Wherefore no other remedy, I
believe, can be found but in returning still to our Conclusion, That
this great concernment, on which no less than Peoples Temporal and
Eternal Happiness does mightily depend, ought to be the Care and
Business of Mothers. Nor do Women seem less peculiarly adapted by
Nature hereunto, than it can be imagin'd they should be, if the Author
of Nature (as no doubt he did) design'd this to be their Province in
that division of Cares of Humane Life, which ought to be made between
a Man and his Wife. For that softness, gentleness and tenderness,
natural to the Female Sex, renders them much more capable than Men are
of such an insinuating Condescention to the Capacities of young
Children, as is necessary in the Instruction and Government of them,
insensibly to form their early Inclinations. And surely these
distinguishing Qualities of the Sex were not given barely to delight,
when they may, so manifestly, be profitable also, if joyn'd with a
well informed Understanding: From whence, _viz._ from Womans being
naturally thus fitted to take this care of their little Ones, it
follows, that besides the injustice done to themselves thereby, it is
neglecting the Direction of Nature for the well breeding up of
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 th