child, how is she puzzled by its questions! and if she possess any natural sensibility, how keenly does she feel and regret her own ignorance, when it forces her to evade instead of furnishing rational and instructive answers to its ingenious and interesting inquiries! I earnestly recommend to such mothers to attend, as speedily as possible, lectures on science when within their reach; for no kind of information so much delights an inquisitive child as that which unfolds the course of nature.

The mother has it in her power to exert a great and permanent influence on the character of her children; she makes the deepest impressions, and supplies the earliest ideas that enter their minds; and it is of the utmost importance to society at large, that she should be well qualified for so momentous a duty. Children who are not gifted with originating powers, which is the case with nineteen out of every twenty, reflect slavishly, when they grow up, the impressions and ideas which their mothers, nurses, companions, teachers, and books have infused into their minds; and of these the authority of the mother is not the least. "It was said by one of the most extraordinary of men (Napoleon), who was himself, as he avowed, principally indebted to maternal culture for the unexampled elevation to which he subsequently rose, that the future good or bad conduct of a child depends entirely on the mother."* Let women remember, therefore, that they may sow the seeds of superstition, prejudice, error, and baneful prepossessions; or of piety, universal charity, sound sense, philosophical perception, and true knowledge, according to the state of their own attainments; and let them also ponder well the fact, that the more thoroughly destitute they are of sound information, and of rational views of mind and its objects, the less they are aware of their own deficiencies, and of the evils which their ignorance is inflicting on another generation.

In addition to the branches of solid instruction before mentioned, women should be taught such elegant and refined accomplishments as they individually are capable of learning. These throw over the domestic circle a charm which cannot be too highly prized. What I condemn is, the teaching of music, drawing, and conventional manners, to the exclusion of all other kinds of knowledge. An enlightened, refined, and elegant woman, is the most lovely and perfect of ani

*Moore's notices of the Life of Byron, 12mo, vol. ii. p. 35. Napoleon's proposition is too general. The father's qualities influence the child; but those of the mother do so still more powerfully.

mated beings; and no philosopher, in recommending useful instruction, would desire to see abated, by one iota, the graces which adorn the female character.

These views may appear to be so consonant with reason, that they support themselves; but as I am addressing a popular assembly, I solicit permission to strengthen them by the opinions of three contemporary authors.

The evils attendant on the imperfect education of females belonging to the upper ranks, are forcibly expounded in a late number of the Foreign Quarterly Review (No. xxiii., p. 127). "Nothing," says the reviewer, " is more remarkable in the present age of mental excitement, than the care with which, by most of the prevalent customs and a system of fashionable education, the minds of the generality of females are consigned to inactivity and utter uncompanionable insipidity. Whilst the expression of almost every elevated feeling is repressed as inconsistent with refinement, every artificial want, every habit of selfish gratification, is as much as possible indulged. Active exercise in the open air, cheerful country walks, a joyful participation of the hearty pleasures of any society, in which every movement is not taught by the posture-master, or conversation conducted according to the rules laid down in books professing to teach female duty and behaviour;-all this would be inconsistent with the general aim of all classes to imitate the manners and habits of the highest. All kinds of reading, except of works the most frivolous, is considered ungenteel, or at least singular; and any display of deep and unsophisticated sentiment excites universal pity. The beauties of nature, the triumphs of science, the miracles of art, excite no more than a languid expression of wonder. To apply the mind to read or understand such things, would destroy the apathetic elegance which those desire to preserve, who still believe knowledge to be a very good thing for persons who live by it. With as much care as the natural proportions of the female figure are destroyed by stays made upon abstract principles, is the mind cribbed and cabined by custom and fashion. Then, universal ambition leads to universal difficulties as to fortune; and the only serious duty as to daughters is, to obtain an advantageous settlement, which, whether gained or missed, is too often thus the cause of cureless discontent, injured health, and all the nervous maladies incidental to an ill-managed mind and infirm body."

"The system by which young ladies are taught to move their limbs according to the rules of art, to come into a room with studied diffidence, and to step into a carriage with

measured action and premeditated grace, are calculated only to keep the degrading idea perpetually present, that they are preparing for the great market of the world. Real elegance or demeanour springs from the mind: fashionable schools do but teach its imitation, whilst their rules forbid to be ingenuous. Philosophers never conceived the idea of so perfect a vacuum as is found to exist in the minds of young women who are supposed to have finished their education in such establishments. If they marry husbands as uninformed as themselves, they fall into habits of indolent insignificance without much pain; if they marry persons more accomplished, they can retain no hold of their affections. Hence many matrimonial miseries, in the midst of which the wife finds it a consolation to be always complaining of her health and ruined nerves." (Ib., pp. 128-9.)

"Knowledge," says Mrs John Sandford, "should be appreciated by women for its own sake, and not merely as a distinction. The superiority of cultivated women is in every thing very apparent. They have been accustomed to think and to discriminate, and their opinion is not a mere momentary impulse. Their sphere, too, is enlarged; they are not so much actuated by selfish feelings, or so liable to receive partial, and consequently erroneous, impressions. What an easy dupe to empiricism or design is a half-educated woman! With sufficient acquirements to be vain, and sufficient sensibility to be soon imposed on, she may be easily seduced from principles which she has received only on the authority of others, and which she is therefore ill prepared to defend.". "Disorder is the accident, not the consequence, of talent; and as it is the more conspicuous, so it is the less excused, when accompanied with mental superiority."

I conclude this branch of the subject with the following just and eloquent observations of an American authoress, Mrs Emma Willard. It forms part of an admirable address which she presented, in 1819, to the Legislature of New York, proposing a plan for improving female education; and which address led to the formation of an extensive establishment at Troy, of which she was long the head. "Not only," says she, "has there been a want of system concerning female education, but much of what has been done has proceeded upon mistaken principles. One of these is, that without a regard to the different periods of life, proportionate to their importance, the education of females has been too exclusively directed to fit them for displaying to advantage the charms of youth and beauty. Though it may be proper to adorn this period of life, yet it is incomparably more im

portant to prepare for the serious duties of maturer years. Though well to decorate the blossom, it is far better to prepare for the harvest. In the vegetable creation, nature seems but to sport when she embellishes the flower, while all her serious cares are directed to perfect the fruit.

"Another error is, that it has been made the first object in educating our sex, to prepare them to please the other. But reason and religion teach, that we too are primary existences; that it is for us to move, in the orbit of our duty, around the Holy Centre of Perfection, the companions, not the satellites of men; else, instead of shedding around us an influence that may help to keep them in their proper course, we must accompany them in their wildest deviations.

"I would not be understood to insinuate (continues Mrs Willard), that we are not, in particular situations, to yield obedience to the other sex. Submission and obedience belong to every thing in the universe, except the Great Master of the whole. Nor is it a degrading peculiarity to our sex, to be under human authority. Whenever one class of human beings derives from another the benefits of support and protection, they must pay its equivalent, obedience. Thus, while we receive these benefits from our parents, we are all, without distinction of sex, under their authority; when we receive them from the government of our country, we must obey our rulers; and when our sex take the obligations of marriage, and receive support and protection from the other, it is reasonable that we too should yield obedience. Yet is neither the child, nor the subject, nor the wife, under human authority, but in subservience to the Divine. Our highest responsibility is to God, and our highest interest to please him; therefore to secure this interest our education should be directed.

"Neither would I be understood to mean that our sex should not seek to make themselves agreeable to the other. The error complained of is, that the taste of men, whatever it might happen to be, has been made a standard for the formation of the female character. In whatever we do, it is of the utmost importance that the rule by which we work be perfect; for, if otherwise, what is it but to err upon principle? A system of education which leads one class of human beings to consider the approbation of another as their highest object, teaches that the rule of their conduct should be the will of beings imperfect and erring like themselves, rather than the will of God, which is the only standard of perfection."

On the whole subject of education, then, I remark, that if society were organised for instructing the people, and providing time and means for the exercise of their moral and intellectual faculties, as effectually as it is for paying taxes or fighting, the progress of civilisation, and the amount of human enjoyment, would be greatly increased. Lord Brougham lately observed, that until the people shall take the matter of education with spirit and energy into their own hands, and with a resolution to accomplish something, Government will be incapable of doing any essential service to the cause. The Association at whose request these Lectures have been delivered, has been formed in anticipation of the recommendation implied in this remark. I solicit your attention to its objects and constitution, and hope that if these merit your approbation, you will favour it with your support.

ACCOUNT OF THE EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION FOR PROCURING INSTRUCTION IN USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING SCIENCE; NOW NAMED THE PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION.

In the autumn of 1832, a number of individuals of this city, chiefly engaged in practical business, who had attended my Summer Course of Lectures on Phrenology, formed themselves into an association for the purpose of obtaining instruction in Useful and Entertaining Science. Associations for similar purposes had previously been founded in other cities, and had been partially successful, but not to so great an extent as might have been anticipated. The London University College, for example, is an institution for affording scientific education, particularly to the sons of persons resident in the metropolis, who prefer superintending their conduct in their own houses, to sending them to Cambridge or Oxford; but it has not met with the encouragement which its utility and importance deserved. In most of the great towns of England, there are literary and scientific institutions; but they also have been attended with only limited success. In the absolute amount of instruction conveyed to the people, they have fallen greatly short of what they promised to accomplish at their foundation. In tracing the causes of these shortcomings, two in particular attract our notice. In these instances, large sums of money have been. collected by subscription from wealthy individuals, and expended in forming buildings, libraries, and museums. The leading founders and directors have been rich merchants, patriotic landed proprietors, and a few men of science. They have provided money, lecture-rooms, apparatus-in short