Imatges de pàgina
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FATE OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN INDIA.

On her bestow'd

Too much of ornament.

MILTON.

My introduction to my readers has already disclosed to them, that I am that most disconsolate of all earthly beings,-a confirmed Bachelor; and fast verging also to the hapless appellation of an old one! Like many others of the species, I am characterized by some, who do not know me intimately, to be somewhat of the same disposition, as the grave personage in Le depit amoureux,-" un étrange homme, et d'une humeur terrible." I was once written to, from the Writers' Buildings, by a round robin of young gentlemen, whose very Fathers were my contemporaries years ago, in Calcutta, to

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beg I would enrol my name in a society of unfortunates, which they had established and brought together, under the designation of the JUWAB CLUB; and of which they graciously tendered me the chair!-nay, I was once gravely asked by a pert young Miss, if it was really true, that I so resolutely and unalterably hated the whole sex!

Thank Heaven! however, I am known to a few staunch friends, who have been pleased to find something in me, to counterbalance the seeming repulsiveness of my habitual reserve. These have discovered a warmth of heart, that would gladly repay them for their good opinion; and they can testify that I think more of my fair friends, than I would willingly confess; that I regret my present state of single blessedness, oftener than I would avow; and though I fain strengthen myself in my bachelor habits, and self esteem, by picking holes in the alleged felicities of my married acquaintances, yet the fabled Fox is shewn but too plainly in my criticising acumen; and

envy, melancholy to say, too often betrays its pointless assailment, in my every objection.

This present Chapter will be devoted to a one of my stoutest and ablest attacks; and as they are levelled at the Ladies themselves, let them answer them if they may.

It would seem with our fair ones in this clime, that when they once begin to think and act for themselves, and become their own mistresses, by safely arriving within the holy pale of matrimony, their first essay at independence is boldly to forswear those very arts and accomplishments, which had so aided to confer on them the distinction they enjoy, and which had raised them to the happy power of being able to please only themselves. They feel it at once necessary to pass censure on the officious and busy care of parents, guardians, friends, teachers and others; and with our motto, and in the words of the Epic poet, they conceive that these

"bestow'd

Too much of ornament, in outward view
Elaborate."

Eager, therefore, to correct the error, they consign to merciless oblivion the entire fruits of a painful, and often very expensive course of instruction. The Piano, Harp, Drawing, and in fine, all the ornamental portions of education, are discarded as frivolous, and no longer interesting. Although the remembered instruments, or possibly newer and more costly ones, still prove the component parts of the fashionable household furniture, their sounds are to be awakened only by the hand of the stranger; while the oblivious mistress suddenly proclaims her own entire ignorance of their use, and deplores her newly acquired incapacity to touch them.

"I never play now," is the reply of more than half the married ladies of the community here, and I might add of the British Indian possessions. In the Mofussil some allowance may reasonably be granted, from the difficulty of preserving the proper means of continuing the accomplishment. At the Presidency, however, where no obstacles exist,

we might easily point out whole circles of the late most promising pupils of the first English teachers, whose fingers, during years of eternal practice, were busy only at Sonatas and Temas, who now not only decline to approach the Piano, but from utter desuetude, in a very few months, are borne out by fact, when they assert their inability to play. The Harp, every where, has some shew of excuse; and is assuredly a most troublesome and thankless instrument, to attempt to retain in proper tune or order. Like the other wished for harmonies of this life, some unhappy circumstance or other is always at hand to jar the hopes and endeavours of hours; something damps or destroys the chords. The faithless tie, on which so much, nay, all depended, which had separated, and again and again been coaxed into seeming union and obedience to our wishes, now harshly and irrevocably severs, where nothing can replace or reunite! And at length, after days of loss and vexation, the heart flies away in disgust, to other and easier

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