the impulſe of nature to propagate the ſpecies, ſhould appear even before an improper education has, by heating the imagination, called it forth prematurely, is ſo unphiloſophical, that ſuch a ſagacious obſerver as Rouſſeau would not have adopted it, if he had not been accuſtomed to make reaſon give way to his deſire of ſingularity, and truth to a favourite paradox.
Yet thus to give a ſex to mind was not very conſiſtent with the principles of a man who argued ſo warmly, and ſo well, for the immortality of the ſoul.—But what a weak barrier is truth when it ſtands in the way of an hypotheſis! Rouſſeau reſpected—almoſt adored virtue—and yet he allowed himſelf to love with ſenſual fondneſs. His imagination conſtantly prepared inflammable fewel for his inflammable ſenſes; but, in order to reconcile his reſpect for ſelf-denial, fortitude, and thoſe heroic virtues, which a mind like his could not coolly admire, he labours to invert the law of nature, and broaches a doctrine pregnant with miſchief and derogatory to the character of ſupreme wiſdom.
His ridiculous ſtories, which tend to prove that girls are naturally attentive to their perſons, without laying any ſtreſs on daily example, are below contempt.—And that a little miſs ſhould have ſuch a correct taſte as to neglect the pleaſing amuſement of making O's, merely becauſe ſhe perceived that it was an ungraceful attitude, ſhould be ſelected with the anecdotes of the learned pig[1].
- ↑ 'I once knew a young perſon who learned to write before ſhe learned to read, and began to write with her needle before ſhe could uſe a pen. At firſt, indeed, ſhe took it into her head to make no other letter than the O: this letter ſhe was conſtantly making of all ſizes,
