[How I long to be five or six years older, as well as my dearest babies, that I may enter upon this charming scheme!" For she need but buy a Latin Testament, and having got somebody to mark the last syllable but one, where it is long, in words above two syllables, (which is enough to regulate her pronunciation and accenting the words,) read daily in the gospels, and then let her avoid understanding them in Latin, if she

can.

Why, dearest, dear sir, you have taught me almost all this already; and you, my best and most beloved tutor, have told me often, I read and pronounce Latin more than tolerably, though I don't understand it: But this method will teach me, as well as your dear children. But thus the good gentleman proceeds: "And when she understands the Evangelists in Latin, let her in the same manner read Æsop's Fables, and so proceed on to Eutropius, Justin, and such other books. I do not mention this," adds Mr Locke, as an imagination of what I fancy may do, but as of a thing I have known done, and the Latin tongue got with ease this way."

Mr Locke proceeds to mention other advantages, which the child may receive from his mother's instruction, which I will endeavour more and more to qualify myself for: particularly, after he has intimated, that " at the same time that the child is learning French and Latin, he may be entered also in arithmetic, geography, chronology, history, and geometry too; for if," says he, "these be taught him in French or Latin, when he begins once to understand either of these tongues, he will get a knowledge in these sciences, and the language to boot." After he has intimated this, I say, he proceeds: "Geography, I think, should be begun with: For the learning of the figure of the globe, the situation and boundaries of the four parts of the world, and that of particular kingdoms and countries, being only an exercise of the eyes and memory, a child with pleasure will learn and retain them. And this is so certain, that I now live in a house with a child, whom his mother has so well instructed this way in geography," [But had she not, do you think, dear sir, some of this good gentleman's kind assistance?" that he knew the limits of the four parts of the world; would readily point, being asked, to any country upon the globe, or any county in the map of England; knew all the great rivers, promontories, straits, and bays, in the world, and could find the longitude and latitude of any place, before he was six years old."

There's for you, dear sir!-See what a mother can do if she pleases!

I remember, sir, formerly, in that sweet chariot conference,** at the dawning of my hopes,

when all my dangers were happily over, (a conference I shall always think of with pleasure,) that you asked me, How I would bestow my time, supposing the neighbouring ladies would be above being seen in my company; when I should have no visits to receive or return; no parties of pleasure to join in; no card-tables to employ my winter evenings?

I then, sir, transported with my opening prospects, prattled to you, how well I would endeavour to pass my time in the family management and accounts; in visits now and then to the indigent and worthy poor; in music sometimes; in reading, in writing, in my superior duties— And I hope I have not behaved quite unworthily of my promises.

But I also remember, dear sir, what once you said on a certain occasion, which now, since the fair prospect is no longer distant, and that I have been so long your happy, thrice happy wife, I may repeat, without those blushes which then covered my face: Thus then, with a modest grace, and with that virtuous endearment, that is so beautiful in your sex, as well as in ours, whether in the character of lover or husband, maiden or wife, you were pleased to say, " And I hope, my Pamela, to have superadded to all these, such an employment"-as-in short, sir, I am now blessed with, and writing of; no less than the useful part I may be able to take in the first education of your beloved babies!

And now I must add, that this pleasing hope sets me above all other diversions: I wish for no parties of pleasure but with you, my dearest Mr B- -! and these are parties that will improve me, and make me more capable of the other, and more worthy of your conversation, and of the time you pass (beyond what I could ever have promised to my utmost wishes) in such poor company as mine, for no other reason but because I love to be instructed, and take my lessons well, as you are pleased to say: And indeed I must be a sad dunce if I did not, from so skilful and so beloved a master.

I want no card-table amusements: For I hope, in a few years, (and a proud hope it is,) to be able to teach your dear little ones the first rudiments, as Mr Locke points the way, of Latin, of French, and of geography and arithmetic.

O, my dear Mr B! by your help and countenance, what may I not be able to teach them! and how may I prepare the way for a tutor's instructions, and give him up minds half cultivated to his hands! And all this time improve myself too, not only in science, but in nature, by tracing in the little babes what all mankind are, and have been, from infancy to riper years, and watching the sweet dawnings of reason, and delighting in every bright emanation of

that ray of divinity lent to the human mind, for great and happy purposes, when rightly pointed and directed!

There is no going farther in this letter, after these charming recollections and hopes: For they bring me to that grateful remembrance, to whom, under God, I owe them all, and also what I have been for so happy a period, and what I am, which is, what will ever be my pride and my glory; and well it may, when I look back to my beginning, which I ever shall, with humble acknowledgment, and can call myself, dearest Mr

B

Your honoured and honouring, And, I hope I may say, in time, useful wife, P. B

LETTER XCVII.

MRS B TO MR B

MY DEAREST MR BHAVING in my former letters said as much as is necessary to let you into my notion of the excellent book you put into my hands, and having touched those points in which the children of both sexes may be concerned, (with some art in my intention, I own,) in hopes that they would not be so much out of the way, as to make you repent of the honour and pleasure you have done me in committing the dear Miss Goodwin to my care; I shall now very quickly set myself about the little book which I have done myself the honour to mention to you.

You have been so good as to tell me, (at the same time that you have not disapproved these my specimen letters, as I may call them,) that you will kindly accept of my intended present, and you encourage me to proceed in it; and as I shall leave one side of the leaf blank for your corrections and alterations, those corrections will be a fine help and instruction to me in the pleasing task, which I propose to myself, of assisting in the early education of the dear children which it has pleased God to give you. And as, possibly, I may be years in writing it, as the dear babies improve, and as I myself improve, by the opportunities which their advances in years will give me, and the experience I shall gain, I shall then, perhaps, venture to give my notions and observations on the more material and nobler parts of education, as well as the inferior; for (but that I think the subjects above my present abilities) Mr Locke's book would lead me into several remarks, that might not be unuseful, and which appear to me entirely new; though that may be owing to my slender reading and opportunities, perhaps.

But what, my dearest Mr B, I would now touch upon, is a word or two still more particularly upon the education of my own sex; a topic which naturally rises to me from the sub

ject of my last letter. For there, dear sir, we saw that the mothers might teach the child this part of science, and that part of instruction; and who, I pray, as our sex is generally educated, shall teach the mothers? How, in a word, shal they come by their knowledge?

I know you'll be apt to say, that Miss Goodwin gives all the promises of becoming a fine young lady, and takes her learning, and loves reading, and makes very pretty reflections upon all she reads, and asks very pertinent questions, and is as knowing, at her years, as most young ladies. This is very true, sir; but it is not every one that can boast Miss Goodwin's capacity, and goodness of temper, which have enabled her to get up a good deal of lost time, as I must call it ; for the first four years in the dear child were a perfect blank, as far as I can find, just as if the pretty dear was born the day she was four years old; for what she had to unlearn as to temper and will, and such things, set against what little improvements she had made, might very fairly be compounded for, as a blank.

I would indeed have a girl brought up to her needle; but I would not have all her time employed in samplers, and learning to mark, and to do those unnecessary things, which she will never, probably, be called upon to practise.

And why, pray, my dear Mr B- -, are not girls entitled to the same first education, though not to the same plays and diversions, as boys; so far, at least, as it is supposed by Mr Locke a mother can instruct them?

Would not this lay a foundation for their future improvement, and direct their inclinations to useful subjects, such as would make them above the imputations of some unkind gentlemen, who allot to their parts common tea-table prattle, while they do all they can to make them fit for nothing else, and then upbraid them for it? And would not the men find us better and more suitable companions and assistants to them in every useful purpose of life? O that your lordly sex were all like my dear Mr B―! I don't mean, that they should all take raw, uncouth, unbred, lowly girls, as I was, from the cottage, and, destroying all distinction, make such their wives. I cannot mean this; because there is a far greater likelihood, that such a one, when she comes to be lifted up into so dazzling a sphere, would have her head made giddy with her exultation, than that she would balance herself well in it; and then to what a blot, over all the fair page of a long life, would this little drop of dirty ink spread itself! What a standing disreputation to the choice of a gentleman!

But this I mean, That after a gentleman had entered into the marriage state with a young creature, (saying nothing at all of birth or descent,) far inferior to him in learning, in parts, in knowledge of the world, and in all the graces which make conversation agreeable and improving, he would, as you do, endeavour to make

her fit company for himself, as he shall find she is willing to improve, and capable of improvement; that he would direct her taste, point out to her proper subjects for her amusement and instruction; travel with her now and then, a month in the year perhaps; and shew her the world, after he has encouraged her to put herself forward at his own table, and at the houses of his friends, and has seen, that she will not do him great discredit anywhere. What obligations and opportunities too, will this give her to love and honour such a husband, every hour, more and more! as she will see his wisdom in a thousand instances, and experience his indulgence to her in ten thousand, (for which other wise no opportunity could have so fitly offered,) to the praise of his politeness, and the honour of them both! And then, when select parties of pleasure or business engaged him not abroad, in his home conversation, to have him, as my dear Mr B does, delight to instruct and open her views, and inspire her with an ambition to enlarge her mind, and more and more to excel! What an intellectual kind of married life, as I may call it, would such persons find theirs! and how suitable to the rules of policy and self-love in the gentleman! for is not the wife, and are not her improvements, all his own?-absolutely, as I may say, his own? And does not every excellence she can be adorned by, redound to her husband's honour, because she is his, even more than to her own? In like manner, as no dishonour affects a man so much, as that which he receives from a bad wife.

But where, would some say, were they to see what I write, is such a gentleman as Mr Bto be met with? Look around and see where, with all the advantages of sex, of education, of travel, of conversation in the open world, a gentleman of his abilities to instruct and inform, is to be found? And there are others, who, perhaps, will question the capacities or inclinations of our sex in general, to improve in useful knowledge, were they to meet with such kind instructors, either in the characters of parents or husbands.

As to the first, I grant, that it is not easy to find such a gentleman. But for the second, (if it would be excused in me, who am one of the sex, and so may be thought partial to it) I could, by comparisons drawn from the gentlemen and ladies within the circle of my own acquaintance, produce instances, which are so flagrantly in their favour, as might make it suspected that it is policy more than justice, in those who would keep our sex unacquainted with that more eligible turn of education, which gives the gentlemen so many advantages over us in that; and which will shew they have none at all in nature or genius.

I know you will pardon me, dear sir; for you are so exalted above your Pamela, by nature and education too, that you cannot apprehend any inconvenience from bold comparisons. I will

take the liberty, therefore, to mention a few instances among our friends, where the ladies, notwithstanding their more cramped and confined education, make more than an equal figure with the gentlemen in all the graceful parts of conversation, in spite of the contempts poured out upon our sex by some witty gentlemen, whose writings I have in my eye.

To begin then with Mr Murray, and Miss Darnford that was: Mr Murray has the reputation of scholarship, and has travelled too; but how infinitely is he surpassed in every noble and useful quality, and in greatness of mind and judgment, as well as wit, by the young lady I have named! This we saw, when last at the Hall, in fifty instances, where the gentleman was, you know, sir, on a visit to Sir Simon and his lady.

Next, dear sir, permit me to observe, that my good Lord Davers, with all his advantages, born a counsellor of the realm, and educated accordingly, does not surpass his lady.

My Countess, as I delight to call her, and Lady Betty, her eldest daughter, greatly surpass the Earl, and her eldest brother, in every point of knowledge, and even learning, as I may say, although both ladies owe that advantage principally to their own cultivation and acquire

ment.

Let me presume, sir, to name Mr H-; and when I have named him, shall we not be puzzled to find anywhere in our sex, one remove from vulgar life, a woman that will not outdo Mr H

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Lady Darnford, upon all useful subjects, makes a much brighter figure than Sir Simon, whose knowledge of the world has not yet made him acquainted with himself. Mr Arthur excels not his lady.

Lady Towers, a maiden lady, is an overmatch for half a dozen of the neighbouring gentlemen I could name, in what is called wit and politeness, and not inferior to any of them in judgment.

I could multiply instances of this nature, were it needful, to the confutation of that low, and, I had almost said, unmanly contempt, with which a certain celebrated genius treats our sex in general, in most of his pieces that I have seen; particularly in his 'Letter of Advice to a newmarried Lady.' A letter, writ in such a manner as must disgust, instead of instructing; and looks more like the advice of an enemy to the ser, and a bitter one too, than a friend to the particular lady. But I ought to beg pardon for this my presumption, for two reasons. First, Because of the truly admirable talents of this writer; and, next, Because we know not what ladies the ingenious gentleman may have fallen among in his younger days.

Upon the whole, therefore, I conclude, that Mr B- is almost the only gentleman, who excels every lady that I have seen, so greatly ex

cels, that even the emanations of his excellence irradiate a low cottage-born girl, and make her pass among ladies of birth and education for somebody. Forgive my pride, dear sir; but it would be almost a crime in your Pamela not to exult in the mild benignity of those rays, by which her beloved Mr B- endeavours to make her look up to his own sunny sphere; while she, by the advantage only of his reflected glory, in his absence, which makes a dark night to her, glides along with her paler and fainter beaminess, and makes a distinguishing figure among such lesser planets, as can only poorly twinkle and glimmer, for want of the aid she boasts of.

I dare not, sir, conjecture whence arises this more than parity in the genius of the sexes, among the persons I have mentioned, notwithstanding the disparity of education, and the difference in the opportunities of each. This might lead one into too proud a thought in favour of a sex too contemptuously treated by some other wits I could name; who, indeed, are the less to be regarded, as they love to jest upon all God Almighty's works; yet might I better do it, too, than any body, since, as I have intimated above, I am so infinitely transcended by my husband, that no competition, pride, or vanity, could be apprehended from me.

But, however, I would only beg of the gentlemen, who are so free in their contempts of us, that they would, for their own sakes, (and that, with such, generally goes a great way,) rather try to improve than depreciate us: We should then make better daughters, better wives, better mothers, and better mistresses; and who (permit me, sir, to ask these people) would be so much the better for these opportunities and amendments, as our upbraiders themselves?

On re-perusing what I have written, I must repeatedly beg your excuse, dear sir, for these proud notions in behalf of my sex. I can truly say, that they are not, if I know myself, owing to partiality, because I have the honour to be one of it; but to a better motive by far; for what does this contemptuous treatment of one half, if not the better half, of the human species, naturally produce, but libertinism and abandoned wickedness? For does it not tend to make the daughters, the sisters, the wives of gentlemen, the subjects of profligate attempts? Does it not render the sex vile in the eyes of the most vile? And when a lady is no longer beheld by such persons with that dignity and reverence, with which, perhaps, the graces of her person, and the innocence of her mind, should sacredly, as it were, encompass her, do not her very excellencies become so many incentives for base wretches to attempt her virtue, and bring about her ruin?

What then may not wicked wit have to an

swer for, when its possessors prostitute it to such unmanly purposes? And as if they had never had a mother, a sister, a daughter of their own, throw down, as much as in them lies, those sacred fences which may lay the fair enclosure open to the invasions of every clumsier and viler beast of prey, who, though destitute of their wit, yet corrupted by it, shall fill their mouths, as well as their hearts, with the borrowed mischief, and propagate it, from one to another, to the end of time; and who, otherwise, would have passed by the uninvaded fence, and only shewed their teeth, and snarled at the well-secured fold within it!

You cannot, my dearest Mr B, I know you cannot, be angry at this romantic painting, since you are not affected by it; for when you were at worst, you acted (more dangerously, 'tis true, for the poor innocents) a principal part, and were as a lion among beasts-Do, dear sir, let me say among, this one time-You scorned to borrow any man's wit; and if nobody had followed your example till they had had your qualities, the number of rakes would have been but small. Yet, dearest sir, don't mistake me neither; I am not so mean as to bespeak your favour by extenuating your failings; if I were, you would deservedly despise me. For, undoubtedly, (I must say it, sir,) your faults were the greater for your perfections; and such talents misapplied, as they made you more capable of mischief, so did they increase the evil of your practices. All then that I mean by saying you are not affected by this painting, is, that you are not affected by the description I have given of clumsy and sordid rakes, whose wit is borrowed, and their wickedness only what they may call their own.

Then, dear sir, since that noble conversation, which you held with me at Tunbridge, in relation to the consequences that might, had it not been for God's grace intervening, have followed the masquerade affair, I have the pleasure, the inexpressible pleasure, to find a thorough reformation, from the best motives, taking place; and your joining with me in my closet, (as op portunity permits,) in my evening duties, is the charming confirmation of your kind and voluntary, and, I am proud to say, your pious assurances! so that this makes me fearless of your displeasure, while I rather triumph in my joy, for your precious soul's sake, than presume to think of recriminating; and when (only this one time for all, and for ever) I take the liberty of looking back from the delightful now, to the painful formerly.

But what a rambler am I again! You command me, sir, to write to you all I think, without fear. I obey; and, as the phrase is, do it without either fear or wit.

If you are not displeased, it is a mark of the true nobleness of your nature, and the sincerity of your late pious declarations.

If you are, I shall be sure I have done wrong in having applied a corrosive to eat away the proud flesh of a wound, that is not yet so thoroughly digested as to bear a painful application, and requires balsam, and a gentler treatment. But, when we were at Bath, I remember what you said once of the benefit of retrospection; and you charged me, whenever a proper opportunity offered, to remind you, by that one word retrospection, of the charming conversation we had there, on our return from the

EVER DEAR, AND EVER HOnoured! I MUST write this one letter to you, although I have had the happiness to see you so lately; because Mr B- is now about to honour me with the tour he so kindly promised to me when with you; and it may therefore be several months, perhaps, before I have again the pleasure of paying you the like dutiful respects.

You know his kind promise, that he would, for every dear baby I present him with, take an excursion with me afterwards, in order to establish and confirm my health.

The task I have undertaken of dedicating all my writing amusements to the dearest of men ; the full employment I have when at home; the frequent rambles he has been so often pleased to indulge me in, with my dear Miss Goodwin, to Kent, to London, to Bedfordshire, to Lincolnshire, and to my Lady Davers's, take from me the necessity of writing to your honoured selves, to my Miss Darnford that was, and to Lady Davers, so often as I formerly thought myself obliged to do, when I saw all my worthy friends so seldom; the same things, moreover, with little variation, occurring this year, as to our conversations, visits, friends, employments, and amusements, that fell out the last; as must be the case, in a family so uniform and methodical as ours.

I have, for these reasons, more leisure to pursue my domestic duties, which are increased upon me; and when I have said, that I am every day more and more happy in my beloved Mr B, in Miss Goodwin, my Billy, and my Davers; and now, newly, in my sweet little Pamela, (for so you know Lady Davers would

have her called, rather than by her own name,) what can I say more?

As to the tour I spoke of, you know the first part of Mr B—'s obliging scheme is to carry me to France; for he has already travelled with me over the greatest part of England; and I am sure, by my passage last year to the Isle of Wight, I shall not be afraid of crossing the water from Dover thither; and he will, when we are at Paris, he says, take my farther directions (that was his kind expression,) whither to go next.

My Lord and Lady Davers are so good as to promise to accompany us to Paris, provided Mr B- will give them his and my company to Aix-la-Chapelle, for a month or six weeks, whither my lord is advised to go. And Mr Hif he can get over his fear of crossing the salt water, is to be of the party.

Lady G, Miss Darnford that was, (who likewise has lately lain-in of a fine daughter,) and I, are to correspond, as opportunity offers; and she is so good as to promise to send to you what I write, as formerly; but I have refused to say one word in my letters, of the manners, customs, curiosities, &c. of the places we seebecause, first, I shall not have leisure; and, next, because those things are so much better described in books already printed, written by persons who made stricter and better observations than I can pretend to make: So that what I shall write will relate only to our private selves, and shall be as brief as possible. If we are to do as Mr B has it in his thoughts, he intends to be out of England two years-But how can I bear that, if for your sakes only, and for those of my dear babies!— But this must be my time, my only time, Mr B― tells me, to ramble and see distant places and countries; for he is pleased to say, That as soon as his little ones are capable of my instructions, and begin to understand my looks and signs, he will not spare me from them a week together; and he is so kind as to propose, that my dear bold boy (for every one sees how greatly he resembles his papa in his dear forward spirit) shall go with us; and this pleases Miss Goodwin highly, who is very fond of him, and of my little Davers; but vows she will never love so well my pretty black-eyed Pamela.

You see what a sweet girl miss is, and you admired her much: Did I tell you what she said to me, when first she saw you both, with your silver hairs and reverend countenances? Madam, said she, I dare say your papa and mamma honoured their father and mother.—They did, my dear; but what is your reason for saying so?-Because, replied she, they have lived so long in the land which the Lord their God has given them. I took the charmer in my arms, and kissed her three or four times, as she deserved; for was not this very pretty in the child?