You seem in all your papers to be an enemy to tyranny, and to look with
impartiality upon the world; I shall therefore lay my case before you,
and hope by your decision to be set free from unreasonable restraints,
and enabled to justify myself against the accusations which spite and
peevishness produce against me.
At the age of five years I lost my mother; and my father, being not
qualified to superintend the education of a girl, committed me to the
care of his sister, who instructed me with the authority, and, not to
deny her what she may justly claim, with the affection of a parent. She
had not very elevated sentiments, or extensive views, but her principles
were good, and her intentions pure; and, though some may practise mere
virtues, scarce any commit fewer faults.
Under this good lady I learned all the common rules of decent behaviour,
and standing maxims of domestick prudence; and might have grown up by
degrees to a country gentlewoman, without any thoughts of ranging beyond
the neighbourhood, had not Flavia come down, last summer, to visit her
relations in the next village. I was taken, of course, to compliment
the stranger, and was, at the first sight, surprised at the unconcern
with which she saw herself gazed at by the company whom she had never
known before; at the carelessness with which she received compliments,
and the readiness with which she returned them. I found she had something
which I perceived myself to want, and could not but wish to be like her,
at once easy and officious, attentive and unembarrassed. I went home,
and for four days could think and talk of nothing but Miss Flavia; though
my aunt told me, that she was a forward slut, and thought herself wise
before her time.
In a little time she repaid my visit, and raised in my heart a new
confusion of love and admiration. I soon saw her again, and still found
new charms in her air, conversation, and behaviour. You, who have perhaps
seen the world, may have observed, that formality soon ceases between
young persons. I know not how others are affected on such occasions, but
I found myself irresistibly allured to friendship and intimacy, by the
familiar complaisance and airy gaiety of Flavia; so that in a few weeks I
became her favourite, and all the time was passed with me, that she could
gain from ceremony and visit.
As she came often to me, she necessarily spent some hours with my aunt,
to whom she paid great respect by low courtesies, submissive compliance,
and soft acquiescence; but as I became gradually more accustomed to
her manners, I discovered that her civility was general; that there
was a certain degree of deference shewn by her to circumstances and
appearances; that many went away flattered by her humility, whom she
despised in her heart; that the influence of far the greatest part
of those with whom she conversed ceased with their presence; and that
sometimes she did not remember the names of them, whom, without any
intentional insincerity or false commendation, her habitual civility had
sent away with very high thoughts of their own importance.
It was not long before I perceived that my aunt's opinion was not of
much weight in Flavia's deliberations, and that she was looked upon
by her as a woman of narrow sentiments, without knowledge of books, or
observations on mankind. I had hitherto considered my aunt as entitled,
by her wisdom and experience, to the highest reverence; and could not
forbear to wonder that any one so much younger should venture to suspect
her of errour, or ignorance; but my surprise was without uneasiness,
and being now accustomed to think Flavia always in the right, I readily
learned from her to trust my own reason, and to believe it possible,
that they who had lived longer might be mistaken.
Flavia had read much, and used so often to converse on subjects of
learning, that she put all the men in the country to flight, except the
old parson, who declared himself much delighted with her company, because
she gave him opportunities to recollect the studies of his younger
years, and, by some mention of ancient story, had made him rub the dust
off his Homer, which had lain unregarded in his closet. With Homer, and
a thousand other names familiar to Flavia, I had no acquaintance, but
began, by comparing her accomplishments with my own, to repine at my
education, and wish that I had not been so long confined to the company
of those from whom nothing but housewifery was to be learned. I then set
myself to peruse such books as Flavia recommended, and heard her opinion
of their beauties and defects. I saw new worlds hourly bursting upon
my mind, and was enraptured at the prospect of diversifying life with
endless entertainment.
The old lady, finding that a large screen, which I had undertaken to adorn
with turkey-work against winter, made very slow advances, and that I
had added in two months but three leaves to a flowered apron then in the
frame, took the alarm, and with all the zeal of honest folly exclaimed
against my new acquaintance, who had filled me with idle notions, and
turned my head with books. But she had now lost her authority, for I
began to find innumerable mistakes in her opinions, and improprieties
in her language; and therefore thought myself no longer bound to pay
much regard to one who knew little beyond her needle and her dairy, and
who professed to think that nothing more is required of a woman than to
see that the house is clean, and that the maids go to bed and rise at a
certain hour.
She seemed however to look upon Flavia as seducing me, and to imagine that
when her influence was withdrawn, I should return to my allegiance; she
therefore contented herself with remote hints, and gentle admonitions,
intermixed with sage histories of the miscarriages of wit, and
disappointments of pride. But since she has found, that though Flavia
is departed, I still persist in my new scheme, she has at length lost
her patience, she snatches my book out of my hand, tears my paper if
she finds me writing, burns Flavia's letters before my face when she can
seize them, and threatens to lock me up, and to complain to my father
of my perverseness. If women, she says, would but know their duty and
their interest, they would be careful to acquaint themselves with family
affairs, and many a penny might be saved; for while the mistress of
the house is scribbling and reading, servants are junketing, and linen
is wearing out. She then takes me round the rooms, shews me the worked
hangings, and chairs of tent-stitch, and asks whether all this was done
with a pen and a book.
I cannot deny that I sometimes laugh and sometimes am sullen; but she has
not delicacy enough to be much moved either with my mirth or my gloom,
if she did not think the interest of the family endangered by this change
of my manners. She had for some years marked out young Mr. Surly, an
heir in the neighbourhood, remarkable for his love of fighting-cocks,
as an advantageous match; and was extremely pleased with the civilities
which he used to pay me, till under Flavia's tuition I learned to
talk of subjects which he could not understand. This, she says, is the
consequence of female study: girls grow too wise to be advised, and too
stubborn to be commanded; but she is resolved to try who shall govern,
and will thwart my humour till she breaks my spirit.
These menaces, Mr. Rambler, sometimes make me quite angry; for I have been
sixteen these ten weeks, and think myself exempted from the dominion of a
governess, who has no pretensions to more sense or knowledge than myself.
I am resolved, since I am as tall and as wise as other women, to be no
longer treated like a girl. Miss Flavia has often told me, that ladies of
my age go to assemblies and routs, without their mothers and their aunts;
I shall therefore, from this time, leave asking advice, and refuse to
give accounts. I wish you would state the time at which young ladies may
judge for themselves, which I am sure you cannot but think ought to begin
before sixteen; if you are inclined to delay it longer, I shall have very
little regard to your opinion.
My aunt often tells me of the advantages of experience, and of the
deference due to seniority; and both she and all the antiquated part
of the world, talk of the unreserved obedience which they paid to the
commands of their parents, and the undoubting confidence with which they
listened to their precepts; of the terrours which they felt at a frown,
and the humility with which they supplicated forgiveness whenever they
had offended. I cannot but fancy that this boast is too general to be
true, and that the young and the old were always at variance. I have,
however, told my aunt, that I will mend whatever she will prove to be
wrong; but she replies that she has reasons of her own, and that she is
sorry to live in an age when girls have the impudence to ask for proofs.
I beg once again, Mr. Rambler, to know whether I am not as wise as my aunt,
and whether, when she presumes to check me as a baby, I may not pluck
up a spirit and return her insolence. I shall not proceed to extremities
without your advice, which is therefore impatiently expected by