who are your Equals or Superiors, provided they have nothing of what is commonly called an ill Reputation, you think you are fafe; and this, in the Stile of the World, will pafs for good Company; whereas I am afraid it will be hard for you to pick out one Female Acquaintance in this Town, from whom you will not be in manifeft Danger of contracting fome Foppery, Affectation, Vanity, Folly or Vice. Your only fafe way of converfing with them is by a firm Refolution to proceed in your Practice and Behaviour directly contrary to whatever they shall fay or do; and this I take to be a good general Rule, with very few Exceptions. For inftance, in the Doctrines they ufually deliver to young married Women for managing their Hnfbands; their several Accounts of their Conduct in that Particular, to recommend it to your Imitation; the Reflections they make upon others of their Sex for acting differently; their Directions to come off with Victory, upon any Dispute or Quarrel you may have with your Husband; the Arts by which you may discover and practise upon his weak Side; when to work by Flattery and Infinuation, when to melt him with Tears, and when to engage with a high Hand. In these, and a thousand other Cafes, it will be prudent to retain as many of their Lectures in your Memory as you can, and then determine to act in full Oppofition to them all.

I hope your Hufband will interpofe his Authority to limit you in the Trade of Visiting. Half a dozen Fools are in all Confcience as many as you fhould require, and it will be fufficient for you to fee them twice a Year; for I think the Fafhion

Fashion does not exact that Vifits should be paid to Friends.

I advife that your Company at home fhould confift of Men rather than Women. To say the Truth, I never knew a tolerable Woman to be fond of her own Sex. I confefs, when both are mixed and well chofen, and put their Qualities forward, there may be an Intercourse of Civility and Good-will, which, with the Addition of fome Degree of Senfe, can make Converfation or Amusement agreeable; but a Knot of Ladies got together by themselves, is a very School of Impertinence and Detraction; and it is well if those be the worst.

Let your Men Acquaintance be of your Huf band's Choice, and not recommended to you by any She Companions, because they will surely fix a Coxcomb upon you; and it will cost you fome Time and Pains before you can arrive at the Knowledge of distinguishing such a one from a Man of Sense.

Never take a favourite Waiting-maid into your Cabinet-council, to entertain you with Hiftories of thofe Ladies whom fhe has formerly ferved, of their Diverfions and their Dreffings; to infinuate how great a Fortune you brought, and how little you are allowed to fquander; to appeal to her from your Hufband, and to be determined by her Judgment, because you are sure it will always be for you; to receive and discard Servants by her Approbation and Diflike; to engage you, by her Infinuations, into Mifunderftandings with your best Friends; to reprefent all things in falfe Colours, and to be the common Emiffary of Scandal.

But

But the great Affair of your Life will be to gain and preferve the Friendship and Efteem of your Hufband. You are married to a Man of good Education and Learning, of an excellent Understanding, and an exact Taste, it is true; and it is happy for you that thefe Qualities in him are adorned with great Modefty, a moft amiable Sweetness of Temper, and an unusual Difpofition to Sobriety and Virtue? but neither Good-nature nor Virtue will fuffer him to esteem you againft his Judgment. And although he is not capable of ufing you ill; yet you will, in time, grow a thing indifferent, and perhaps contemptible, unless you can fupply the Lofs of Youth and Beauty with more durable Qualities. You have but a very few Years to be young and handsome in the Eyes of the World, and as few Months to be fo in the Eyes of a Husband who is not a Fool; for I hope you do not still dream of Charms and Raptures, which Marriage ever did and ever will put an End to. Befides, yours was a Match of Prudence and common Good-liking, without any Mixture of that ridiculous Paffion, which has no Being but in Play-books and Ro

mances.

You must use, therefore, all Endeavours to attain to fome Degree of thofe Accomplishments which your Husband most values in other People, and for which he is moft valued himself; you must improve your Mind by pursuing fuch a Method of Study as I fhall direct or approve of; you must get a Collection of History and Travels, which I will recommend to you, and spend fome Hours every Day in reading of them, and making Extracts from them. If your Memory be weak, you must invite Perfons of Knowledge and Under

5

Understanding to an Acquaintance with you, by whofe Converfation you may learn to correct your Tafte and Judgment; and when you can bring yourself to comprehend and relish the good Senfe of others, you will arrive in time to think rightly yourself, and become a reasonable and agreeable Companion. This muft produce in your Hufband a true rational Love and Efteem for you, which old Age will not diminish. He will have Regard for your Judgment and Opinion in Matters of the greatest Weight; you will be able to entertain each other, without a third Person to relieve you by finding Difcourfe. The Endowments of your Mind will even make your Perfon more agreeable to him; and when you are alone, your Time will not lie heavy upon your Hands, for want of fome trifling Amufe

ment.

As little Refpect as I have for the Generality of your Sex, it hath fometimes moved me with Pity to fee the Lady of the Houfe forced to withdraw immediately after Dinner, and this in Families where there is not much Drinking; as if it were an establish'd Maxim, that Women are incapable of Converfation. In a Room

where both Sexes meet, if the Men are difcourfing upon any general Subject, the Ladies never think it their Business to partake in what paffes; but, in a feparate Club, entertain each other with the Price and Choice of Lace and Silk, and what Dreffes they liked or difapproved at the Church or Play-houfe: and when you are among yourselves, how naturally, after the first Compliments, do you apply your Hands to each other's Lappets, and Ruffles, and Mantuas, as if the whole Bufinefs of your Lives, and the pub

lic Concern of the World, depended upon the Cut and Colour of your Dreffes as Divines fay, That fome People take more Pains to be damn'd, than it would coft them to be faved; fo your Sex employs more Thought, Memory, and Application to be Fools, than would ferve to make them wife and ufeful. When I reflect on this, I cannot conceive you to be human Creatures; but a fort of Species, hardly a Degree above a Monkey, who has more diverting Tricks than any of you, is an Animal lefs mifchievous and expenfive, might in time be a tolerable Critic in Velvet and Brocade, and for aught I know, would equally become them.

I would have you look upon Finery as a neceffary Folly, as all great Ladies did whom I have ever known. I do not defire you to be out of the Fashion, but to be the last and least in it. I expect that your Drefs fhould be one Degree below what your Fortune can afford; and in your own Heart I would with you to be an utter Contemner of all Diftinctions which a fine Petticoat can give you, because it will neither make you richer, handsomer, younger, better-natured, more virtuous or wife than if it hung upon a Peg.

If

you are in Company with Men of Learning, though they happen to difcourfe of Arts and Sciences, out of your Compafs, you will get more Advantage by liftening to them, than from all the Nonfenfe and Frippery of your own Sex; but if they be Men of Breeding as well as Learning, they will feldom engage in any Converfation where you ought not to be a Hearer, and in time have your Parts. If they talk of the Manners and Customs of the feveral Kingdoms

of