e absurd notions which half-a-century ago deprived English
ladies of education altogether, should be consigned to everlasting
oblivion and contempt--not only that the system to which France is
indebted for its Du Deffauds, Pompadours, and Du Barrys should be
extinguished, but that principles well adapted to the habits and
intelligence of man, in the most civilized state in which he has ever yet
existed, should prevail among us, should float upon the very atmosphere we
breathe, and be circulated in every vein that traverses the mighty fabric
of society. Therefore it is, because we are deeply impressed with this
conviction, that we hail with delight the appearance of a work so
profound, eloquent, and judicious; combining in so rare an union so many
kinds of excellence, as that which we now propose to the consideration of
our readers. Since the days of Smith and Montesquieu, no more valuable
addition has been made to moral science; and though the good taste and
modesty of its author, has induced her to put, in the least obtrusive
form, the wisdom and erudition--the least fragment of which would have
furnished forth a host of modern Sciolists with the most ostentatious
paragraphs--the deep thought and nervous eloquence by which almost every
page of the volume before us is illustrated, sufficiently establish her
title to rank among the most distinguished writers of this age and
country. If, indeed, we were ungrateful enough to quarrel with any part of
a work, the perusal of which has afforded us so much gratification, we
should be disposed (in deference, however, rather to the opinions of
others than our own) to alter the title that is prefixed to it. Many a
grave and pompous gentleman, who is "free to confess," and "does not
hesitate to utter" the dullest and most obvious commonplaces, would sit
down to the perusal of a work entitled, "On the Government of
Dependencies," or "Sermons on the Functions of Archdeacons and Rural
Deans," though never so deficient in learning, vigour, and originality,
who will reject with the supercilious ignorance of incurable stupidity,
these volumes, in which the habits, the interests, the inalienable rights,
the sacred duties of one half of the species, (and of that half to which,
at the most pliant and critical period of life, the health, the
disposition, the qualities, moral and intellectual, of the other half must
of necessity be confided,) are discussed with exemplary fairness, and
placed in