ally delivered in the council or in the field. Thucydides declares that thofe in his hiftory were of this defcription, and we have reason to think, that the greater part of the orations in Xenophon and Salluft proceeded, at leaft in fubftance, from the eminent perfons to whom they are attributed." With refpect to the fpeeches of Thucydides, we are inclined to think that they were chiefly drawn from the fources of his own mind, and are no more the fpeeches of the persons into whose mouths they are put, than those drawn up by Dr. Johnson were delivered by the parliamentary orators of the day. But let fcholars judge for themselves from the following paffage of the Greek hiftorian. « Καὶ ὅσα μὲν λόγῳ εἶπον ἕκασοι, ἤ μέλλοντες πολεμήσειν, ἢ ἐν ἀυτῷ ἤδη ὄντες, χαλεπὸν τὴν ἀκρίβειαν αυτὴν τῶν λεχθένων διαμνημονεύσας ἦν ἐμοί τε ὧν ἀυἱὸς ἤκεσα, καὶ τοῖς ἀλλοθέν ποθεν ἐμοὶ ἀπαγέλλωσιν· ὡς δ ̓ ἂν ἐδόκων μοὶ ἕκατοὶ περὶ τῶν ἀὲι παρόλων τὰ δέοντα μάλισα ἐιπεῖν, ἐχομένῳ ὅτι ἐγγύτατα τῆς ξυμπάσης γνώμης τῶν ἀληθῶς λεχθέλων, ὅπως ἔιρηται. L. 1. c. 22. P. 17. Ed Duker. We must here clofe our obfervations for the present on this elegant publication, referving what we have further to offer upon it for a future number: [To be continued.] ART. II. Letters to a Young Lady, in which the Duties and Character of Women are confidered, chiefly with a Reference to prevailing Opinions. By Mrs. Weft, Author of Letters to a Young Man, &c. 3 vols. 12mo. 11. 1s. Longman and Co. 1806. THE HE author of thefe letters has had a full fhare of the public favour, and has truly deserved it. She has deferved it from the fpirit, the variety, and the excellent tendency of her publications. We were among the first to cheer her on her way, and we are glad to animate her in her future progrefs. Like her preceding works, this alfo is unexceptionable --indeed highly important in its object. But we must frankly acknowledge, that we have difcerned lefs of care and polish in her compofition, and occafionally an inflation of flyle, with fomething S s SRIT. ORIT, VOL, XXVIII, DEC. 1806. fomething not altogether unlike affectation, which does not appear to belong to Mrs. Weft. We fhould be forry to fuppofe, that fuccefs has at all abated her care. It is time, however, to give the reader an account of what may be expected from the prefent publication. Having obtained confiderable and deferved praife from her work relative to the employments, accomplishments, and duties of young men, the author was naturally advised by her friends to make the character and duties of her own fex the fubject of a feparate and fimilar publication. This fhe has accordingly done in the form of letters to a young female friend. It conveys, indeed, a moft refined compliment to this lady whoever the may be, for at the end of her introduction, Mrs. Weft fays there is a kind of prefumptuous impertinence in the choice of the medium through which these reflections are conveyed to the public, which only the sweetness of Mifs M.'s difpofition could excufe, or the unequivocal merit of her character counteract. These letters are fifteen in number. The firft gives an introductory sketch of the writers defign, and treats principally of the too free behaviour of married women, with the dangerous increafe of luxury and extravagance, the duties, refources, and rewards of the fex, which things are propofed as the fubjects of the enfuing correfpondence. The fecond letter treats of the original deftination of women. Their happy fituation in this country, their trials, their fubjection to work, their phyfical conftruction for retirement, unfitnefs for public bufinefs, with fome very fenfible and pertinent reflections on the reigns of our female fovereigns. With the third letter we have been particularly pleafed. It difcuffes the change of manners in the middle claffes of life, and here we think proper to give an extract, "Would to heaven our fex could be vindicated from the heavy cenfure that muit fall upon thofe who, to purchase the eclat of a few years, not the happiness of an hour, involve themselves and families in deftruction! An impartial review of living manners compels me to confefs, that we are in this point often more culpable than our weakly indulgent partners. It is Eve who again entreats Adam to eat the forbidden fruit; he takes it, and is undone. Men in this rank of life have generally lefs tafte than women; they are amufed by their bufinefs through the day, and at its weary close they would generally be contented with the relaxation which their own families afforded, if those families were focial, domeftic, cheerful, and defirous to promote their amufement. amufement. But fince the potent decree of fafhion determined it to be unfit for the wife of a man in reputable circumstances to employ herself in domeftic arrangements, or ufeful needle work, time has proved a fevere burden to people who are deftitute of inclination for literature. To relieve themfelves from a load, the weight of which they are too proud to acknowledge, they have felt obliged to mingle with what is called the world. Did any of these adventurous dames confider the heavy fervices which this affociation requires, did they fairly rate the fatigue, the perplexity, the flavery of being very genteel upon a limited fcale, they would think it better to prefer a plain fyftem of focial comfort, even at the expence of that ridicule which, I lament to say, fuch a deviation from refinement would incur. Yet, when there is no housekeeper in the fpice-room, nor butler at the fideboard, an elegant entertainment occafions more labour and perplexity to the miftrefs of the houfe, than fhe would undergo by a regular performance of fervices highly beneficial and praifeworthy. What anxiety is there that every part of the fplendid repaft fhould be properly felected, well-dreifed, and ferved in style! What care to keep the every-day garb of family economics out of fight, and to convince the guests that this is the ufual ftyle of living; though, if they credit the report, it must only confirm their fufpicion that their hoftefs is actually infane. What blushing confufion do thefe demi-fafhionifts difcover, if detected in any employment that feems to indicate a little remaining regard for prudence and economy! What irregularity and inconvenience muft the family experience during the days immediately preceding the gala! what irritation of temper, what neglect of children, what difregard of religious and focial offices! And for what is all this facrifice? to procure the honour of being talked of; for Happiness, or even comfort, are rarely expected at fuch entertainments. Notwithstanding all due preparation, fomething goes wrong, either in the dinner or the company. The face of the inviter difplays mortification, inftead of exultation; and the invited difguife the fneer of ridicule under the fixed fimper of affected politenefs. Nor let the giver of the feaft complain of difappointment. She aimed not to please, but to dazzle; not to gratify her guests by the cheerful hilarity of her table, but to announce her own fuperiority in tafte or in expence. When the hofpitable hoftefs fpreads her plain but plentiful board for friendship and kindred, for those whom the loves or refpects, those whom the feeks to oblige, or thofe to whom he wishes to acknowledge obligation, where vanity and felf are kept out of fight, and real generofity feeks no higher praife than that of giving a fufficient and comfortable repalt with a pleafant welcome, a faftidious ob fervance of any accidental mistake, or trivial error, might be justly called ill-nature and ingratitude; but when oftentation S32 fummons fummons her myrmidons to behold the triumph, let ridicule join the party, and proclaim the defeat. But this infatiable monftet, a rage for diftinction, is not content with spoiling the comforts of the cheerful regale; luxury has invented a prodigious number of accommodations in the department of movcables; and the miftrefs of a tiny villa at Hackney, or a still more tiny drawing-room in Crutched Friars, only waits to know if her Grace has placed them in her baronial refidence, to pronounce that they are comforts without which no foul can exift. Hence it becomes an undertaking of no little skill, to conduct one's perfon through an apartment twelve feet square, furnished in style by a lady of tafle, without any injury to our. felves, or to the fauteuils, candelabras, confoletables, jardiniers, chiffoniers, &c. Should we, at entering the apartment, efcape the work-boxes, foot-ftools, and cufhions for lapdogs, our debut may still be celebrated by the overthrow of half a dozen top-gallant fcreens, as many perfume jars, or even by the total demolition of a glass cabinet ftuck full of stuffed monsters. By an inad vertent remove of our chair backwards, we may thrust it through the paper frame of the book-ftand, or the pyramidal flower-bafket; and our nearer approach to the fire is barracadoed by nodding mandarines and branching luftres. It is.well, if the height of the apartment permits us to glide fecure under the impending danger of cryftal lamps, chandeliers, and gilt bird-cages inhabited by fcreaming canaries. An attempt to walk would be too prefumptuous, amidst the oppofition of a host of working-tables, sofas, rout chairs, and ottomans. To return from a vifit of this defeription without having committed or juffered any depredation, is an event almoft fimilar to the famous expedition of the argonauts. The fair miftrefs, indeed, generally officiates as pilot; and by obferving how the folds or unfurls her redundant train, and enlarges or contracts the waving of her plumes, one may practife the dilating or diminishing graces according to the moft exact rules of geometrical proportion; happy if we can fteal a moment from the circumfpection that our arduous fitua tion requires, to admire the quantity of pretty things which are collected together, and enquire if they are really of any ufe." Vol. i. P. 141. The fourth letter treats of the abfurdities and licentioufnefs prevalent among women of fafhion. Letters five, fix, feven, and eight, are on the fubject of religion, and the peculiar notions of the different fects of Chriftians among us. Here we must beg leave to paufe before we give our unqualified approbation. That the female mind is peculiarly formed for piety we are often pleased to obferve, and always happy to acknowledge. But when it is confidered that this work was intended to exhibit a popular difplay of the duties and character of Women, we doubt whether the effect will be facilitated by a prolix di dactic effay on the peculiar dogmas of Calvinifm, or the tenets of Unitarian Chriftians. We are duly fenfible that, at the prefent period, it is expedient and falutary to caution youthful minds against Calviniftic doctrines; and it may be wife to expofe the folly and the danger of liftening to those who talk of calls, experiences, and inftantaneous converfions. It is only meant to be observed, that in a work like this, fuch fubjects fhould not be permitted to Occupy too large a fpace. In the prefent it conftitutes almoft one third of the whole, It is, however, remarkably well executed. The ninth letter is entitled to unreferved praife. It treats on those virtues which are more particularly feminine. The critical animadverfions on the female characters of Adelaide, Elvira, and Mary Thornbury, in the plays of the Stranger, Pizarro, and John Bull, are given with great acutenefs, found judgment, and the trueft moral feeling. Nothing furely can be more flimfy in its contrivance or more pernicious in its moral tendency than this last comedy of John Bull, though for a time it was moft unaccountably popular. The character of Mary was calculated to make every lady's maid difpofed to intrigue with the mafler's fon, and that of the tradefman, to induce every blackguard to infult his fuperior, The tenth letter is on the fubject of female employments and ftudies, and contains fome excellent and judicious obfervations, The eleventh difcuffes the topics of converfation, fociety, and friendship; the twelfth is on celibacy, love, and marriage. Thefe fubjects are fo happily invefti gated and are fo truly appropriate, that in juftice to the writer we extract a part, "Let not a young woman, then, feck for conjugal happiness in a station of life, that is very difsimilar to her own; or in her own rank, without a competent provifion to maintain those decencies of appearance which are its proper appendages. If the poffefs delicacy of character (I fhould here ufe ftronger terms), if The value her own temporal or eternal interefts, or that of the unborn, by the facred names of mother and chriftian let me conjure her to brink from the advances of a known libertine; or, if the cannot avoid, let her steadily refuse his offers; they comprise fuch an accumulation of mifery, as no pecuniary advantages can counterbalance. Let not youthful innocence fell itfelf to difeafe, 533 impunity, |