and pierce deeper into your Affections because this will Crown and Finish and give a lively Influence to all my other Counsel without this it cannot be performed or cannot be effectual You will not then so remember your worldly Advantages as to forget your self or rather to remember and think of your self too much but the good-natured Saying will have its force upon you Ecclus 3.18 The greater thou art the mote humble thy self and thou shalt find favour before the Lord. If any part of my Advice seem less easie be pleased to chuse and begin with that which seems very easie and that will carry you by gentle Steps to the other upon the practice of the easier part the other will not seem any longer difficult As sometimes by a scarce sensible rising we go up to the top of the Hill and without great Toyl only by going on we reach it when it appears at a distance very high and the Ascent very troublesome You are ready I know to meet Religion in every way in which it is coming towards you and you give it all the joyful Embraces at the Meeting and you are ready to take all Good Advice at the same time you so little want it and are fit to give it Every thing which wears the Badg or comes in the Name of Religion has more than a Cup of cold Water something warm and vigorous and hearty from you and surely you shall not loose your reward To Proposals of Religion you always give an easie and liberal Entertainment and you are not therefore to be opprest as Persons easie in Access and bountiful in Entertainment sometimes are by troublesome and imposing Guests My Instructions should be useful but not severe like a well modell'd Poem they should have Profit and Pleasure too they should be Healthful as Exercise and good Diet not unpleasant as Physick especially where little of Disease is to be removed and a softer Method will prevent When the Mind is of so untainted a Constitution the Physitian may be as much a Courtier as he pleases there can only be need of something to prevent and not to Cure If any part of my Counsels seem less suitable to your present Age that has a Design beyond it to become a standing Rule for all your Life and why should not good things as well as some ill things and Poisons have a lasting force and work at the distance of many Years I would thus lay up for you a Treasure of Instructions which may hereafter make you Rich in good Works and I would in this Sense lay up for you a good Foundation against the time to come a Foundation as strong as good that you may be built up in your most holy Faith and may never be liable to any Fall or Ruine My Designs cannot be narrow and short when your Welfare is in view and in pursuit and how charming is the Thought of my having done any thing to advance it in every part of your Life So you may be that to me which an old Christian Writer calls a Prince of his Time in an Epistle to him The glorious Ornament of all my Labours if I may pretend to Labours and may deserve such an Ornament A Secretary to four Popes Writ a Book of Advice upon Studies and Learning Dedicated it to an Illustrious Lady and he intended it for her Service A Grammar was Written for the Use of Queen Mary when very young and Presented to her Mother Catherine Queen of England I profess not here to send you Learned but Religious Instructions and not to teach you Words but Things the best and the greatest Things and no other Language but of the better Country that is the Heavenly I present only such Instructions as upon the Command of King James the First Dr. Williams afterwards Bishop and Lord Keeper writ for the use of the Lady Catherine Manners Daughter to the then Earl of Rutland and Married to the then Marquess of Buckingham When the Author sent those Instructions to the Marquess he declared thus in his Letter which attended them Praying is most necessary for the obtaining Principles for the Augmenting Resolution for Vie defending a true Faith and Profession The young Marchioness was then not only to be Instructed in the Doctrin of the Church of England but to be Converted from another of the Church of Rome That every thing now proposed may so much more prevail for your sake and for mine be pleased to Pray in that prevailing Language of the Church Lord of all Power and Might who art the Author and Giver of all good Things graft in my Heart the Love of thy Name encrease in me true Religion Nourish me with all Goodness and of thy great Mercy keep me in the same through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen And now whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Virtue if there be any Praise think on these things May you observe all these Rules and whatsoever Rules may be added to these that you may have an Addition too of Blessings and a far more exceeding Weight of Glory a Weight which shall not be Uneasie or Oppress but the heavier it is shall be still more easie May the holy Practice you began so very early end very late may it never end but O let it be continued in the Heavenly in the endless State not only continued but as high as the Heaven is in comparison of the Earth so much more heighten'd too May you always be possest with a Desire a steady and refined Desire of Heaven as a Place not only of everlasting and unchangable Happiness but also of everlasting and unchangable Holiness May you be happy now in a Religious Practice and happy hereafter in the Reward thereof In the mean time the view of both of your Practice and your Reward makes another happy the unworthy Writer and Madam Your Lady ships most Vnworthy And most humble Servant J. P. A Prayer before the receiving of the Sacrament with regard to its being Commanded by God and desired by us O Most gracious God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him the Father of Mercies too and the God of all Comfort let thy Mercies and thy Comfort I most humbly I most earnestly beseech thee be always present to me and particularly at this time and at such times as this Thou hast appointed a Sacrament for the Health and the Strength of my Soul O make me to rejoyce in that Appointment now as I am to live by the right use of it hereafter Thou hast given me a Command O my God to receive it and thou hast given me the priviledge of receiving it O let this Command at least be performed by me that the Breaches of all thy other Commands may be forgiven to me O let not this Priviledge be despised that all the other Priviledges and Benefits may not be forfeited Thy dying Son has
young from the Books she Read not only to make the Writing an Exercise and Action of the better sort but that she might fix what she Read with the greater Force upon her Mind and that the best part of what she had found in other Books she might always find again in her own it might be always ready for her View and for her Use And here I cannot choose but wish that the young Nobility of the other Sex would make Reading much more their Practice they would find it very useful to them and themselves more useful to their Country At the same time I beg leave to offer an humble Proposal and well designed Request to their Parents that they would make the Education of their Sons one great part of their Care and their Improvement in Learning one great part of their Education I know the Failure in the present Method of Education I have often declared against it and often bewail it Never did any Nation understand Greatness more than the Romans and in that Glorious Age when Rome had the largest share of it her Emperors and Noblemen esteemed themselves greater as they were more learned They never thought there was any Attainder in Knowledg nor did that which was to exalt their Soul debase their Blood So high was their Ambition to excel in Letters as well as in War and Policy that one of their Emperors resented his Boldness as a Crime of High treason who pretended to a more refined Skill in one sort of Learning which was the darling Inclination the Mistress of his Prince and in which he would not admit a Rival as well as not a Partner in his Empire It has been often said that those of our Sex have no Advantage above the other in respect of Learning but what Education gives them I hope they will not in flaming Complaisance renounce one advantage that of Learning by denying themselves another this of Education nor think it a mark of good Breeding to neglect a chief part thereof Let there be no occasion for the other Sex to upbraid our own none for ours to be conquered by them as much in understanding as in Love And at the Weapon which we have called our own that of Knowledg If we are conquered let us like vanquisht Forces rally again and retrieve our Honour as Armies have sometime done when the Women have met them in their Flight upbraiding and insulting over them more than their Enemies and yet at the same time less angry with them for not acting like Men then with themselves for not being so Let the doing good to others and in them to your self as to the welfare of your Soul be the chief end of your Life as you will find it one of the chief Delights thereof In every Action consider how far in the course thereof you may do good to others and be sure to follow it on that side of it in which it leads you to the doing good and as more is to be done so much more pursue it Every one is Born for the doing this much more those of such a Birth as yours They are born and placed on higher ground above others that they may have a free and boundless prospect of the wants of others and that all the kind effects may in a gentle stream flow down to those beneath them as the Springs first rise in the highest places to refresh the Country all around and the humble Vallies are enriched by what flows down from the Hills above them The Great and the Noble are not more distinguished from the common Orders of Mankind by their Condition then by this privilege of it the imparting all the generous advantages to others and as their condition is better than that of others so they are to make the condition of others too better than they found it They are distinguish'd by the greatness of their Fortune as they are able by the greatness of their Mind as they are ready for all useful Offices They are like the Stars which have their lofty and glittering place in the World not to be admired by the other lowly Creatures not to dazle all things under them with their brighter Glory but to guide and cherish them with their Light and Influence The esteem which they receive from Men they are to give to God they are tō convey it farther still and carry it up to Him who is indeed the Fountain of Honour who is higher than the highest to Him whose Stewards they are as well in the Honour they receive as in the Riches they possess When the late Earl of Rochester began to have very solemn apprehensions of another State and very zealous thoughts of a Soul and of Spiritual things in this when with all the flaming Piety of a Saint and all the careful Tenderness of a Father he began to be concerned for himself and for those next to himself his Children he wisht that his Son might become an honest and religious Man and so what he never could be otherwise a Blessing and Support to his Family that he might never be a wit that is one of those wretched Creatures who value themselves upon their despising God and Religion his Being and his Providence This Nobleman complained that his Children were brought into a vitious world and declared that no Fortunes or Honours were equal to their possessing the Love and Favour of God If there could be need to urge your willing Vertue with new Engagements I should tell you that you may think your self still more engaged to adorn your Birth and each prerogative of it with good Actions to enlarge your Interest which is so great already in the World by doing them because your Sex has no other way to raise its Interest no other passage to Esteem and Power Our Sex has many advantageous ways as many as there are ingenuous Professions yours does seem to be so much designed for Vertue that it almost seems to be your Profession and you to have no other that you might be at free leisure for it and be devoted to it There should be the same standard of Nobility in the thoughts of those who have it which there was in China for many hundred years where as the Emperour himself who was called the Son of Heaven was very learned and good so the Nobility of those under him and deriving from him was not from Birth but from a likeness to him in great advancements of Knowledge and Vertue It is a Notion which often returns upon me that when I look round the World amongst the many entertaining Objects I meet with there I find none that comes near my eye with so much delight as a Person very Great and very Good Vertue and Beauty are often said to make a Masterpiece in the mixture But Vertue and Greatness when joyned together make up something yet more perfect Vertue when placed so high is not only seen better it is seen more Glorious We
and my Redeemer Jesus Christ Amen Let your Life be divided the Religious part of Life betwixt Prayer and Practice and let no Variety divert you more than the daily Returns of Duty in passing from the one to the other Neither is to exclude but each is still to bring in the other because by Prayer you gain a Power for holy Actions and that Power is executed by Practice and any such Power is like a Law without Execution very Fruitless A Virtuous Woman with the Addition of Greatness is a publick Good and her Influence is boundless and so as to make Virtue a publick and common Good in the best Sense by making others like her self In your being one of the Virtuous Number how much Honour shall you add to your Honourable Family How much Happiness to that other Family into which hereafter Marriage shall Transplant you To both Families and to your self a greater Happiness I cannot wish than the Enlargment of those Virtues which shine forth already nor to my self a nobler Satisfaction than that Success of all this my Advice which is not doubted by him who gives it How great a Blessing is such a Woman I spoke of Her Price is far above Rubies above those she is adorned with How great Things are said of her by a mighty King and a Wise one by Lemuel who could not choose but be a skilful Judge of Virtue when he had so much Experience in Vice as skilful a Judge in the Perfections of the Sex as when two contended for the Child he shewed himself in the Rights thereof That Description Prov. 1. is a part of the Prophecy his Mother taught him vers 1. whose particular Conversation with her own Sex must needs make her learned in the Accomplishments of it The Woman there described is a Person of Honour and Wealth and so great enough to have her Picture drawn by a King and the Colours to be given him by the Mother of a King Honour her Cloathing first and then Silk and Purple her Covering of Tapestry and all her Houshold Cloathed with Scarlet her works praise her in the Gates and her Husband is known in the Gates a Place of Judgment and Authority and Greatness when he sitteth among the Elders or Governours of the Land 22 23.31 25. Nor is her Greatness made therefore doubtful because her Industry so active in all Kinds of Work is a part of her Character and her 〈…〉 for the greatest Persons of that Age chose the same Industry for their Exercise That when many Daughters have done Virtuously you may if not excel them all as Verse 29 yet imitate the Virtues they excel in your Practice is to be a Copy from that charming Picture in one part more than all and that one Work in which her Hands were exercised I would recommend to you more than all the rest in which she used them she stretcheth forth her Hand to the Poor yea she reacheth forth her Hands to the Needy v. 20. And here I would make it one part of my Counsels that amongst other Books of Scripture you would read not only the last Chapter of this Book but would begin at the first and so go on and read all the Book which has not only as other Proverbs shortness and Wit in the Language but great Wisdom and profound Thought in the Sense and such as would direct the several Motions of your Life in the use However it was Written by a King who as such had greater Advantage from the high Throne he sat on to view all Affairs and to advise upon them yet was it not Written to Kings alone but to all their Subjects and to all Mankind When there has been so much Care and Expence to teach you every thing of common Behaviour you should much more learn those higher Arts of prudent Conduct and those which will give you true Accomplishment will make you agreeable not only to others in your outward Deportment but to your self in your inward satisfaction As you should observe a regular Method in all things you are to do so should you at all times have something to be done A Thought it is most worthy of a great Person to think her self made for Action because as Happiness the highest State to which Mankind can be advanced is in Action so Greatness is more in Action then in Condition The latter kind of Greatness does follow the other and is only an unfinish'd Piece without it When I speak of Action I intend not your being always exercised in things high and serious but only your being always in some Exercise and so when the thing it self may not be of such a solemn Importance yet it may have this Praise at least that it is very Innocent Then your being employed therein will preserve you also Innocent and if sometimes little good be done to others or your self yet your doing great Evil may be prevented I intend not any sort of Exercise which should have Toyl to Body or Mind but only that which should be advantageous to both without oppressing either Amongst the many sorts of Exercise Reading deserves a place indeed it should have the chief because you will then do right to the principal part to your Understanding in improving that which I know is so capable of Improvement and because your Reading will furnish you with so many useful Notions to make you happy in your Life Wise in your Deportment and both Wise and Happy in Religion Some good Thought of the Book will have a second Printing within your Mind Be your Reading never so unconcerned and easie it will be sure to leave some Impression as often our Motion be it never so nimble and light will yet leave a Mark behind it And thus like her whom our Prince of Poets describes and as he seems so be in love with her Perfections so every one would be with his Description of them you will have In your Mind the wisest Books As in your Face the fairest looks A modern Writer in his Remarks upon a neighbouring Nation observes the Conduct of its great Ladies to be such that he never heard of any one there who had been accused of Vice he supposes this steady Virtue to have no other Cause than that they are always busie and so they are not at leisure for Thinking and less for doing Ill and then too they give no occasion to others to think Ill not of them A Nobleman of this Kingdom and lately a Minister of State advised his Daughter to Read or to hear Reading two or three Hours every Day And surely if he always gave as good Advice to his Prince for the Management of Publick Affairs as here he did to his Daughter for the Advancement of her Virtue and private Wisdom he was one of the best Statesmen in the World I have seen a Collection of Prayers and Spiritual Rules Written by a very great Person of your Sex and of our Nation when very