Benjamin Franklin's Advice to a young woman:
"I hear you are now in Boston, gay and lovely as usual. Let me give you some fatherly advice. Kill no more pigeons than you can eat. Be a good girl and don't forget your catechism. Go constantly to meeting- or church- till you get a good husband, then stay at home and nurse the children, and live like a Christian. Spend your spare hours, in sober whisk, prayers, or learning to cypher. You must practice addition to your husband's estate, by industry and frugality; subtraction of all unnecessary expenses; multiplication (I would gladly have taught you that myself, but you thought it time enough, and wouldn't learn) he will soon make you a mistress of it. As to division, I say with brother Paul,
Let there be no division among ye. But as your good sister Hubbard (my love to her) is well acquainted with the Rule of Two, I hope you will become an expert at the Rule of Three; that when I have again the pleasure of seeing you, I may find you like my grape vine, surrounded with clusters, plump, juicy, blushing, pretty little rogues, like their Mama."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1755
From the book, "The Real Benjamin Franklin"
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