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Willybourne river, called Sheawater, of wood and water, hill and vale, and

his lordship is now making a lake of a very large extent, which will afford an agreeable and most unexpected variety to the scenes of the furrounding country.

Upon the whole, Longleat, from its fituation, as flanding in one of the moft fertile and plentiful parts of England, on the edge of the champaign and open part of the county of Wilts, and on the border of the rich inclofed land of the county of Somerfet, and partaking of the advantages of both; from its confequence as being the center of a vait eftate belonging to it, lying in both counties, and of courfe commanding influence in both; from its local advantages, as having plenty

being a foil in which trees grow to the greateft perfection; and though almoft furrounded with great towns, having none within four miles of it; and from its vicinity to Bath, and proper distance from London; may be truly faid to be not only one of the largest and moft magnificent feats, but one of the most defirable places of refidence in the kingdom.

This was the opinion of the king and queen, when they honoured the marquis with a vifit in Sept 1789, and this is the uniform opinion of every person of real tafte, who has taken time to fee and examine all the beauties of this enchanting place.

ON MODESTY.

[From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,' by Mary Wollstonecraft.]

with a lofty consciousness of our own dignity. Modefty, in the latter fignification of the term, is, that fobernefs of mind which teaches a man not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, and fhould be diftinguished from humility, because humility is a kind of self-abasement.

MODESTY! ODESTY! Sacred offspring of though by no means incompatible fenfibility and reafon!-true delicacy of mind!--may I, unblamed, prefume to investigate thy nature, and trace to its covert the mild charm, that mellowing each harsh feature of a character, renders what would otherwife only infpire cold admirationlovely!-Thou that fmootheft the wrinkles of wisdom, and softenest the tone of the fublimeft virtues till they all melt into humanity;-thou that spreadeft the ethereal cloud that furrounding love heightens every beauty, it half fhades, breathing thofe coy fweets that steal into the heart, and charm the fenfes-modulate for me the language of perfuafive reafon, till I roufe my fex from the flowery bed, on which they fupinely fleep life away!

In fpeaking of the affociation of our ideas, I have noticed two diftinct modes; and in defining modeity, it appears to me equally proper to difcriminate that purity of mind, which is the effect of chaltity, from a fimplicity of character that leads us to form a juft opinion of ourselves, equally diftant from vanity or prefumption,

A modeft man often conceives a great plan, and tenaciously adheres to it, confcious of his own ftrength, till fuccefs gives it a fanction that determines its character. Milton was not arrogant when he fuffered a fuggeftion of judgment to escape him that proved a prophecy; nor was general Washington when he accepted of the command of the American forces. The latter has always been characterized as a modeft man; but had he been merely humble, he would probably have fhrunk back irrefolute, afraid of trufting to himself the direction of an enterprife, on which fo much depended.

A modeft man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one prefumptuous :-this is the judgment, which the obfervation of many cha

racters,

racters, has led me to form. Jefus Chrift was modeft, Mofes was humble, and Peter vain.

Thus, difcriminating modefty from humility in one cafe, I do not mean to confound it with bashfulness in the other. Bafhfulness, in fact, is fo diftinct from modefty, that the most bashful lafs, or raw country lout, often becomes the most impudent; for their bashfulness being merely the inftinctive timidity of ignorance, custom foon changes it into affurance *.

The fhameless behaviour of the prostitutes, who infeft the streets of this metropolis, raifing alternate emotions of pity and disgust, may serve to illuftrate this remark. They trample on virgin bafhfulness with a fort of bravado, and glorying in their fhame, become morc audaciously lewd than men, however depraved, to whom this fexual quality has not been gratuitously granted, ever appear to be. But thefe poor ignorant wretches ne. ver had any modefty to lofe, when they configned themselves to infamy; for modefty is a virtue not a quality. No, they were only bafhful, fhamefaced innocents; and lofing their innocence, their fhame-facednefs was rudely brushed off; a virtue would have left fome veftiges in the mind, had it been facrificed to paffion, to make us respect the grand ruin.

Parity of mind, or that genuine delicacy, which is the only virtuous fupport of chastity, is near akin to that refinement of humanity, which never refides in any but cultivated minds. It is fomething nobler than innocence; it is the delicacy of re

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flection, and not the coynefs of ignorance. The referve of reafon, which, like habitual cleanliness, is feldom feen in any great degree, unless the foul is active, may eafily be diftinguished from ruftic fhynefs or wanton fkittishnefs; and, fo far from being incompatible with knowledge, it is its fairest fruit. What a grofs idea of modesty had the writer of the following remark! The lady who asked the queftion whether women may be inftructed in the modern fyftem of botany, confiftently with female delicacy ?-was accused of ridiculous prudery: nevertheless, if he had propofed the question to me, I should certainly have anfwered They cannot.' Thus is the fair book of knowledge to be fhut with an everlasting feal! On reading fimilar paffages I have reverentially lifted up my eyes and heart to him who liveth for ever and ever, and faid, O my father, haft thou, by the very conftitution of her nature, forbid thy child to feek thee in the fair forms of truth? And, can her foul be fullied by the knowledge that awfully calls her to thee?

I have then philofophically purfued thefe reflections till I inferred that thofe women who have most improved their reafon must have the most modefty-though a dignified fedateness of deportment may have fucceeded the playful, bewitching bafhfulnefs of youth t.

And thus have I argued. To render chastity the virtue from which un. fophifticated modefty will naturally flow, the attention fhould be called away from employments which only

Such is the country-maiden's fright
When first a red-coat is in fight;
Behind the door fhe hides her face;
Next time at diftance eyes the lace:

She now can all his terrors stand,

Nor from his fqueeze withdraws her hand.

She plays familiar in his arms,

And ev'ry foldier hath his charms;
From tent to tent the spreads her flame;

For custom conquers fear and fhame.'

GAY.

+ Modefty, is the graceful calm virtue of maturity; bafhfulnefs, the charm of

vivacious youth.

exercife

exercise the fenfibility; and the heart made to beat time to humanity, rather than to throb with love. The woman who has dedicated a confiderable portion of her time to purfuits purely intellectual, and whofe affections have been exercised by humane plans of usefulness, must have more purity of mind, as a natural confequence, than the ignorant beings whofe time and thoughts have been occupied by gay pleafures or schemes to conquer hearts. The regulation of the behaviour is not modefty, though thofe who ftudy rules of decorum are, in general, termed modeft women. Make the heart clean, let it expand and feel for all that is human, inftead of being narrowed by felfifh paffions; and let the mind frequently contemplate fubjects that exercife the understanding, without heating the imanation, and artless modefty will give the finishing touches to the picture.

She who can difcern the dawn of immortality, in the ftreaks that shoot athwart the mifty night of ignorance, promifing a clearer day, will refpect, as a facred temple, the body that enfhrines fuch an improvable foul. True love, likewife, fpreads this kind of mysterious fanctity round the beloved object, making the lover moft modeft when in her prefence +. So referved is affection that, receiving or returning perfonal endearments, it wishes, not only to fhun the human eye, as a kind of profanation; but to diffuse an encircling cloudy obfcurity to fhut out even the faucy fparkling funbeams. Yet, that affection does not deferve the epithet of chate, which does not receive a fublime gloom of tender me

lancholy, that allows the mind for a moment to ftand still and enjoy the prefent fatisfaction, when a confcioufnefs of the Divine prefence is felt for this muft ever be the food of joy!

As I have always been fond of tracing to its fource in nature any prevailing cuftom, I have frequently thought that it was a fentiment of affection of whatever had touched the perfon of an abfent or lost friend, which gave birth to that respect for relics, fo much abufed by felfifh priefts. Devotion, or love, may be allowed to hallow the garments as well as the perfon; for the lover muft want fancy who has not a fort of facred refpect for the glove or flipper of his mistress. He could not confound them with vulgar things of the fame kind. This fine fentiment, perhaps, would not bear to be analyzed by the experimental philofopher-but of fuch ftuff is human rapture made up!-A fhadowy phantom glides before us, obfcuring every other object; yet when the foft cloud is grafped, the form melts into common air, leaving a folitary void, or fweet perfume, ftolen from the violet, that memory long holds dear. But, I have tripped unawares on fairy ground, feeling the balmy gale of spring stealing on me, though November frowns.

As a fex, women are more chafte than men, and as modesty is the effect of chastity, they may deserve to have this virtue afcribed to them in rather an appropriated fenfe; yet, I must be allowed to add an hefitating if:-for I doubt whether chastity will produce modesty, though it may propriety of

* I have conversed, as man with man, with medical men, on anatomical subjects; and compared the proportions of the human body with artifts-yet fuch modesty did I meet with, that I was never reminded by word or look of my fex, of the abfurd rules which make modesty a pharifaical cloak of weakness. And I am perfuaded that in the pursuit of knowledge women would never be infulted by fenfible men, and rarely by men of any defcription, if they did not by mock modefty remind them that they were women: actuated by the fame fpirit as the Portugueze ladies, who would think their charms infulted, if, when left alone with a man, he did not, at leaft, attempt to be grofsly familiar with their perfons. Men are not always men in the company of women, nor would women always remember that they are women, if they were allowed to acquire more understanding.

† Male or female; for the world contains many modest men.

conduct,

conduct, when it is merely a refpect for the opinion of the world*, and when coquetry and the love-lorn tales of novelists employ the thoughts. Nay, from experience, and reafon, I fhould be led to expect to meet with more modefty among men than women, fimply because men exercise their understandings more than wo

men.

But, with respect to propriety of behaviour, excepting one clafs of females, women have evidently the advantage. What can be more difgufting than that impudent drofs of gallantry, thought fo manly, which makes many men ftare infultingly at every female they meet? Is this refpect for the fex? This loofe behaviour fhews fuch habitual depravity, fuch weakness of mind, that it is vain to expect much public or private virtue, till both men and women grow more modeft-till men,' curbing a fenfual fondness for the fex, or an affectation of manly affurance, more properly fpeaking, impudence, treat each other with refpect-unless appetite or paffion gives the tone, peculiar to it, to their behaviour. I mean even perfonal refpect-the modest respect of humanity, and fellow-feeling -not the libidinous mockery of gallantry, nor the infolent condefcenfion of protectorship.

To carry the obfervation ftill further, modefty muft heartily disclaim, and refufe to dwell with that debauchery of mind, which leads a man coolly to bring forward, without a blufh, indecent allufions, or obfcene witticifms, in the presence of a fellow creature; women are now out of the queftion, for then it is brutality. Refpect for man, as man, is the foundation of every noble sentiment. How much more modeft is the libertine who obeys the call of appetite or fancy, than the lewd joker who fets the table in a roar!

This is one of the many inftances in

which the fexual diftinétion refpecting modefty has proved fatal to virtue and happinefs. It is, however, carried ftill further, and woman, weak woman! made by her education the flave of fenfibility, is required, on the molt trying occafions, to refift that fenfibility. Can any thing,' fays Knox, be more abfurd than keeping women in a ftate of ignorance, and yet fo vehemently to infift on their refifting temptation?' Thus when virtue or honour make it proper to check a paffion, the burden is thrown on the weaker fhoulders, contrary to reafon and true modefty, which, at least, fhould render the felfdenial mutual, to fay nothing of the generofity of bravery, fuppofed to be a manly virtue.

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In the fame ftrain runs Rouffeau's and Dr. Gregory's advice refpecting modefty, ftrangely mifcalled! for they both defire a wife to leave it in doubt whether fenfibility or weakness led her to her husband's arms.-The woman is immodeft who can let the fhadow of fuch a doubt remain on her husband's mind a moment.

But to state the subject in a different light. The want of modefty, which I principally deplore as fub, verfive of morality, arifes from the ftate of warfare fo ftrenuously fupported by voluptuous men as the very effence of modefty, though, in fact, its bane; because it is a refinement on luft, that men fall into who have not fufficient virtue to relish the innocent pleasures of love. A man of delicacy carries his notions of modesty ftill further, for neither weakness nor fenfibility will gratify him-he looks for affection.

Again; men boaft of their triumphs over women, what do they boast of? Truly the creature of fenfibility was furprifed by her fenfibility into follyinto vice † ; and the dreadful reckoning falls heavily on her own weak head, when reafon: wakes. For where

* The immodest behaviour of many married women, who are nevertheless faithful to their husbands' beds, will illufttrate this remark.

The poor moth fluttering round a candle, burns its wings,

art

art thou to find comfort, forlorn and difconfolate one? He who ought to have directed thy reafon, and fupported thy weaknefs, has betrayed thee! In a dream of passion thou confentedft to wander through flowery lawns, and heedlessly ftepping over. the precipice to which thy guide, inftead of guarding, lured thee, thou ftarteft from thy dream only to face a fneering, frowning world, and to find thyfelf alone in a wafe, for he that triumphed in thy weakness is now purfuing new conquefts; but for thee there is no redemption on this fide the grave !-And what refource haft thou in an enervated mind to raise a finking heart?

But, if the fexes are really to live in a flate of warfare, if nature has pointed it out, let men act nobly, or let pride whisper to them, that the victory is mean when they merely vanquish fenfibility. The real conqueft is that over affection not taken by furprise-when, like Heloifa, a woman gives up all the world, deliberately, for love. I do not now confider the wisdom or virtue of fuch a facrifice, I only contend that it was a facrifice to affection, and not merely to fenfibility, though fhe had her fhare. And I must be allowed to call her a modeft woman, before I difmifs this part of the fubject, by faying, that till men are more chafte women will be immodeft. Where, indeed, could modeft women find husbands from whom they would not continually turn with difguft? Modefty must be equally cultivated by both fexes, or it will ever remain a fickly hot-houfe plant, while the affectation of it, the fig leaf borrowed by wantonnefs, may give a zeft to voluptuous enjoyments.

Men will probably ftill infift that woman ought to have more modesty than man; but it is not difpaffionate reafoners who will moft earneftly oppofe my opinion. No, they are the men of fancy, the favourites of the fex, who cutwardly respect and inwardly defpife the weak creatures whom they thus fport with. They

cannot fubmit to refign the highest fenfual gratification, nor even to relifa the epicurifm of virtue-felf-denial.

Here Mrs. Wollstonecraft proceeds to other views of the fubject, in which fhe confines her remarks to women, Her conclufion to this chapter is extremely beautiful.

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Perhaps, there is not a virtue that mixes fo kindly with every other as modefty.-It is the pale moon-beam that renders more interefting every virtue it foftens, giving mild grandeur to the contracted horizon. Nothing can be more beautiful than the poetical fiction, which makes Diana, with her filver crefcent, the goddess of chastity. I have fometimes thought, that wandering with fedate ftep in fome lonely recefs, a modeft dame of antiquity muft have felt a glow of confcious dignity when, after contemplating the foft fhadowy landscape, fhe has invited with placid fervour the mild reflection of her fifter's beams to turn to her chaste bofom.

A Chriftian has ftill nobler motives to incite her to preserve her chastity and acquire modefty, for her body has been called the Temple of the living God; of that God who requires more than modefty of mien. His eye fearcheth the heart; and let her remember, that if the hopeth to find favour in the fight of purity itself, her chastity must be founded on modefty, and not on worldly prudence; or verily a good reputation will be her only reward; for that awful intercourfe, that facred communication, which virtue establishes between man and his maker, must give rife to the wifh of being pure as he is pure!

* * * *

Would ye, O my fifters, really poffefs modefty, ye muft remember that the poffeffion of virtue, of any denomination, is incompatible with ignprance and vanity! ye must acquire that fobernefs of mind, which the exercife of duties, and the pursuit of knowledge, alone infpire, or ye will

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