may not run wild-knowledge and experience of the purest kind, are certainly, the portion of those who confine themselves within the chaste enclosures; for within these enclosures reign order and harmony Nevertheless the passions were implanted for a purpose antecedent to this-a social purpose-namely for the preservation and defence of the species-It behoveth parents who ought to be possessed of the knowledge and experi ence, at which the Author points in the pages from which we are extracting; early to lead their offspring into such wise and suitable connections, as may have a powerful tendency to confine them within these orderly enclosures; as may be instrumental to preserve them from feeding upon the wild and poisonous productions which are without; and which have ruined thousands of wholesome, and otherwise promising constitutions-for the truth of this self-evident proposition (without entering into an examination of the whole circle of disorders, produced by the unsanctified passions) I shall appeal to the loose and vicious principles, and to the wasted and sickly constitutions which have followed in a train, the habitual indulgence of one only. To mark its effects, let us take a survey of the numerous nocturnal rangers, in most or all the cities and populous towns of Europe-Let us hearken to the intemperate roar of the myriads of night houses, which are the disgrace of christian countries Let us consider the disorders which have been produced in families, by the prevalence of this single passion, and the tears and agonies which have rent the conjugal or parental bosom, when a wife or daughter have been hurled from their station in the social or moral world, by its influence Let us attend the sick bed of those who languish a prey to remorse, and tremble at the prospect of retribution, for the innocence they have corruptedthe misery they have diffused-or the laws of heaven which they have sacrificed to their guilty enjoymentLet us behold the numbers of amiable females, who but for the prevalence of loose and immoral habits, would be called forth to discharge the duties of a wife and mother, and to exercise the sympathies inseparable from these characters, while virtue and innocence maintain their dominion in the heart.

And lastly, let us consider the hospitals which the hand of charity has erected for the cure of those evils, which the sounding of religious houses, and the warning voice

of conscience and reason, have been incompetent to prevent-M. Woolstoncraft seems to have lamented the depravity of these sons and daughters of dissipation→ but more especially those customs of society which expose youth to temptation, and too frequently establish them in habits of economical licentiousness, or selfish and solitary vice ! Alas! how is civil society at present organized, when the mental and bodily health of its members, is scarcely an object of legislative attention! Mental and bodily health, those sweeteners of human life-those peaceful tenants of our mortal frame, too frequently dispossessed of their lawful habi-, tation, by infidelity and disease, those foul and insatiable monsters, that rest not satisfied with consuming their victim, but propagate their evils from generation to generation- -As early marriage under the inspection of wise and sensible parents, has evidently a tendency to preserve the young and rising generation within the sacred enclosures of temperance and morality-what a pity that the mental and moral beauty of youth, are so commonly and conspicuosly sacrificed to views of unnecessary aggrandizement*What a pity it is that art should so much take place of nature, or that the laws of nature and of God in this respect, should be forced by the diabolical customs of society, to yield obedience to the laws which issue from the source of evil-for to what other source can we trace those customs, which are in opposition to the gospel and to human happiness-for if reason tell us that every cause must produce its effectit forbids us tracing moral evil to the source of happiness and perfection-physical evil as the punishment of sin, may be recognized as an agent of Divine justice— but the sin which procures the punishment, must be sought for in its origin elsewhere-and however rational beings in a state of probation, possessing passions which sometimes overwhelm and mislead their reason, may act wrong in their individual capacity-the laws of society

* Reason instructs us in the propriety, and experience whis pers in our ear the necessity of pointing out to young persons of both sexes, the right and left hand rocks upon which their fathers have split-To sacrifice the splendor of state, or the trappings of misery, to a virtuous attachment, was not the characteristical feature of the last century" On the side of empty parade ihere is a rock-on that of gross inequality, another- The pious and sensible parent, and he only, will labor to conduct his offspring between them."

should ever quadrate with justice-and surely it is the grossest injustice to the rising generation, to expose it to the evils of licentiousness and secret discontent, by a palpable neglect and inattention to the voice of nature and of God in this respect.

SINGULAR OBSERVATIONS RISQUED.

I am told the Jews hold it scandalous to continue long in a state of celibacy-but however the inhabitants of warm climates, or of warmer constitutions in our own, may find it necessary to enter into the connubial tie at sixteen or eighteen years of age, as I am told is common among the Jews-I am satisfied, that in temperate climates like our own, it would be for the interests of morality, that the sexes in general should be lawfully united at rather an early period of life; subject to the control and inspection of their parents for some years; and entrusted gradually with property, as their capacity for preserving and improving it unfolded- -Marriage is evidently an institution both of natural and revealed. religion-but the voice of nature, as to the time of consummating it, is grieviously nonplused by the schemes of ambition and carnal policy-In this licentious catalogue, the apprentice's indented chain may be recognized as no inconsiderable evil-the boy before half his apprenticeship is expired, has frequently broken it by some illicit act and if religious or temporal restraints, should prove the instruments of saving him from this breach of civil and religious law-his conscience can for the most part witness, how often nature refusing to be bounded in its operations by these ramparts, has rushed into destructive and solitary vice as its last resource Many objections may he raised to these kind of early marriages ; which however plausible according to the present constitutions of the world, would wholly vanish, if these constitutions were altered- In a word, if parents and governors continued to maintain their functions after as before marriage, until the establishment of their children rendered their assistance no longer imperious-and moreover if they made the happiness instead of the aggran dizement of their children, the principal object; the towering group of objections, which like the castle of confusion, rear their heads toward heaven, would thence forth, like the Babel of which we speak, be regarded

only as the stupendous monuments of human ignorance and folly.

That the objections to which I allude, have for the most part their foundation in worldly policy-are not supported by absolute necessity-and are in direct opposition to natural and revealed religion; will be hardly disputed by any who have deeply considered the subject, and who have the welfare of mankind at heart-And hence it is, that I am not ashamed to avow my opinion, that if a young man's affections were suitably engaged a two before his apprenticeship expired, his year or being indulged with a suitable partner (whose society at her father's house he might be permitted occasionally to enjoy) would by softening the rigours of servitude, and subverting the temptations to vice, rather attach him to his master and his master's business, and induce him to labour with double application to improve in that profession, which from the period of his marriage, he would recognize as a destined source of comfort to himself, and all which he held dear This subject may possibly come under consideration, whenever a general refor mation of abuses shall become an object of legislative attention-but at present, by the generality of men, I know it will be regarded as a mere matter of enter tainment.

Inordinately to tax batchelors of property, commencing lightly at twenty-one-and advancing rapidly as they approach towards forty, would be a good method of cutting up celibacy by the roots-It seems unreasonable that a large family, having for example but two or three hundred a year for its support, should be subject to the same taxation, as a single man possessing the same property. Heavily to tax the batchelor of thirty or forty, say about one-fourth of his income-and lightly to tax the large and industrious family, would surely be the best method a legislature could adopt, to encourage matrimony, and discourage the evils we complain of The strict line of justice would be, to appropriate the batchelor taxes of a parish, to the reduction of those, which press heavily on the industrious families of the same parishand that this is not a subject. beneath the attention of a legislature, is sufficiently proved, by the tendency of matrimony to promote the population of a country-and by the vice, diseases, and barrenness, resulting from those dissolute habits, which usually accompany a life of celibacy in the male world.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF PROFESSION UPON CHARACTER.

Vol. I. page 15,-She proceeds

"It is of great importance to observe, that the character of every man is in some degree formed by his profession-a man of sense, may only have a cast of countenance that wears off, as you trace his individuality, while the weak, common man has scarcely ever any character, but what belongs to the body; at least all his opinions have been so steeped in the vat consecrated by authority, that the faint spirit which the grape of his own vine yields, cannot be distinguished.

Society, therefore, as it becomes more enlightened, should be very careful not to establish bodies of men, who must necessarily be made foolish or vicious by the very constitution of their profession."

ON THE FALSE PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN IN FEMALE eduCATION ON THE MASCULINE QUALITIES.

P. 17.-" Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man, and should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless, for at least twenty years of their lives."

REMARKS-Precious morality of mothers!-I should hope however, that there are many exceptions to this general rule, at least in the middle classes of societyIn the whole of this portrait, we do not see one feature of internal virtue, grounded on the principles of religion, and the sentiments of genuine honour.

P. 19. The most perfect education in my opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding, as is best calculated to strengthen the body, and form the heart——— Or in other words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independentfact it is a farce to call any being virtuous, whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason. * This was Rousseau's opinion respecting men-I extend

* Most true,

-In