DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0197
a Devout and Holy Life. 195
The children see so plainly the temper of their mother, that
they even affect to be more pleased with dress, and to be more
fond of every little ornament, than they really are, merely to
gain her favour.
They saw their eldest sister once brought to her tears, and her
perverseness severely reprimanded, for presuming to say, that she
thought it was better to cover the neck, than to go so far naked
as the modem dress requires.
She stints them in their meals, and is very scrupulous of what
they eat and drink, and tells them how many fine shapes she has
seen spoiled in her time, for want of such care. If a. pimple rises
in their faces, she is in a great fright, and they themselves are
as afraid to see her with it, as if they had committed some
great sin.
Whenever they begin to look too sanguine and healthful, she
calls in the assistance of the doctor ; and if physic, or issues, will
keep the complexion from inclining to coarse or ruddy, she thinks
them well employed.
By this means they are poor, pale, sickly, infirm creatures,
vapoured through want of spirits, cryingzX. the smallest accidents,
swooning away at anything that frights them, and hardly able to
bear the weight of their best clothes.
The eldest daughter lived as long as she could under this
discipline, and died in the twentieth year of her age.
When her body was opened, it appeared that her ribs had
grown into her liver, and that her other entrails were much hurt,
by being crushed together with her stays, which her mother had
ordered to be twitched so strait, that it often brought tears into
her eyes, whilst the maid was dressing her.
Her youngest daughter is run away with a gamester, a man of
great beauty, who in dressing and dancing has no superior.;
Matilda says, she should die with grief at this accident, but
that her conscience tells her, she has contributed nothing to it
herself. She appeals to their closets, to their books of devotion,
to testify what care she has taken, to establish her children in a
life of solid piety and devotion.
Now though I do not intend to say, that no daughters are
brought up in a better way than this, for I hope there are many
that are: yet thus much I believe may be said, that the much
greater part of them, are not brought up so well, or accustomed
to so much Religion, as in the present instance.
Their minds are turned as much to the care of their beauty
and dress, and the indulgence of vain desires, as in the present
case, without having such rules of devotion to stand against it.
So that if solid piety, humility, and a sober sense of themselves, is
13—2