if the ſtroke of vengeance cannot be ſtayed—the lady is entreated to pardon the rudeneſs and depart in peace, though ſprinkled, perhaps, with her huſband's or brother's blood.
I ſhall paſs over his ſtrictures on religion, becauſe I mean to diſcuſs that ſubject in a ſeparate chapter.
The remarks relative to behaviour, though many of them very ſenſible, I entirely diſapprove of, becauſe it appears to me to be beginning, as it were, at the wrong end. A cultivated underſtanding, and an affectionate heart, will never want ſtarched rules of decorum–ſomething more ſubſtantial than ſeemlineſs will be the reſult; and, without underſtanding the behaviour here recommended, would be rank affectation. Decorum, indeed, is the one thing needful!—decorum is to ſupplant nature, and baniſh all ſimplicity and variety of character out of the female world. Yet what good end can all this ſuperficial counſel produce? It is, however, much eaſier to point out this or that mode of behaviour, than to ſet the reaſon to work; but, when the mind has been ſtored with uſeful knowledge, and ſtrengthened by being employed, the regulation of the behaviour may ſafely be left to its guidance.
Why, for inſtance, ſhould the following caution be given when art of every kind muſt contaminate the mind; and why entangle the grand motives of action, which reaſon and religion equally combine to enforce, with pitiful worldly ſhifts and ſlight of hand tricks to gain the applauſe of gaping taſteleſs fools? 'Be even cautious in dis-
