CHAPTER IV

MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS ON WOMEN IN SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE

In addition to definite discussions as to the learning appropriate

for women, there were numerous books on general topics pertaining to

women, with incidental but often most illuminating comments on the

advantages or disadvantages of a liberal education. These books also

aid in building up a conception of the prevailing ideas concerning

women apart from technical questions of education.

[Sidenote: The Ladies' Calling (1673, 2d ed.)]

_The Ladies' Calling_, the second edition of which appeared in 1673,

was the most important as well as the most influential of all the

seventeenth-century books on the social and domestic aspects of

the life of women. The book is eminently well-bred, dignified, and

aristocratic in tone, and ardently religious. The authorship of _The

Ladies' Calling_ has long been in dispute. Tradition has persistently

ascribed it to Lady Pakington who, said Lady Winchilsea,

Of each Sex the two best Gifts enjoy'd,

The Skill to write, the Modesty to hide.

But if she were the author she has hidden the fact so successfully

as to lose the credit of her work. Modern investigation ascribes the

series of books, _The Whole Duty of Man_, _The Gentleman's Calling_,

and _The Ladies' Calling_, with some degree of certainty to Richard

Allestree,[420] one of the learned and devout men who found in Lady

Pakington intellectual as well as religious sympathy. But it seems

quite probable that Lady Pakington assisted him in _The Ladies'

Calling_. At any rate, whoever the author, the book may fairly be

considered an expression of the ideals of the group surrounding Lady

Pakington, an outgrowth of their discussions. The "Calling" described

is purely religious in tone, and the republication of the book in

1673 gains an added significance when we think of it as a protest

against the social customs of the Restoration court and an appeal

to ladies of high rank, summoning them to a sober sense of their

duties and responsibilities. In an exaltation of Meekness, Modesty,

Affability, and Piety as the genuine and proper Ornaments of Women,

the author states the opposing faults as he has observed them. The

picture he gives of ladies in the best circles is sufficiently

appalling. Under "Modesty" is a protest against "Female swearers."

"An Oath sounds gratingly out of whatever mouth, but out of a woman's

it hath such an uncooth harshness that there is no noise this side

of Hell can be more amazingly odious." Drinking is also reprobated

as "a vice detestable in all, but prodigious in women," "nothing

human being so much a beast as a drunken woman." Modesty also forbids

excessive talkativeness, "that indecency of loquacity" generally

charged to women. It forbids loudness of discourse, "a blustering or

ranting style," or even "unhandsome earnestness." All mannishness

in speech, manner, or dress must be avoided. Public speaking, even

on the part of gifted women, is alien alike to St. Paul and true

modesty. "Incontinence of mind," whereby secrets slip so easily

from the female grasp, is likewise opposed to the sobriety and

self-restraint implied in modesty.

Attractive and important as modesty is, it is outranked in value as a

daily necessity by Meekness, meekness of the will, of the affections,

of the understanding. Women particularly need this endearing quality

of ready submission to authority, for, "since God has thus determined

subjection to be the women's lot, there needs no other argument of

its fitness, or for their acquiescence"; and since they must always

be under the control of parents or husband, they will do well to

cultivate meekness, "the parent of peace."

Affability and compassion are considered natural to women. They also

have a predisposition to Piety, for it is based on Fear and Love,

the "two most pungent passions of the female sex," and is, besides,

their greatest ornament. Devotion, since it "requires a supple gentle

soil," finds feminine softness and pliability very apt and proper for

it.

The second part of _The Ladies' Calling_ comes from generals to

particulars. It takes up women as Virgins, Wives, and Widows.

Modesty and obedience being the recognized virtues of Virgins, their

case is passed over as having been already adequately presented.

"Superannuated Virgins" are less easy to dispose of. "An old Maid

is now thought such a Curse as no Poetic fury can exceed, look'd on

as the most calamitous Creature in Nature." There was no possible

complete evasion of the contempt with which protracted maidenhood

was regarded. If, however, "these superannuated Virgins would behave

themselves with Gravity and Reservedness, addict themselves to the

strictest Virtu and Piety, they would give the world some cause to

believe 't was not their necessity, but their choice, that kept them

unmarried; that they were pre-engaged to a better Amour, espoused to

the Spiritual Bridegroom: and this would give them among the soberer

sort, at least the reverence and esteem of Matrons.... But if, on the

other side, they endeavor to disguise their Age by all the impostures

and gayeties of a youthful dress and behavior, if they still herd

themselves amongst the youngest and vainest company, and betray a

young Mind in an aged Body, this must certainly expose themselves to

scorn and censure."

Under the heading "Antiquated Widows" are similar admonitions to

a life of "assiduous Devotion." "How preposterous is it for an

Old Woman to delight in Gauds and Trifles such as were fitter to

entertain her Grand-children: to read Romances with spectacles, and

be at Masks and Dancings, when she is fit only to act the Antics?

These are contradictions to Nature, the tearing off her Marks, and

where she has writ fifty or sixty, to lessen ... and write sixteen."

This is a long, serious, and very sincere book, and its evident

purpose is to take up all important questions concerning women. But

in point of fact, decorum, morality, piety, are the only subjects

of discussion. Education is not mentioned except in the Preface,

where it is stated that the mental inferiority of women should not

be accepted as a foregone conclusion until they have had the same

opportunities as men.

Men have their parts cultivated and improved by Education,

refined and subtilized by Learning and Arts, are like an inclosed

piece of a Common, which by industry and husbandry becomes a

different thing from the rest, tho the natural turf owned no

such inequality. And truly had women the same advantage, I dare

not say but that they would make as good returns of it; som of

those few that have bin tried, have bin eminent in several parts

of Learning.... And were we sure they would have balast to their

sails, have humility enough to poize themselves against the

vanity of Learning, I see not why they might not more frequently

be entrusted with it; for if they could be secured against this

weed, doubtless the soil is rich enough to bear a good crop.

But not to oppose a received opinion, let it be admitted, that

in respect of their intellects they are below men; yet sure in

the sublimest part of humanity, they are their equals; they have

souls of as divine an Original, as endless a Duration, and as

capable of infinite Beatitude.

Aside from this one passage the book is thoroughly conventional in

its conception of the domestic, educational, and social duties and

position of women. There is no hint of revolt, no thought of enlarged

advantages. Whatever is, is right, so far as the position of women is

concerned. The one appeal is for high-mindedness, personal religion,

close adherence to the Church, as a woman's armor of defense. Within

the realm of the spirit God and her own nature have set her free for

lofty flights and great attainments.

[Sidenote: The Lady's New Year's Gift (1688)]

One of the most popular and entertaining of the many books for the

particular advantage of the female sex was _The Lady's New Year's

Gift: or, Advice to a Daughter_, by George Savile, first Marquess

of Halifax. It was printed from a circulating manuscript without

authorization in 1688. The fifteenth edition appeared in 1765. There

was a new edition in 1791. It was translated into Italian and several

times into French.[421] There is no word about education in the book.

It concerns itself entirely with moral, social, and domestic topics.

Vanity, Pride, Censure, Religion, are characteristic headings. Under

"Behaviour" is a satiric description of the women who refuse to grow

old.

I will add one _Advice_ to conclude this head, which is that

you will let every seven years make some alteration in you

towards the Graver side, and not be like the _Girls_ of Fifty,

who resolve to be always Young, whatever Time with his Iron

Teeth hath determined to the contrary. Unnatural things carry

a Deformity in them never to be Disguised; the Liveliness of

youth in a riper Age, looketh like a new patch upon an old Gown;

so that a Gay Matron, a cheerful old Fool, may be reasonably

put into the List of the Tamer kind of Monsters. There is a

certain Creature call'd a Grave Hobby Horse, a kind of a she

Numps, that pretendeth to be pulled to a play, and must needs

go to Bartholomew Fair, to look after the young Folks, whom she

only seemeth to make her care, in reality she taketh them for

her excuse. Such an old Butterfly is of all Creatures the most

ridiculous, and the soonest found out.

This passage is apparently reminiscent of _The Ladies' Calling_

and but emphasizes the early relegation of the lady to the cap and

the chimney-corner. There are other similar social dicta but the

stress of the advice is on Husbands, House, Family, Children, the

Husband bulking so large in the foreground as almost to obscure other

interests. "How to live with a husband" is the central topic. The

general laws on which particular maxims are founded are thus stated:

You must first lay it down for a Foundation in general, That

there is _Inequality_ in the _Sexes_, and that for the better

Oeconomy of the World, the _Men_, who were to be the Lawgivers,

had the larger share of _Reason_ bestow'd upon them; by which

means your Sex is the better prepar'd for the _Compliance_ that

is necessary for the better performance of those _Duties_ which

seem to be most properly assign'd to it. This looks a little

uncourtly at the first appearance; but upon Examination it

will be found that Nature is so far from being unjust to you,

that she is partial on your side. She hath made you such large

_Amends_ by other Advantages, for the seeming _Injustice_ of the

first Distribution, that the Right of Complaining is come over to

our Sex. You have it in your power not only to free yourselves,

but to subdue your Masters, and without violence throw both their

_Natural_ and _Legal Authority_ at your Feet. We are made of

differing _Tempers_, that our Defects may the better be Mutually

Supplied: Your _Sex_ wanteth our _Reason_ for your _Conduct_,

and our _Strength_ for your _Protection_; _Ours_ wanteth your

_Gentleness_ to soften, and to entertain us. The first part

of our Life is a good deal subjected to you in the Nursery,

where you Reign without Competition, and by that means have the

advantage of giving the first _Impressions_. Afterwards you have

stronger Influences, which, well manag'd, have more force in your

behalf, than all our _Privileges_ and _Jurisdictions_ can pretend

to have against you. You have more strength in your _Looks_, than

we in our _Laws_, and more power by your _Tears_, than we have by

our _Arguments_.

The difficulties a wife may meet are fully recognized and the best

ways of surmounting them are suggested. Is her husband unfaithful?

The wife's proper task is Discretion, Silence, affected Ignorance.

Does he drink to excess? Let her reflect that the fault is too

common to be fatal to happiness. Is he ill-humored? The wife has but

to mark "how the Wheels of such a Man's Head are used to move" and

she can manage him at her will. Is he sullen? Watch for "the first

Appearances of Cloudy Weather and be wary till the Fit shall pass."

Possibly he may be a "Close-handed Wretch." This calls forth all

a Wife's powers. She must use kindness, play on his ambition and

vanity, using now and then even "a Dose of Wine to open up a narrow

Mind." A weak and incompetent husband may become, in the hands of "a

dexterous woman," even an asset of some value. She must, of course,

pay deference to him in public, but she can easily see to it that

he is really under her control. "Such a Fool is a dangerous Beast,

if others have the keeping of him; and you must be very undexterous

if when your Husband shall resolve to be an _Ass_, you do not take

care he may be _your Ass_." Marriage is but a prolonged fencing-bout

of wits. The woman works under unavoidable handicaps, but if she

is sufficiently adroit, if she is mistress of artifice, if she

knows the tricks of the game, she may emerge from the conflict

substantially victorious.

The book was written in all seriousness and with tender love for the

daughter Elizabeth for whose guidance it was intended. She is said

to have prized it highly and to have kept it always on her table.

Elizabeth was married early to the third Earl of Chesterfield who

evidently had a humorous appreciation of the book, for he wrote on

the fly-leaf "Labour in vain."

[Sidenote: A Dialogue concerning Women (1691)]

In 1691 there appeared _A Dialogue concerning Women, Being a Defence

of the Sex. Written to Eugenia by W. Walsh._ The Preface by John

Dryden says of women: "For my own part, who have always been their

Servant, and have never drawn my Pen against them, I had rather see

some of them prais'd extraordinarily, than any of them suffer by

detraction: And that in this Age, and at this time particularly,

wherein I find more Heroines than Heroes."

The dialogue is between Misogynes and Philogynes: Misogynes brings up

Solomon, Euripides, Simonides, Lucian, St. Chrysostom, and Juvenal,

the Epigrammatists, Comick Poets, and Satyrists, as a dreadful

array of the ancients against women, showing at least that these

ancients "had a very commendable faculty of calling Names." Misogynes

especially dislikes "the Learned Woman, who runs mad for the love

of hard words, who talks a mixt Jargon, or _Lingua Franca_, and has

spent a great deal of time to make her capable of talking Nonsense in

four or five different languages."[422]

Do you not think Learning and Politics become a Woman as ill as

riding astride? [he asks]. Do you not, in answer to these, fetch

me a _Sappho_ out of Greece; a _Cornelia_, the Mother of the

_Gracchi_, out of Rome; an _Anna Maria Schurman_ out of Holland;

and think that in shewing me three Learned Women in three

thousand years, you have gain'd your point?

Philogynes answers that he shall continue in his opinion that

learning is suitable for women

'till you have answer'd _Anna Maria Shurman's_ Arguments in

their behalf, and 'till you have taken away her self, who is one

of the best Arguments.[423] 'T is possible everybody does not

know, that she was very well skill'd in the _Hebrew, Chaldee,

Syriac, Arabick, Turkish, Greek, Latin, French, English, Italian,

Spanish, German, Dutch, and Flemish_ Languages; that she had a

very good faculty at Poetry and Painting, that she was a perfect

Mistress of all the Philosophies, that the greatest Divines of

her time were proud of her judgment in their own profession, and

that when we had this character of her she was not above Thirty

years of Age.[424]

Or shall I refer you to Mademoiselle _Gournay_ among the

_French_, or _Lucretia Marinella_ among the _Italians_, who have

both writ in defence of their Sex, and who are both Arguments

themselves of the Excellency of it?[425]

Consider what Time and Charge is spent to make Men fit for

somewhat; Eight or Nine Years at School; Six or Seven Years at

the University; Four or Five Years in Travel; and after all this,

are they not almost all Fops, Clowns, Dunces, or Pedants? I know

not what you think of the Women; but if they are Fools they are

Fools with less pains, and less expence than we are.[426]

[Sidenote: Gildon's Letters (1694)]

Charles L. Gildon published in 1694 a volume of miscellaneous letters

and essays. Two of these letters were entitled "Chloe to Urania,

against Womens being Learn'd," and "An Answer to the foregoing

Letter in Defence of Womens being Learn'd." Chloe but transmits the

arguments of her lover Lysander. "Learning will add fresh Pride to

the Sex," he asserts, and will kindle in them an ambition of absolute

Mastery. His second objection is the fundamental one. "Women were by

their Creator design'd for OBEDIENCE not RULE; to be instructed by

their Husbands, not to instruct them; and to Study nothing but their

Household Affairs." If learning were added to the personal charms of

women, not deity itself, Lysander thinks, could maintain the divinely

ordained overlordship of man. A final argument is that learning

will tend to make women unfaithful to their husbands, will give them

"wandering desires." Lysander's antidote for the new ideas that seem

to be perverting women's minds is Halifax's _Advice to a Daughter_,

the authority of which was so well established that Chloe dares utter

no protest against it. Urania, however, easily demolishes Lysander's

objections, asserting that learning makes women humble, that no wise

woman would ever think so wildly as to "attempt the inverting so

prevalent, and inveterate a Custom of the Sovereignty of the Men."

The _Advice to a Daughter_ is a book Urania has little esteem for.

Especially is she indignant at Halifax's advice to women to remain in

the religious faith in which they have been brought up, since, even

if such faith be error, says Halifax, women are not expected to do

the voluminous reading necessary to find out the truth. Women, Urania

maintains, should not govern their actions merely by what a corrupt

age "expects." They have souls to save and must learn the truth and

must have the learning that will guide them to the truth.

Both Lysander and Urania make the curious assumption that learning

would render women more attractive. Lysander thinks it would add

unduly to their power. Urania explains the tendency of the learned

woman to conjugal infidelity by the statement that her uncommon

learning results in an uncommon number of admirers. Let more ladies

have learning and the charm of novelty would vanish.

Urania is so easily superior to Chloe and her lover that we must

recognize in Gildon one of the champions of female learning.

[Sidenote: The Ladies' Dictionary (1694)]

One of the most curious books of the late seventeenth century is _The

Ladies' Dictionary; Being a General Entertainment for the Fair-Sex:

A Work Never attempted in English_. It was printed for "John Dunton

at the Raven in the Poultry, 1694," and is signed by "N. H." who lays

claim to the authorship in the following passage which may be quoted

at length, since from it we also get a characterization of the book,

its proposed scope and aim:

_It is now near a Twelve-month since I first entered upon this

Project, at the desire of a worthy Friend, unto whom I owe more

than I can do for him: And when I considered the great need of

such a Book, as might be a_ COMPLEAT DIRECTORY _to the Female Sex

in all_ Relations, Companies, Conditions and States _of Life;

even from_ CHILDHOOD _down to_ Old-age, _and from the_ Lady _at

the Court, to the_ Cook-maid _in the Country: I was at length

prevailed upon to do it, and the rather because I know not of any

Book that hath done the like; indeed many learned Writters there

be, who have wrote excellent well of some_ Particular Subjects

_herein Treated of, but as there is not one of them hath written

upon all of them, so there are some things Treated of in this_

DICTIONARY _that I have not met with in any Language. 'T is

true_, MY OWN EXPERIENCE IN LOVE AFFAIRS, _might_ have furnisht

_out Materials for such a Work; yet I do not pretend thereby to

lessen my Obligations, to those_ Ladies_, who by their Generous

imparting to me their_ Manuscripts, _have furnisht me with_

several hundred _Experiments and Secrets in_ DOMESTIC AFFAIRS,

BEAUTIFYING, PRESERVING, CANDYING, PHYSICK, CHIRURGERY, ETC.

_Proper for my Work, and such as were not taken out of Printed

Books, or on the Credit of others, but such as are Re-commended

to me from their own Practice, all which shall be inserted in

a_ Second Part, _if this_ FIRST _meets with Encouragement, that

so both together may contain all_ ACCOMPLISHMENTS _needful for

Ladies, and be thereby rendered perfect.... So that you'll

find here at one view, the whole Series and Order of all the

most Heroick and Illustrious Women of all times, from the

first dawning of the World to this present Age, of all Regions

and Climate_, from _the Spicy East, to the Golden West, of_

all _faiths, whether_ Jews, Ethnicks, _or_ Christians, (_and

particularly an Account of those_ WOMEN MARTYRS _that suffer'd

in Queen Mary's days: And in the West in 85: And of all_ Eminent

_Ladies, that have dy'd in_ England _for these last fifty years_)

_of all Arts and Sciences, both the graver, and more polite; of

all Estates_, VIRGINS, WIVES and WIDOWS; _of all Complexions and

Humours, the Fair, the Foul, the Grave, the Witty, the Reserv'd,

the Familiar, the Chast, the Wanton. Whatever Poets have fancied,

or credible Histories have Recorded, of the first you have the

Misteries and Allegories clearly interpreted and explained; of

the latter the Genuine Relations Impartially delivered_.

The general arrangement of the book is alphabetical, but Mr. "N. H."

is too temperamental to yield entirely to an arbitrary alphabet, and

so, if words are spiritually akin, he does not hesitate to group them

in defiance of their initial letters, as when he puts "Pimp" under

"Bawd," being unwilling to separate the household of Satan. There is,

also, to add to the confusion, unnatural division of subjects. Under

"D," "Diversions for Ladies" begins, but it is continued under "R" as

"Recreations for Ladies." More than one third of the 522 pages of the

book is given to such topics as "Beauty," "How to preserve Beauty,"

"Gracefulness," "Behaviour," "Manners," "Love," "Melancholy Lovers,"

"Occasions of falling in Love," "Passionate Lovers," "Opinions of

the Learned on Love," "Progress of Love," "Kissing," "Wooing,"

"Courtship," and "Wedding."

Mr. "N. H." says he has consulted the most valuable books written for

and against the "Fair-Sex" and has made free use of "Dr. Blancards,

Mr. Blounts, and other Dictionaries." That he had read _The Ladies

Calling_ and _Advice to a Daughter_ is apparent from his treatment of

such topics as, "HUSBAND INDIFFERENT, or, how to make your Life easie

with him," and "VIRGINS, THEIR STATE AND BEHAVIOUR, _particularly

those in years_," where the outline of the thought and, in frequent

instances, the exact phrasing of these recognized authorities are

preserved.

"Religion, a lady's chief ornament," is disposed of in two pages.

Learning takes about four pages. The promise of the author to give a

catalogue of heroic and illustrious women is fulfilled by hundreds of

names from myth and legend, from Roman, Greek, and Hebrew history,

and from Italy and Holland. When he begins his search for the eminent

ladies in England during the last half-century he summons quite a

list, including the Countess of Pembroke, Lady Mary Wroth, Ann Askew,

the daughters of Sir Anthony Cook, Lady Elizabeth Carew, Elizabetha

Joanna Westonia, Lady Jane Grey, the Duchess of Newcastle, Mrs.

Katherine Philips, Anne Broadstreet, and "Astera Behen," but a page

and a half is all he can find to say of all of them together. Mrs.

Behn he describes as "a Dramatic Poetress, whose well-known Plays

have been very taking; she was a retained Poetress to one of the

Theatresses, and writ, besides, many curious Poems." The Duchess of

Newcastle is "a very Charitable and obliging Lady to the World" in

that she "copiously imparted to publick View, her Elaborate Works

... not forgetting to make her own and her Lord's Fame live, when

Monuments shall crumble into Dust."

Taken as a whole, the book is a defense and eulogy of ladies and in

the very brief portion of it dedicated to learned women it champions

their ability and protests against undue limitations of their

activities.

[Sidenote: The Ladies' Diary (1703-1726)]

Among the early efforts to meet the tastes of women and at the same

time coax them along the paths of a more definite mentality, we must

rank _The Ladies' Diary: or, The Woman's Almanack, Containing many

Delightful and Entertaining Particulars, peculiarly adapted for the

Use and Diversion of the Fair-Sex_. One series of these little books

ranges continuously from 1703 to 1726. The _Diaries_ were brought out

anonymously, but Mr. Thoresby records in 1720 that he was visited

by "Mr. Beighton of Coventry, an ingenious gentleman, author of the

Ladies' Diary," so the authorship seems to have been known though

not printed.[427] The announced purpose of the _Diaries_ is "to

promote some Parts of Mathematical Learning amongst the Fair Sex."

To this end Enigmas, Paradoxes, and Arithmetical Questions, are

proposed one year, and prizes given for the answers the next year.

The Paradoxes included forty-five taken from a curious textbook

entitled _Gorden's Geography_. The Enigmas were usually stated and

answered in verse, and sometimes they were in French or Latin. The

arithmetical questions often involved in answer a page or two of

algebraic formulæ or even the processes of geometry or trigonometry.

As a rule the ladies were especially interested in the Enigmas,

leaving the mathematical portions to the men of letters, clergymen,

and schoolmasters who solaced their winter evenings with the stimuli

offered by the _Woman's Almanack_. Yet the editor asserts that even

in mathematics the ladies often proved themselves very skillful. In

the introduction in 1718 he says:

And, that the rest of the Fair Sex may be encourag'd to attempt

Mathematics and Philosophical Knowledge, they here see that

their Sex have as clear Judgements, a sprightly quick Wit, a

penetrating Genius, and as discerning and sagacious Faculties

as ours, and to my Knowledge do, and can, carry them thro'

the most difficult Problems. I have seen them solve, and am

fully convinc'd, their Works in the Ladies _Diary_ are their

own Solutions and Compositions. This we may glory in as the

_Amazons_ of our Nation; and Foreigners would be amaz'd when I

shew them no less than 4 or 5 Hundred several Letters from so

many several Women, with Solutions _Geometrical_, _Arithmetical_,

_Algebraical_, _Astronomical_ and _Philosophical_.

The solemnity with which contributors devoted themselves to the

_Diaries_, the stately compliments interchanged over successful work,

provoke a smile, but yet it must be confessed that no other agency

between 1703 and 1726 offered to women so genuine an intellectual

opportunity. To some women it was literally a perennial joy. Who were

the _Astræa_ and the _Adrastea_ whose names are so often in the prize

list? Who, in particular, was _Anna Philomathes_, who could write up

whole numbers, questions and answers, and who kept at the business

steadily for eleven years? From what homes did the "4 or 5 Hundred

several Letters" of the editor's note come? That the _Tatlers_, the

_Spectators_, and the _Guardians_ should have their thousands of

readers is easily explicable. But do not the now obscure _Diaries_

indicate a more unusual mental energy, a more genuine delight in

personal mental activity? In many a home, geographies, arithmetics,

histories, classical dictionaries, would surround the "Fair-Sex"

as they devoted themselves with leisurely assiduity to the demands

of the _Diary_ for the ensuing year. And a prize or an honorable

mention marked a gratifying mental achievement.

[Sidenote: The Guardian (1713)]

In _The Guardian_, No. 155, we have an account of how melancholy

a thing it is to see a coxcomb at the head of a family. The paper

proceeds:

This is one reason why I would the more recommend the

improvements of the mind to my female readers, that a family may

have a double chance for it; and if it meets with weakness in

one of the heads, may have it made up in the other. It is indeed

an unhappy circumstance in a family, where the wife has more

knowledge than the husband; but it is better it should be so,

than that there should be no knowledge in the whole house. It

is highly expedient that at least one of the persons, who sits

at the helm of affairs, should give an example of good sense to

those who are under them.

I have often wondered that learning is not thought a proper

ingredient in the education of a woman of quality or fortune.

Since they have the same improveable minds as the male part

of the species, why should they not be cultivated by the same

method? Why should reason be left to itself in one of the sexes,

and be disciplined with so much care in the other?

There are some reasons why learning seems more adapted to the

female world, than to the male. As in the first place, because

they have more spare time upon their hands, and lead a more

sedentary life. Their employments are of a domestic nature, and

not like those of the other sex, which are often inconsistent

with study and contemplation. The excellent lady, the lady

Lizard, in the space of one summer furnished a gallery with

chairs and couches of her own and her daughters' working; and at

the same time heard all doctor Tillotson's sermons twice over. It

is always the custom for one of the young ladies to read, while

the others are at work; so that the learning of the family is not

at all prejudicial to its manufactures. I was mightily pleased

the other day to find them all busy in preserving several fruits

of the season, with the Sparkler in the midst of them, reading

over the Plurality of Worlds. It was very entertaining to me to

see them dividing their speculations between jellies and stars,

and making a sudden transition from the sun to an apricot, or

from the Copernican system to the figure of a cheesecake.

There is another reason why those especially who are women of

quality, should apply themselves to letters, namely, because

their husbands are generally strangers to them.

It is a great pity there should be no knowledge in a family. For

my own part, I am concerned, when I go into a great house, when

perhaps there is not a single person that can spell, unless it

be by chance the butler, or one of the footmen. What a figure is

their young heir likely to make, who is a dunce both by father's

and mother's side![428]

[Sidenote: The Ladies' Library (1714)]

Addison and Steele had in mind some publication such as _The Ladies'

Library_ at least three years before it appeared. On April 12, 1711

(No. 37), Addison described in _The Spectator_ the library of a lady

called Leonora.[429] She had assembled her books partly in accordance

with her own taste, partly on the principle that there were some

books no library could do without. The list is an interesting one:

_Ogleby's Virgil._

_Dryden's Juvenal._

_Casandra._

_Astræa._

Sir _Isaac Newton's_ Works.

The _Grand Cyrus_: with a Pin stuck in one of the middle Leaves.

_Pembroke's Arcadia._

_Lock_ of Human Understanding: with a Paper of Patches in it.

A Spelling book.

A Dictionary for the Explanation of hard Words.

_Sherlock_ upon Death.

The fifteen Comforts of Matrimony.

Sir _William Temple's_ Essays.

Father _Malebranche's_ Search after Truth, translated into

English.

A Book of Novelles.

The Academy of Compliments.

_Culpepper_'s Midwifery.

The Ladies' Calling.

Tales in Verse by Mr. _Durfey_: Bound in Red Leather, gilt on the

Back, and doubled down in several Places.

All the Classick Authors in Wood.

A Set of _Elzivers_ by the same Hand.

_Clelia_: Which opened of itself in the Place that described two

Lovers in a Bower.

_Baker's_ Chronicle.

Advice to a Daughter.

The New _Atalantis_, with a Key to it.

Mr. Steele's _Christian Heroe_.

A Prayer Book: With a Battle of _Hungary_ Water by the side of it.

Dr. _Sacheverell_'s Speech.

_Fielding_'s Tryal.

_Seneca_'s Morals.

_Taylor's_ Holy Living and Dying.

_Le Ferte_'s Instructions for Country Dances.

After some comment on this list as not in all respects desirable,

Addison stated that it was his purpose soon to suggest a catalogue

of books that would be proper for the improvement of the sex. In

May (No. 79) of the same year a lady named "B. D." reminded _The

Spectator_ of this promise, and urged that in his catalogue of a

Female Library he would pay particular attention to devotional works.

In June (No. 92) _The Spectator_ gives an account of the letters

received by the editor in answer to his call for help in making up

his "Catalogue of a Lady's Library." Book-sellers recommend the

authors they have printed; husbands give the preference to Wingate's

_Arithmetic_, the Countess of Kent's _Receipts, The Government of the

Tongue_. Ladies send in all sorts of advice. "Coquetilla begs me not

to think of nailing Women upon their Knees with Manuals of Devotion,

nor of scorching their Faces with Books of Housewifry." French

romances and plays rank among the most popular sorts of reading. _The

Spectator_ renews his promise to search out in authors ancient and

modern the passages most suitable for women, a work of this nature

being the more necessary since most books are calculated for male

readers.

In August (No. 140) "Parthenia" writes concerning her disappointment

on reading the description of Leonora's Library which she finds no

true guide at all, and she urges _The Spectator_ to more earnest

efforts in behalf of the sex:

The great desire I have to Embellish my Mind with some of those

Graces which you say are so becoming, and which you assert

Reading helps us to, has made me uneasie 'till I am put in a

capacity of attaining them: This, Sir, I shall never think my

self in, 'till you shall be pleased to recommend some Author

or Authors to my Perusal.... I write to you not only my own

Sentiments, but also those of several other of my Acquaintance,

who are as little pleased with the ordinary manner of spending

one's Time as myself: And if a fervent Desire after Knowledge,

and a great Sense of our present Ignorance, may be thought a good

presage and earnest of Improvement you may look upon your Time

you shall bestow in answering this Request not thrown away to no

purpose.

In spite of all this preliminary discussion the scheme was not

immediately carried out. In November, 1712 (No. 528), "Rachel

Welladay" wrote reproachfully: "You never have given us the Catalogue

of a Lady's Library as you promised." And it was not till 1714

that _The Ladies' Library_ was published by Steele. Though in

three volumes and quite expensive, it became at once so popular

that there was an eighth edition by 1772.[430] The book was said

to be "Written by a Lady," but it is in reality a compilation from

seventeenth-century authors. In the _Athenæum_ (July 5, 1884) is

an article by Mr. Aitkin in which the chief passages are traced to

Taylor's _Holy Living_ (168 pages), Fleetwood's _Relative Duties of

Parents and Children_, _The Whole Duty of Man_, _The Government of

the Tongue_, _The Ladies' Calling_ (208 pages), Locke's _Treatise

on Education_, Lucas's _Practical Christianity and Enquiry after

Happiness_, Scott's _Christian Life_, Tillotson's _Sermons_, Mary

Astell's _Serious Proposal_ (86 pages), Halifax's _Advice to a

Daughter_ (47 pages), Hickes's _Education of a Daughter_. Angry

charges were brought against Steele for his use of such copious

extracts from Jeremy Taylor, as "an infringement on the rights of

the poor orphans who have very little else to subsist on,"[431] and

Mary Astell commented satirically on the consistency of the author

who had shown his teeth against her _Serious Proposal_ and then had

transcribed "above a hundred pages of it" into his _Ladies' Library_.

But no individual cavils interfered with the general approval. The

book was received as an extremely judicious compilation of the

best passages from authoritative sources. _The Ladies' Calling_,

_Advice to a Daughter_, _A Serious Proposal_, and _The Education of

a Daughter_, however unacceptable to modern thought many of their

fundamental assumptions and practical rules may be, represented the

highest and most dignified contemporary views as to the rights and

responsibilities of women. Brought together thus in one survey these

ideas would make a cumulative impression. There was nothing in the

quotations to antagonize or terrify the most conservative religious

readers, yet the total effect of the book would be a recognition of

woman's ability to think on important and difficult questions, and

the outcome would be to give her insensibly a more honorable place in

home, social, and church life.

[Sidenote: The Gentleman Instructed (8th ed., 1728)]

In the _Supplement to The Gentleman Instructed_ there is an animated

presentation of the faults of women. Eusebius, the sage who is to

instruct Neander in the duties of a gentleman, becomes so caustic in

his attacks on women that Emilia presents the matter to a "Juncto"

of ladies assembled to discuss the fashions. Emilia and Lucia are

appointed to wait on Eusebius and explain to him that a "Select

Committee of Ladies" require satisfaction at his hands. Neander

proceeds in lively fashion to lay open the faults of ladies, their

idleness, frivolity, vanity, and ignorance. During an arraignment

so detailed and knowing it is small wonder that the envoys "sate

upon the Tenters," and received the witty summary of their sins with

floods of tears, or with torrents of angry words. On the entrance of

Neander the colloquy takes a milder tone and Eusebius shows that he

has "Balms to heal, as well as Causticks to blister." By a panegyric

of noble and virtuous women he "dashes the _aigre_ with the _doux_,"

and shows that he can speak "like a Gentleman as well as an Orator."

He further modifies his harsh attitude by attributing feminine faults

to defects in education. In answer to Neander's question as to the

"Cause of our Ladies' Misfortune," Eusebius responds:

It's indeed a Misfortune, but almost Universal; it's spread

over the whole World, and affects the whole Species. _Emilia_

has touched the Cause, ill Education: This is the fatal Source

of their Misery, the true Origin of all their Failings. Young

Ladies are brought up as if God created 'em merely for Seraglio,

and that their only Business was to charm a brutish _Sultan_:

One would think they had no Souls, there is such a Care taken

of their Bodies; that God had enacted a Salique Law as well

as the _French_, and excluded the Sex from the Inheritance of

Heaven.[432]

Later Eusebius has so far conquered the opposition of the two ladies

as to venture upon specific good advice:

Pretend not in Company to Wit; you will certainly betray your

Judgment. Women seldom appear more foolish, than when they aspire

to the Glory of being thought wise. Good God! How was I plague'd

t'other Day with the Impertinence of Madam H. She commented

upon _Aristotle_, and Lectur'd us upon the _Summe_ of _Thomas

Aquinas_. She scorn'd the Female Topick of Modes and Dresses, and

was for dancing on the high Ropes of _Physicks_ and _Divinity_.

We were first regaled with _Materia Prima_; then came up a Dish

of _Occult Qualities_; and at last a whole Plate of Theological

Terms were flung among the Company. It was as impossible to stop

her in this learned Career, as a Ship under full Sail, and you

might have sooner silenc'd a Hurricane, than have fetter'd her

Ladyship's Tongue. The Sex admir'd her Wisdom, and the Men smil'd

at her Folly. She is [_sic_] made a Provision of School Jargon,

and laid it out with much Prodigality, and more Assurance. But

all her Knowledge stuck on the Superficies of Words, she enter'd

not into the Sense. So that the Fame of her Parts shrunk under

Experience, and this Phœnix of women prov'd only a well-taught

Parrot.[433]

To a eulogy of needlework he adds:

You may season Works with Reading, for though Women should not

pretend to commence Doctors, yet I would not have 'em forswear

Knowledge, nor make a Vow of Stupidity. Indeed it's not necessary

to Rival the Knowledge of the Sybils, nor the Science of the

Muses, she should not wade too deep into Controversy, nor

soar so high as Divinity. These Studies lie out of a Lady's

Way: They fly up to the Head, and not only intoxicate weak

Brains, but turn them; They engender Pride, and blow us up with

Self-conceitedness, and when all these meet, we shall be apt to

measure Faith by our private Judgment, and set up our ill-shap'd

Notions against the receiv'd Tenets of our Religion.[434]

Eusebius joins with nearly all contemporary moralists in a

condemnation of romances:

Let not Romances come within reach of a young Lady: They are

the Poison of Youth and murther Souls, as sure as Arsenick or

Rats-bane kills Bodies.... Alas, when a young Creature reads

over flourish'd Descriptions of conquering Beauties, and captive

Knights; what a fine Landskip will they draw in her Head? How

powerfully will they work upon her tender Heart? What a Tumult

will they raise in her Breast?... How often will they envy a

Philoclea for having a _Pyrocles_ at her Feet, and how seriously

will she wish herself in the Place of Pamelia. Nay, it's odd,

when the Fancy is warm'd, and the Imagination charm'd with the

advantageous Characters of those Platonick Knights, she may fall

in Love with the bare Product of _Sidney's_ Brain, and become a

real Slave to Fable and Fiction.[435]

So convincing was Eusebius that Emilia said on leaving:

To complete the Favour, be pleas'd to oblige me with your

Instruction in Writing. Memory is Treacherous, and we often

forget those Things that should always be remembered: Besides

the Benefit is too important to be confined to a private Person.

My Disease is Epidemical, and you will find few Ladies in Court

untainted: Pray let the Remedy be publick. I will send it to

the Press with your Leave, and present it to our Sex with a

Dedication.

Then the ladies took leave of Eusebius and drove home. "They were

as calm as a spring Morning, and of Enemies became _Eusebius's_

Admirers."[436]

In the _Supplement to The Gentleman Instructed_ there is little that

is constructive so far as education is concerned. The faults of women

are wittily and picturesquely phrased, but no substitute scheme of

life is offered. Wherever learning is specifically spoken of it is

with derision.

[Sidenote: Advice to a Lady (1731)]

Lord Lyttleton wrote in 1731, when he was but twenty-two, a poem

entitled "Advice to a Lady" in which he reiterated the commonplaces

of the day. He counsels an "elegance of mind as well as dress,"

but strictly limits the exercise of such mentality as the lady may

possess:

Nor make to dangerous wit a vain pretence,

But wisely rest content with modest sense;

For wit, like wine, intoxicates the brain,

Too strong for feeble woman to sustain:

Of those who claim it more than half have none;

And half of those who have it are undone.

* * * * *

Seek to be good but aim not to be great:

A woman's noblest station is retreat:

Her fairest virtues fly from public sight,

Domestic worth, that shuns too strong a light.

The attitude of the prudent wife towards her husband is also

indicated:

From kind concern about his weal or woe,

Let each domestic duty seem to flow,

The _household sceptre_ if he bids you bear,

Make it your pride his _servant_ to appear;

Endearing thus the common acts of life.

The _mistress_ still shall charm him in the wife.

Dr. Johnson thought this poem showed a mind attentive to life, that

it was vigorously and very elegantly expressed, and that it was

marked by much truth and much prudence. But Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

summarized Lord Lyttleton's platitude in a contemptuous couplet:

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;

In short, my deary, kiss me! and be quiet.

In 1744 Edward Moore published his _Fables for Ladies_.[437] In

thirteen rather smoothly versified little tales he enforces the

ordinary maxims included in the accepted social creed for women.

Only the last one goes out of the realm of decorum and domesticity.

In "The Owl and the Nightingale" the Nightingale represents the woman

who "minds the duties of her nest" and sings the song taught her by

nature, and so gains applause from man and bird. The opposite type is

represented by the Owl who, puffed up with self-conceit, spends her

time in pedantry and sloth. The owl-like lady vaunts her own wits,

twits her husband with his inferiority, and lets her children go

ragged and dirty.

With books her litter'd floor is spread,

Of nameless authors, never read;

Foul linen, petticoats, and lace

Fill up the intermediate space.

Abroad, at visitings, her tongue

Is never still, and always wrong;

All meanings she defines away,

And stands, with truth and sense, at bay.

[Sidenote: Samuel Richardson]

Samuel Richardson was the first to make feminism an issue in fiction.

Pamela and Clarissa Harlowe have the characteristics counted ideal by

Richardson, and both of these young ladies have not only exceptional

facility with the pen, but they have an education superior to that

of most girls of their day, and they have educational ideas far

ahead of their time. Though Clarissa was very young when she died,

she is represented as having accomplished much. In fine needlework

she excelled cloistered nuns, pieces of her work being sent even

to Italy to show the skill of English maidens. She had a pretty

hand at drawing, and, even when her execution was faulty, she was

nevertheless "absolute mistress in the _should-be_ of art." She knew

French and Italian well, and had read the chief poetry in those

tongues as well as in English. She had also begun Latin. She read

aloud fluently and correctly, with grace and dramatic effect. Her

maxim was, "All that a woman can learn above the useful knowledge

proper to her sex, _let her learn_." But she had no patience with a

"learned slattern," and deprecated any education that could turn a

woman away from domestic economy. Pamela was but sixteen when she

married and her education had been in the main that gained through

four years with Lady B. But after her marriage she settles into

a routine of life, one element of which is three hours a day for

study. Italian, French, geography, and arithmetic receive particular

attention. The chief pleasures in her home are intellectual ones.

Her first theatrical season in London presents her in the rôle of

dramatic critic. Ambrose Philips's _The Distressed Mother_ and

Steele's _Tender Husband_ had awakened tears and laughter from a

generation of play-goers, before Pamela, self-appointed censor of

the stage, revealed their immoralities and improbabilities. It is

also Pamela who is chosen to lay bare the absurdities of the Italian

opera. At her husband's wish she writes an extended essay in which

she dissects Locke's _Treatise on Education_ with explanatory and

critical comments. Furthermore, quite apart from these technicalities

of education, Richardson has given to Pamela, Clarissa, and Miss Howe

an independent personality. They are not mere puppets of relatives or

of circumstances. They strive valiantly to direct the course of their

lives according to the dictates of their own reason and conscience.

Parents and husbands are not the arbiters of their destiny. They hold

to their own views in spite of adverse public opinion and private

authority. Nor do they cling to their theories with a mere meek and

silent obstinacy. They argue down all opponents. The whys and the

wherefores are at their tongues' end. Conscience, mind, and will are

in their own keeping.

These striking characteristics of Richardson's heroines present in

concrete form opinions frequently stated by him in his letters. Those

to Lady Bradshaigh are sufficient to indicate the stand he took. This

correspondence belongs in 1750 and 1751. The more important letters

are the following:

_Lady Bradshaigh to Richardson._

I own I do not approve of great learning in women. I believe it

rarely turns out to their advantage. No farther would I have them

to advance, than to what would enable them to write and converse

with propriety, and make themselves useful in every stage of

life. I hate to hear Latin out of a woman's mouth. There is

something in it, to me, masculine. I could fancy such a one weary

of the petticoat, and talking over the bottle. You say "the men

are hastening apace into dictionary learning." The less occasion

still for the ladies to proceed in their's. I should be ashamed

of having more learning than my husband. And could we, do you

think, help shewing a little contempt, finding ourselves superior

in what the husband ought to excel in. Very few women have

strength of brain equal to such a trial: and as few men would

forego their lordly prerogative, and submit to a woman of better

understanding, either natural or acquired. A very uncomfortable

life do I see between an ignorant husband and a learned wife. Not

that I would have it thought unnecessary for a woman to read,

to spell, or speak English; which has been pretty much the case

hitherto. I often wonder we can converse at all; much more, that

we can write to be understood. Thanks to nature for what we have!

_Richardson to Lady Bradshaigh._

_Dear Madam_,

You do not approve of great learning in women. Learning in women

may be rightly or wrongly placed, according to the uses made of

them. And if the sex is to be brought up with a view to make the

individuals of it inferior in knowledge to the husbands they may

happen to have, not knowing who those husbands are, or what, or

whether sensible or foolish, learned or illiterate, it would be

best to keep them from writing or reading, and even from the

knowledge of the common idioms of speech. Would it not be very

pretty for the parents on both sides to make it the first subject

of their inquiries, whether the girl as a recommendation, were

a greater fool, or more ignorant, than the young fellow; and if

not, that they should reject her, for the booby's sake?--and

would not your objection stand as strongly against a preference

in mother-wit in the girl, as against what is called learning;

since linguists, (I will not call all linguists, learned men,) do

very seldom make the figure in conversation that even girls, from

sixteen to twenty, make.

If a woman have genius, let it take its course, as well as in

men: provided she neglect not anything that is more peculiarly

her province. If she has good sense, she will not make the man

she chuses, who wants her knowledge, uneasy, nor despise him for

that want. Her good sense will teach her what is her duty; nor

will she want reminding of the tenor of her marriage vow to him.

If she has not, she will find a thousand ways to plague him,

though she knew not one word beyond her mother-tongue, nor how to

write, read, or speak properly in that. The English, Madam, and

particularly what we call the plain English, is a very copious

and a very expressive language.

_Lady Bradshaigh to Richardson._

I will not approve of learning in women. You, not even you,

shall persuade me to it; that is no farther than I have already

allowed which I think is pretty extensively; let them study that,

domestic duties, and other necessary acquirements, and they will

have employment enough to keep them out of mischief, if their

inclinations are not strong that way: and if they were as learned

as the most learned you can name, I have a notion these same

whisperings must, in some degree, be attended to; and whilst

they have ears they will be open to flattery and whilst men have

tongues these ears will be filled with it. Learning cannot change

nature, but it can make a woman ridiculous, a woman of sense I

mean. Then, if it was once become customary, all parents would

think their children qualified, and say, "If, please God, my girl

shall be a scholar," as the men say of their boys, boobies or

not: and what figures would most of us make!--Everything moves

easiest in its own sphere. Indeed, Sir, great learning would make

strange work of us. You know we are to submit and obey; and it

is much as ever we can do, often more, in our inferior state of

knowledge. I speak of acquired learning. What we have from good

sense and natural genius, nobody can take from us. And the more

a woman has of those, the better she must appear if along with

those, she has good nature and humility.

_Richardson to Lady Bradshaigh._

Your Ladyship will not "approve of learning in women." I cannot

help it. But do you not think, Madam, that the woman, who,

additionally to the advantages she has from nature, "has been

taught to read and converse with ease and propriety"; who can

read, spell, and speak English; may not be as justly feared by

half the pretty fellows of this age, as if she could read and

understand Latin?

I do not allow, that because a man is superficial, a woman must

be so too, for fear she should meet with a husband to whom

she may have a superior understanding. Do you not remember

whose these words are? "What a pity it is that true genius

and merit should be veiled under the cloud of inactivity and

modesty."--"Strange! (adds this favourite of mine) that people

will wrap up their talents and hide them."

In your Ladyship's, of January 6, you say, "I hate to hear

Latin out of a woman's mouth: there is something in it to me

masculine. I could fancy such a one weary of the petticoat, and

talking over a bottle." But, in this case, will not vanity and

conceit shew themselves, where they are predominant, in a man's

as much as in a woman's mind? Are there not pedantic men? Miss

C----[438] is an example that woman may be trusted with Latin and

even Greek, and yet not think themselves above their domestic

duties. But after all, I contend not that women should be taught

either of these languages; nor do I hold languages to be great

learning, as I hinted in my former. A linguist and a learned man

may very well be two persons. Meantime, all that I contend for,

is, that genius, whether in men or women, should take its course:

that, as the ray of divinity, it should not be suppressed. But

I acknowledge that the great and indispensable duties of women

are of the domestic kind; and that, if a woman neglect these,

or despise them, for the sake of science itself, which I call

learning, she is good for nothing.

But would you not, Madam, have called me by some hard name, had I

supposed the sex, in general, so conceited, so self-sufficient,

so naturally weak in judgment, as you do? and had I asserted,

that the more they knew, the worse they would be for it? I

believe, I have observed in a former, that neither of us will let

anyone but ourselves speak slightly of the sex.

_Lady Bradshaigh to Richardson (March 29_, 1751).

I think we pretty nearly agree, as to learning in women. And

I was glad to find our opinion corresponding with an author

esteemed by the judicious. In the letters of Balzac to Mr.

Chapelain, are the following words: "I could more willingly

tolerate a woman with a beard, than one that pretends to

learning. In earnest, had I authority in the civil government, I

would condemn all those women to the distaff, that undertook to

write books, that transform their souls by masculine disguise,

and break the rank they hold in the world."

Few bits of correspondence could be more illuminating. Lady

Bradshaigh holds the conventional mid-century view while Richardson

represents the most advanced feminist ideas of his day. Mrs. Makin,

Mary Astell, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and "Sophia" asked hardly

more than Richardson freely grants.

In his letters to Miss Margaret Collier, Richardson is most earnest

in his defense of literary women. In answer to her complaint that

Fielding's _Voyage to Lisbon_ was counted an inferior work and hence

attributed to her, he "inveighed vehemently" against women who

published anonymously, and wished it in his power to punish those

geniuses of the female sex who studiously "wrapped up their napkin'd

talents," elaborately concealing their "God-_given_ talents." "What

is it that they fear?... Is it that the men will be afraid of them,

and shun them as wives? Unworthy fear! Let the wretches shun and be

afraid of them. Unworthy of such blessings, let such men not dare

to look up to merits so superior to their own; and let them enter

into contract with women, whose sense is as diminutive as their own

souls." Miss Collier answers (with a deep sigh) that a preference

for "little-minded creatures" and an aversion to women of uncommon

understanding is not confined to the wretches he anathematizes, but

is as characteristic of "men of real good sense, great parts, and

many fine qualities." Miss Collier styles Richardson "the vindicator"

of her sex, but he holds his wrath and asks, "Who shall vindicate the

honour of a sex, the most excellent of which desert themselves?"[439]

[Sidenote: Henry Fielding]

Fielding has, in _Tom Jones_, an entertaining learned lady in the

person of Mrs. Western, the sister of Squire Western. She was of

a masculine form, near six foot high, which, added to her manner

and learning, possibly prevented the other sex from regarding her,

notwithstanding her petticoats, in the light of a woman. "She had

considerably improved her mind by study; she had not only read all

the modern plays, operas, oratorios, poems, and romances--in all

which she was a critic--but had gone through Rapin's _History of

England_, Eachard's _Roman History_, and many French _Mémoires pour

servir à l'Histoire_: to these she had added most of the political

pamphlets and journals published within the last twenty years. From

which she had obtained a very competent skill in politics, and could

discourse very learnedly on the affairs of Europe." Squire Western

did not approve of his sister's learned tastes. "You know," he says,

"I do not love to hear you talk about politics; they belong to us,

and petticoats should not meddle."

But in Fielding's attitude towards his sister's work, and in the

personal opinions he expressed in the prefaces to her novels,

we find quite a different tone.[440] Mrs. Western represented a

self-assertive, pretentious woman whose claim to learning was without

justification, and as such Fielding satirized her. For a modest woman

of real learning and ability Fielding had great respect.

[Sidenote: Pompey the Little (1757)]

In Coventry's _Pompey the Little_ is a satirical sketch of a "Lady

Sophister" who had visited most of the courts of Europe and who

affected a character of wisdom. We first meet her at the bedside

of Lady Tempest who is being attended by Dr. Kildarby and Dr.

Rhubarb. Lady Sophister had associated with the _literati_ in France

"where the ladies affect a reputation of science, and are able to

discourse on the profoundest questions of theology and philosophy."

She had somehow caught up with the notion that the soul is not

immortal, and she never found herself in the company of learned men

without launching forth into a discussion of this subject. "This

extraordinary principle, to show that she did not take up her notions

lightly and wantonly, she was able to demonstrate; and could appeal

to the greatest authorities in defence of it. She had read Hobbes,

Malebranche, Locke, Shaftesbury, Woolaston, and many more. But Locke

was her principal favourite, and consequently she rested chiefly upon

him to furnish her with quotations whenever her ladyship pleased to

engage in controversy." She attacks the two doctors with, "Have you

ever read Mr. Locke's controversy with the Bishop of Worcester?"

and hardly waiting to triumph over their confused attempts to

evade the question she proceeds: "What do you esteem the soul to

be? Is it air, or fire, or æther, or a kind of quintessence, as

Aristotle observed--a composition of all the elements?... You know

Mr. Locke observes there are various kinds of matter. But first we

should define matter, which, you know, the logicians tell us is an

extended solid substance. Out of this matter some is made into rose

and peach-trees; the next form which matter takes is animal life;

from whence we have lions and elephants and all the race of brutes:

then the last, as Mr. Locke observes, is thought, and reason, and

volition, from whence are created men; and therefore, you plainly

see it is impossible for the soul to be immortal." Dr. Rhubarb is

dazed by this fluent reasoning, but protests he can recall nothing

in Locke about roses and peach-trees and elephants and lions. "Nay,

sir," cried she, "can you deny me this? If the soul is fire, it

must be extinguished; if air, it must be dispersed; if it be only

a modification of matter, then of course it ceases when matter is

no longer modified; if it be anything else, it is exactly the same

thing: and therefore you must confess--indeed, doctor, you must

confess--that it is impossible for the soul to be immortal."[441]

Before such a rapid fire of phrases the doctors retire discomfited.

It was generally thought that Mr. Coventry meant this sketch for Lady

Orford, but even without this personal reference the passage would

stand as Coventry's estimate of many of the women of his day who were

devoting themselves to metaphysics and knots of divinity.

[Sidenote: Jonathan Swift]

There is no more concise summing up of the arguments generally

advanced against the education of women in the first half of the

eighteenth century than that given by Swift in the opening paragraphs

of his essay entitled _On the Education of Ladies_:

It is argued that the great end of marriage is propagation;

that, consequently, the principal business of a wife is to breed

children, and to take care of them in their infancy: That the

wife is to look to her family, watch over the servants, see

that they do their work: That she be absent from her house as

little as possible: That she is answerable for everything amiss

in the family: That she is to obey all the lawful commands

of her husband, and visit or be visited by no persons whom

he disapproves: That her whole business, if well performed,

will take up most hours of the day: That the greater she is,

and the more servants she keeps, her inspection must increase

accordingly: for, as a family represents a kingdom, so the wife,

who is her husband's first minister, must, under him, direct

all the officers of state, even to the lowest; and report their

behavior to her husband, as the first minister does to his

prince: That such a station requires much time, and thought,

and order; and, if well executed, leaves but little time for

visits or diversions: That a humor of reading books, except

those of devotion or housewifery, is apt to turn a woman's

brain: That plays, romances, novels, and love-poems, are only

proper to instruct them how to carry on an intrigue: That all

affectation of knowledge, beyond what is merely domestic, renders

them vain, conceited, and pretending: That the natural levity

of woman wants ballast; and when she once begins to think she

knows more than others of her sex, she will begin to despise

her husband, and grow fond of every coxcomb who pretends to any

knowledge in books: That she will learn scholastic words; make

herself ridiculous by pronouncing them wrong, and applying them

absurdly in all companies: That in the meantime, her househould

affairs, and the care of her children, will be wholly laid

aside; her toilet will be crowded with all the under-wits, where

the conversation will pass in criticising on the last play or

poem that comes out, and she will be careful to remember all

the remarks that were made, in order to retail them in the next

visit, especially in company who know nothing of the matter:

That she will have all the impertinence of a pedant, without the

knowledge; and for every new acquirement, will become so much the

worse.[442]

This essay breaks off abruptly so that we cannot tell in what

spirit Swift planned to carry on the discussion. But in "A Letter

to a Very Young Lady on her Marriage"[443] we get a somewhat fuller

statement showing his contempt for women in general, but indicating

possibilities in the way of improvement in specific cases:

As divines say, That some people take more pains to be damned,

than it would cost them to be saved; so your sex employ more

thought, memory and application to be fools, than would serve

to make them wise and useful. When I reflect on this I cannot

conceive you to be human creatures, but a certain sort of species

hardly a degree above a monkey; who has more diverting tricks

than any of you, is an animal less mischievious and expensive,

might in time be a tolerable critic in velvet and brocade, and,

for ought I know, would equally become them.... It is a little

hard that not one gentleman's daughter in a thousand should be

brought to read or understand her own natural tongue, or to be

judge of the easiest books that are written in it; as any one

may find, who can have the patience to hear them, when they are

disposed to mangle a play or novel, where the least word out of

the common road is sure to disconcert them; and it is no wonder

when they are not so much as taught to spell in their childhood,

nor can ever attain to it in their whole lives.... I know very

well that those who are commonly called learned women, have lost

all manner of credit by their impertinent talkativeness; but

there is an easy remedy for this, if you once consider, that

after all the pains you may be at, you never can arrive in point

of learning to the perfection of a school boy.[444]

In harmony with this low estimate of the attainments of women is

Swift's famous aphorism, "A very little wit is valued in a woman

as we are pleased with a few words spoken plain by a parrot."[445]

Too much emphasis could easily be given this utterance. It should

be remembered that it was not part of a well-considered theory. It

was merely one of the many unrelated sayings written down when Swift

and Pope resolved to commit to paper all the maxims, epigrams, and

short reflections on life that they could think of in a day.[446] The

philosophy expressed counted for less than witty phrasing.

So, too, with Swift's brutal attacks on Mary Astell's college. It is

given undue significance if it is interpreted simply as an attack on

higher education for women. His derision of the college was an angry

outburst against a particular learned woman who had used her wit to

make fun of the Kit-Kat Club. It was Mary Astell the satirist rather

than Mary Astell the defender of learned women who awakened his

spleen.[447]

On the whole, Swift seems to have been favorably disposed towards

women of genuine and unpretentious learning. His friendly services

to the Irish poetesses, especially to Mrs. Barber and Mrs.

Pilkington, while rather condescending in tone, nowhere indicates

any condemnation of their aspirations in the way of writing and

publishing. In the "Letter to a Very Young Lady" he comments

unfavorably on the women who spend their youth in exploiting their

beauty, and their later years in visits and cards, and says, "Whereas

I have known ladies at sixty, to whom all the polite part of court

and town paid their addresses, without any further view than that

of enjoying the pleasure of their conversation." And he advised the

young wife to seek out good books and elevating conversation in order

to raise herself above the general degrading level of her sex:

You must improve your mind by closely pursuing such a method of

study as I shall direct or approve of. You must get a collection

of history and travels, which I will recommend to you, and

spend some hours every day in reading them, and making extracts

from them if your memory be weak. You must invite persons of

knowledge and understanding to an acquaintance with you, by

whose conversation you will learn to correct your taste and

judgment.[448]

More convincing still is Swift's estimate of Stella. From her

childhood he had trained her mind and selected her reading, and we

must assume that he had formed her character and determined her

acquirements according to the feminine model he most admired. When he

praised her it was her intelligence on which he put emphasis. He said

of her:

Never was any of her sex born with better gifts of mind, or

who more improved them by reading and conversation.... She was

well versed in the Greek and Roman story, and was not unskilled

in that of France and England. She spoke French perfectly,

but forgot much of it by neglect and sickness. She had read

carefully all the best books of travel, which served to open

and enlarge the mind. She understood the Platonic and Epicurean

philosophy, and judged very well of the defects of the latter.

She made very judicious abstracts of the best books she had

read. She understood the nature of government, and could point

out all the errors of Hobbes, both in that and in religion. She

had a good insight into physic, and knew somewhat of anatomy;

in both which she was instructed in her younger days by an

eminent physician, who had her long under his care, and bore the

highest esteem for her person and understanding. She had a true

taste of wit and good sense, both in poetry and prose, and was

a perfect good critic of style. Although her knowledge, from

books and company, was much more extensive than usually falls to

the share of her sex, yet she was so far from making a parade

of it, that her female visitants, on their first acquaintance,

who expected to discover it by what they call hard words and

deep discourse, would be sometimes disappointed, and say, "They

found she was like other women." But wise men, through all her

modesty, whatever they discoursed on, could easily observe that

she understood them very well, by the judgment shown in her

observations, as well as in her questions.[449]

Swift did not consider a woman as a slave or a toy. An alert mind,

a fund of varied information, an intelligent interest in books and

general affairs, seemed to him necessary qualifications in a woman

who would be a suitable companion for a man of sense.

[Sidenote: Alexander Pope]

Pope was interested in questions of education and general learning.

His own training had not come through the regular channels of

public schools and university, so perhaps as an observer _ab extra_

the defects of the system were more apparent to him than to

those brought up in it. At any rate he protested against corporal

punishment, against the monotony of a narrow and fixed curriculum,

against vague metaphysics and dry-as-dust textual criticism. But in

this general discussion he did not touch upon the question of woman's

education. His attitude towards learned ladies was a personal one.

When he was in love with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the luster of

her "heavenly mind," her learning, and her wisdom, were celebrated

along with the grace and beauty depicted by Kneller.[450] But when

she was no longer in favor she became "that dang'rous thing, a female

wit."[451] In _The Rape of the Lock_ he addressed the wayward goddess

of the Cave of Spleen as:

Parent of vapors and of female wit,

Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit,

On various tempers act by various ways,

Make some take physic, others scribble plays.[452]

The "women-wits" apparently protested against these lines, or at

least Lady Winchilsea did, and he responded with a conciliatory

_Impromptu to Lady Winchilsea_, six lines of which are as follows:

In vain you boast Poetic Names of yore,

And cite those Sapphos we admire no more:

Fate doomed the Fall of every Female Wit;

But doomed it then, when first Ardelia writ.

Of all examples by the world confess'd,

I knew Ardelia could not quote the best.

But Pope is never as undisguisedly himself in eulogy as he is in

satire, and his real opinions probably came out when he and Gay and

Arbuthnot sat down to write a play which should adequately represent

their separate and combined hostilities. The assignment to Pope of

the character of Phœbe Clinket, the authoress, shows not only his

attitude towards Lady Winchilsea, but probably towards the tribe of

women wits as well.[453] "Most women have no characters at all"[454]

is Pope's general summary; and the highest compliment he could pay

to Martha Blount, the woman for whom he cared most, was that she had

"Sense and Good Humour."[455] In any comparison with Stella, Martha

Blount seems a very commonplace personage to rank as a poet's friend.

[Sidenote: Bishop Burnet]

Bishop Burnet opposed Mary Astell's plan for a college, and he

disliked any pushing into public affairs by women. "I thought," he

said, "there were two sorts of persons that ought not to meddle in

affairs, though upon very different accounts. These were churchmen

and women. We ought to be above it, and women were below it." And

when he first heard of Lady Margaret Kennedy, he was unwilling to

meet her because of her unfeminine interest in politics.

Yet Bishop Burnet was not absolutely opposed to the education

of women. When he gave instructions as to the choice of a wife,

"a good understanding" and "a liberal education" were among the

characteristics to be sought. His objection to Mary Astell's plan was

due to his fear that a lay monastery such as she described might be

hostile to the interests of the Church. He even advocated academies

devoted to "women's education and religious retreat," and he thought

that "monasteries without vows" might be set on foot in such a

fashion as to be "the honor of a Queen on her throne."[456]

He also found especial pleasure in the society of educated women.

When he finally met Lady Margaret Kennedy, he fell in love with her

in spite of her politics. They were married in 1671, and when, after

her death, he summed up her character, he put particular stress on

her intellectual attainments. "She was a woman," he wrote, "of much

knowledge, had read vastly; she understood both French, Italian

and Spanish; she knew the old Roman and Greek authors well in the

translations; she was an excellent historian and knew all our late

affairs exactly well, and had many things in her to furnish out much

conversation."[457]

Bishop Burnet's second wife was Mrs. Mary Scott, whom he married in

Holland about 1687. In the _Life of Burnet_ it is said of her: "With

these advantages of birth, she had those of a fine person; was well

skilled in drawing, music, and painting; and spoke Dutch, English,

and French equally well. Her knowledge in matters of divinity was

such as might rather be expected from a student than from a lady. She

had a fine understanding and sweetness of temper, and excelled in all

the qualifications of a dutiful wife, a prudent mistress of a family,

and a tender mother of children."[458]

Bishop Burnet's third wife has already been noted as a religious

writer. Her work was brought to completion and publication through

his encouragement and coöperation.

He also chose intellectual women as friends. He corresponded with

Mrs. Wharton, and wrote frequent poems to her, and said he "rejoiced

in her life and friendship beyond all things of this world." Nor did

the fact that she was an authoress disturb him. He even wrote verses

in imitation of her verses.[459]

It is evident that Dr. Burnet enjoyed the individual woman of alert

intelligence and trained mind, but that he deprecated any but the

most carefully guarded schemes for a general extension of educational

advantages to women.

[Sidenote: John Wesley]

John Wesley was always susceptible to the charms of women, but his

lack of discrimination and insight in regard to them led to several

disastrous affairs of the heart, and finally, at forty-eight, to a

more disastrous marriage. These circumstances must be taken into

consideration in reading his various utterances on married life. In

a tract on _Marriage_ he wrote that the duties of a wife may all be

reduced to two: 1. She must recognize herself as the inferior of her

husband. 2. She must behave as such. No such order of precedence had

prevailed in the Epworth rectory, and the mother he almost worshiped

would have scorned such rules. They grew rather from his unhappy

union with the domineering, suspicious, obstinate Mrs. Vazeille. When

he wrote to her, "Be content to be a private, insignificant person,

known and loved by God and me. Leave me to be governed by God and my

own conscience. Then shall I govern you with gentle sway, and show

that I do indeed love you, even as Christ the Church"; he was not so

much expressing his idea of inevitable masculine authority, as he was

trying to calm one woman whose jealous frenzies destroyed his private

happiness and threatened to injure his work.[460]

[Sidenote: John Duncomb: The Feminead (1751)]

John Duncomb's _Feminead: or, Female Genius_, was written in 1751

when he was but twenty-two. It is a tame and feeble production, but

since it antedates Mr. Ballard's _Memoirs_ and the _Eminent Ladies_,

Mr. Duncomb's glorification of female genius should have at least the

credit of being an original idea. And however halting the expression,

his poem embodied a genuine enthusiasm that puts it in line with

the newer ideas of the mid-eighteenth century. The list of learned

ladies presented is not a long one. Comedy writers and writers of

personal memoirs are sorrowfully and briefly dismissed as followers

of a wanton muse. The virtuous ladies celebrated are led, of course,

by the chaste Orinda. Those who succeed her are Lady Winchilsea, Mrs.

Cockburn, Mrs. Rowe, the Countess of Hertford, Viscountess Irwin,

Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Madan, Mrs. Leapor, Miss Carter, Mrs. Brooks, Miss

Ferrar, Miss Pennington, Miss Mulso, and Miss Highmore. Several of

these ladies find their only commemoration here. The Viscountess

Irwin is deserving of "a grateful tribute from all female hands"

because she rescued her sex's cause from the aspersions cast upon

it by Mr. Pope in his _On the Characters of Women_. The poetical

epistle of the Viscountess in rebuttal of his charges proved

to be a true Ithuriel's spear, and disarmed the witlings. Miss

Pennington (afterwards Mrs. Peckard) wrote two odes on "Cynthia"

and the "Spring" that appeared in Dodsley's _Collection_, volume V.

Miss Pennington's _The Copper Farthing_, a burlesque imitation of

Philips's _Splendid Shilling_, was printed in Dilly's _Repository_,

volume I. She died in 1759, aged twenty-five. The others in the list

are spoken of elsewhere in these pages, so need no further comment

here.

The poems open with an invocation to Richardson as "The sex's

friend and constant patron." And there is a passage of national

congratulation over the freedom with which British nymphs wander in

the groves of Wisdom:

Ev'n now fond Fancy in our polish'd land

Assembled shews a blooming, studious band:

With various arts our reverence they engage,

Some turn the tuneful, some the moral page;

These led by Contemplation, soar on high,

And range the Heavens with philosophic eye;

While those surrounded by a vocal choir,

The canvas tinge, or touch the warbling lyre.

Young Mr. Duncomb of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was looking

up his illustrations of female genius at the same time that Mr.

Ballard of Magdalen, Oxford, was getting his elaborate _Memoirs_

ready for the press. And each writer was apparently influenced in

his views by some specific woman scholar or writer whom he knew and

admired, and through whom he was led into a championship of the

general cause. As the learned Miss Elstob, and the pretty coin-loving

sister, stimulated Mr. Ballard, so Susanna Highmore apparently

gave direction to Mr. Duncomb's enthusiasm. He loved Miss Highmore

(1730?-1812) through a protracted courtship of more than twelve

years. She is the "Eugenia" of his poem and is described as "The

Muse's pupil from her tenderest years." She was the daughter of

Joseph Highmore, the artist. She belonged to the Richardson coterie

and was one of the group to whom he read _Sir Charles Grandison_. Her

sketch of the scene forms the frontispiece to the second volume of

Mrs. Barbauld's _Correspondence of Samuel Richardson_. Her _Fidelio

and Honoria_ is the best known of her writings.

[Sidenote: George Ballard: Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain]

In 1752 there was published at Oxford a significant book entitled

_Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, who have been Celebrated

for their Writings or Skill in the Learned Languages Arts and

Sciences_. The author of this book was George Ballard of whose

obscure life but a few chance details have reached our day. This is

the more to be regretted since he was evidently a person of marked

individuality. He was born in Campden, Gloucestershire, in 1706.

His father was a poor man, and it was necessary for the children

to be put early to work. Since George was sickly an easy trade was

found for him and he was apprenticed to a stay-maker, or woman's

habit-maker. His literary tastes were early apparent. At fourteen

he read Fox's _Acts and Monuments of the Church_, various books of

polemical divinity, and a number of books against dissenters. He

had antiquarian tastes, and while still young began a collection of

coins. Our most definite picture of him is as a young man of twenty,

still a stay-maker, but already well known as an indefatigable

collector. In the summer of 1726 Mr. R. Graves wrote to Mr. Hearne as

follows:

At Campden in Gloucestershire lives one Mr. Ballard, a Taylor,

who hath a Daughter, a very pretty Girl, of about fourteen Years

of Age, that hath an extraordinary Genius for Coins, & hath made

an odd Collection of them. Mr. Granger (who came from thence

last Night in his Return from London) saw her, and speaks much

of her, w^{ch} I took the more notice of because he is himself

a good Judge of Coins, & hath an admirable Collection of them,

especially of English ones. But, it seems, this young Girl is

chiefly delighted with those that are Roman.[461]

In February of the next year he wrote again:

The bearer is the young tailor of Campden who has collected so

many odd coins.... The young Man, whose name is George Ballard

has been all about the Country to pick up old money, and has got

a great Number.... When he has gott any new that I have not seen,

he brings 'em to me to tell him whose they are.... I suppose he

will bring some of them with him to shew you.[462]

In March Mr. Hearne recorded the visit of Mr. Ballard:

Yesterday, in the afternoon, called upon me Mr. George Ballard,

a young man (a Tayllour) of Campden in Gloucestershire, of whom

I have heard Mr. Graves speak more than once. This Ballard is an

ingenious, curious young man, & hath pickt up abundance of old

Coins, some of w^{ch} he shewed me. He hath been at many places

about the country for that End. He hath also pickt up many of our

Historians, & other English Books, & takes great delight in them,

but he is no scholar. He is a mighty admirer of John Fox & talks

mightily against the Roman Catholicks, tho' I told him, that

there are fifteen thousand Lyes in Fox, & brought him to some

sense of the Abuses frequently put upon the poor Catholicks.

He shewd me an old Ed. w^{ch} is the first of _Historia

Britannica_. Mr. Ballard told me, about a week ago he met with a

curious old Paint upon Board (an original, as he takes it) done

excellently well, of Queen Catharine, the divorced wife of Henry

VIII.

Mr. Ballard hath a sister (which Mr. Graves used to talk also of)

equally curious in Coins and Books with himself. He told me, she

is twenty-three years of Age.[463]

There came with Mr. Ballard, one Mr. Ellys, who deals in Laces

etc. and is Brother in law to Mr. Ballard, having married

another (one elder) Sister of Mr. Ballard's, by whom he hath 2

children.[464]

In May of the same year Mr. Hearne wrote:

Yesterday Mr. Graves of Mickleton called upon us. He told me,

that young Ballard the Taylor of Campden is out of his time, &

hath very good business at his trade, but that he is now learning

Latin, going twice a day for that end to the School-master

there, and that he hath a great mind to come and enter of [_sic_]

some College or Hall in Oxford, but Mr. Graves gives him no

encouragement, judging it better (& so I think too) to keep to

his Trade. This young Ballard's Great Uncle was a Doctor of

Physick. Mr. Graves hath promised to send me some account of

him.[465]

In spite of the contradictory statements as to the age of the

attractive, coin-loving sister, there emerges from these letters a

sufficiently definite picture of a household in which at least two

talented young people were carrying on researches in line with the

best antiquarian work of the day.

We are not told when Mr. Ballard took up Anglo-Saxon. The letters to

and by Mr. Hearne when Ballard was twenty-one and twenty-two do not

mention Anglo-Saxon as one of his interests. Six years later we find

him on intimate terms with Elizabeth Elstob whose Evesham School was

but a few miles from Campden. It does not seem improbable that Miss

Elstob introduced this promising young scholar to her own chosen

field of work. He was, at any rate, so impressed by the disproportion

between her learning and her toil-bound life that he became her

knight-errant and finally set in motion influences that resulted

in her freedom. Whether Miss Elstob introduced him to Anglo-Saxon,

or merely joined her ripe scholarship to his young enthusiasm,

their common interest results in a warm friendship that found in

Anglo-Saxon its firmest bond.

We have one interesting bit of testimony to the ardor with which

Mr. Ballard pursued the new language. He needed an Anglo-Saxon

dictionary, but not being able to buy one he borrowed, from Mr.

Browne Willis, _Somner's Dictionary_, and made a very beautiful

transcript of it, with Thwaites's additions. This transcript was one

of the manuscripts bequeathed by Mr. Ballard to the Bodleian. It was

a tremendous piece of work, and it is small wonder that Mr. Ballard

celebrated its completion by a "festival."[466]

The advice given by Mr. Graves, that the ambitious young stay-maker

should "keep to his trade," was perforce followed. Most of his life

was spent as a tailor at Campden, but in spite of this his fame for

scholarship grew apace. In 1750 Lord Chedworth and the gentlemen of

his hunt, who annually in the hunting season spent about a month at

Campden, heard of his attainments, and they offered him an annuity

of £100 for life in order that he might prosecute his studies. He

gratefully accepted £60 and set out at once for Oxford. He was made

one of the eight clerks of Magdalen College, receiving his rooms

and commons free. His life at Oxford was but a continuation of his

activities at Campden. He had begun vast collections on various

subjects and these he pushed nearer to completion. At his death,

however, which occurred in 1755 and was occasioned, it was thought,

by too strenuous application to study, the only work he had published

was the _Memoirs_. He left to the Bodleian forty-four volumes of

manuscripts and original letters, including copies of some of his own

writing, and all carefully indexed.[467]

The preparation of the _Memoirs_ was well under way before he went

to Oxford, for Mr. G. Russell wrote to him, May 15, 1759: "The work

you are now engaged in, will I hope rescue us in a great measure from

the too just accusation our neglect in Biography has occasioned,

and you have this additional satisfaction in prospect, that as the

Fair Sex are the subject, so they will be the Protectresses and

Guardians of your performance. Their smiles, like a benign planet,

will gradually ripen it to perfection, and their breath embalm it

to posterity."[468] The original manuscript of the _Memoirs_ was in

the possession of Mr. Gough and was sold with the rest of his books

in 1811.[469] A copy of the first edition, in the Bodleian, contains

manuscript notes in the handwriting of the author.[470] A second but

inferior edition came out in 1775.

When the _Memoirs_ appeared in 1752, it attracted little attention.

The _Monthly Review_ for February, 1753, is not laudatory. The editor

regrets that Mr. Ballard did not go farther back than the fourteenth

century, that he has vainly spent his industry in rescuing from

oblivion some ladies who might better have been left there, and

finally that "so extraordinary a genius and so excellent a woman as

Mrs. Cockburn, is wholly unnoticed in this work." Other criticisms

reached Mr. Ballard from private sources. They were based almost

entirely on religious and party lines. Mr. Ballard's answer to a

letter from Dr. Lyttleton, Dean of Exeter, will sufficiently indicate

the tone of these criticisms. It was written May 22, 1753:

The day before I received your first epistle a Gent. of my

acquaintance brought me the _Monthly Review_ for February, that

I might see what the candid and genteel authors of that work had

said of mine. They observe to the publick, that _I have said_

C. Tishem was so skilled in the Greek tongue, that she could

read Galen in its original, which very few Physicians are able

to do. Whether this was done maliciously, in order to bring the

wrath of the Æsculapians upon me, or inadvertently, I cannot

say: but I may justly affirm, that they have used me very ill in

that affair; since if they had read with attention, which they

ought to have done before they attempted to give a character of

the Book, they must have known that the whole account of that

Lady (which is but one page) is not mine, but borrowed with

due acknowledgement from the _General Dictionary_. They are

likewise pleased to inform the world that I have been rather

too industrious in the undertaking, having introduced several

women who hardly deserved a place in the work. I did not do

this for want of materials; neither did I do it rashly, without

advising with others of superior judgment in those affairs, of

which number Mr. Professor Ward was one. But those pragmatical

Censors seem to have but little acquaintance with those studies,

or otherwise they might have observed that all our general

Biographers, as Leland, Bale, Pits, Wood, and Tanner, have

trod the very same steps; and have given an account of all the

authors they could meet with, good and bad, just as they found

them: and yet, I have never heard of any one that had courage or

ill-nature enough, to endeavour to expose them for it. While I

was ruminating on these affairs, three or four letters came to

my hands, and perceiving one of them come from my worthy friend

the Dean of Exeter, I eagerly broke it open, and was perfectly

astonished to find myself accused of _party zeal_ in my book; and

that from thence the most candid reader might conclude the author

to be both a Church and State Tory. But after having thoroughly

considered all the passages objected to, and not finding the

least tincture of either Whig or Tory principles contained in

them, I began to chear up my drooping spirits, in hopes that I

might possibly outlive my supposed crime; but, alas! to my still

greater confusion! when I opened my next letter from a Tory

acquaintance, I was like one thunderstruck at the contents of it.

He discharges his passionate but ill-grounded resentment upon me

most furiously. He tells me, he did not imagine Magdalen College

could have produced such a rank Whig. He reproaches me with want

of due esteem for the Stuart Family, to whom he says I have shown

a deadly hatred, and he gives me, as he imagines, three flagrant

instances of it. 1. That I have unseasonably and maliciously

printed a letter of Queen Elizabeth's, in order to blacken the

memory of Mary Queen of Scots, and that, too, at a time when her

character began to shine as bright as the Sun. 2dly. That I have

endeavoured to make her memory odious, by representing her as

wanting natural affection to her only son, in my note at p. 162,

where he says I have printed part of a Will, etc. And 3dly, tho'

she was cut off in such a barbarous and unprecedented manner,

yet she has fallen unlamented by me. I am likewise charged with

having an affection to Puritanism; the reasons for which are,

my giving the Life of a Puritan Bishop's Lady, which it seems

need not have been done by me, had I not had a particular regard

for her, since it had been done before by Goodwin who reprinted

her Devotions. And not content with this, I have blemished my

book with the memoirs of a Dissenting teacher's wife, and have

been kind enough to heighten even the character given her by her

indulgent husband; and that I am very fond of quoting Fox and

Burnet upon all occasions. These are thought strong indications

of the above-mentioned charge. It may be thought entirely

unnecessary to answer any of the objections from Exeter, after

having given you this Summary of my kind Friend's Candid Epistle;

but to you, Sir, to whom I could disclose the very secrets of my

soul, I will endeavour to say a word or two upon this subject,

and make you my Confessor upon this Occasion; and I will do it

with as much sincerity as if I lay on my death-bed. Before I was

fourteen years old, I read over Fox's Acts and Monuments of the

Church, and several of the best books of Polemical Divinity,

which strongly fortified me in the Protestant Religion; and gave

me the greatest abhorrence to Popery. And soon after I perused

Mercurius Rusticus, The Eleventh Persecution, Lloyd, Walker's

Sufferings of the Clergy, and many others, which gave me almost

as bad an opinion of the Dissenters. But then I learned in my

childhood _to live in Charity with all Men_, and I have used my

best endeavours to put this doctrine in practice all my life

long. I never thought ill, or quarrelled with any man merely

because he had been educated in principles different to mine;

and yet I have been acquainted with many papists, dissenters,

etc. and if I found any of them learned, ingenuous, and modest,

I always found my heart well-disposed for contracting a firm

friendship with them: and notwithstanding that, I dare believe

that all those people will, with joint consent, vouch for me,

that I have ever been steady in my own principles.

I can truly affirm that never any one engaged in such a work,

with an honester heart, or executed it with more unbiassed

integrity, than I have done. And indeed, I take the unkind

censures passed upon me by the furious uncharitable zealots of

both parties, to be the strongest proof of it. And after all, I

dare challenge any man, whether Protestant, Papist, or Dissenter,

Whig or Tory, (and I have drawn up and published memoirs of

women who professed all those principles) to prove me guilty

of partiality, or to shew that I have made any uncharitable

reflections on any person, and whenever that is done, I will

faithfully promise to make a public recantation. I wish, Sir,

you would point out to me any one unbecoming word or expression

which has fell from me on Bishop Burnet. Had I had the least

inclination to have lessened his character, I did not want proper

materials to have done it. I have in my possession two original

letters from Bishop Gibson and Mr. Norris of Bemerton, to Dr.

Charlett, which, if published, would lessen your too great esteem

for him. And what, I beseech you, Sir, have I said in praise of

Mrs. Hopton and her pious and useful labours, which they do not

well deserve, and which can possibly give any just offence to

any good man? I dare not censure or condemn a good thing merely

because it borders upon the Church of Rome. I rather rejoice that

she retains anything I can fairly approve. Should I attempt to do

this, might I not condemn the greater part of our Liturgy, etc.?

and should I not stand self-condemned for so doing? I cannot for

my life perceive that I have said anything of that excellent

woman, which she does not merit; and I must beg leave to say

that I think her letter to F. Turbeville deserves to be wrote in

letters of gold, and ought to be carefully read and preserved by

all Protestants. Mary Queen of Scots fell under my notice, no

otherwise than as a learned woman. The affairs you mention would

by no means suit my peaceable temper. I was too well acquainted

with the warm disputes, and fierce engagement both of domestic

and foreign writers on that head, once to touch upon the subject.

And indeed, unless I had been the happy discoverer of some secret

springs of action which would have given new information to the

public, it would have been excessive folly in me to intermeddle

in an affair of so tender a nature, and of so great importance.

I have often blamed my dear friend Mr. Brome for destroying his

valuable collections, but I now cease to wonder at it. He spent

his leisure hours pleasantly and inoffensively, and when old

age came on, which not only abates the thirst, but oftentimes

gives a disrelish to these and almost all other things, which do

not help to make our passage into eternity more easy, he then

destroyed them (I dare believe) in order to prevent the malicious

reflections of an ill-natured world.

I have always been a passionate lover of History and Antiquity,

Biography, and Northern Literature: and as I have ever hated

idleness, so I have in my time filled many hundred sheets with my

useless scribble, the greater part of which I will commit to the

flames shortly to prevent their giving me any uneasiness in my

last moments.[471]

The bitter feeling indicated by this letter, and the sense of

disappointment resulting from criticisms so unsympathetic, must have

been considerably mitigated by the noble list of subscribers with

which the book was ushered into the world.[472] That would indicate

at least a financial success, and doubtless appreciation came from

many unrecorded sources.

Mr. Ballard's book is of interest if it were only as a _tour de

force_ in the way of collecting materials from scattered sources.

He sought far and wide for the facts he chronicles. All available

biographical dictionaries, general histories, county histories,

genealogical records, wills, funeral sermons, epitaphs, published

works, private manuscripts,--all became the subjects of his

indefatigable inquiries. He sought interviews, he wrote letters, he

cajoled information from the most unlikely recesses. And he had an

eye for picturesque and personal detail, so that out of his rapid and

often disordered assemblage of facts it is possible to reconstruct,

in many instances, a vivid impression of real women in their form and

habit as they lived. That closer scholarship should now and then find

inaccuracies in his statements is no more than should be expected,

and should in no degree invalidate his claim to recognition as having

done an invaluable piece of research in a biographical realm entirely

new.

The _Memoirs_ is a handsome volume of 474 pages and contains sixty

more or less extended biographies. Except for Queen Elizabeth the

longest notice is in the twenty-four pages devoted to Margaret

Roper, and the accounts range from that down to eight or ten lines.

The order is approximately chronological. The lives are divided

into two portions with separate dedications. The first one reads,

"To Mrs. Talbot of Kineton in Warwickshire the Following Memoirs of

Learned Ladies in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries are most

humbly inscribed as an acknowledgement of my sincere and high regard

for her and Mr. Talbot and as a small Testimony of Gratitude for

Extraordinary Favours conferred by Both of Them upon their most

obliged and most devoted humble servant George Ballard." The second

dedication was, "To Mrs. Delany the Truest Judge and Brightest

Pattern of all the Accomplishments which adorn her Sex these Memoirs

of Learned Ladies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries are

most humbly inscribed by her obedient servant George Ballard."

In the Preface Mr. Ballard comments on the value of biographical

records and then proceeds to a justification of his own work:

The present age is so far from being defective in this respect,

that it hath produced a greater number of excellent biographers

than any preceding times: and yet, I know not how it hath

happened, that very many ingenious women of this nation, who

were really possessed of a great share of learning, and have, no

doubt, in their time been famous for it, are not only unknown to

the public in general, but have been passed by in silence by our

greatest biographers.

When it is considered how much has been done on this subject

by many learned foreigners, we may justly be surprized at this

neglect among the writers of this nation; more especially, as it

is pretty certain, that England hath produced more women famous

for literary accomplishments, than any other nation in Europe.

* * * * *

Those, whose memoirs are here offered to the publick, I have

placed in the order of time in which they lived; omitting none,

of whom I could collect sufficient materials. For as there may

yet be some learned women of those times, whose characters I am

an entire stranger to; so there are others, whom I well know to

have been persons of distinguished parts and learning, but have

been able to collect very little else relating to them. Such as,

Lady Mary Nevil, Lady Anne Southwell, Lady Honor Hay, Lady Mary

Wroath, Lady Armyne, Lady Ranelagh, Lady Anne Boynton (famous

for her skill in ancient coins, and noble collection of them)

Lady Levet, Lady Warner, Gentlewomen; Mrs. Mabilla Vaughan, Mrs.

Elizabeth Grimstone, Mrs. Jane Owen, Mrs. M. Croft, Mrs. Aemillia

Sawyer, Mrs. Makins (who corresponded in the learned languages,

with Mrs. Anna Maria à Schurman), Mrs. Gertrude More, Mrs.

Dorothy Leigh, together with many other learned and ingenious

women, since the year 1700; of those latter I have had the good

fortune to make very considerable collections: and among the

former, I had drawn up an account of Mrs. Carew, in the same

manner with the other memoirs, but omitted printing it by mere

accident.

The motto on the title-page, "_Et sane qui Sexum alterum ad studia

idoneum negant, iam olim rejecti, fuere ab omnibus philosophis_,"

expresses the spirit of the book. Mr. Ballard was perfectly genuine

in his admiration of learned women. In his impressionable youth he

had found his sister as intelligent in collecting old coins and books

as he himself. Later the most learned Anglo-Saxon scholar he knew

was Miss Elstob. His fervent recognition of his sister's genius,

his high sense of Miss Elstob's learning, are but a forecast of the

direction of his mature work. He had known two brilliant women,

hence he had a belief in the possible intellectual achievements of

women. He had seen one of these women, in spite of her constructive

and advanced scholarship, consigned to poverty and oblivion, and a

sense of injustice took possession of his mind. The championship

of Miss Elstob passed over into championship of all learned women.

His _Memoirs_, he hopes, will remove "that vulgar prejudice of the

supposed incapacity of the female sex." To accomplish this end he

relies in the main on a cool and unemphasized recital of facts. But

now and then he allows himself to protest against some especial

injustice. For instance, under the "Memoirs of Mary Countess of

Pembroke," he says of her translation of the Psalms:

But then we are informed by Sir John Harington, and afterwards by

Mr. Wood, and from him by the late learned Dr. Thomas, that she

was assisted by Dr. Babington then chaplain to the family, and

afterwards Bishop of Worcester; for, say they, 't was more than

a woman's skill to express the sense of the Hebrew so right, as

she hath done in her verse; or more than the English or Latin

translation could give her. This argument has likewise been made

use of by a certain divine to divest another worthy Lady of the

honour of an excellent performance, in the composition of which

was shown some skill in that primitive language. But why this

should be thought a cogent argument to prove it, I am very much

at a loss to know; it being not so much as pretended, so far as

I can be informed, that there is more skill required, or greater

difficulties to be met with in acquiring that language, than

there is in attaining an exact knowledge in the Greek and other

tongues, which all the world knows numberless women have been

perfectly well versed in.

And that the female sex are as capable of learning this as any

other language, appears so plain from many undeniable instances

of it, as to render any farther disproof as to that assertion

unnecessary. Let those who doubt of it, read what St. Jerom has

recorded of the noble Lady Paula and her daughter Eustochium.

The Lady Paula's character he solemnly professes himself, and

that upon a most solemn occasion, to have drawn not in the way of

a Panegyric, but to have related everything with the strictest

veracity; and therefore will not, I hope, be suspected of

flattery, when he tells us that she, in her old age, did speedily

learn it; and understood the language so well as to speak it.

Or if this be referring them too far back to antiquity, let them

reflect on the extraordinary learning and abilities of Mrs. Anna

Maria à Schurman; who was not only well skilled in Greek and

Latin, but in the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Chaldaic, etc. And we

are told [in Evelyn's _Numismata_] that Ludovisia Sarracennia, a

Physician's daughter of Lyons, understood and spoke Hebrew and

Greek at the age of eight years. To let pass many other foreign

examples, I shall only observe that our own Kingdom produced

several women in the last century, who were famous for their

skill in Hebrew, etc. Particularly a young lady of the North

family, who was well versed in the Oriental languages. Mrs. Bland

a Yorkshire gentlewoman was so well skilled in it, that she

taught it to her son and daughter. Likewise the late Mrs. Bury of

Bristol, and others, of whom I need say no more here, since they

will be remembered in this catalogue.

Again, under "Lady Pakington," the question of Hebrew comes up. One

gentleman has told him that _The Whole Duty of Man_ and the other

treatises by the same author could not be by a woman because they

were too deeply learned, and another gentleman wrote that the "many

quotations from Hebrew writers" precluded female authorship. But Mr.

Ballard answers:

And since skill in the Hebrew language is made use of as a

convincing argument (tho, for my part, I can not find one Hebrew

quotation in the whole book) he may please to understand, that

besides the justly celebrated Mrs. Anna Maria à Schurman, and

many other foreign ladies, we have had several domestic examples

of _Women_ who have been famed for their skill in that primitive

language, viz., Lady Jane Gray, Lady Killigrew, a Lady of the

Nottingham family, another Lady of the North family, Lady

Ranelagh, Mrs. Bury, and Mrs. Elizabeth Bland of Beeston in

Yorkshire.

[Sidenote: Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755)]

The success of Mr. Ballard's _Memoirs_ in 1752 led to the production

in 1755 of _Poems by Eminent Ladies_, "Printed for R. Baldwin, at the

Rose, in Pater-Noster-Row."[473] The brief Preface reads in part as

follows:

These volumes are perhaps the most solid compliment that can

possibly be paid to the Fair Sex. They are a standing proof that

great abilities are not confined to the men, and that genius

often glows with equal warmth, and perhaps with more delicacy,

in the breast of a female. The Ladies, whose pieces we have here

collected, are not only an honour to their sex, but to their

native country; and there can be no doubt of their appearing to

advantage together, when they have each severally been approved

by the greatest writers of their times. It is indeed a remarkable

circumstance, that there is scarce one Lady, who has contributed

to fill these volumes, who was not celebrated by her contemporary

poets, and that most of them have been particularly distinguished

by the most lavish encomiums either from _Cowley_, _Dryden_,

_Roscommon_, _Creech_, _Pope_, or _Swift_.

There is indeed no good reason to be assigned why the poetical

attempts of females should not be well received, unless it can

be demonstrated that fancy and judgment are wholly confined

to one half of our species; a notion, to which the readers of

these volumes will not readily assent. It will not be thought

partiality to say that the reader will here meet with many pieces

on a great variety of subjects excellent in their way; and that

this collection is not inferior to any miscellany compiled from

the works of men.

* * * * *

The short accounts of the several writers, prefixed to each of

their poems, were compiled from the best materials we could meet

with. The life of Mrs. _Behn_ in particular, (which is very

entertaining) is extracted from _The Lives of the Poets_, by Mr.

Theophilus Cibber and others. For many of the rest we are obliged

to Mr. _Ballard's_ entertaining Memoirs of Learned Ladies.

The two unimpressive volumes of this publication make rather more

interesting reading than most miscellanies, but there is no hint

of latent genius. The ladies are merely clever versifiers. They

manage the heroic couplet with the mechanical skill of Pope's lesser

imitators. Their verses jingle in the close with sufficient accuracy.

Pope's antitheses and balanced structures, his oratorical figures,

his use of pungent personal portraiture, are characteristics that

find many enfeebled echoes. In subject-matter and general tone the

books present an impeccable front. The authors would be sure to

prefer Steele's _Ladies' Library_ to Mrs. Pilkington's _Love in

Excess_, yet they are not conspicuously strait-laced. The poems are

nearly all occasional and gain thus a note of reality, and, though

no lady attains to genuine humor or actual lightness of touch, there

are evidences of a brightness of spirit, a vivacity, a quickness

of repartee, that remove the poems from the realm of the purely

imitative and conventional.

[Sidenote: Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain (1755)]

Among the literary curiosities of the eighteenth century are two

books by Thomas Amory. One of these, _Memoirs of Several Ladies of

Great Britain_, appeared in 1755 in two volumes. The first volume of

the second work, _The Life of John Buncle_, was published in 1756,

and a second volume appeared in 1766. When he began the _Memoirs_

he had planned to extend the series to eight volumes, but he did

not carry it beyond the second volume of _John Buncle_. The full

title of the _Memoirs_[474] indicates its character as a medley of

unrelated observations, disquisitions, and opinions. _John Buncle_

has a less erratic plan, some order being given by the fact that

the hero engages in seven successive matrimonial ventures in the

course of his travels through Yorkshire and the Lake District. But

the books are alike in aim, both being an exposition of Christian

Deism. John Buncle's wives are all either able advocates of

Socinianism when he meets them, or they have minds so attempered

that on hearing the tenets of that faith they ardently embrace it.

The ladies in both books are introduced with a Defoe-like apparatus

of seemingly accurate details as to dates, locations, and particular

circumstances. Although these ladies have had a great variety of

romantic adventures and differ somewhat as to wealth and social

position, they are essentially alike in character and function, the

one purpose of the author being through them to exemplify and explain

his religious beliefs. The interesting point is that Mr. Amory in

creating ideal and learned defenders of his views should have chosen

young ladies. And this was deliberately done. He states it as his

conviction "that the faculties and imagination of women's minds

properly cultivated may equal those of the greatest men," and he

advocates a higher education for young women of sufficient fortune:

"It would be so far from making them those ridiculous mortals

Molière has described under the character of learned ladies; that it

would render them more agreeable and useful, and enable them by the

acquisition of true sense and knowledge, to be superior to gayety,

dress and dissipation. They would be glorious creatures then. Every

family would be happy."

In accordance with this view his young ladies in the _Memoirs_ and

_John Buncle_ have not only virtue, wealth, and beauty, but learning

of the most specialized and difficult sort. One girl of twenty had

been for five years studying under the tutelage of a Scotchman

and had attained great proficiency in "arithmetic, Algebra, and

fluxions." On her first interview with the author she discoursed for

ten uninterrupted pages on the method of fluxions and so wrought

upon her hearer's admiration that "for a full quarter of an hour

after she ceased he sat looking at her in the greatest astonishment."

But he recovered sufficiently to secure the mathematical prodigy as

his fourth wife. Another "master in the fluxionary way" was a Mrs.

Benslow, and most of the ladies found a perennial source of joy in

algebra and arithmetic. But the realm in which their minds luxuriated

was that of speculative theology. They read books on religious

faiths, ancient and modern, they discussed the most abstruse problems

of metaphysics, and they carried ethical problems into the most

attenuated ramifications.

The lady who seems to be in all ways Mr. Amory's ideal is Miss

Harriot Eusebia Harcourt. She appears in both books, and in

definiteness of personality is superior to any of the other

characters. It is not impossible that Amory gives under her name

a highly idealized portrait of some one he knew. The _Biographium

Femineum_, published in 1766, was so impressed by Miss Harcourt as

to catalogue her among distinguished Englishwomen, but the entire

account seems to be based on Amory's characterization. She is also

admitted as a real person in _Female Biography_, by Miss Mary Hays,

in 1803, and in Rose's _New Biographical Dictionary_, in 1839. But

Miss Harcourt is almost certainly a fictitious character. If any

woman had really accomplished what is described in Amory's books, it

is incredible that there should have been no contemporary notice of

so novel an experiment.[475]

According to Amory, Miss Harcourt was born in 1705. She received a

learned education supplemented by nine years of travel in Europe with

her father who secured for her the best masters in the languages

of the different countries, so that she became an accomplished

linguist. On the death of her father in 1733 she inherited a large

fortune which she was free to spend according to her own ideas.

Her acquaintanceship with noble nuns in various parts of Europe

had convinced her that a life similar to theirs, but outside the

Catholic Church, would be ideal. She thereupon returned to England

and with eleven like-minded ladies she organized a society of

"Reformed Recluses." On her estate in Richmondshire she built a

beautiful cloister as a winter residence. In the summer the Society

occupied a charming villa on the Green Island, a part of her father's

property in the western islands of Scotland. Amory says that he was

shipwrecked on this island and that during his long stay there he

became intimately acquainted with the details of Miss Harcourt's

scheme of life. On so agreeable a theme he allowed his imagination

free rein. The magnificent situation of the Green Island gave full

scope for descriptions of wild and romantic scenery.[476] For the

things wrought by the hand of man in the grounds about the villa,

he had but to take hints from some of the great English gardens,

notably that at Stowe. The Elysium, the marble busts, the Rotunda,

at Stowe, were almost certainly the original of his Elysian Fields,

groups of marble statues, and Orbicular Building. And as these

external details stimulated his fancy to the production of an

Aladdin-like garden, so such suggestions as those of Mary Ward's

"Institute," or especially Mary Astell's "Protestant Nunnery,"

stimulated his active mind into working out the details of such a

plan. He described not only the constitution of such a society, its

financial status, and its general aims, but he went into all the

minutiæ of dress, meals, social customs, diversions, occupations. The

ladies paid £500 on entrance, they took no vows of celibacy, they had

no prioress, they lived well, they had abundant service, they dressed

richly. The badge of their order was a large diamond cross. No one

was admitted who had not a taste for music. Musical composition,

playing on different instruments, singing, painting, and drawing

were the elegant diversions. There was a large and well-selected

library, and the ladies made researches according to their taste,

with the proviso that once a week they must read to the rest the

result of their labors--a sort of multifarious and inchoate seminar.

The approved papers were recorded in a club book called _Didaskalia_.

These ladies being Christian deists and having minds unclouded by

the mists of superstition, enthusiasm, and atheism, spent much time

in rational devotion. Mr. Amory becomes ecstatic as the picture of

this ideal society grows under his hand and finally declares that

if he were a woman of fortune he would at once seek out this happy

society of religious recluses with a certainty that no other life on

the globe could offer such felicity. He approves of Miss Harcourt's

last act which was to will her large fortune as an endowment for this

cloistral house. A fanciful dream, but one that constantly brings

to mind Tennyson's _Princess_. Only to Amory's Green Island there

came no disrupting influences of love and childhood. He left his

ladies still enjoying their learned seclusion, and filling volume

after volume of the _Didaskalia_, painting great pictures, producing

original oratorios, making abstruse speculations, and serving God

with calm hearts.[477]