Secondary, in fact, are all her virtues and qualities, for, reſpecting religion, he makes her parents thus addreſs her, accuſtomed to ſubmiſſion—'Your huſband will inſtruct you in good time.'
After thus cramping a woman's mind, if, in order to keep it fair, he has not made it quite a blank, he adviſes her to reflect, that a reflecting man may not yawn in her company, when he is tired of careſſing her.—What has ſhe to reflect about who muſt obey? and would it not be a refinement on cruelty only to open her mind to make the darkneſs and miſery of her fate viſible? Yet, theſe are his ſenſible remarks; how conſiſtent with what I have already been obliged to quote, to give a fair view of the ſubject, the reader may determine.
'They who paſs their whole lives in working for their daily bread, have no ideas beyond their buſineſs or their intereſt, and all their underſtanding ſeems to lie in their fingers' ends. This ignorance is neither prejudicial to their integrity nor their morals; it is often of ſervice to them. Sometimes, by means of reflection, we are led to compound with our duty, and we conclude by ſubſtituting a jargon of words, in the room of things. Our own conſcience is the moſt enlightened philoſopher. There is no need to be acquainted with Tully's offices, to make a man of probity: and perhaps the moſt virtuous woman in the world, is the leaſt acquainted with the definition of virtue. But it is no leſs true, that an improved underſtanding can only render ſociety agreeable; and it is a melancholy thing for a father of a family, who
