our sex are connived at, only while carefully concealed; and, if displayed, are punished with disgrace. The best way for women to acquire knowledge is from conversation with a father, a brother, or a friend; and by such a course of reading as they may recommend."
There was no danger that an education conducted on these lines would result in an undue development of intelligence, would lift the young lady above "her own mild and chastened sphere." In justice to Mrs. Barbauld we must admit that she but echoed the sentiments of her day. "Girls," said Miss Hannah More, "should be led to distrust their own judgments." They should be taught to give up their opinions, and to avoid disputes, "even if they know they are right." The one fact impressed upon the female child was her secondary place in the scheme of creation; the one virtue she was taught to affect was delicacy; the one vice permitted to her weakness was dissimulation. Even her play was not like her brother's play,—a reckless abandonment to high spirits; it was play within the conscious limits of propriety. In one of Mrs. Trimmer's books, a
