| Citation |
BPB.767.044b
21 Dec 1767:21,22 (540)
From the Pennsylvania Journal, December 1767.
To you, my fair countrywomen, I address ,myself, and lay
before you a view of your proper duty, and the part you
ought to act. . . [Discussion of the lack of frugality by
ladies in dress and custom]
It is by no means to be denied, that in this gay and
voluptuous age many of you have given yourselves up a great
deal too much to the heightened pleasures of dancing and
other amusements, to the neglecxt not only of all that is
spiritual and sacred, but also of those domestic cares which
are your proper province. . . . for I will not stick to tell
the proudest beauty that shines in the front-box, in an
assembly room, bedecked in all the gaudy plumage that female
vanity can contrive to put together, that she was originally
formed for the plain and homely, but necessary and endearing
characters of a wife and mother; . . .
Will an assembly improve you in oeconomy or frugality? Or
a concerts in the domestic arts that make families happy?
Can you pretend that the sight of gorgeous dresses, gaudy
paintings, the strains of melting music, &c. Have any other
effect upon you than to fill your minds with a thousand
romantic wishes and desires, altogether inconsistant with
your station, and above your rank in life, and to make your
homes dull and tiresome to you? . . .
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