M. Those are vile places, indeed!
SIR A. Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of
diabolical knowledge!
MRS. M. Fie, fie, Sir Anthony! you surely speak laconically.
SIR A. Why, Mrs. Malaprop, in moderation, now, what would you have a
woman know?
MRS. M. Observe me, Sir Anthony--I would by no means wish a daughter of
mine to be a progeny of learning; I don't think so much learning becomes
a young woman; for instance, I would never let her meddle with Greek, or
Hebrew, or Algebra, or Simony, or Fluxions, or Paradoxes, or such
inflammatory branches of learning; nor will it be necessary for her to
handle any of your mathematical, astronomical, diabolical instruments;
but, Sir Anthony, I would send her, at nine years old, to a
boarding-school, in order to learn a little ingenuity and artifice.
Then, sir, she should have a supercilious knowledge in accounts; and, as
she grew up, I would have her instructed in geometry, that she might
know something of the contagious countries; above all, she would be
taught orthodoxy.
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