SECTION XI. agy and religion, yet they have not a wish beyond the liberties which they daily enjoy. Phronissa, when her daughters were little children, used to spend some hours daily in the nursery, and taught the young creatures to recite many a pretty passage out of the bible, before they were capable of reading it themselves ; yet at six years old they read the scriptures with ease, and then they rejoiced to find the same stories in Genesis and in the gospels which their mother had taught them before. As their years advanced, they were admitted into the best conversation, and had such books put into their hands, as might acquaint them with the rules of prudence and piety in an easy and familiar way : the reading the lives of eminent persons who were examples of this kind, was one of the daily methods she used, at once to instruct and entertain them. By such means, and others which she wisely adapted to their advancing age, they had all the knowledge bestowed upon them that could be supposed proper for women, and that might render their character honourable and useful in the world. As for plays and romances, they were ever bred up in a just apprehension of the danger and mischief of them : Collier's View of the Stage was early put into their closets, that they might learn there the hideous immorality and profaneness of tiie Eng- lish comedies ; and by the way, he forbids us to hope from our tragical poets a much -safer entertainment. There they might read enough to forbid their attendances on the playhouse, and see the poison exposed, without danger of the infection. The servants that waited on them, and the books that were left within their reach, were such as never corrupted their minds with impure words or images. Long has Phronissa known that domestic virtues are the bu- siness and the honour of her sex. .Nature and history agree to assure her, that the conduct of the household is committed to the women, and the precepts and examples of scripture confirio it. She educated her daughters therefore in constant acquaintance with all family affairs, and they knew betimes what belonged to the provisions of the table, and the furniture of every room.. Though her circumstances were considerable in the world, yet, by her own example, she made her children know, that a fre- quent visit to the kitchen was not beneath their state, nor the . common menial affairs too rneau for their notice ; that they might be able hereafter to manage their own house, and not be directed, imposed upon, and perhaps ridiculed by their own servants. They were initiated early in the science of the needle, and were bred up skilful in all the plain and flowery arts of it ; but it was never made a task nor a toil to them, nor did they waste their hours in these nice and tedious works, Which cost our fe- male ancestors seven years of their life, and stitches without num-
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