hopes of their becoming models of virtue to society, the consolation and ornament of their families; and perhaps instrumental to the salvation of many by their good example.

Another of the many groundless objections made to religious education is, that its pleasing fruits are often nipped in the bud, and that some young persons, who received a very christian education, are observed to be as anxiously devoted to the world and its vanities, as those who know nothing of religion.

Unhappily there have been individuals whose conduct justified such remarks; but, considering the fatal influence of bad example, bad company, ridicule, and all the other temptations that assail young persons in society, it is a wonderful proof of the effect of religious instruction, that such instances are few. Comparatively speaking, it is certain, that they are few-so few, as to leave it still an undeniable truth, that a good education is seldom so totally thrown away as that, sooner or later, its fruits do not appear. Those young persons who were religiously educated, yet whom false maxims, or pernicious example, had engaged to imitate the follies of worldlings, seldom persist in stifling the remorse caused in their hearts, by the opposition between their consciences and their con duct. They are carried away for a time, but often, through the mercy of God, and the bias their minds so early received, with no worse effect than to superadd the lessons of their own experience to those of early instruction. They were often told that the pleasures of virtue are the only real pleasures; that those of the world are empty and bitter; that the fulfilment of duty is the road to contentment, and that serving the world is purchasing insipid enjoyments at a very dear rate. They perceive, some sooner, some later, but almost all perceive at last, that those maxims are truths, and then it is that they recal and resolve to act on the salutary instructions of their youth. There have been some, it is true, who unfortunately persevered, even to the evening of life, in their ungrateful abuse of the graces conferred in a religious education; but even those have been known to prove on the bed of death, by their contrition and sincere return to their Creator, that the fear of God, which they had early

imbibed, had not completely lost its influence, nor the virtuous impressions made on them by a good education had been entirely effaced. However, those are graces due to none, and least deserved by those who most presumptuously depend on them. The danger of abusing so great an advantage as a religious education, should ever be present to the minds of those who receive it, and stimulate them to acquire such a store of virtue in their youth, as may strengthen them to resist the dangers they have to encounter in after life. The allurements of the world are dangerous to all, but are particularly to be dreaded for females, who seldom possess sufficient firmness to resist example, and who frequently from their cradle manifest a love of the world, of extravagance and show, with a passion for pleasure and endless varietydangerous propensities, that in some young persons appear quite destroyed, but afterwards prove to have been only dormant, from the absence of objects and occasions calculated to rouse them. It becomes their duty in particular, to remember their Creator in the days of their youth, before the time of affliction come; to endeavour to correct the faults inherent in their characters; to profit of the blessings of a religious education; to guard against inapplication while at school, and to avoid, at their departure, inconstancy, in the virtuous habits they have acquired.

Those being the great evils which sometimes tend to prevent the good effects of the best education, the object of this Work is to assist youth in guarding against themto lead them early into the path of piety, and enable them to persevere in that path during life. The young persons for whom The Ursuline Manual is expressly intended, will perceive that it is nothing more than a collection of their ordinary Devotions, with the addition of such spiritual exercises as they may require on extraordinary occasions; which will prevent the necessity of multiplying Prayer Books. The preparation for approaching the Sacraments, in particular, is explicit and detailed; to give them all the instruction they require for the due performance of such solemn duties; and to impress them with a just idea of their importance. The other abridged instructions comprised in this volume will, it is hoped,

refresh and invigorate the impressions already made, and from the brevity of their form be less easily forgotten than the more ample ones usually given on those important points.

As very few prayers enter into the system laid down for their conduct during the period of their education, for the purpose of leaving more leisure for attending to their studies and attaining the several ends for which they are placed at school, it becomes particularly incumbent on them to sanctify these studies, and not to allow whim or caprice to influence their conduct in the discharge or neglect of their school duties, lest the habits of sloth or indifference which they then indulge, may predispose their minds for much more serious omissions in the weighty avocations of after-life. Their principal efforts then should tend to the attainment of piety, and the acquiring of a certain solidity of character, which is founded on good sense, and directly opposite to the fickleness, affectation, and false timidity, which make many young ladies appear almost fools, whom nature did not intend for such.

Solid information and the improvement of their minds are the next objects to be kept in view. They should always recollect that, after the pleasures derived from virtue, those to be found in the pursuit of knowledge, are the purest and most worthy of a rational being. Study improves the memory, forms the judgment, and if dili gently and judiciously pursued, will give them such resources in their own minds, as will render them in afterlife independent of idle visitors and conversations, with other still more dangerous amusements which a vacuity of mind renders necessary to some young ladies. In labouring to cultivate their minds, they should endeavour to imitate those great ornaments of their sex, whose knowledge kept pace with their sanctity-such as St. Catharine of Alexandria, St. Catharine of Sienna, &c. The example of the former, in particular, who is the Patroness of many celebrated schools, should direct young persons in the pursuit of learning and also in the use to be made of mental acquirements. From her humility, meekness, diffidence in herself, and contempt for all worldly learning, when compared with the most trifling improvement in virtue, they will perceive the folly of setting great

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