My dearest Mr. B.

Having in my former Letters said as much as is necessary to let you intomy Notion of the excellent Book you put into my Hands, and having touch’d those Points in which the Children of both Sexes may be concern’d, (with some Art in my Intention, I own) in Hopes that they would not be so much out of the way, as to make you repent of the Honour and Pleasure you have done me in committing the dear Miss Goodwin to my Care; I shall now very quickly set myself about the little Book which I have done myself the Honour to mention to you.

You have been so good as to tell me, (at the same time that you have not disapprov’d these my Specimen Letters, as I may call them) that you will kindly accept of my intended Present, and you encourage me to proceed in it; and as I shall leave one Side of the Leaf blank for your Corrections and Alterations, those Corrections will be a fine Help and Instruction to me in the pleasing Task, which I propose to myself, of assisting in the early Education of the dear Children, which it has pleased God to give you. And altho’ I shall be Years in writing it, perhaps, as the dear Babies improve, and as I improve, by the Opportunities which their Advances in Years will give me, and the Experience I shall gain, I shall, perhaps, venture to give my Notions and Observations on the more material and nobler Parts of Education, as well as the inferior; for, (but that I think the Subjects above my present Abilities) Mr. Locke's Book would lead me into several Remarks, thatmight not be unuseful, and which appear to me intirely new; tho’ that may be owing to my slender Reading and Opportunities perhaps.

But what, my dearest Mr. B. I would now touch upon, is a Word or two still more particularly upon the Education of my own Sex; a Topick which naturally rises to me from the Subject of my last Letter. For there, dear Sir, we saw, that the Mothers might teach the Child this Part of Science, and that Part of Instruction; and who, I pray, as our Sex is generally educated, shall teach the Mothers? How, in a Word, shall they come by their Knowlege?