American Revolution, what decifive effects do we frequently perceive refulting from the exhortations of the DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY, on that continent, to their near kindred and others, to root out oppreffion, and plant independence in the foil which the baleful weed had fo long and fo injurioufly appropriated! In the heroic conflict which the Swifs maintained at Underwalden against their French invaders in 1798, many of the women and children fought in the ranks by their husbands and fathers and friends, and fell gloriously for their country! Our own country affords inftances equally animating. Its annals will, in the perfons of the queens Boadicea +, Matilda ‡, Margaret §, and Elizabeth, as well as of ladies of inferior rank, exemplify not only how forcibly females have exhorted, but how magnanimoufly they have achieved. Of the distinguished fuccefs of the fame fex, in almost every department of ftudy, even the most curfory notice is fuperfluous, at least in England, where we are all admiring witneffes of the deep reflection, fterling eloquence, refined fentiment, and claffic wit, which are displayed in many of their productions ¶. What juft appreciator, then, * See Exer. on the Globes, 4th. edit. p. 398. + See Index. of Matilda defeated king Stephen, and took him prisoner at the battle of Lincoln, in 1141. Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI. fignalized herself, by heading her troops, in feveral battles, against the house of York. See Chron, and Biog. Exer. 3d edit. Every hiftory of England is enriched with Elizabeth's fpeech to the troops which he had encamped at Tilbury-Fort, to oppofe the expected Spanish invafion. See Armada, Index, and Chron. and Biog. Exer. 3d edit. To fuch of our young readers as may not be acquainted with the respective merits and names of our most celebrated A 6 female of the eminence of our fair countrywomen in every literary, not to say scientific, purfuit, will charge the author with the introduction of many questions irrelative to female education? or will cenfure him for having borrowed most of his themes from fubjects in which, at this very day, fo many adult ladies excel, rather than form queftions in the common routine way* ? In the mean time, without undertaking a formal defence of the propriety of every individual queftion in this collection, I am encouraged to hope, that the candid and the ferious part of the public will approve of a design (however imperfectly it may have been executed) which has for its chief objects, to facilitate the path of fcience; to allure the learner to mental exertions; to impress an early veneration and love for civil and religious LIBERTY; to exhibit the beauty of virtue, and the fatal confequences of vice and profligacy; to hold up to the admiration of the rifing age characters eminent for patriotifm, benevolence, and general philanthropy; and to their deteftation and abhorrence thofe of defpots, tyrants, and perfecutors; to inculcate rational and manly ideas of government, and to enforce just notions concerning female writers, we recommend the perufal of an inftructive and entertaining performance entitled "DIALOGUES concerning the LADIES." A lift of British female Literary Characters living in the 18th century may be feen in Randall's Letter to the People of England, or in the Monthly Vifitor for May 1799, p. 61. * The author is highly gratified in finding his plan fanctioned in one of the moft popular treatifes on Education that has ever been published in this country. + Mifs Edgeworth's. See the annexed commendations of the Arithmetical Questions. the the inferior orders of fociety*. And I am the more emboldened to expect the public approbation on this occafion, by reflecting, that in my endeavours to promote thofe prime views, no new burthen has been impofed, nor any very confiderable encroachment made on the time of the pupil; the information communicated being incorporated with a branch of education in which ALL must be converfant. The title announces this fmall treatife as defigned for the use of YOUNG LADIES, because the author's department of teaching is folely confined to them. Perhaps, however, it may be thought equally adapted to the other fex, when it is confidered that a youth, capable of working through the whole book, and of delivering a fatisfactory account of each operation, would be qualified for almost any of the common concerns of business. Vulgar and decimal fractions, and the extraction of roots, are of little utility, except in a few particular employments; and as to profit and lofs, barter, fellowship, exchange, and fome other rules which have diftinct heads in most treatises of arithmetic, they all belong to the Rule of Three; and * This idea has been recently countenanced by one of the highest characters in the nation t, and flill more recently by another gentleman of rank in the law, in his judicial capacity. "The poor," faid Mr. Juftice Hardinge, addreffing himself to a fuperior clafs of the community, "conftitute the best wealth of the rich. Their love, and their efteem, is your proudest inheritance. It is not their bread alone (a degrading word), but their immortal food, their intereft hereafter, as well as here, that is required by them from your liberality, your goodness of heart, and your example in virtue." Charge to the Grand Jury at Brecon and + Lord Chief Justice Kenyon. See Equality, Index. the the questions in each may be worked, with the greatest facility, by any one well verfed in that and Practice. The generality of the queftions being too long for the learner's tranfcription, they have all been numbered. Accordingly, the number, with a word or two of the fum (for instance, No. 1, Chronology, No. 2, Solar System) will be a fufficient reference to the operation at large, at any future period. The pupil, however, if fufficiently qualified in writing, fhould by no means omit copying the whole procefs of each fum in a common cyphering-book; and if the places, rivers, or countries mentioned in the queftion (having been previously found on a map) be alfo written on a feparate part of the leaf, it will confiderably augment the fcholar's geographical attainments. To prevent the poffibility of plagiarism, and to perfect the ftudents completely in this important branch of education, they fhould, on prefenting a fum, be constantly made to assign a reason for every part of the operation, and, moreover, occafionally be exercised with a variety of manuscript fums. WILLIAM BUTLER. Oxford-Court, Cannon-Street, January 1, 1811. CRITICAL CRITICAL COMMENDATIONS OF THE ARITHMETICAL QUESTIONS. T HOSE efforts which are bent towards the inftruction of the rifing generation, are not unworthy of the examination of the critic; and when, as in the prefent inftance, the utile and dulce are happily blended, we fhould think we acquitted ourfelves ill of our duty towards the public, if we withheld expreffions of fatiffaction. The drynefs and dulness of books of arithmetic in general, have difgufted many with the ftudy; the unlearned thinking it difficult and unentertaining, and the more learned, puerile and not worth attention. The plan is, to combine fome hiftorical, geographical, political, or philofophical fact with every arithmetical queftion; and, by thefe means, to convey fome further inftruction than is contained in books of this kind. The felections are entertaining, and well calculated to infpire a love of the study with which they are connected." Lit. Rev. Reg. Times, Sept. 1795, P. 351. "There is a high degree of novelty in the defign of conveying fo much important inftruction in a treatise on arithmetic; and, without judging of its moral and political importance, we think it has confiderable merit in the way of fupporting and strengthening attention, by relieving and enlivening |