decoration, and manners; which are happily restored to a much greater degree of genuine elegance and classical purity. I fear, if we synonymise this term with singleness of heart, the balance will not be in our favour; for I will not allow the unblushing effrontery of hardened guilt, to advance any pretensions to the praise of ingenuousness. But to return to the subject immediately under discussion: gorgeous, superfluous embellishment, offended the principles of propriety in a far less important point of view than indecent. exposure. How far the attire now generally adopted calls for the correction of pure female taste deserves our strict attention. It is a subject which we must hereafter resume; I will, therefore, only observe in this place, that among those heathen nations whom we now profess to imitate, the vicious E. 2

and

and the virtuous parts of the sex were as much distinguished by their apparel as by their manners. The chaste propriety of matronly and virgin attraction, was prohibited from adopting the incentives allowed to the courtezan, who avowed her aim by sacrificing modesty to allurement. It is true, the figures of these unhappy women, lightly shaded with loose drapery, supplied the statuary and the painter with those wanton graces which they consecrated as the attributes of the deity of licen tious pleasures; yet, with a decorum which marked the prevailing sentiments of the times, they constantly adopted a very different paraphernalia when they formed a representation of the goddesses of marriage and wisdom. When we consider also, that this costume of Grecian impurity, this marked characteristic of the shameless iddl of Paphos,

Paphos, has been yet further debased by being adopted by Parisian fiends, during the most bloody and most voluptuous scenes of a revolution which elevated poissardes into leading fashionables; English ladies, distinguished for modesty, elevated by birth, and enlightened by christianity, should cer tainly reject the degrading imitation with the most lively disdain.

This enumeration of the offices and duties of our sex naturally leads us to consider, by what peculiar trials our heavenly Father exercises our virtues, and prepares us for a happier world. They seem to result chiefly from the tempers, dispositions, infirmities, and misfortunes of our near connexions, for we are far less able than men to be the carvers of our own fortunes, and must generally consult more than our own inclinations in order to be happy. E 3 The

The colour of our lives is so influenced by the propensities of our wedded partners, that in very many (perhaps in the majority of) marriages, the business of the wife is to controul her own inclinations, instead of projecting how she may gratify them. This subservience is not solely confined to the conjugal tie, nor does it only revert backward to the consecrated claims of paternity; our brothers, nay even our sons, will reap the privilege of Adam and whenever we fix with them in a domestic residence, we must conform to their humours, anticipate their wishes, and alleviate their misfortunes, or else forfeit their affections and forego their society.

Observe, then, what numerous infelicities, from ill-managed tempers, corrupt inclinations, criminal pursuits, capricious whims, imprudent determina

tions, and obstinate vices, threaten our repose on the one side;w hile, on the other, how frequently must we be summoned to attend the couch of restless agony, to minister all the few comforts which finite humanity can afford to lingering sickness, or even to sustain the dying head on the bosom of faithful · sympathizing love. Our office of helpmate is not limited to the gay season of life. Like Prior's Emma, we are not only required to embark "on the: "smooth surface of a summer's sea:"; we are not permitted

"To quit the ship and seek the shore,

"When the winds rattle and the surges roar." Our services are most valuable, and consequently most requisite, in the dreary season of distress; whether it be occasioned by adversity or disease ; whether the storm proceed from false friends or secret enemies, or from the impru

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