Children, when Ladies are render'd uncapable hereof, through the want of such due improvements of their Reason as are requisite hereunto. That this has been no more reflected upon from a Principle of Pitty to that tender Age of Children which so much requires help, seems very strange: For what can move a juster Commiseration than to see such poor innocents, so far from having the Aid they stand in need of, that even those who the most wish to do them good, and who resent, with the deepest Compassion, every little Malady which afflicts their Bodies, do never attempt to rescue them from the greatest evils which attend them in this Life, but even themselves assist to plunge them therein, by cherishing in them those Passions which will inevitably render them miserable? A thing which can never be otherwise whilst Women are bred up in no right Notions of Religion and Vertue; or to know any use of Reason but in the service of their Passions and Inclinations; or at best of their (comparatively trivial) Interests. To assert upon this occasion, that Ladies would do well, if, before they came to the care of Families, they did imploy some of their many idle Hours in gaming a little Knowledge in Languages, and the useful Sciences, would be, I know, to contradict the Sense of most Men; but yet, I think, that such an Assertion admits of no other Confutation than the usual one which opposite Opinions to theirs are wont to receive from People who Reason not, but live by Fancy, and Custom; _viz._ being laugh'd at: For it cannot be deny'd that this Knowledge would hereafter be more, or less, useful to Ladies, in inabling them either themselves to teach their Children, or better to over-see and direct, those who do so: And tho' Learning is perhaps the least part in Education, it is not to be neglected; but even betimes taken some care of, least a Habit of Idleness, or Inapplication of the Mind be got, which once contracted, is very hardly cur'd.