let it be fuch as elevates the heart with the ardour of devotion; adds energy and grace to precepts of morality; kindles benevolence by pathetic narrative and reflection; enters with natural and lively defcription into the varieties of character;

character; or prefents vivid pictures of what is grand or beautiful in the scenery of nature. Such are in general the works of Milton, of Thomson, of Gray, of Mafon, and of Cowper. It is thus that the beauty and grandeur of nature will be contemplated with new pleasure. It is thus that taste will be called forth, exercised, and corrected. It is thus that judgement will be strengthened, virtuous emotions cherished, piety animated and exalted. At all times, and under every circumftance, the heart, penetrated with religion, will delight itself in the recollection of paffages, which display the perfections of that Being on whom it trufts, and the glorious hopes to the accomplishment of which it humbly looks forward. When affliction weighs down the fpirits, or fickness the ftrength, it is then that the cheering influence of that recollection will be doubly felt. When old age, difabling the fufferer from the frequent use of books, obliges the mind to turn inward upon itfelf; the memory, long retentive, even in its decay, of the acquifitions which it had attained

attained and valued in its early vigour, ftill suggests the lines which have again and again diffused rapture through the bosom of health, and are yet capable of overfpreading the hours of decrepitude and the couch of pain with confolation.

But it is not from books alone that a confiderate young woman is to feek her gratifications. The discharge of relative duties, and the exercise of benevolence form additional fources of activity and enjoyment. To give delight in the affectionate intercourse of domestic society; to relieve a parent in the fuperintendence of family affairs; to smooth the bed of ficknefs, and cheer the decline of age; to examine into the wants and diftreffes of the female inhabitants of the neighbourhood; to promote useful inftitutions for the comfort of mothers, and for the instruction of children; and to give to thofe inftitutions. that degree of attention, which, without requiring either much time or much perfonal trouble, will facilitate their establishment

and

and extend their usefulnefs: thefe are em-› ployments congenial to female fympathy; employments in the precife line of female duty; employments which diffufe genuine and lafting confolation among those whom they are defigned to benefit, and never fail to improve the heart of her who is engaged in them.

In pointing out what ought to be done, let juftice be rendered to what has been done, In the discharge of the domeftic offices of kindness, and in the exercife of charitable and friendly regard to the neighbouring poor, women in general are exemplary. In the latter branch of Christian virtue, an acceffion of energy has been witnessed within a few years. Many ladies have fhewn, and ftill continue to fhew, their earnest folicitude for the welfare of the wretched and the ignorant, by spontaneously establishing schools of industry and of religious instruction; and with a ftill more beneficial warmth of benevolence, have taken the regular inspection of them upon themfelves. May they ftedfaftly

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faftly perfevere, and be imitated by num bers!

Among the employments of time, which, though regarded with due attention by many young women, are more or lefs neglected by a confiderable number, moderate exercise in the open air claims to be noticed. Sedentary confinement in hot apartments on the one hand, and public diverfions frequented, on the other, in buildings ftill more crowded and ftifling, are often permitted fo to occupy the time as by degrees even to wear away the relish for the freshnefs of a pure atmosphere, for the beauties and amufements of the garden, and for thofe "rural fights and rural founds," which delight the mind uncorrupted by idlenefs, folly, or vice. Enfeebled health, a capricious temper, low and irritable spirits, and the lofs of many pure and continually recurring enjoyments, are among the confequences of fuch misconduct.

But though books obtain their reasonable portion of the day, though health has been

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confulted,