Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education

Owing much to the theories of John Locke as well as contemporary conduct-book advice on the education of girls, this two-volume work offers detailed theoretical explorations of how children learn. Published 1801–2, this important and influential book remains relevant to those interested in female education in particular.

The novelist and essayist Elizabeth Hamilton (1756?–1816) received her education at a day school from the age of eight, and later recalled her childhood and schooldays fondly. However, intellectual girls in the period were regarded with some suspicion, and she remembered hiding from visitors those books that might be deemed inappropriate for a young woman. Later embarking on a literary career, she published in 1801 her Letters on Education, republished in this second edition of 1801–2. Owing much to the theories of John Locke as well as the period's standard conduct-book advice on the education of girls, Hamilton's work offers detailed theoretical explorations of how children learn. 'Be not afraid my good friend,' she writes, 'that I intend making speculative philosophers of your daughters.' Volume 2 begins with a comment on the necessity of obtaining knowledge of our intellectual faculties, and how this knowledge is to be acquired.