Many of the persons, of which each community would consist, would be, I
imagine, replied Sir Charles, no expense to it at all; as numbers of
young women, joining their small fortunes, might be able, in such a
society, to maintain themselves genteelly on their own income; though
each, singly in the world, would be distressed. Besides, liberty might
be given for wives, in the absence of their husbands, in this maritime
country; and for widows, who, on the deaths of theirs, might wish to
retire from the noise and hurry of the world, for three, six, or twelve
months, more or less; to reside in this well-regulated society. And such
persons, we may suppose, would be glad, according to their respective
abilities, to be benefactresses to it. No doubt but it would have
besides the countenance of the well-disposed of both sexes; since every
family in Britain, in their connexions and relations, near or distant,
might be benefited by so reputable and useful an institution: to say
nothing of the works of the ladies in it, the profits of which perhaps
will be thought proper to be carried towards the support of a foundation
that so genteelly supports them. Yet I would have a number of hours in
each day, for the encouragement of industry, that should be called their
own; and what was produced in them, to be solely appropriated to their
own use.
A truly worthy divine, at the appointment of the bishop of the diocese,
to direct and animate the devotion of such a society, and to guard it
from that superstition and enthusiasm which soars to wild heights in
almost all nunneries, would confirm it a blessing to the kingdom.
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