77
ON TRUE AND FALSE MEEKNESS 107
ON EDUCATION 123
ON RELIGION 158
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS ON WIT 178

INTRODUCTION.

IT is with the utmost diffidence that the following pages are submitted
to the inspection of the Public: yet, however the limited abilities of
the author may have prevented her from succeeding to her wish in the
execution of her present attempt, she humbly trusts that the uprightness
of her intention will procure it a candid and favourable reception. The
following little Essays are chiefly calculated for the younger part of
her own sex, who, she flatters herself, will not esteem them the less,
because they were written immediately for their service. She by no means
pretends to have composed a regular system of morals, or a finished plan
of conduct: she has only endeavoured to make a few remarks on such
circumstances as seemed to her susceptible of some improvement, and on
such subjects as she imagined were particularly interesting to young
ladies, on their first introduction into the world. She hopes they will
not be offended if she has occasionally pointed out certain qualities,
and suggested certain tempers, and dispositions, as _peculiarly
feminine_, and hazarded some observations which naturally arose from the
subject, on the different characters which mark the sexes. And here
again she takes the liberty to repeat that these distinctions cannot be
too nicely maintained; for besides those important qualities common to
both, each sex has its respective, appropriated qualifications, which
would cease to be meritorious, the instant they ceased to be
appropriated. Nature, propriety, and custom have prescribed certain
bounds to each; bounds which the prudent and the candid will never
attempt to break down; and indeed it would be highly impolitic to
annihilate distinctions from which each acquires excellence, and to
attempt innovations, by which both would be losers.

WOMEN therefore never understand their own interests so little, as when
they affect those qualities and accomplishments, from the want of which
they derive their highest merit. "The _porcelain_ clay of human kind,"
says an admired writer, speaking of the sex. Greater delicacy evidently
implies greater fragility; and this weakness, natural and moral, clearly
points out the necessity of a superior degree of caution, retirement,
and reserve.

IF the author may be allowed to