he duel, more than those meek and passive virtues which we all agreed
were peculiarly Christian, and peculiarly feminine.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

In the afternoon, when the company were assembled in the drawing-room,
the conversation turned on various subjects. Mr. Flam, feeling as if he
had not sufficiently produced himself at dinner now took the lead. He
was never solicitous to show what he called his learning, but when Miss
Sparkes was present, whom it was his grand delight to _set down_ as he
called it. Then he never failed to give broad hints that if he was now
no great student, it was not from ignorance, but from the pressure of
more indispensable avocations.

He first rambled into some desultory remarks on the absurdity of the
world, and the preposterousness of modern usages, which perverted the
ends of education, and exalted things which were of least use into most
importance.

"You seem out of humor with the world, Mr. Flam," said Mr. Stanley. "I
hate the world," returned he. "It is indeed," replied Mr. Stanley, "a
scene of much danger, because of much evil."

"I don't value the danger a straw," rejoined Mr. Flam; "and as to the
evil, I hope I have sense enough to avoid that: but I hate it for its
folly, and despise it for its inconsistency."

"In what particulars, Mr. Flam?" said Sir John Belfield.

"In every thing," replied he. "In the first place, don't people educate
their daughters entirely for holidays, and then wonder that they are of
no use? Don't they charge them to be modest, and then teach them every
thing that can make them bold? Are we not angry that they don't attend
to great concerns, after having instructed them to take the most pains
for the least things? There is my Fan, now, they tell me she can dance
as well as a posture mistress, but she slouches in her walk like a
milkmaid. Now as she seldom dances, and is always walking, would it not
be more rational to teach her to do that best which she is to do the
oftenest? She sings like a siren, but 'tis only to strangers. I, who
paid for it, never hear her voice. She is always warbling in a distant
room, or in every room where there is company; but if I have the gout
and want to be amused, she is as dumb as a dormouse."

"So much for the errors in educating our daughters," said Sir John, "now
for the sons."

"As to our boys," returned Mr. Flam, "don't we educate them in one
religion, and then expect them to practice another? Don't we cra