Mental Improvement

by Priscilla Wakefield, Ann B. Shteir (Editor)

Overview

In the final decades of the eighteenth century, a small group of women were particularly prominent as writers of educational books for women. Priscilla Wakefield was one of them, active 1770-1832 in England, Britain, Europe. Mental Improvement presents Wakefield's lessons for young people on a wide variety of topics, from whaling and seashells to painting on glass and the origin of navigation, are presented in fictional conversations of an eighteenth-century family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780937191514
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	06/30/1995
Series:	Early Women Writers Series , #4
Pages:	171
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

Read an Excerpt

CONVERSATION XVIII. COFFEE, AND THE PORCELAIN MANUFACTURE. Mrs. Harcourt. I have not forgotten that little Henry is to open the conversation to-night, with an account of the peculiarities of the coffee-tree. Pray, try to repeat the botanical definition properly. Speak clearly and distinctly, and arrange your ideas in order: if your memory should fail, your father or Sophia will assist you, with pleasure; therefore be encouraged to proceed. We are all attention. Henry. After such kind encouragement from my dear mother, I have no excuse for declining the performance of my promise, though I feel myself scarcely equal to the task. The coffee-tree is a genus of the pen- tandria monogynia class. The flower has one petal, which is funnel-shaped; it has five stamens, which are fastened to the tube; the roundish germen afterwards becomes an oval Vol. n. F berry, containing two seeds, in shape like a half globe, flat on one side, and convex on the other. This tree originally came" from Arabia Felix, but is now cultivated with success in the British West Indies. It is a low tree, even in its native soil seldom exceeding sixteen or eighteen feet high. In the West India islands, the negroes are employed to gather the berries. As soon as they change their colour to a dark red, they are fit for gathering. Each negro is provided with a canvass bag, with a hoop in the mouth of it to keep it open: it is hung about the neck of the picker, who occasionally empties it into a basket; and, if he be industrious, he may pick three bushels in the day. One hundred bushels in the pulp, fresh from the tree, will produce about one thousand pounds weight of merchantable coffee. Mr. Harcourt. You havegiven us a very clear account of this tree, and the manner of gathering the berries: you must...