PART II

:

Wherein a Method is offer’d for the Improvement of their Minds.

_LONDON_:

Printed for _Richard Wilkin_ at the _King’s Head_ in St. _Paul_’s Church-yard, 1697.

To her Royal Highness

THE

Princess _ANN_ of Denmark.

MADAM,

_What was at first address’d to the Ladies in_ General, _as seeming not considerable enough to appear in your Royal Highnesses Presence, not being ill receiv’d by them, and having got the Addition of a Second Part, now presumes on a more_ Particular _Application to Her who is the Principal of them, and whose Countenance and Example may reduce to Practice, what it can only Advise and Wish._

_And when I consider you Madam as a Princess who is sensible that the Chief Prerogative of the Great is the Power they have of doing more Good than those in an Inferior Station can, I see no cause to fear that your Royal Highness will deny Encouragement to that which has no other Design than the Bettering of the World, especially the most neglected part of it as to all Real Improvement, the Ladies. It is by the Exercise of this Power that Princes become truly Godlike, they are never so Illustrious as when they shine as Lights in the World by an Eminent and Heroic Vertue. A Vertue as much above Commendation as it is above Detraction, which fits equally Silent and Compos’d when Opprest with Praises or Pursu’d with Calumnys, is neither hurt by these nor better’d by the other; for the Service of_ GOD, _and the Resembling Him, being its only Aim, His Approbation in a soft and inward Whisper, is more than the loud_ Huzza’s _and Plaudits of ten thousand Worlds._

_I shall not therefore offend your Royal Ear with the nauseous strain of Dedications; for what can one say, when by how much the more any Person deserves Panegyric, by so much the less they endure it? That your Royal Highness may be All that is truly Great and Good, and have a Confluence of Temporal, Sanctify’d and Crown’d with Spiritual and Eternal Blessings, is the unfeigned and constant desire of_

MADAM,

Your Royal Highnesses

Most Humble and most

Obedient Servant.

THE

Introduction,

Containing a farther

PERSWASIVE

TO THE

LADIES

To endeavour the

Improvement of their Minds.

The favourable reception which the graver and wiser part of the World were pleas’d t’afford to a former Essay towards th’improvement of the Ladies, has encouraged her who made it to prosecute that design a little further, and to try if she can reduce to Practice what appears so well in Notion and Speculation. For how customary soever it be for Writers to mind no more than their own Reputation, to be content if they can make a handsom flourish, get a Name among the Authors, come off with but a little Censure and some Commendations; or if there are a few generous Souls who’re got above either the Hope or Fear of vulgar Breath, who do not matter much what is dispens’d more commonly by fancy or passion than by Judgment, they rest satisfied however in a Good Intention, and comfort themselves that they’ve endeavour’d the Reformation of the Age, let those look to’t who will not follow their Advices: Yet give her leave to profess that she desires the Good of the World rather than its Applauses, and cou’d with much greater pleasure have found her Project condemn’d as foolish and impertinent, than see it entertain’d with delight and approbation, and yet no body endeavouring to put it in Practice; since the former wou’d only have reproach’d her own Understanding, but the latter is a shame to Mankind, as being a plain indication that tho they discern and commend what is Good, they have not the Vertue and Courage to Act accordingly. Were’t altogether impossible t’improve her Sex, were Women irremediably condemn’d to folly and impertinence, how much soever she desires their amendment, she wou’d make a Vertue of Necessity and endeavour to be content without it, but it will give her the greatest uneasiness to’ve found out a Method which every one judges so much to their advantage, if she can’t persuade them to make use of it.

And can you Ladies deny her so cheap a Reward for all the Good-will she bears you, as the Pleasure of seeing you Wise and Happy? Can you envy her the Joy of assisting at _Your_ Triumphs; for why does she contend for Laurels but to lay ’em all at the Ladies feet? Why won’t you begin to think, and no longer dream away your Time in a wretched incogitancy? Why does not a generous Emulation fire your hearts and inspire you with Noble and becoming Resentments? The Men of Equity are so just as to confess the errors which the Proud and inconsiderate had imbib’d to your prejudice, and if you still allow them the preference in Ingenuity, they’re convinc’d it is not because you _must_, but because you _will_. Can you be in Love with servitude and folly? Can you dote on a mean, ignorant and ignoble Life? Shall an Ingenious Woman be star’d on as a Prodigy, since you have it in your power to inform the World, that you can every one of you be so, if you please your selves? It is not enough to wish and to would it, or t’afford a faint Encomium upon what you pretend is beyond your Power; Imitation is the heartiest Praise you can give, and is a Debt which Justice requires to be paid to every worthy Action. What Sentiments were fit to be rais’d in you to day ought to remain to morrow, and the best Commendation you can bestow on a Book is immediately to put it in Practice; otherwise you become self-condemn’d, your Judgment reproaches your Actions, and you live a contradiction to your selves. If you _approve_, Why don’t you _follow_? And if you _Wish_, Why shou’d you not _Endeavour_? especially since that wou’d reduce your Wishes to Act, and make you of Well-wishers to Vertue and Good sense, become glorious Examples of them.

And pray what is’t that hinders you? The singularity of the Matter? Are you afraid of being out of the ordinary way and therefore admir’d and gaz’d at? Admiration does not use to be uneasy to our Sex, a great many Vanities might be spar’d if we consulted only our own conveniency and not other peoples Eyes and Sentiments: And why shou’d that which usually recommends a trifling Dress, deter us from a real Ornament? Is’t not as fine to be first in this as well as any other Fashion? Singularity is indeed to be avoided except in matters of importance, in such a case Why shou’d not we assert our Liberty, and not suffer every Trifler to impose a Yoke of Impertinent Customs on us? She who forsakes the Path to which Reason directs is much to blame, but she shall never do any thing Praise-worthy and excellent who is not got above unjust Censures, and too steady and well resolv’d to be sham’d from her Duty by the empty Laughter of such as have nothing but airy Noise and Confidence to recommend them. Firmness and strength of Mind will carry us thro all these little persecutions, which may create us some uneasiness for a while, but will afterwards end in our Glory and Triumph.

Is it the difficulty of attaining the Bravery of the Mind, the Labour and Cost that keeps you from making a purchase of it? Certainly they who spare neither Money nor Pains t’obtain a gay outside and make a splendid appearance, who can get over so many difficulties, rack their brains, lay out their time and thoughts in contriving, stretch their Relations Purses in procuring, nay and rob the very Poor, to whom the Overplus of a full Estate, after the owners Necessaries and decent Conveniencies according to her Quality are supplied, is certainly due, they who can surmount so many difficulties, cannot have the face to pretend any here. Labour is sweet when there’s hope of success, and the thing labour’d after is Beautiful and Desireable: And if Wisdom be not so I know not what is; if it is not worth while to procure such a temper of mind as will make us happy in all Conditions, there’s nothing worth our Thoughts and Care, ’tis best to fold our hands with _Solomon_’s Sluggard and sleep away the remainder of a useless and wretched Life.

And that success will not be wanting to our Endeavours if we heartily use them, was design’d to be evinc’d in the former Essay, and I hope I have not lost my Point, but that the Theory is sufficiently establish’d; and were there but a General Attempt, the Practice wou’d be so visible that I suppose there wou’d remain no more place to dispute it. But this is your Province Ladies: For tho I desire your improvement never so passionately, tho I shou’d have prov’d it feasible with the clearest Demonstration, and most proper for you to set about; yet if you _will_ believe it impossible, and upon that or any other prejudice forbear t’attempt it, I’me like to go without my Wishes; my Arguments what ever they may be in themselves, are weak and impertinent to you, because you make them useless and defeat them of the End they aim at. But I hope better things of you; I dare say you understand your own interest too well to neglect it so grosly and have a greater share of sense, whatever some Men affirm, than to be content to be kept any longer under their Tyranny in Ignorance and Folly, since it is in your Power to regain your Freedom, if you please but t’endeavour it. I’me unwilling to believe there are any among you who are obstinately bent against what is praise-worthy in themselves, and Envy or Detract from it in others; who won’t allow any of their Sex a capacity to write Sense, because they want it, or exert their Spleen where they ought to shew their Kindness or Generous Emulation; who sicken at their Neighbours Vertues, or think anothers Praises a lessening of their Character; or meanly satisfie ill-nature by a dull Malicious Jest at what deserves to be approv’d and imitated. No Ladies, Your Souls are certainly of a better Make and Nobler temper, your Industry is never exerted to pull down others but to rise above them, the only Resentment that arises at your Neighbours Commendations is a harmless blush for your own Idleness in letting them so far outstrip you, and a generous Resolution to repair your former neglects by future diligence; One need not fear offending you by commending an other Lady in your Presence, or that it shou’d be thought an affront or defect in good breeding to give them their lawful Eulogies: You have too just a Sentiment of your own Merit to envy or detract from others, for no Body’s addicted to these little Vices but they who are diffident of their own worth; You know very well ’tis infinitely better to _be_ good than to _seem_ so, and that true Vertue has Beauty enough in her self t’attract our hearts and engage us in her service, tho she were neglected and despis’d by all the World. ’Tis this therefore you endeavour after, ’tis the approbation of GOD and your own Consciences you mainly esteem, which you find most ascertain’d by an humble Charity, and that you never merit Praise so much, because you never make so great a progress in what is truly praise-worthy, as when your own defects are often in your eyes t’excite you to watch against and amend them, and other peoples Vertues continually represented before you in their brightest lustre, to the end you may aspire to equal or surpass them.

I suppose then that you’re fill’d with a laudable Ambition to brighten and enlarge your Souls, that the Beauty of your Bodies is but a secondary care, your Dress grows unconcerning, and your Glass is ne’er consulted but in such little intervals of time as hang loose between those hours that are destin’d to nobler Employments; you now begin to throw off your old Prejudices and smile on ’em as antiquated Garbs; false Reasoning won’t down with you, and glittering Non-sense tho address’d to your selves in the specious appearance of Respect and Kindness, has lost its _haut goust_; Wisdom is thought a better recommendation than Wit, and Piety than a _Bon-mien_; you esteem a Man only as he is an admirer of Vertue, and not barely for that he is yours; Books are now become the finest Ornaments of your Closets, and Contemplation the most agreeable Entertainment of your leisure hours; your Friendships are not cemented by Intrigues nor spent in vain Diversions, but in the search of Knowledge, and acquisition of Vertuous Habits, a mutual Love to which was the Origin of ’em; nor are any Friends so acceptable as those who tell you faithfully of your faults and take the properest method to amend ’em. How much better are you entertain’d now your Conversations are pertinent and ingenious, and that Wisdom never fails to make one in your Visits? Solitude is no more insupportable; you’ve conquered that silly dread of being afraid to be alone, since Innocence is the safest Guard, and no Company can be so desirable as GOD’s and his holy Angels conversing with an upright mind; your Devotion is a Rational service, not the repetition of a Set of good words at a certain season; you read and you delight in it, because it informs your Judgments, and furnishes Materials for your thoughts to work on; and you love your Religion and make it your Choice because you understand it; the only Conquest you now design and lay out your care to obtain is over Vice and Prophaneness; you study to engage men in the love of true Piety and Goodness, and no farther to be Lovers of your selves than as you are the most amiable and illustrious examples of ’em; you find your Wit has lost nothing of its salt and agreeableness by being employ’d about its proper business, the exposing Folly; your Raillery is not a whit less pleasant for being more Charitable, and you can render Vice as ridiculous as you please, without exposing those unhappy Persons who’re guilty of it; your Humour abates not of its innocent gaity now that it is more upon the Guard, for you know very well that true Joy is a sedate and solid thing, a tranquility of mind, not a boisterous and empty flash; Instead of Creditors your doors are fill’d with indigent Petitioners who don’t so often go without your Bounty as the other us’d to do without their just demands; nor are you unjust to some under colour of being Charitable to others, and when you give Liberally, give no more than what is lawfully your own. You disdain the base ungenerous Practice of pretending Kindness where you really mean none; and of making a poor Country Lady less instructed in the formalities of the Town than your selves, pay sufficiently for your seeming Civility and kind Entertainment by becoming the Subject of your mirth and diversion as soon as she is gone; but one may now pretty securely relie on your Sincerity, for when this lower sort of Treachery is abhorr’d, there can certainly be no place for that more abominable one of betraying and seducing unwary Innocence. I do not question Ladies but that this is the Practice of the greatest number of you, and would be of all the rest were it not for some little discouragments they meet with, which really are not so great as their own modesty and diffidence of themselves represent ’em. They think they’ve been bred up in Idleness and Impertinence, and study will be irksome to them, who have never employ’d their mind to any good purpose, and now when they wou’d they want the method of doing it; they know not how to look into their Souls, or if they do, they find so many disorders to be rectified, so many wants to be supplied, that frighted with the difficulty of the work they lay aside the thoughts of undertaking it. They have been barbarously us’d, their Education and greatest Concerns neglected, whilst their imprudent Parents and Guardians were busied in managing their Fortunes and regulating their Mien; who so their Purse was full and their outside plausible, matter’d not much the poverty and narrowness of their minds, have taught them perhaps to repeat their Catechism and a few good Sentences, to read a Chapter and _say_ their Prayers, tho perhaps with as little Understanding as a Parrot, and fancied that this was Charm enough to secure them against the temptations of the Present world and to waft them to a better; and so thro want of use and by misapplying their Thoughts to trifles and impertinencies, they’ve perhaps almost lost those excellent Capacities which probably were afforded them by nature for the highest things. For such as these I’ve a a world of Kindness and Compassion, I regret their misfortune as much as they can themselves, and suppose they’re willing to repair it and very desirous to inform themselves were’t not for the shame of confessing their Ignorance. But let me intreat them to consider that there’s no Ignorance so shameful, no Folly so absurd as that which refuses Instruction, be it upon what account it may. All good Persons will pity not upbraid their former unhappiness, as not being their own but other Peoples fault; whereas they themselves are responsible if they continue it, since that’s an Evidence that they are silly and despicable, not because they _cou’d_ not, but because they _wou’d_ not be better Informed. But where is the shame of being taught? for who is there that does not need it? Alas, Human Knowledge is at best defective, and always progressive, so that she who knows the most has only this advantage, that she has made a little more speed than her Neighbours. And what’s the Natural Inference from hence? Not to give out, but to double our diligence; perhaps we may out-strip ’em, as the Penitent often does him who needs no Repentance. The worst that can be is the perishing in a glorious attempt, and tho we shou’d happen to prove succesless, ’tis yet worth our while to’ve had such a noble design. But there’s no fear of ill success if we are not wanting to our selves, an honest and laborious mind may perform all things. Indeed an affected Ignorance, a humorous delicacy and niceness which will not speculate a notion for fear of spoiling a look, nor think a serious thought lest she shou’d damp the gaity of her humour; she who is so top full of her outward excellencies, so careful that every look, every motion, every thing about her shou’d appear in Form, as she employs her Thoughts to a very pitiful use, so is she almost past hopes of recovery, at least so long as she continues this humour, and does not grow a little less concern’d for her Body that she may attend her Mind. Our directions are thrown away upon such a temper, ’tis to no purpose to harp to an Ass, or to chant forth our Charms in the Ears of a deaf Adder; but I hope there are none so utterly lost in folly and impertinence: If there are, we can only afford them our Pity for our Advice will do no good.

As for those who are desirous to improve and only want to be assisted and put into the best method of doing it, somewhat was attempted in order to do them that service in the former Essay, in which they may please to remember that having remov’d that groundless prejudice against an ingenious Education of the Women, which is founded upon supposition of the impossibility or uselessness of it, and having assign’d the reasons why they are so little improv’d, since they are so capable of improvement, and since ’tis so necessary that others as well as themselves shou’d endeavour it; which reasons are chiefly Ill-nurture, Custom, loss of Time, the want of Retirement, or of knowing how to use it, so that by the disuse of our Faculties we seem to have lost them if we ever had any; are sunk into an Animal life wholly taken up with sensible objects; either have no Ideas of the most necessary things or very _false_ ones; and run into all those mischiefs which are the natural Consequences of such mismanagement; we then proceeded to propose a Remedy for these Evils, which we affirm’d cou’d hardly be rectified but by erecting a Seminary where Ladies might be duly Educated, and we hope our Proposition was such that all impartial Readers are convinc’d it wou’d answer the Design, that is, tend very much to the real advantage and improvement of the Ladies. In order to which it was in general propos’d to acquaint them with Judicious Authors, give them opportunity of Retirement and Recollection and put them in a way of Ingenious Conversation, whereby they might enlarge their prospect, rectify their false Ideas, form in their Minds adequate conceptions of the End and Dignity of their Natures, not only have the Name and common Principles of Religion floating in their Heads and sometimes running out at their Mouths, but understand the design and meaning of it, and have a just apprehension, a lively sentiment of its Beauties and Excellencies; know wherein the Nature of a true Christian consists; and not only feel Passions, but be able to direct and regulate their Motions; have a true Notion of the Nothingness of Material things and of the reality and substantialness of immaterial, and consequently contemn this present World as it deserves, fixing all their Hopes upon and exerting all their Endeavours to obtain the Glories of the next. But because this was only propos’d in general, and the particular method of effecting it left to the Discretion of those who shou’d Govern and Manage the Seminary, without which we are still of Opinion that the Interest of the Ladies can’t be duly serv’d, in the mean time till that can be erected and that nothing in our power may be wanting to do them service, we shall attempt to lay down in this second part some more minute Directions, and such as we hope if attended to may be of use to them.

THE Second Part OF THE PROPOSAL TO THE LADIES.

CHAP. I.

_Of the Mutual Relation between Ignorance and Vice, and Knowledge and Purity._

[Sidenote: