more are, as it may emphatically be termed, ruined before they know the difference between virtue and vice:—and thus prepared by their education for infamy, they become infamous. Aſylums and Magdalens are not the proper remedies for theſe abuſes. It is juſtice, not charity, that is wanting in the world!
A woman who has loſt her honour, imagines that ſhe cannot fall lower, and as for recovering her former ſtation, it is impoſſible; no exertion can waſh this ſtain away. Loſing thus every ſpur, and having no other means of ſupport, proſtitution becomes her only refuge, and the character is quickly depraved by circumſtances over which the poor wretch has little power, unleſs ſhe poſſeſſes an uncommon portion of ſenſe and loftineſs of ſpirit. Neceſſity never makes proſtitution the buſineſs of men's lives; though numberleſs are the women who are thus rendered ſyſtematically vicious. This, however, ariſes, in a great degree, from the ſtate of idleneſs in which women are educated, who are always taught to look up to man for a maintenance, and to conſider their perſons as the proper return for his exertions to ſupport them. Meretricious airs, and the whole ſcience of wantonneſs, has then a more powerful ſtimulous than either appetite or vanity; and this remark gives force to the prevailing opinion, that with chaſtity all is loſt that is reſpectable in woman. Her character depends on the obſervance of one virtue, though the only paſſion foſtered in her heart—is love. Nay, the honour of a woman is not made even to depend on her will.
