but when women work only to dreſs better than they could otherwiſe afford, it is worſe than ſheer loſs of time. To render the poor virtuous they muſt be employed, and women in the middle rank of life, did they not ape the faſhions of the nobility, without catching their eaſe, might employ them, whilſt they themſelves managed their families, inſtructed their children, and exerciſed their own minds. Gardening, experimental philoſophy, and literature, would afford them ſubjects to think of and matter for converſation, that in ſome degree would exerciſe their underſtandings. The converſation of French women, who are not ſo rigidly nailed to their chairs to twiſt lappets, and knot ribbons, is frequently ſuperficial; but, I contend, that it is not half ſo inſipid as that of thoſe Engliſh women whoſe time is ſpent in making caps, bonnets, and the whole miſchief of trimmings, not to mention ſhopping, bargain-hunting, &c. &c. and it is the decent, prudent women, who are moſt degraded by theſe practices; for their motive is ſimply vanity. The wanton who exerciſes her taſte to render her perſon alluring, has ſomething more in view.
Theſe obſervations all branch out of a general one, which I have before made, and which cannot be too often inſiſted upon, for, ſpeaking of men, women, or profeſſions, it will be found that the employment of the thoughts ſhapes the character both generally and individually. The thoughts of women ever hover round their perſons, and is it ſurpriſing that their perſons are reckoned moſt valuable? Yet ſome degree of
