ents and huſbands; for the bills of mortality are ſwelled by the blunders of ſelf-willed old women, who give noſtrums of their own without knowing any thing of the human frame. It is likewiſe proper, only in a domeſtic view, to make women acquainted with the anatomy of the mind, by allowing the ſexes to aſſociate together in every purſuit; and by leading them to obſerve the progreſs of the human underſtanding in the improvement of the ſciences and arts; never forgetting the ſcience of morality, nor the ſtudy of the political hiſtory of mankind.
A man has been termed a microcoſm; and every family might alſo be called a ſtate. States, it is true, have moſtly been governed by arts that diſgrace the character of man; and the want of a juſt conſtitution, and equal laws, have ſo perplexed the notions of the worldly wiſe, that they more than queſtion the reaſonableneſs of contending for the rights of humanity. Thus morality, polluted in the national reſervoir, fends off ſtreams of vice to corrupt the conſtituent parts of the body politic; but ſhould more noble, or rather, more juſt principles regulate the laws, which ought to be the government of ſociety, and not thoſe who execute them, duty might become the rule of private conduct.
Beſides, by the exerciſe of their bodies and minds women would acquire that mental activity ſo neceſſary in the maternal character, united with the fortitude that diſtinguiſhes ſteadineſs of conduct from the obſtinate perverſeneſs of weakneſs. For it is dangerous to adviſe the indolent to be ſteady, becauſe they inſtantly become rigor-
