an earnestness, as if they included all the valuable purposes of life.  Thus the best part of youth is spent in the acquirement of trivial things:  or rather the acquirement of such things takes up so much time, as to leave but little for the moral and intellectual improvement of the mind.  The great object, on the other hand, of the education of the Quaker females, is utility and not shew.  They are taught domestic economy, or the cares and employments of a house.  They are taught to become good wives and good mothers.  Prohibited the attainments of music and dancing, and many of the corruptive amusements of the world, they have ample time for the improvement of the understanding.  Thus they have in general as good an education as other females, as far as literary acquirements are concerned; so that, whether they are compared with Quaker men, or with the other women of the island, they will not incur the imputation of a deficiency of knowledge.

It must be obvious too, that the money-getting spirit, which the world has fixed upon as a trait in the character of some of the men, can seldom be a trait in that of the women of this society.  For men are the principals in trade.  They lay their plans for the getting of money.  They see the accumulating surplus rise.  They handle it.  They count it.  They remember it.  The women, on the other hand, see it only in the disposition of their husbands or parents, who make probably a larger allowance for domestic wants or gratifications than before.  Hence a charge cannot be so frequently brought against them of a want of that spiritual mindedness, which is the great characteristic of Quakerism, as they have but little to do with the mammon of the world.

To these exceptions in Quaker women from the reputed imperfections of Quaker men, I cannot help adding in this place, that the females of this society are peculiarly distinguishable for that which has been at all times considered as one of the brightest ornaments of their sex.  Modesty is particularly conspicuous in their looks and in their whole outward demeanour.  It is conspicuous in their conversation.  It is conspicuous also in their dress.  And here it may not be improper to observe, that, whatever objections may be made to the Quaker apparel, it is estimable, as far as it gives this appearance of modesty to the females who wear it, or rather as far as it hinders them from wearing the loose and indelicate garments, which are frequently worn, without any scruple, by many of the females of the world.

SECT.  II.

Quaker women, besides their private, have a public character—­Low light in which women have been held—­Importance given them by chivalry—­and by the revival of learning in Europe—­and by the introduction of Christianity—­but still held in an inferior light—­Quakers have given them their due importance in society—­Influence of their public character on their minds.