Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/32

 taught; and if she has laid a foundation, she will be able to pursue her studies with out a master, or with such a one only as Rousseau gives his Sophie. It is too late then to begin to learn. The empire of the passions is coming on; a new world opens to the youthful eye; those attachments begin to be formed which influence the happiness of future life;—the care of a mother, and that alone, can give suitable attention to this important period. At this period they have many things to learn which books and systems never taught. The grace and ease of polished society, with the established modes of behaviour to every different class of people; the detail of domestic economy, to which they must be gradually introduced; the duties, the proprieties of behaviour which they must practise in their own family, in the families where they visit, to their friends, to their acquaintance:—lastly, their behaviour to the other half of their species, with whom