Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/162

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undertaking the same, of the dangers which lay in their way, that, by being timely apprised, they might endeavour to shun or at least acquire skill to overcome them.

"I, my dear Madeline, have made this perilous voyage, and against its dangers I wish to warn you: to none is the young, the lovely, the inexperienced female so particularly exposed as to those which proceed from a sex, ordained by heaven for her protectors, but of whom too many seem to forget, or rather disregard their original destination. Yes, my love, there are beings who make it their study, sometimes their boast, to ensnare the unsuspicious, and entail shame and sorrow upon her who would never perhaps have known either, but for a too fatal confidence in their honour. Others there are of a nature scarcely less hateful to virtue or injurious to society, who from a mere impulse of vanity, seek to gain the affections, which are no sooner won than disregarded; while they triumph aloud over