meanwhile I ſhall content myſelf with obſerving, that I cannot diſcover why, unleſs they are mortal, females ſhould always be degraded by being made ſubſervient to love or luſt.
To ſpeak diſreſpectfully of love is, I know, high treaſon againſt ſentiment and fine feelings; but I wiſh to ſpeak the ſimple language of truth, and rather to addreſs the head than the heart. To endeavour to reaſon love out of the world, would be to out Quixote Cervantes, and equally offend againſt common ſenſe; but an endeavour to reſtrain this tumultuous paſſion, and to prove that it ſhould not be allowed to dethrone ſuperior powers, or to uſurp the ſceptre which the underſtanding ſhould ever coolly wield, appears leſs wild.
Youth is the ſeaſon for love in both ſexes; but in thoſe days of thoughtleſs enjoyment proviſion ſhould be made for the more important years of life, when reflection takes place of ſenſation. But Rouſſeau, and moſt of the male writers who have followed his ſteps, have warmly inculcated that the whole tendency of female education ought to be directed to one point:—to render them pleaſing.
Let me reaſon with the ſupporters of this opinion who have any knowledge of human nature, do they imagine that marriage can eradicate the habitude of life? The woman who has only been taught to pleaſe will ſoon find that her charms are oblique ſunbeams, and that they cannot have much effect on her huſband's heart when they are ſeen every day, when the ſummer is paſſed and gone. Will ſhe then have ſufficient native energy to
