CHRY. Upon my word, if you talk of feeding your mind, you make use of
but poor diet, as everybody knows; and you have no care, no solicitude
for....

PHI. Ah! _Solicitude_ is unpleasant to my ear: it betrays
strangely its antiquity. [Footnote: Many of the words condemned by the
purists of the time have died out; _solicitude_ still remains.]

BEL. It is true that it is dreadfully starched and out of fashion.

CHRY. I can bear this no longer. You will have me speak out, then? I
will raise the mask, and discharge my spleen. Every one calls you mad,
and I am greatly troubled at....

PHI. Ah! what is the meaning of this?

CHRY. (_to_ BELISE). I am speaking to you, sister. The least
solecism one makes in speaking irritates you; but you make strange
ones in conduct. Your everlasting books do not satisfy me, and, except
a big Plutarch to put my bands in [Footnote: To keep them flat.], you
should burn all this useless lumber, and leave learning to the doctors
of the town. Take away from the garret that long telescope, which is
enough to frighten people, and a hundred other baubles which are
offensive to the sight. Do not try to discover what is passing in the
moon, and think a little more of what is happening at home, where we
see everything going topsy-turvy. It is not right, and that too for
many reasons, that a woman should study and know so much. To form the
minds of her children to good manners, to make her household go well,
to look after the servants, and regulate all expenses with economy,
ought to be her principal study, and all her philosophy. Our fathers