CHAPTER XLVIII.
It will somewhat and perhaps not disagreeably diversify the narrative, if we here insert a section from the manuscript, composed evidently with some pains, but wholly detached from every thing else. This is a brief account of females, distinguished by their love of, or proficiency in, literature, to whom, in a protracted series of years, our Sexagenarian was introduced.
(Loquitur amicus noster.)
To such ladies the appellation of “Blue Stocking” has been frequently and contemptuously, though impertinently applied. Among these personages, many were or are ornaments to society, patterns to the rising generation as christians, parents, and friends, endowed with the most amiable virtues and excellent accomplishments. The first, indeed, of whom mention will be made, may not, perhaps, deserve a place in the above distinguished and meritorious class, but she was a most extraordinary character, and excited, from the eccentricities of her conduct and manners, much curiosity and attention from her contemporaries. This person was—