miliating ſituation which neceſſity ſometimes forces them to fill; theſe ſituations are conſidered in the light of a degradation; and they know little of the human heart, who need to be told, that nothing ſo painfully ſharpens the ſenſibility as ſuch a fall in life.
Some of theſe women might be reſtrained from marrying by a proper ſpirit or delicacy, and others may not have had it in their power to eſcape in this pitiful way from ſervitude; is not that government then very defective, and very unmindful of the happineſs of one half of its members, that does not provide for honeſt, independent women, by encouraging them to fill reſpectable ſtations? But in order to render their private virtue a public benefit, they muſt have a civil exiſtence in the ſtate, married or ſingle; elſe we ſhall continually ſee ſome worthy woman, whoſe ſenſibility has been rendered painfully acute by undeſerved contempt, droop like 'the lily broken down by a plow-ſhare.'
It is a melancholy truth; yet ſuch is the bleſſed effect of civilization! the moſt reſpectable women are the moſt oppreſſed; and, unleſs they have underſtandings far ſuperiour to the common run of underſtandings, taking in both ſexes, they muſt, from being treated like contemptible beings, become contemptible. How many women thus waſte life away the prey of diſcontent, who might have practiſed as phyſicians, regulated a farm, managed a ſhop, and ſtood erect, ſupported by their own induſtry, inſtead of hanging their heads ſurcharged with the dew of ſenſibility, that conſumes the beauty to which it at firſt
