of a few women, who, by accident, or following a ſtrong bent of nature, have acquired a portion of knowledge ſuperiour to that of the reſt of their ſex, has often been overbearing; but there have been inſtances of women who, attaining knowledge, have not diſcarded modeſty, nor have they always pedantically appeared to deſpiſe the ignorance which they laboured to diſperſe in their own minds. The exclamations then which any advice reſpecting female learning, commonly produces, eſpecially from pretty women, often ariſe from envy. When they chance to ſee that even the luſtre of their eyes, and the flippant ſportiveneſs of refined coquetry will not always ſecure them attention, during a whole evening, ſhould a woman of a more cultivated underſtanding endeavour to give a rational turn to the converſation, the common ſource of conſolation is, that ſuch women ſeldom get huſbands. What arts have I not ſeen ſilly women uſe to interrupt by flirtation, a very ſignificant word to deſcribe ſuch a manœuvre, a rational converſation which made the men forget that they were pretty women.
But, allowing what is very natural to man, that the poſſeſſion of rare abilities is really calculated to excite over-weening pride, diſguſting in both men and women—in what a ſtate of inferiority muſt the female faculties have ruſted when ſuch a ſmall portion of knowledge as thoſe women attained, who have ſneeringly been termed learned women, could be ſingular?—Sufficiently ſo to puff up the poſſeſſor, and excite envy in her contemporaries, and ſome of the other ſex. Nay, has not a little rationality expoſed many women
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