Let me conjure you, my deareft, to comply with this kind ambition of a father, whofe thoughts are fo engaged in your behalf, that he reckons your happiness to be the greatest part of his own.

ON FEMALE CREDULITY.

"Ye Heav'ns, if innocence deferves your care,
"Why have ye made it fatal to be fair?

Falfe man, the ruin of our fex was born,
"The beauteous are his prey, the reft his fcorn.
"Alike unfortunate our fate is fuch,

"We pleafe too little, or we please too much."

N. ROWE.

THERE are a fet of men in the world, who, to the difgrace of human nature, are never happier than in the purfuit of the destruction of some beauteous, innocent, and too eafy believing fair one, What a melancholy confideration is it, that there are so many in the prefent day continually flying in the face of every law, human and divine, putting modefty to the blush, virtue cut of countenance, and, like the devil himself, feeking whom he may devour; the various deep-laid fchemes, made ufe of, not only to ruin the harmless unfufpecting virgin, but the virtuous and blooming wife, too plainly evidence the depravity of the age, and the fenfuality of the times. Happy, thrice happy the wife, prudent, and

difcerning

difcerning female, who is proof against all the arts of feduction, and refolutely withstands every temptation and attack upon her virtue.

As beauty recommends the virgin to the admiration of those around her, fo it renders her more liable to be furrounded with defigning flatterers. Of fuch devils in human shape, ye amiable fair ones beware, left ye alfo become the dupe of their artifice and cunning.

AN EXTRACT FROM DR. FORDYCE'S. SERMONS TO YOUNG WOMEN.

THAT admired maxim of heathen antiquity, "Reverence thyself," feems to me peculiarly proper for a woman. She that does not reverence herself must not hope to be refpected by others. I would therefore remind you of your own value. By encouraging you to entertain a just esteem for yourselves, I would on one hand guard you against every thing degrading, and on the other awaken your ambition to act up to the best ftandard of your fex; to afpire at every amiable, every noble quality that is adapted to your ftate, or that can infure the affection and preferve the importance to which you were born. Now this importance is very great, whether we confider you in your present single condition, or as afterwards connected in wedlock.

Confidering you in your present Single condition, I would begin where your duty in fociety begins, by put

ting you in mind how deeply your Parents are inte rested in your behaviour. For the fake of the argument, I fuppofe your parents to be alive. Thofe that have had the misfortune to be early deprived of theirs, are commonly left to the care of fome friend or guardian, who is understood to fupply their place; and to fuch my remarks on this head will not be altogether inapplicable.

Are you who now hear me blest with parents that even in these times, and in this metropolis, where all the corruption and futility of thefe times are concentred, difcover a zeal for your improvement and falvation ? How thankful fhould you be for the mighty bleffing! Would you show that you are thankful? Do nothing to make them unhappy; do all in your power to give them delight. Ah, did you but know how much it is in your power to give them!- -But who can defcribe the transports of a breast truly parental, on beholding a daughter shoot up like fome fair but modest flower, and acquire, day after day, fresh beauty and growing sweetnefs, fo as to fill every eye with pleasure, and every heart with admiration; while, like that fame flower, The appears unconscious of her opening charms, and only rejoices in the fun that chears, and the hand that fhelters her? In this manner fhall you, my lovely friend, repay moft acceptably a part (you never can repay the whole) of that immense debt you owe for all the pains and fears formerly fuffered, and for all the unalterable anxieties daily experienced, on your account.

Per

Perhaps you are the only daughter, perhaps the only child of your mother, and her a widow. All her cares, all her fenfations point to you. Of the tenderness of a much loved and much lamented husband you are the fole remaining pledge. On you fhe often fixes her earneft melting eye; with watchful attention fhe marks the progrefs of your rifing virtues; in every foftened feature the fondly traces your father's fenfe, your father's probity. Something within her whispers, you fhall live to be the prop and comfort of her age, as you are now her companion and friend. Bleffed Lord, what big emotions fwell her labouring foul! But lek, by venting them in your company, she should affect you too much, fhe filently withdraws to pour them forth in tears of rapture; a rapture only augmented by the fweetly fad remembrance that mingles with it, while at the fame time it is exalted and confecrated doubly by ardent vows to heaven for your preservation and profperity. Is there a young woman that can think of this with indif. ference? Is there a young woman that can reverse the defcription, fuppofe herself the impious creature that could break a widowed mother's heart, and support the thought?

When a daughter, it may be a favourite daughter, turns out unruly, foolish, wanton; when she disobeys her parents, difgraces her education, difhonours her fex, disappoints the hopes fhe had raised; when the throws herself away on a man unworthy of her, or unqualified to make her happy; what her parents in any of these cafes muft neceffarily fuffer, we may conjecture, they alone can feel.

A FATHER'S LEGACY TO HIS DAUGH

TERS.

BY DR. GREGORY.

ONE of the chief beauties in a female character is that modest reserve, that retiring delicacy which avoids the public eye, and is difconcerted even at the gaze of admiration. I do not wish you to be infenfible to applaufe; if you were, you must become, if not worse, much less amiable women. But you may be dazzled by that admiration, which yet rejoices your hearts.

When a girl ceases to blufh, fhe has loft the most powerful charm of beauty. That extreme fenfibility which it indicates, may be a weakness and incumbrance in our fex, as I have too often felt; but in yours it is peculiarly engaging. Pedants, who think themselves philofophers, afk why a woman fhould blush when she is conscious of no crime? It is a sufficient anfwer, that nature has made you to blush when you are guilty of no fault, and has forced us to love you because you do fo.-Blushing is fo far from being a neceffary attendant on guilt, that it is the ufual companion of innocence.

This modefty which I think fo effential in your fex, will difpofe you to be rather filent in company, especially in a large one.-People of fenfe and difcernment