One would be apt to think indeed, that Parents shou’d take all possible care of their Childrens Education, not only for _their_ sakes, but even for their _own_. And tho’ the Son convey the Name to Posterity, yet certainly a great Part of the Honour of their Families depends on their Daughters. ’Tis the kindness of Education that binds our duty fastest on us: For the being instrumental to the bringing us into the World, is no matter of choice and therefore the less obliging; But to procure that we may live wisely and happily in it, and be capable of endless Joys hereafter, is a benefit we can never sufficiently acknowledge. To introduce poor Children into the World and neglect to fence them against the temptations of it, and so leave them expos’d to temporal and eternal Miseries, is a wickedness for which I want a Name; ’tis beneath Brutality; the Beasts are better natur’d, for they take care of their offspring, till they are capable of caring for themselves. And if Mothers had a due regard to their Posterity, how _Great_ soever they are, they wou’d not think themselves too _Good_ to perform what Nature requires, nor through Pride and Delicacy remit the poor little one to the care of a Foster Parent. Or if necessity inforce them to depute another to perform _their_ Duty, they wou’d be as choice at least, in the Manners and Inclinations, as they are in the complections of their Nurses, left with their Milk they transfuse their Vices, and form in the Child such evil habits as will not easily be eradicated. Nature as bad as it is and as much as it is complain’d of, is so far improveable by the grace of GOD, upon our honest and hearty endeavours, that if we are not wanting to our selves, we may all in _some_, tho’ not in an _equal_ measure, be instruments of his Glory, Blessings to this World, and capable of Eternal Blessedness in that to come. But if our Nature is spoil’d, instead of being improv’d at first; if from our Infancy we are nurs’d up in Ignorance and Vanity; are taught to be Proud and Petulant, Delicate and Fantastick, Humorous and Inconstant, ’tis not strange that the ill effects of this Conduct appear in all the future Actions of our Lives. And seeing it is Ignorance, either habitual or actual, which is the cause of all sin, how are they like to escape _this_, who are bred up in _that_? That therefore Women are unprofitable to most, and a plague and dishonour to some men is not much to be regretted on account of the _Men_, because ’tis the product of their own folly, in denying them the benefits of an ingenuous and liberal Education, the most effectual means to direct them into, and to secure their progress in the ways of Vertue.