01.00. Essays on Various Subjects, Principally Designed for Young Ladies

ESSAYS on VARIOUS SUBJECTS, Principally designed for

YOUNG LADIES.

CONTENTS.

01 introduction 02 on dissipation 03 on conversation

04 on envy 05 on sentimental connexions 06 on true and false meekness

07 on education

08 on religion 09 miscellaneous thoughts on wit As for you, I shall advise you in a few words: aspire only to those virtues that are peculiar to your sex; follow your natural modesty, and think it your greatest commendation not to be talked of one way or the other.

Oration of Pericles to the Athenian Women.

LONDON:

Printed for J. Wilkie, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; and T. Cadell, in the Strand.

MDCCLXXVII. to

Mrs. MONTAGU.

MADAM,

If you were only one of the finest writers of your time, you would probably have escaped the trouble of this address, which is drawn on you, less by the lustre of your understanding, than by the amiable qualities of your heart. As the following pages are written with an humble but earnest wish, to promote the interests of virtue, as far as the very limited abilities of the author allow; there is, I flatter myself, a peculiar propriety in inscribing them to you, Madam, who, while your works convey instruction and delight to the best-informed of the other sex, furnish, by your conduct, an admirable pattern of life and manners to your own. And I can with truth remark, that those graces of conversation, which would be the first praise of almost any other character, constitute but an inferior part of yours.

I am, Madam, With the highest esteem, Your most obedient

Humble Servant, Bristol, Hannah More. May 20, 1777.