instructed at the moderate price of one hundred and fiftyguineas each and five guineas entrance, "in the subsequent branches of education."

"Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, the Use of the Globes, and descriptive Astronomy. ́

"Those young Ladies of superior Age or Intellects, whose Friends may wish such Attainments, may be instructed in the Principles of Algebra, Geometry, Plain and Spherical Trigonometry, Conic Sections, Optics, Perspective and Practical Astronomy.

"LITERATURE.—The Italian and French Languages, Ancient and Modern History, and correctly the Principles of their Vernacular Language, a thing so necessary to the accomplished Gentlewoman," &c. &c. &c. &c.

What knowledge this accomplished school-mistress may possess of the principles of the English language, we profess not to know; but it is evident that she is not much in the habit of applying them to practice; and also, that she has not acquired them from the study of the English grammar. But this is a trifle compared with the vast stores of knowledge which she here opens to the female student, and to which it is utterly out of our power to do adequate justice.

The bard condemns the practice of reading novels at school, which, though frequent, is far, we hope, from being general; and he subjoins a remark on these productions of female writers, which, though strongly severe, we fear is eminently just.

"I have heard it observed, that the novels written by the female sex are, in general, 'pure' in comparison with others, and may be read with safety. This proposition I strenuously deny. I think female authors betray a great propensity to vice, though it be often shaded by a spurious delicacy. In the last age, there were some who, bold in vice, endeavoured to immortalise their shame by writing their own memoirs-Such were Phillips, Pilkington, Vane. Mrs. Manley wrote the scandalous Memoirs called Atalantis, &c. Mrs. Centlivre and Behn are notorious for the indecency of their plays. Since that time, actresses and keptmistresses have written histories of their own depravity. But, perhaps, Mrs. Wolstonecroft was the only female, who had ever the audacity to become a kept-mistress upon principle. Mrs. Opie (though not to be classed with any of the above writers) has, now, erred greatly in her Mother and Daughter.' She has drawn both her hero and heroine as amiable characters; and exposing them to dangers, and plunging them in distress-all, in consequence of the vulgar prejudice that so absurdly operates against concubinage, endeavoured to excite our pity in their behalf, to interest our

affections in their favour, and for their sakes to disturb our principles. In short, to vulgar prejudice they die martyrs. Religion, it is true, is called in; but in the form only of a quaker. I consider The Mother and Daughter' as a book of a very bad tendency; and Mrs. Opie's insinuations, as more likely to do mischief, than Mrs. Manley's impudence. Many of Mrs. Smith's novels are also exceptionable. In the mean time, there are female writers who do honour to their sex, even in works of invention-such as De Genlis and Mrs. West. But their sober treatises on education are worth all their fiction. On this subject, however, Mrs. More and Mrs. Trimmer are superior to the other two: they hazard no doubtful opinions-they are guilty of no flights or eccentricities. I cannot conclude this note, without entering my protest against Lancaster and the Edgeworths. Every system of education, in which religion is not intimately interwoven, must be vicious or vain." p. 29.

When lady-writers become too high for friendly admo-. nition, and too proud for salutary reproof-when honest praise becomes insipid, and fulsome adulation alone grateful to their ears-it is not to be expected that celebrity, however earned, will lead to improvement.

In this erroneous system of education, this attention to accomplishments, and this neglect of principle, the bard says, and we say with him,

"I see rank passions fed by latent fires;

Pernicious weeds, that spring from fierce desires;
Too fine a bloom that fleets before its time,

And rotten ripeness, ere the vernal primé!”

The story of Olivia is then introduced to exemplify the effects of such a system: it is an interesting tale, and ably told. On the indecency of modern dress, our moral bard thus animadverts:--

"The indecent transparence of modern dress has long been the subject of complaint. Nothing indeed can be more shocking to the modest or the virtuous, than those artfully disposed folds which so define the form, and that flesh colour which so imitates the skin, as to render covering itself no longer a veil. But if morality must be set aside, the consideration of health I should think might have some weight with the parent or the governess, A respectable physician some time since declared, that in one season only, no less than two hundred female patients under his care had either actually died, or would continue to linger for life, under complaints for which there was no cure; and all contracted in consequence of the exposure of their persons in the indecent fashions of the day! But the mischief will not end here: succeeding generations will have to deplore the disorders entailed on them by their parents. A lady, who was herself a fashionist, will be heard,

perhaps, in preference to the physician., Dress (says Mrs. Thicknesse) may run through all its variations, from simplicity to gaudiness, from splendour to the fantastic, without any violation of decorum or moral duty. But the present mode of appearance, which is so generally adopted, is a very high degree of immorality, because it is indecent and immodest-because it is a shameful contempt of those qualities which are considered by reason and religion, as the brighest ornaments of the female character. There is, indeed, little doubt, if one of those unhappy women who have abandoned themselves to prostitution, were to appear in any public place, in that shocking, half-cloathed state in which so many present themselves to fashionable assemblies, that she 'would risk a submission to the penalties of Bridewell.' See Decation to Mrs. Thicknesse's School for Fashion."

P. 36.

We have not seen this book by Mrs. Thicknesse; but, from the specimens here given of it, it evidently contains many judicious remarks, and much excellent advice. We cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of laying one other extract from it before our readers.

"In the Dedication to Fashion, from which I have already made an extract, Mrs. Thicknesse says: There never was a period, when your influence was so baneful to morals, so obnoxious to honour, and so hostile to domestic happiness, as in the day that is passing over us.'... You employ your art in influencing the higher orders of the female world, from the cradle to the grave. You conduct your votaries, through various scenes of gaiety, display, and dissipation, to the altar; and thence, through all the negligence of maternal duties, and the indulgence of matured passions, to the final resources of cards or devotion.'... You have 'been for some time fatally successful in banishing modesty from your circles. Hence it is, that the young women of the present day indulge themselves in a mode of conversation, a latitude of expression, and a freedom of demeanour, which the courtezan of a former period would have blushed to practise. Hence it is, ⚫ that we find elegant, high-born girls of sixteen in possession of all the knowledge which they ought not to know, and their grandmothers never appeared to have known.'... The time was, when you were the regulating minister of the forms and exterior appearance of those ranks in life, which require a moderate ⚫ attention to them. But the time now is, when you are become the school-mistress of vice and immorality; when the demon of impudence is your idol; and when the paths in which you ⚫ conduct your disciples, lead to profligacy, to ruin, and a premature sepulchre.' P. 40.

We have already quoted so amply from this interesting work, that it would be injustice to the author to make such further extracts as we had marked for the purpose of insertion here. We must, however, cite his opinion

t

on the propriety of ladies taking upon themselves the management of Sunday-schools.

This in

"I dislike, however, their superintendence of schools. Girls, who are in want of being taught, should not become teachers. spires even the best minds with vanity. It occasions an overbearing manner: it induces a habit of officiousness. Even when grown up to women, I do not approve of the interference of ladies with the manage ment of schools. To visit a school with a view to its support, is quite a different business: no one can object to an act of charity. In regard to Sunday-schools, there is little doubt that Mrs. Hannah More and the whole tribe of her imitators have done an incalculable deal of mischief to religion. They have all, more or less, intruded on the province of the parochial clergyman in attempting that which he was ordained to do; and they have thus made him secondary to themselves, and consequently degraded him in the eyes of his parishioners. And from their schools they have turned out crowds of self-conceited folks-politicians, sceptics, methodists-holding their ignorant parents and relations in contempt, disqualified for the stations to which God had called them, and aspiring after objects in the pursuit of which they fail and become desperate, or in the attainment of which they frequently discover designing heads and hearts the most depraved." P. 59.

Here we close both our quotations and our remarks; strongly recommending the attentive perusal of the "Family Picture" to all parents, and to all those who think the proper education of the rising generation an object of public importance. The author's sentiments are uniformly good, his principles sound, his observations judicious; while his poetry displays genius, taste, and talent.

One word more respecting the observations which we have been compelled to make on the present erroneous system of education. When we consider it, can we wonder at seeing the bar prostituted to the defence of impiety and vice? Can we be surprised at the capitulation of Buenos Ayres, the Convention of Cintra, and the Report of the Board of Inquiry? Or can we be astonished at the frequent bankruptcies in the commercial world; at occasional instances of the degradation of the clerical character, by clergymen becoming pugilists, gamesters, parasites, and panders to profligate princes; or at the rapid growth of adultery and prostitution?—We should rather wonder at what we are as a nation, and at what we have done. This system, however, is a radical evil which calls loudly for correction; but as it effects no party, as it interferes with no politics, as it defrauds no revenue, it may continue to call-its voice, we fear, will not be heard.

Our remarks, however, on the effects of this system, though generally just, must admit of many and most honourable exceptions. But while the youths of both sexes, who have braved the dangers and escaped the snares which it has prepared for them, are deserving of peculiar commendation, they must have peculiar merit. The system itself is not the less mischievous, nor the less entitled to censure and condemnation.

CHEMISTRY AND MEDICINE.

The Chemical Catechism, with Notes, Illustrations, and Experiments. By Samuel Parkes, general manufacturing Chemist. The Third Edition, containing the new Discoveries and other very considerable Additions. 8vo. pp. 660. 12s. Lackington and Co. 1808. WE are pleased to find that our opinion of this work has been fully confirmed by the approbation of the enlightened part of the public, and that the sale of the second edition was so rapid, that we had not time to examine it before a third appeared with considerable additions and improvements. The author, like a man really actuated by the true spirit of science, has most carefully corrected all those errors and incorrect expressions which we noticed in reviewing the first edition, and has now made this Catechism,' not only the most useful, but the most copious and correct introductory treatise on chemistry extant. The corrections and additions are by far too numerous for us to particularise; and above one hundred and sixty new articles are introduced, besides one hundred curious experiments added to the one hundred and fifty-four which appeared in the first edition. As the last eight of these include the principal phenomena exhibited by potasium and sodium, the mẹtallic bases of the alkalies discovered by Mr. Davy, and communicated by him to Mr. Parkes, we shall extract them.

"1. Take a small piece of pure potash, gently breathe on its surface, and place it on an insulated plate connected with the negative side of a powerful galvanic battery in a state of intense activity. Then bring a metallic wire from the positive side of the battery in contact with the upper surface of the alkali, and soon a very vivid action will be observed. Small globules, having a high metallic lustre, and of the appearance of quicksilver, will be seen, some of which will burn with explosion and a bright flame as soon as they are formed. Thus POTASH may be DECOMPOSED AND ITS metallic BASE RENDERED VISIBLE in a separate state.

"2. Take the metallic substance formed in the last experiment, called potasium, make it very hot, and confine it in a small glass vessel of oxygen gas. Here a rapid combustion, with a brilliant white flame, will be produced, and the metallic globules will be