Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, with a View of the Principles and Conduct Prevalent Among Women of Rank and Fortune (Volume 1 )

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1799 Excerpt: ... I ON THE Prevailing Ststem or EDUCATION, MANNERS, AND HABITS OF WOMEN OF RANK AND FORTtNfi. CtlAP. L Address to women of rank and fortune, on the effecls of their influence on society. Suggestions for the exertion of it in Various instances Among the talents for the application of which women of the higher class will be peculiarly accountable, there is one, the importance of which they can scarcely rate too highly. This talent is influence. We read of the greatest orator of antiquity, that the wisest plans which it had cost him years to frame, a woman could overturn in a single day; and when one considers the variety of mischiefs which an ilk Vol. i. B directed directed influence has been known to produce, one is led to reflect with the most sanguine hope on the beneficial effects to be expected from the fame powerful force when exerted in its true direction. The general state of civilized society depends more than those are aware, who are not accustomed to scrutinize into the springs of human action, on the prevailing sentiments and habits of women, and on the nature and degree of the estimation in which they are held. Even those who admit the. power of female elegance on the manners of men, do not always attend to the influence of female principles on their character. In the former cafe, indeedj women are apt to be sufficiently conscious of their power, and not backward in turning it to account. But there are nobler objects to be effected by the exertion of their powers; and unforta-, nately, ladies, who are often unreasonably consident where they ought to be diffident, are sometimes capriciously diffident just when they ought to feel where their o. true true Importance lies; and, feeling, to exert if' To use iheir boasted power over man kind to no higher...