The mother's advice book represents a distinctly female literary genre appearing in seventeenth-century England. According to the conventions of this form, a mother leaves written instructions, of a predominantly spiritual nature, as a legacy to her children. The Mothers Legacy, written by Elizabeth Joscelin, is particularly significant for its documentation of ideas about women's education, authorship, and spirituality. With her writing, the author inscribes a distinctly female Protestant perspective. Moreover, as a highly self-conscious text, sophisticated in its use of rhetoric and...