sively studied, when the unfortunate females who lack the
consolations of matronhood are in so far greater want of sustainment; and
that all the theories of the perfectionizement of the fair sex now issuing
from the press, should purport to instruct young ladies how to qualify
themselves for wives, and wives how to qualify themselves for heaven; and
not a word addressed, either in the way of exhortation, remonstrance, or
applause, to the highly respectable order of the female community whose
cause I have taken on myself to advocate. Have not the wives of England
husbands to whisper wisdom into their ears? Why, then, are _they_ to be
coaxed or lectured by tabby-bound volumes, while _we_ are left neglected
in a corner? _Our_ earthly career, the Lord he knows, is far more
trying--_our_ temptations as much greater, as our pleasures are less; and
it is mortifying indeed to find our behavior a thing so little worth
interference. We may conduct ourselves, it seems, as indecorously as we
think proper, for any thing the united booksellers of the United Kingdom
care to the contrary!

Not that I very much wonder at literary men regarding the education of
wives as a matter of moment. The worse halves of Socrates, Milton, Hooker,
have been thorns in their sides, urging them into blasphemy against the
sex. But is this a reason, I only ask you, for leaving, like an
uncultivated waste, that holy army of martyrs, the spinsterhood of Great
Britain?

Mr Editor, act like a man! Speak up for us! Write up for us! Tell these
little writers of little books, that however they may think to secure
dinners and suppers to themselves, by currying favour with the rulers of
the roast, _the greatest of all women have been_ SINGLE! Tell them of our
Virgin Queen, Elizabeth--the patroness of their calling, the protectress
of learning and learned men. Tell them of Joan of Arc, the conqueror of
even English chivalry. Tell them of all the tender mercies of the _Soeurs
de Charite_! Tell them that, from the throne to the hospital, the spinster,
unharassed by the cares of private life, has been found most fruitful in
public virtue.

Then, perhaps, you will persuade them that we are worth our schooling; and
the "Old Maids of England" may look forward to receive a tabby-bound
manual of their duties, as well as its "Wives." I have really no patience
with the selfish conceit of these married women, who fancy their
well-doing of such importance. See how they were