So, near a forest tall, some worthless flower Still, as from famed Ilyssus' classic shore, The valleys listen, and their swains rejoice; We rage, we sigh, we wonder and adore. Thus Rome, with Greece, in rival splendour shone, But claimed immortal satire for her own; While Horace, pierced, full oft, the wanton breast And that Etrurian, whose indignant lay With many a well aimed thought, and pointed line, But soon the arts, once more, a dawn diffuse, And Danté hail'd it with his morning Muse; Petrarch and Boccace joined the choral lay, And Arno glisten'd with returning day. Thus science rose; and, all her troubles passed, The poet wonder'd and the critic smiled; Touched with the mania, now, what millions rage To shine the laureat blockheads of the age. The dire contagion creeps thro' every grade, Girls, coxcombs, peers, and patriots drive the trade: And e'en the hind, his fruitful fields forgot, For rhyme and misery leaves his wife and cot. Ere, to his breast, the watchful mischief spread, Content and plenty cheer'd his little shed; And, while no thoughts of state perplex'd his mind, He laughed at toil, with health and vigour bless'd; No love to foster, no dear friend to wrong, Wild as the mountain flood, they drive along: And sweep, remorseless, every social bloom To the dark level of an endless tomb. By arms assailed, we still can arms oppose, And save the world from Darwin's tinsel lay. FEMALE EDUCATION. BY DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. Ir is agreeable to observe how differently modern writers, and the inspired author of the proverbs, describe a fine woman. The former confine their praises chiefly to personal charms, and ornamental accomplishments, while the latter celebrates only the virtues of a valuable mistress of a family, and a useful member of society. The one is perfectly acquainted with all the fashionable languages of Europe; the other, "opens her mouth with wisdom" and is perfectly acquainted with all the uses of the needle, the distaff, and the loom. The business of the one, is pleasure; the pleasure of the other, is business. The one is admired abroad; the other is honoured and beloved at home. "Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also and he praiseth her." There is no fame in the world equal to this; nor is there a note in music half so delightful, as the respectful language with which a grateful son or daughter perpetuates the memory of a sensible and affectionate mother. It should not surprise us that British customs, with respect to female education, have been transplanted into our American schools and families. We see marks of the same incongruity, of time and place, in many other things. We behold our houses accommodated to the climate of Great Britain, by eastern and western directions. We behold our ladies panting in a heat of ninety degrees, under a hat and cushion, which were calculated for the temperature of a British summer. We behold our citizens condemned and punished by a criminal law, which was copied from a country where maturity in corruption renders public executions a part of the amusements of the nation. It is high time to awake from this servility to study our own character to examine the age of our country-and to adopt manners in every thing, that shall be accommodated to our state of society, and to the forms of our government. In particular it is incumbent upon us to make ornamental accomplishments, yield to principles and knowledge, in the education of our wo men. A philosopher once said "let me make all the ballads of a country and I care not who makes its laws." He might with more propriety have said, let the ladies of a country be educated properly, and they will not only make and administer its laws, but form its manners and character. It would require a lively imagination to describe, or even to comprehend, the happiness of a country, where knowledge and virtue, were generally diffused among the female sex. Our young men would then be restrained from vice by the terror of being banished from their company. The loud laugh and the malignant smile, at the expense of innocence, or of personal infirmities-the feats of successful mimicry-and the low priced wit, which is borrowed from a misapplication of scripture phrases, would no more be considered as recommendations to the society of the ladies. A double entendre, in their presence, would then exclude a gentleman for ever from the company of both sexes, and probably oblige him to seek an asylum from contempt, in a foreign country. The influence of female education |