My next Topic is the Education of a young Lady of the first Quality; from which, if the Course of my Design did not make it necessary, I would gladly be excused: for as the most delicate Flowers require the tenderest Treatment, so the conducting a Woman of Quality thro’ the first Stages, and ushering her into the World, is of all others the nicest Part to act. Still, as Nature and Reason are my Guides; by them I hope to be enabled to offer some Aid, however small, for the promoting this great End.
As all Parents have a Right to exercise a proper Authority, so all Children, however high their Rank, should be taught to obey. Great Spirits may think Obedience mean; but Parents are to remember their Children’s Happiness is at stake: without Obedience they cannot regulate their Passions: and if not regulated, they have but little Chance for Happiness. Misfortunes with a Coronet, Misfortunes with a Coach and Six, are still Misfortunes; and it is the Business of every Parent so to conduct their Children, that they may on their part avoid them, or so to fortify them that they may bear them as they ought. But, as it is most agreeable to good Sense, I will conclude that Parents of the highest Rank are convinced of this, and have employed the Infant Age of their Children accordingly. What next is to be done? What Education is most proper for a young Lady of the first Quality? Such surely as will distinguish her from the Crowd; such as will more adorn her Mind, than the Jewels she wears adorn her Person.
The Errors committed in the Education of the Children of private Persons are many, from the Parents educating them above their Rank; still there is one general Excuse may be made for them, which is, that as the Turns of Fortune are sometimes very great, they don’t know what Occasion they may have for it. But in Persons of Quality the Case is different; they are already at the Summit, and their Education should suit their Rank. As soon therefore as the first Stage is over, (not to mention what she may have learnt during that Period) a young Lady’s Time is to be esteemed precious: Reading, Writing, Working, Dancing, _French_, _Italian_ and Music are all to be taught her; and that not superficially, as is too much the Custom; not so as to puzzle and confound her Understanding, but to enlarge and improve it. A certain Author says, that there is not a Man in a thousand who reads well; if so, and Men assert a Superiority of Knowledge, it will be no unfair Conclusion to say, there is not a Woman in two thousand that does: but I hope this Gentleman’s Assertion is not true, and then the Conclusion falls of course. Still it is very certain, that much more is required to read our Mother-Tongue well, than is commonly imagined; and as that is really graceful, a young Lady should be taught to set a great Value on it. To know the Words and their Meaning is not sufficient; she must know the Pointing, the Emphasis and the Cadence; and she must know too, how, in different Parts, and on different Subjects, to modify her Voice, or she will never read well. To read with Energy and Beauty, we should know our Subject; and here the Understanding is concerned; this gain’d, we have nothing more to do but to keep close to Nature; for the greatest Fault committed in reading is, the throwing ourselves out of Nature. As I have formerly attended the Lectures of several public Professors, I remember one who committed this Fault of throwing himself out of Nature, as I have just observed; when he read, he put on a Tone of Voice not his own; when he laid down his Paper to explain what he had been reading, he was himself again; and thus was he in and out of himself, if I may be allowed the Expression, ten times in an Hour. And yet this was a Man of Letters, a Man of Science, a Philosopher!