with here; but if he did, though she would make no resolutions, she believed she should be too much offended with him, to give him reason to boast of his journey; and this the rather, as she had grounds to think he had once entertained no very honourable notions of her friendship for Mr B

She wished to see Mr B, and to take leave of him, but not out of my company, she was pleased to say.-Your ladyship's consideration for me, replied I, lays me under high obligation; but, indeed, madam, there is no occasion for it, from any diffidences I have in yours or in Mr B- -'s honour. And if your ladyship will give me the pleasure of knowing when it will be most acceptable, I will beg of Mr B- to oblige me with his company to return this favour the first visit I make abroad.

You are very kind, Mrs B- -, said she; but I think to go to Tunbridge for a fortnight, when I have disposed of every thing for my embarkation, and to set out from thence. And if you should then be both in Kent, I should be glad to take you at your word.

To be sure, I said, Mr B"" at least, would attend her ladyship there, if any thing should happen to deprive me of that honour.

You are very obliging, said the Countess. I take great concern to myself, for having been the means of giving you a moment's uneasiness formerly; but I must now endeavour to be circumspect, in order to retrieve my character, which has been so basely traduced by that presumptuous fellow, Turner, who hoped, I suppose, by that means to bring me down to his level.

Her ladyship would not be prevailed upon to stay dinner; and saying, she should be at Wooburn all the next day, took a very kind and tender leave of me, wishing me all manner of happiness, as I did her.

Mr B- came home in the evening, and next morning rode to Wooburn, to pay his respects to the Countess, and came back in the evening.

Thus happily, and to the satisfaction of all three, as I hope, ended this perplexing affair.

Mr B asks me, madam, how I relish Mr Locke's Treatise of Education? which he put into my hands some time since, as I told your ladyship.-I answered, Very well; and I thought it an excellent piece, in the main.

I'll tell you, said he, what you shall do. You have not shewed me any thing you have written for a good while. I should be glad you would fill up your leisure time, since you cannot be without a pen, with your observations on that treatise, that I may know what you can object to it; for you say, In the main, which shows, that you do not entirely approve of every part of it.

But will not that be presumptuous, sir?

I admire Mr Locke, replied he; and I admire my Pamela. I have no doubt of his excellencies; but I want to know the sentiments of a young mother, as well as of a learned gentleman, upon the subject of education; because I have heard several ladies censure some part of his regimen, when I am convinced that the fault lies in their own over-great fondness for their children.

As to myself, sir, who, in the early part of my life, have not been brought up too tenderly, you will hardly meet with any objection to the part which I imagine you have heard most objected to by ladies who have been more indulgently treated in their first stage. But there are a few other things that want clearing up, to my understanding; but which, however, may be the fault of that.

Then, my dear, said he, suppose me at a distance from you, cannot you give me your remarks in the same manner, as if you were writing to Lady Davers, or to Miss Darnford, that was?

Yes, sir, depending on your kind favour to me, I believe I could.

Do then; and the less restraint you write with, the more I shall be pleased with it. But I confine you not to time or place. We will make our excursions as I once proposed to you; and do you write to me a letter now and then upon the subject; for the places and remarkables you will see, will be new only to yourself; nor will either of those ladies expect from you an itinerary, or a particular description of countries, which they will find better described by authors who have made it their business to treat upon those subjects. By this means you will be usefully employed in your own way, which may turn to good account to us both, and to the dear children which it may please God to bestow upon us.

You don't expect, sir, any thing regular or digested from me?

I don't, my dear. Let your fancy and your judgment be both employed; and I require no method; for I know, in your easy, natural way, that would be a confinement which would cramp your genius, and give what you write a stiff, formal air, that I might expect in a pedagogue, but not in my Pamela.

Well, but, sir, although I may write nothing to the purpose, yet, if Lady Davers is desirous to give it a reading, will you allow me to transmit what I shall write to her hands, when you have perused it yourself? For your good sister is so indulgent to my scribble, that she will expect to be always hearing from me; and this way I shall oblige her ladyship, while I obey her brother. With all my heart, he was pleased to say.

So, my lady, I shall now and then pay my re

I HAVE been considering of your commands, in relation to Mr Locke's book; and since you are pleased to give me time to acquit myself of the task, I shall take the liberty to propose to include in a little book my humble sentiments, as I did to Lady Davers, in that I shewed you in relation to the plays I had seen. And since you confine me not to time or place, perhaps I shall be three or four years in completing it; because I shall reserve some subjects to my farther experience in children's ways and tempers, and in order to benefit myself by those good instructions which I shall receive from your delight ful conversation, in that compass of time, if God spare us to one another. And then it will, moreover, be still worthier, than it can otherwise be, of the perusal of the most honoured and best beloved of all my correspondents, much honoured and beloved as they all are.

I must needs say, my dear Mr B, that this is a subject to which I was always particularly attentive; and among the charities your bountiful heart permits me to dispense to the poor and indigent, I have had always a watchful eye upon the children of such, and endeavoured, by questions put to them, as well as to their parents, to inform myself of their little ways and tempers, and how nature delights to work in different minds, and how it might be pointed to their good, according to their respective capacities; and I have for this purpose erected, with your approbation, a little school of seven or eight children, among which are four in the earliest stages, when they can but just speak, and call for what they want or love; and I am not a little pleased to observe, when I visit them in their school-time, that principles of goodness and virtue may be instilled into their little hearts much earlier than is usually imagined. And why should it not be so? For may not the child, that can tell its wants, and make known its inclination, be easily made sensible of yours, and what you expect from it, provided you take a proper method? For, sometimes, signs and tokens, (and even looks,) uniformly practised, will do as well as words; as we see in

such of the young of the brute creation as we are disposed to domesticate, and to teach to practise those little tricks, of which the aptness or docility of their nature makes them capable.

But yet, dearest sir, I know not enough of the next stage, the maturer part of life, to touch upon that, as I wished to do; and yet there is a natural connexion and progression from the one to the other. And I would not be thought a vain creature, who believes herself equal to every subject, because she is indulged with the good opinion of her friends, in a few which are supposed to be within her own capacity.

For I humbly conceive, that it is no small point of wisdom to know, and not to mistake, one's own talents; and for this reason, permit me, dear sir, to suspend, till I am better qualified for it, even my own proposal of beginning my little book; and, in the meantime, to touch upon a few places of the admirable author you have put into my hand, that seem to me to warrant another way of thinking, than that which he prescribes.

But, dear sir, let me premise, that all that your dear babies can demand of my attention for some time to come, is their health; and it has pleased God to bless them with such sound limbs, and, to all appearance, good constitutions, that I have very little to do, but to pray for them every time I pray for their dear papa; and that is hourly; and yet not so often as you confer upon me benefits and favours, and new obligations, even to the prevention of all my wishes, were I to sit down to study for what must be the next.

As to this point of health, Mr Locke gives these plain and easy-to-be-observed rules:

He prescribes, first, plenty of open air. That this is right, the infant will inform one, who, though it cannot speak, will make signs to be carried abroad, and is never so well pleased as when it is enjoying the open and free air; for which reason I conclude, that this is one of those natural pointings, as one may call them, that are implanted in every creature, teaching it to choose its good, and to avoid its evil.

Sleep is the next, which he enjoins to be indulged to its utmost extent-an admirable rule, as I humbly conceive; since sound sleep is one of the greatest nourishers of nature, both to the once young and to the twice young, if I may be allowed the phrase. And I the rather approve of this rule, because it keeps the nurse unemployed, who otherwise, perhaps, would be doing it the greatest mischief, by cramming and stuffing its little bowels, till they were ready to burst. And, if I am right, what an inconsiderate and foolish, as well as pernicious practice is it, for a nurse to waken the child from its nourishing sleep, for fear it should suffer by hunger, and instantly pop the breast into its pretty mouth, or provoke it to feed, when it has no inclination to either; and, for want of digestion,

must have its nutriment turn to repletion and bad humours!

Excuse me, dear sir, these lesser particulars. Mr Locke begins with them; and surely they may be allowed in a young mamma, writing (however it be to a gentleman of genius and learning) to a papa, on a subject, that, in its lowest beginnings, ought not to be unattended to by either. I will therefore pursue my excellent author without farther apology, since you have put his work into my hands.

The next thing then, which he prescribes, is plain diet. This speaks for itself; for the baby can have no corrupt taste to gratify. All is pure, as out of the hand of nature; and, what is not plain and natural, must vitiate and offend. Then, no wine, or strong drink. Equally just; and for the same reasons.

Little or no physic. Undoubtedly right. For the use of physic, without necessity, or by way of precaution, as some call it, begets the necessity of physic; and the very word supposes distemper or disorder; and, where there is none, would a parent beget one; or, by frequent use, render the salutary force of medicine ineffectual, when it was wanted?

Next, he forbids too warm and too strait clothing. Dear sir, this is just as I wish it. How has my heart ached, many and many a time, when I have seen poor babies rolled and swathed, ten or a dozen times round; then blanket upon blanket, mantle upon that; its little neck pinned down to one posture; its head, more than it frequently needs, triple-crowned, like a young pope, with covering upon covering; its legs and arms, as if to prevent that kindly stretching, which we rather ought to promote, when it is in health, and which is only aiming at growth and enlargement, the former bundled up, the latter pinned down; and how the poor thing lies on the nurse's lap, a miserable little pinioned captive, goggling and staring with its eyes, the only organs it has at liberty, as if it were supplicating for freedom to its fettered limbs. Nor has it any comfort at all, till, with a sigh or two, like a dying deer, it drops asleep; and happy then will it be, till the officious nurse's care shall awaken it for its undesired food, just as if the good woman was resolved to try its constitution, and were willing to see how many difficulties it could overcome.

Then this gentleman advises, that the head and feet should be kept cold; and the latter often used to cold water, and exposed to wet, in order to lay the foundation, as he says, of an healthy and hardy constitution.

Now, sir, what a pleasure is it to your Pamela, that her notions, and her practice too, fall in so exactly with this learned gentleman's advice, that, excepting one article, which is, that your Billy has not yet been accustomed to be wetshod, every other particular has been observed! -And don't you see what a charming, charming

baby he is ?-Nay, and so is your little Davers, for his age-pretty soul!

Perhaps some, were they to see this, would not be so ready as I know you will be, to excuse me; and would be apt to say, What nursery impertinencies are those to trouble a man with !—But, with all their wisdom, they would be mistaken; for if a child has not good health, (and are not these rules the moral foundation, as I may say, of that blessing?) its animal organs will play but poorly in a weak or crazy case. These, therefore, are necessary rules to be observed for the first two or three years; for then the little buds of their minds will begin to open, and their watchful mamma will be employed, like a skilful gardener, in assisting and encouraging the charming flower, through its several hopeful stages, to perfection, when it shall become one of the principal ornaments of that delicate garden, your honoured family. Pardon me, sir, if in the above paragraph I am too figurative. I begin to be afraid I am out of my sphere, writing to your dear self on these important subjects.

But, be that as it may, I will here put an end to this my first letter, (on the earliest part of my subject,) rejoicing in the opportunity you have given me of producing a fresh instance of that duty and affection, wherewith I am, and shall ever be, my dearest Mr B―, Your gratefully happy

LETTER XCI.

MRS B TO MR B

P. B

I WILL now, my dearest, my best beloved correspondent of all, begin, since the tender age of my dear babies will not permit me to have an eye yet to their better part, to tell you what are the little matters to which I am not quite so well reconciled in Mr Locke: And this I shall be better enabled to do by my observations upon the temper and natural bent of my dear Miss Goodwin, as well as by those, which my visits to the bigger children of my little school, and those at the cottages adjacent, have enabled me to make: For human nature, sir, you are not to be told, is human nature, whether in the highborn or in the low.

This excellent author, in the fifty-second section, having justly disallowed of slavish and corporal punishments in the education of those we would have to be wise, good, and ingenious men, adds:-" On the other side, to flatter children by rewards of things that are pleasant to them, is as carefully to be avoided. He that will give his son apples, or sugar-plums, or what else of this kind he is most delighted with, to make him learn his book, does but authorize his love of pleasure, and cockers up that dangerous propensity, which he ought by all means to sub

due and stifle in him. You can never hope to teach him to master it, whilst you compound for the check you give his inclination in one place, by the satisfaction you propose to it in another. To make a good, a wise, and a virtuous man, 'tis fit he should learn to cross his appetite, and deny his inclination to riches, finery, or pleasing his palate," &c.

This, sir, is excellently said; but is it not a little too philosophical and abstracted, not only for the generality of children, but for the age he supposes them to be of, if one may guess by the apples and the sugar-plums proposed for the rewards of their well-doing? Would not this, sir, require that memory or reflection in children, which the same author, in another place, calls the concomitant of prudence and age, and not of childhood?

It is undoubtedly very right to check an unreasonable appetite, and that at its first appearance. But if so small and so reasonable an inducement will prevail, surely, sir, it might be complied with. A generous mind takes delight to win over others by good usage and mildness, rather than by severity; and it must be great pain to such an one to be always inculcating on his children or pupils the doctrine of self-denial, by methods quite grievous to his own nature.

What I would then humbly propose, is, That the encouragements offered to youth should, indeed, be innocent ones, as the gentleman enjoins, and not such as would lead to luxury, either of food or apparel; but I humbly think it necessary that rewards, proper rewards, should be proposed, as incentives to laudable actions: For is it not by this method that the whole world is influenced and governed? Does not God himself, by rewards and punishments, make it our interest, as well as our duty, to obey HIM? And can we propose to ourselves, for the government of our children, a better example than that of the Creator?

This fine author seems, dear sir, to think he had been a little of the strictest, and liable to some exception. "I say not this," proceeds he, ($53.) "that I would have children kept from the conveniences or pleasures of life, that are not injurious to their health or virtue. On the contrary, I would have their lives made as pleasant and as agreeable to them as may be, in a plentiful enjoyment of whatsoever might innocently delight them." And yet, dear sir, he immediately subjoins a very hard and difficult proviso to the indulgence he has now granted:"Provided," says he, "it be with this caution, That they have those enjoyments only as the consequences of the state of esteem and acceptation they are in with their parents and go

vernors.

"

I doubt, my dear Mr B- this is expecting such a distinction and discretion in children as they are seldom capable of in their tender years, and requiring such capacities as are not com

monly to be met with. So that it is not preseribing to the generality, as this excellent author intended. 'Tis, I humbly conceive, next to impossible, that their tender minds should distinguish beyond facts: They covet this or that plaything; and the parent or governor takes advantage of its desires, and annexes to the indul. gence which the child hopes for, such or such a task or duty, as a condition; and shews himself pleased with its compliance with it: So the child wins its plaything, and receives the praise and commendation so necessary to lead on young minds to laudable pursuits. But, dear sir, shall it not be suffered to enjoy the innocent reward of its compliance, unless it can give satisfaction, that its greatest delight is not in having the thing coveted, but in performing the task, or obeying the injunctions, imposed upon it as a condition of its being obliged? I doubt, sir, this is a little too strict, and not to be expected from children. A servant, full grown, would not be able to shew, that, on condition he complied with such and such terms, (which, it is to be supposed by the offer, he would not have complied with but for that inducement,) he should have such and such a reward; I say, he would be hardly able to shew, that he preferred the pleasure of performing the requisite conditions to the stipulated reward. Nor is it necessary he should; for he is not the less a good servant, or a virtuous man, if he own the conditions painful, and the reward necessary to his low state in the world, and that otherwise he would not undergo any service at all.-Why, then, should this be exacted from a child?

Let, therefore, if I may presume to say so, innocent rewards be proposed, and let us be contented to lead on the ductile minds of children to a love of their duty, by obliging them with such: We may tell them what we expect in this case; but we ought not, I humbly conceive, to be too rigorous in exacting it; for, after all, the inducement will certainly be the uppermost consideration with the child: 'Tis out of nature to suppose it otherwise; nor, as I hinted, had it been offered to it, if the parent himself had not thought so. And, therefore, we can only let the child know his duty in this respect, and that he ought to give a preference to that; and then rest ourselves contented, although we should discern that the reward is the chief incentive, if it do but oblige to the performance of it. For this, from whatever motive inculcated, may beget a habit in the child of doing it; and then, as it improves in years, one may hope that reason will take place, and enable him, from the most solid and durable motives, to give a preference to the duty.

Upon the whole, then, may I, sir, venture to say, that we should not insist upon it, that the child should so nicely distinguish away its little innate passions, as if we expected it to be born a philosopher? Self-denial is indeed a most