return to the bibliography page of this project or the Influence of the Religion of the Heart on the Conduct of Life
by Hannah More
published in 1823
"Rules of religion aren't to preserve the innocent but rather they serve as a means to save oneself from guilt" (2).
"In principles, in tempers, infervent desires, in holy endeavors, consist the very essence of Christian duty" (25).
"God is the fountain from which all the streams of goodness, diverge. All our actions are, therefore, only good, as they have a reference to Him; the streams must revert back to their fountain, the rays must converge again to their center" (27).
"There is no complete reformation in the conduct effected without a revolution in the heart" (39).
"The most insignificant people must not, through indolence and selfishness, undervalue their own influence. Most persons have a little circle of which they are a sort of center. It's smallness may lessen their quantity of good, but does not diminish the duty of using a little influence wisely" (54).
Major faults in a person:
"To have a flourishing estate, and a mind in disorder; to keep exact accounts with a steward and no reckoning with our maker; to have an accurate knowledge of loss or gain in out business, and to remain utterly ignorant whether our spiritual concerns are improving or declining; to be cautious in ascertaining at the end of every year how much we have increased or diminished our fortune, and to be careless whether we have incurred profit or loss in faith and holiness, is a wretched miscalculation of the comparative value things. To bestow our attention on objects in an inverse proportion to their importance, is surely no proof that our learning has improved our judgment" (121).
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with the View of the Principles and Conduct Prevalent Among Women of Rank and Fortune
by Hannah More
1800
"To grow old gracefully is perhaps one of the rarest and most valuable arts which can be taught to women" (43).
"Do we not seem to educate our daughters, exclusively, for the transient period of youth when it is to maturer life we right to advert? Do we not educate them for a crowd, forgetting that they are to live at home? for the world, and not for themselves? for show and not for use? for time and not for eternity?" (43).
"This course of education, and the habits life and elegance of dress connected with it, peculiarly unfits them for the active duties of their own very important condition; while, with frivolous eagerness and second- hand opportunities, they run to snatch a few of those showy acquirements which decorate the great. This is done apparently with one or other of these views; either to make their fortune by marriage, or if they fail, to qualify them to become teachers of others: hence the abundant multiplication of superficial wives, and of incompetent and illiterate governesses" (44-45).
"Before the evil is past redress, it would be prudent to reflect that in all polished countries an entire devotedness to the fine arts has been one grand source of corruption of the women" (49).
"Fashion, then, by one of her sudden rapid turns, instantaneously struck out real sensibility and the affectation of it from the standing list of female perfections; and, by a quick touch of her magic wand, shifted the scene, and at once produced the bold and independent beauty, the intrepid female, the hoyden, the huntress, and the archer..." (46).
"It is the essence of human things that the same objects which are highly useful in their season, measure, and degree, became mischievous in their excess, at other periods, and under other circumstances" (51).
"Almost any ornamental talent is a good thing, when it is not the best thing a woman has; and talents are admirable when not made to stand proxy for virtues" (61).
"I mean not here to recommend books which are immediately religious, but such as exercise the reasoning faculties, teach the mind to get acquainted with its own nature, and to stir up its powers" (94).
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or the Young Gentleman and Lady's Pleasing Instructor, Being a Collection of Sentences, Divine, Moral, and Historical, Selected from the Writings
of Many Ingenious and Learned Authors, Both Ancient and Modern. Intended Not Only for the Use of Schools, but as a Pocket Companion for the Youth of Both
Sexes.
Unknown Author
1795
Yale University Beinecke Rare Books Library call number: Shirley 727
Table of Contents:
"The most barren ground, by manuring, may be made to produce good fruits: the fiercest beasts, by art, are made tame, so are mortal virtues acquired by custom" (6).
"The temperate man's pleasures are durable, because they are regular; and all his life is clam and serene, because it is innocent" (23).
"By taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over he is superior" (31).
"To be humble to superiors is a duty; to equals, courtesy; to inferiors, nobleness; to all safety: Fortune may begin a man's greatness, but it's virtue that must continue it" (71).
"The gifts of nature, and accomplishments of art, are valuable only as they are exerted in the interests of virtue, or governed by the rules of honor" (83).
"The heart of fools is in their mouth; but the tongue of the wise is in their hearts" (93).
"The shortest way to be rich is not by enlarging our estates, but by contracting our desires" (120).
"No woman is capable of being beautiful, who is not incapable of being false" (125).
"The utmost of a woman's character is contained in domestic life; first, her piety towards God; and next in the duties of a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a sister" (126).
"He that follows his recreation when he should be minding his business, is likely in a little time, to have no business to follow" (137).
"Leisure without learning is death, and idleness the grave of a living man" (140).
"Nothing is more ridiculous then to be serious about trifles, and to be trifling about serious matters" (168).
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or, the Little Female Academy. Being the history of Mrs. Teachum, and her nine girls. With their nine days amusement. Calculated for the
entertainment and instruction of young ladies in their education. By the author of David Simple
By Sarah Fielding
1768
Yale University Beinecke Rare Book Library call number: Shirley 694
"Before you begin the following sheets, I beg you will stop a moment at this preface, to consider with me what is the true use of reading; and if you can once fix this truth in your minds, namely, that the true use of books is to make you wiser and better, you will then have both a profit and pleasure from what you read" (vii).
"Pride, stubbornness, malice, envy, and in short, all manner of wickedness, is the greatest folly we can be possessed of; and constantly turns on the head of that foolish person who does not conquer and get the better of all inclination to such weakness" (xi).
"By endeavoring to please and love each other, the end is happiness to ourselves, and joy to everyone around us" (19).
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James Fordyce
1766
Yale University Rare Book Library call number: 1997 2918
"That works of ingenuity and elegance are particularly becoming in your sex, and that the study of them ought to enter into female education as much as possible, all, I think are agreed" (1:5-6).
"should they by any neglect of their persons render themselves less amiable than God has made them, they would so far disappoint the design of their creation" (1:6).
"The world, I know not how, overlooks in [the male] sex a thousand irregularities, which it never forgives in [the female sex]; so that the honor and peace of a family are, in this view, much more dependent on the conduct of daughters than of sons" (1:17).
"Youth and beauty set off with sweetness and virtue, capacity, and discretion-- what have they not accomplished?" (1:18).
"Virtue exhibited without affectation by a lovely young person, of improved understanding and gentle manners, may be said to appear in the most alluring form, surrounded by the graces; and that breast must be cold indeed that does not take fire at the sight" (1:63).
"The man that behaves with open rudeness, the man that avowedly laughs at virtue, the man that imprudently pleads for vice; such a man is to be shunned like a rattlesnake" (1:129).
If you "make a dangerous connexion... your folly is without excuse, and your destruction without alleviation" (1:129).
"In the present we will endeavor to point out that society or conversation... those talents or accomplishments, which will contribute at once to fortify you against such snares [as a dangerous connexion], if they should fall in your way; to subdue any propensities that might expose you too rashly to their influence; to strengthen all your virtuous resolves; and to supply inexhausted sources of solid, rational, and refined entertainment" (1:164-165).
"The care of a household all ages and nations have agreed to consider as an indispensable part of female employment, in every situation that admits of it" (1:211).
"When we speak of good housewifery now a days, we must submit to speak in a lower key. Would to heaven, that this science many mothers would teach their daughters but the common rudiments; that they were unfashionable enough to educate them to be fit for anything beyond mere show" (1:226).
"There is an influence, there is an empire which belongs to you, and which I wish you ever to posses; I mean that which has the heart for it's object, and which is secured by meekness and modesty, by soft attraction and virtuous love" (2:10).
"Your business chiefly is to read men, in order to make yourselves agreeable and useful" (11).
For women's reading James Fordyce recommends: histories, biographies, and memoirs. He advises against novels and romances (17).
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or Select Conversations
By Honoraria
1802
Available at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book Library
"As every person is possessed of some pride, it is happy, if that pride arises from laudable motives. Some are weak enough to feel it for their rank, riches, equipage, or dress; for the splendor of their entertainments, or the elegance of their tables; others for their beauty and talents. There is a reflected pride which is more praiseworthy: a wife who is sincerely attached to her husband is proud of the approbation which he receives from the world, or the merit of her children fills the mind of a mother with this sublime sensation [of pride]" (1:91).
"A lady should appear to think well, rather than to speak well of books: she may shew the engaging light, that good taste and sensibilty always diffuse over conversation... I would by all means have a lady know more than she displays, because it gives her unaffected powers in discourse... She should by habit form her mind to the noble and pathetic; and should have an acquaintance with the fine arts, because they enrich beauty and imagination" (1:100).
"Whenever nature transgresses the bounds assigned to her, and assumes other qualities repugnant to the proper order and disposition of things; whenever the men degenerate into effeminacy, and the woman into manliness, they each lose their respective powers of pleasing, and deserve ridicule for their inconstancy of conduct" (2:36).
"Dancing I consider to be n a great degree necessary, particularly for young females of rank and genteel connections; it teaches them to walk with firmness and ease, to enter into a room with grace, to incline the head or body, even when sitting and conversing without distraction" (2:110).
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By Mr. Chase Amos
1791
Available at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book Library
"Where females have been destitute of mental excellence, natural beauty and outward graces have frequently become unlovely and offensive" (11).
"Mildness, moderation, and kindness towards all, secures one's own dignity, with the affections and good services of all about us: The contrary is vulgar and disgusting-- extremely so in women" (13).
"Great accomplishment in a lovely woman can induce her to forsake what is praise not worthy for her own sex" (19).
Prudence is the "virtue that hath more frequent occasion for severe exertion, in hiding from evil, avoiding or preventing it, -- than in the
direct and successful performance of positive good" (6).
"The prudent woman hath paid more attention to the virtues of her mind, than the
ornament of her person" (10).
Sincerity is "pure, without mixture, without fraud, without dissimulation... That no falsehood could dwell in the soul of the lovely" (10).
Modesty-- "delicacy of manners and purity of speech are so much expected from an amiable, modest female" (11).
Humanity-- "Amidst irresistible loveliness, it must be acknowledged that commiseration or pity, is an essential ingredient, and beams
impressive charms on all the rest" (15).
"In the midst of many sufferings, it will be sometimes incumbent to assume a chearful and serene
countenance-- even when her heart profusely bleeds with anguish-- and she is well nigh sinking in despair" (18).
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John Gregory
1972
Available at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book Library
"Avoid all grimace and ostentation in your religious duties. They are usual cloaks of hypocrisy; at least they show a weak and vain mind" (13).
"Cultivate an enlarged charity for all mankind, however they may differ from you in religious opinions" (14).
"When a girl ceases to blush, she has lost the most powerful charm of her beauty. That extreme sensibility which it indicates, may be a weakness and encumbrance in our sex, as I have too often felt; but in yours it is particularly engaging" (17).
"Converse with men even of the first rank with that dignified modesty which may prevent the approach of the most distant familiarity, and consequently prevent them from feeling themselves your superiors" (18).
"Wit is so flattering to vanity, that they who possess it become intoxicated and lose self-command" (18-19).
"Be even cautious in displaying your good sense. It will be thought you assume a superiority over the rest of the company. But if you happen to have any learning keep it a profound secret, especially from the men, who generally look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of great parts and a cultivated understanding" (19).
"I do not wish you to affect delicacy, I you to possess it" (21).
"Have a sacred regard to truth: Lying in a man despicable vice" (21).
"I wish you to posses the most perfect simplicity of heart and manners. I think you may possess dignity without pride, affability without meanness, and simple elegance without affectation" (25).
"The intention of your being taught needlework, knitting and such the like, is not on account of the intrinsic value of all you can do with your hands... but to enable you to judge more correctly of that kind of work, and to direct the execution of it in others. Another principle end is to enable you to fill up in a tolerable agreeable way, some of the solitary hours you must necessarily pass at home" (27).
"A fine woman shows her charms to the most advantage when she seems most to conceal them. The finest bloom of nature is not so fine as what imagination forms. The most perfect elegance of dress appears always most easy, and the least studied" (29).
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by Mrs. Hester Chapone
1802
Available at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book Library
"Politeness of behavior and the attaining such branches of knowledge, and such arts and accomplishments as are proper to your sex, capacity, and station-- will prove so valuable to yourself through life, and will make you so desirable a companion that the neglect of duty since it is undoubtedly our duty to cultivate the powers entrusted to us, to render ourselves as perfect as we can" (128-129).
"To be perfectly polite, one must have great presence of mind, with a delicate and quick sense of propriety-- or in other words, one should be able to form an instantaneous judgment of what is fittest to be said and done, on every occasion as it is offers" (129).
Recommended study for young ladies: history, poetry, Shakespeare, Milton, Homer and Virgil, Moral Philosophy, geography (to aid the understanding of history).
With Familiar Examples in Landscape, for the use of those who are desirous of gaining some knowledge of the pleasing art of painting in water
colours
by Robert James
1809
Available at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Books Library
"Painting has long been considered as a graceful accomplishment for the dignified and opulent and also as a useful acquirement for those who compose the middle class ranks of society" (B).
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bibliography page of this project
Thank you for visiting. If you would like to send me an email with questions or concerns about the page, my address is mclainjl@miavx1.muohio.edu