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their manners are embarrassed and their conversation wants airiness. Now women should recollect, that it is neither wise nor grateful to ridicule the necessary effects of that industry to which they are indebted for every comfort they enjoy. While men devote their time and sacrifice their health to provide them the means of gratification, surely it is not asking too much, to expect that they will deny themselves the paltry pleasure of rendering their benefactors contemptible.

A few words only on religion, and these remarks shall be concluded. This indeed should be first, and last, and midst. Yet this too, I fear, is not likely to be benefited by the proposed alterations. We have been told, that "though Christianity does not require that every one should defend its authority, it seems to require that every one should understand its principles." It is granted. And who better understand those principles than pious females? I have heard of a zealous minister who said, that he had found a deeper acquaintance with Christianity in some old women of the lowest rank, than in any other persons of either sex. We are told, too, that "not one in a large proportion of pious women could advance any satisfactory reason for her belief." In one sense this is equally true of a great number of pious men; in another, it is true of neither. A satisfactory reason they have for themselves, in the peace and consolation they experience; but they have it not for others, because these are personal feelings. But it may even be doubted, whether "a systematic view of Christianity, with its various kinds of evidence," is needful; whether, in short, the religion of men and women ought to be exactly similar. In men, perhaps reason should preside; in women, affection. Thus each may improve the other. But if, by a novel system of discipline, the

female character should be altered, and their feelings be come cold, religion must lose its fervour, and with that, I fear, its life and energy. For though reason is the regulator, affection is the main-spring; and that devotion which resides only in the understanding, resembles rather the homage which a contemplative philosopher pays to his Creator, than the humble and grateful adoration which the repentant prodigal should render to his parent, the redeemed sinner to his God. In truth, a religion of mere reason is very suspicious. I once asked a French gentleman what were his guides in these matters. He replied, “Ma Bible, mes prêtres, et ma logique; et ma logique me serve plus que tout le reste." My readers will not be surprized to hear, that I found it impossible to convince my catholic that it was his duty to forgive some persons by whom he thought himself deeply injured.

Reforms, however, in religion, can never be needless, whether for men or women. Let the latter then, since their improvement is in question, more seriously consider its inexpressible importance, and live more entirely under the influence of its precepts. Let them deeply and practically be persuaded, that the favour of God is far above every earthly blessing; that one act of charity or self-denial, one real exercise of humility or devotion, is better worth than the most flattering display of wit and accomplishments, with all the brilliancy of beauty to lend them lustre. So shall the loveliness of woman be twice lovely; so shall the evening as well as the morn of life shine with unclouded brightness; and He, "before whose face the heavens and earth shall flee away," smile on them in that awful hour, when the charms of the fair and the wisdom of the wise shall alike be vain, and holiness alone retain its value.

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I HAVE read your review of the Family Shakspeare, and it reminds me of an anecdote, which is told-no matter where. It occurred in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth.

A general complaint had prevailed in France for many years of the disorderly state of the capital. There was no walking in the fauxbourgs after five o'clock, without danger of being murdered; every table-d'hôte was a scene of uproar; and the lowest class of profligate women infested the streets without number. Colbert (who was a great man for police and privileged companies) undertook to reform this evil; and, after applying himself for some time diligently to the business, had the vanity to think he had succeeded. But a zealous Jansenist of that day, whose name was Bussy-Guitot, understood the matter differently, He published a small piece, by which he shewed, in the first place, that Paris was a town where no reputable gentleman should think of residing;-that all towns indeed were to be avoided as hostile to the simplicity of country

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life; and, therefore, that the labour of purifying them was quite misplaced. And, as to the minister's boasted success in Paris, he observed that nothing could be more imperfect; for he himself had heard the bargemen swearing at the Pont-Neuf, and a lad of fourteen had actually been hustled not three weeks before in the Rue St. Honoré. My readers will inquire, perhaps, how this ended. I am sorry to say, that the pamphlet had a run; Colbert, finding his reforms unpopular, threw them up; and the city soon became as riotous and profligate as ever.

Now this Jansenist, it should be known, was an exceedingly worthy person. He read his Bible continually; and cordially believed every sentence he gave to the public. How happened it then that he was the occasion of so much mischief? Why just thus. He had been bred in the college of Port-Royal, and understood all the points in controversy with the Jesuits to perfection. But Père Arnauld, who was his oracle, could teach only what he knew; and of the ways of the world he had the happiness to know nothing. In this only he was wiser than his pupil, that he meddled but little with its concerns.

I could not refrain troubling you with this little history, because I really think it very parallel to what has lately happened,-saving only the size of the respective subjects.

All the world read Shakspeare, and all the world would read him. He had been, for more than two centuries, the pride and delight of his countrymen. His finer passages were quoted by every body. His familiar dialogues had become the language of common life. Meantime, all serious persons lamented that dramas so justly admired should be deformed in every page with indecency and

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profaneness; yet still the years rolled by without any at tempt to purify them. If we may guess by the lateness of the undertaking, the task should seem to have been difficult. At length, twenty of the plays are published; cleared for the most part from offensive passages, without being deprived of their original interest; and the intentions of the editor appear, from his preface, to have been equally moral and good-natured*. A critique soon afterwards appears in a very valuable religious publication, the sum of which is this: Shakspeare ought never to be read at all the other dramatists are in the same case-it is therefore idle to reform them: and as to this attempt, it has quite failed; for the name of the evil spirit is retained

In justice to the editor, it should be observed, that the play (-1st Part of Henry IV.) which alone the reviewers thought it necessary to examine, and from which they have selected all their specimens of impropriety, is that which every one will allow to have been the least susceptible of a perfect reform, without material mutilation; while at the same time its transcendent excellence made it impossible that it should be omitted. Notwithstanding the bead-roll of defects with which the review has presented us, I cannot but think an impartial examiner will feel surprised at the success with which the editor has executed this part of his labours. As to the integrity of the motives which prompted this publication, let the editor himself be heard: "Though the works of our immortal bard have been presented to the public in a great variety of editions, and are already the ornament of every library, and the delight of every reader; I flatter myself that the present publication may still claim the attention, and obtain the approbation of those who value every literary production in proportion to the effect it may produce in a religious and moral point of view.-Twenty of the most unexceptionable of Shakspeare's plays are here selected, in which not a single line is added, but from which I have endeavoured to remove every thing that could give just offence to the religious and vir tuous mind." Preface to the Family Shakspeare.

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