'For this reaſon, the education of the women ſhould be always relative to the men. To pleaſe, to be uſeful to us, to make us love and eſteem them, to educate us when young, and take care of us when grown up, to adviſe, to conſole us, to render our lives eaſy and agreeable: theſe are the duties of women at all times, and what they ſhould be taught in their infancy. So long as we fail to recur to this principle, we run wide of the mark, and all the precepts which are given them contribute neither to their happineſs nor our own[1].'
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
'Girls are from their earlieſt infancy fond of dreſs. Not content with being pretty, they are deſirous of being thought ſo; we ſee, by all their little airs, that this thought engages their attention; and they are hardly capable of underſtanding what is ſaid to them, before they are to be governed by talking to them of what people will think of their behaviour. The ſame motive, however, indiſcreetly made uſe of with boys, has not the ſame effect: provided they are let to purſue their amuſements at pleaſure, they care very little what people think of them. Time and pains are neceſſary to ſubject boys to this motive.
'Whenceſoever girls derive this firſt leſſon, it is a very good one. As the body is born, in a manner before the ſoul, our firſt concern ſhould be to cultivate the former; this order is com-
- ↑ Rouſſeau's Emilius, Vol. III. p. 181.
