sation consists in making the company pleased with themselves. You will more readily hear, than talk yourself into their good graces. Beware of detraction, especially where your own sex is concerned. Women are generally accused of being particularly addicted to this vice, perhaps unjustly; men are as guilty of it, when their interests interfere. But as your interests more frequently clash, and as your feelings are quicker, your temptations to it are more frequent. For this reason be particularly tender of the reputation of those of your own sex, especially when they happen to rival you. Men look on this as the strongest proof of dignity of mind. Shew a compassionate sympathy for unfortunate women, especially to those who are rendered so by the villany of men. Indulge a secret pleasure in being the friend and refuge of the unhappy, but without the vanity of shewing it. Consider every species of indelicacy in conversation as shameful in itself, and highly disgusting to modest men, as well as to you. The dissoluteness of some men's education may allow them to be diverted with a kind of wit, which yet they have delicacy enough to be shocked at when it comes from the mouth of a female, or even when she can hear it without pain or contempt. Virgin purity is of that delicate nature that it cannot hear certain things without contamination. It is always in the power of women to avoid these. No man but a brute, or a fool, will insult a woman with conversation which he sees gives her pain; nor will he dare to do it, if she resent the injury with a becoming spirit. There is a dignity in conscious virtue, which is able to awe the most shameless and abandoned of men. You will be reproached, perhaps, with an affectation of delicacy: but at any rate, it is better to run the risk of being thought ridiculous than disgusting. The men will complain of your reserve. They will assure you that a more frank behaviour would make you more amiable. But they are not sincere when they tell you so. It might on some occasions render you more agreeable as companions, but it would make you less amiable as women; an important distinction, which many of the sex are not aware of. Have a sacred regard to truth. Lying is a mean and despicable vice. Some who possessed excellent parts have been so much addicted to this, that they could not be trusted in the relation of any story, especially if it contained any thing of the marvellous, or if they themselves were the heroines of the tale. There is a certain gentleness of spirit and manners extremely engaging in young women; not that indiscriminate attention, that unmeaning simper, which smiles on all alike. This arises either from an affectation of softness, or from perfect insipidity. There is also a native diguity, an ingenuous modesty, to be expected in young females, which is their natural protection from the familiarities of men, and which you should feel, previous to the reflection that it is your interest to keep yourselves sacred from all personal freedoms. The many nameless charms and endearments of beauty should be reserved to bless the arms of the happy man to whom you give your heart, but who, if he has the least delicacy, would despise them if he thought that they have been prostituted to others before him. The sentiment, that a woman may allow all innocent freedoms, provided her virtue is secure, is both grossly indelicate and dangerous, and has proved fatal to many of the sex. Young women may perhaps think, by attending to the preceding rules, that we wish to throw every spark of nature out of their composition, and to make them entirely artificial. Far from it; we wish them to possess the most perfect simplicity of heart and manners. They may possess dignity without pride, affability without meanness, and simple elegance without affectation. Milton had the same idea when he says of Eve Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, AN ACCOUNT OF THE MAID OF ORLEANS. JOAN D'ARC, called the Maid of Orleans, was born in 1407, in the village of Domremi, near Vaucouleurs, on the borders of Lorraine. She rendered herself famous in history, by commencing the expulsion of the English out of France, after the conquests made in that country by Henry V. She had lived for some time servant at an inn, where she had been accustomed to ride the horses of her master's guests to water; her employment and conversation with the company whom she attended, had given her a degree of boldness above her sex; and, though only twenty-one years of age, she listened with pleasure to the martial achievments, the constant topics of conversation in a warlike age, The calamities of her country, and the distress of her sovereign, Charles VII. were the objects of her daily thoughts and nightly dreams. She was soon inflamed with the desire of avenging on the English the misery of France; and an ignorant mind might possibly mistake the impulse of her passions for heavenly inspirations. She procured admission to Baudrecourt, the governor of Vaucouleurs; she declared to him that she had been exhorted by frequent visions and distinct voices to achieve the deliverance of her country; and the governor, either equally credulous himself, or sufficiently penetrating to foresee the effect such an enthusiast might have on the minds of the vulgar, granted her an escort to the French court, which at that time resided at Chinon, in Touraine. On her arrival at Chinon, she is said to have distinguished Charles from his courtiers, though divested of. every ensign of royalty; to have revealed a secret to him unknown to all the world beside himself; and to have demanded, and described by particular marks, a sword she had never seen, and which she required as the instrument of her future victories; she asserted that she was commissioned to raise the siege of Orleans, and to conduct her lawful prince to Rheims, to be there crowned and anointed King of the French. Charles and his ministers pretended to examine her pretensions with scrupulous exactness: they affected at length to be convinced of the sincerity of her declarations, and of her supernatural powers; their opinion. was solemnly and publicly countenanced by an assembly of doctors and theologians, and by the parliament of France, then residing at Poictiers. After repeated examinations, the mission of Joan of Arc was pronounced to be divine; and the spirits of a despairing people were again elevated by the hope that heaven had declared itself in favour of France. The English were at that time besieging the city of Orleans, the last resource of Charles, and every thing indicated a speedy surrender. Joan undertook to raise the siege; and, to render herself still more remarkable, girded herself with the miraculous sword, of which she before had such extraordinary notices. Thus equipped, she ordered all the soldiers to confess themselves before they set out; she displayed in her hand a consecrated banner, and as sured the troops of certain success. Such confidence on her side soon raised the spirits of the French army; and even the English, who pretended to despise her efforts, felt themselves secretly influenced with the terrors of her mission. When she arrived near Orleans, she wrote to the English to quit the siege; but her messenger was detained, and loaded with irons: she complained of this violation of good faith, and her herald was then sent back with a letter full of contempt. She then addressed a second letter, which she fastened to the end of an arrow, and shot it into the English fort raised before the city. The superscription was, "To the Duke of Bedford, who calls himself Regent of France in the name of the King of England. Having no right to this kingdom, God commands you, by me, the Maid of Orleans, to abandon the forts you have raised, and to retire." A supply of provisions wanting to be conveyed into the town, Joan, at the head of some French troops, covered the embarkation, and entered Orleans at the head of the convoy which she had safely protected. While she was leading her troops along, a dead silence and astonishment reigned among the English; and they regarded with religious awe that temerity, which they thought_that nothing but supernatural assistance could inspire, But they were soon roused from their state of amazement by a sally from the town; Joan Jed on the besieged, bearing the sacred standard in her hand, encouraging them with her words and actions, bringing them to the trenches, and overpowering the besiegers in their own redoubts. In the attack of one of the forts, she was wounded in the neck with an arrow; but instantly pulling out the weapon with her own hands, and getting the wound quickly dressed, she hastened back to head the troops, and to plant her victorious banner on the ramparts of the enemy. These successes continuing, the English found it was impossible to resist troops animated by such superior energy; and the Earl of Suffolk, who conducted the attack, thinking it dangerous to remain any longer in the presence of such an enthusiastic enemy, raised the siege, and retreated with all imaginable precau tion. The siege of Orleans was raised in 1425; and the French, animated by this first essay of the holy Maid, prepared to improve their advantage The Earl of Suffolk, with part of his forces, had retired to Jergeau; he was there invested by the French, animated by the presence of Joan, and in ten days the town was taken by assault, and Suffolk himself made prisoner. Joan of Arc entered the town in triumph at the head of her army. The constable Richemont pressed the remnant of English, who endeavoured to retreat; they were overtaken at the village of Patay: oppressed by their fears, they scarcely awaited the charge of their enemies; two thousand were slaughtered on the field, and among the numerous captives were Talbot and Scales. Thus the Maid of Orleans had early fulfilled great part of her mission; but a more arduous enterprise remained, to conduct the king to receive the crown at Rheims. The city itself lay far distant from any place possessed by Charles; it was in the hands of the English; and the whole road which led to it was occupied by their garrisons. Yet Joan insisted on the execution of her design; the king himself shook off his general indolence, and resolved to follow the exhortations of his warlike prophetess; the nobility of France crowded to the standard of their youthful sovereign, who began his march at the head of twelve thousand men; he passed without interruption through an enemy's country; received in his progress the submission of Troyes; was instantly admitted into Rheims, the inhabitants of which drove out the English, and in that city he was solemnly inaugurated; the Maid of Orleans standing by his side in complete armour, and displaying, during the ceremony, her holy banner. The claim of Charles, from his coronation at Rheims, received new lustre; and Laon, Soissons, ChateauThierri, Provins, aud many other towns in the neighbourhood, instantly revolted from the English. Joan of Arc had declared, that with the inauguration of Charles VII. at Rheims her mission expired; and that it was her wish, after having fulfilled her promises, to return to her former condition. The Count of Dunoise had exhorted her to persevere till the English were finally expelled. Overcome by his importunities, she had thrown herself into "Compeigne, which at that time was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy. In a sally on the quarters of John of Luxembourg, she was deserted by her friends, surrounded by her enemies, and after a gallant resistance taken prisoner. She is supposed to have been betrayed by the envy of the French, who repined at every success being ascribed to her influence; and the neglect of Charles, who made not the slightest effort to procure her release, proves that he no longer expected to derive any benefit from the instrument he had adopted. The Duke of Bedford purchased from John of Luxembourg this important captive, and com |