not imagine, that even ſuch management will always ſuffice. Whatever precaution be taken, enjoyment will, by degrees, take off the edge of paſſion. But when love hath laſted as long as poſſible, a pleaſing habitude ſupplies its place, and the attachment of a mutual confidence ſucceeds to the tranſports of paſſion. Children often form a more agreeable and permanent connection between married people than even love itſelf. When you ceaſe to be the miſtreſs of Emilius, you will continue to be his wife and friend, you will be the mother of his children[1].'
Children, he truly obſerves, form a much more permanent connection between married people than love. Beauty, he declares, will not be valued, or even ſeen, after a couple have lived ſix months together; artificial graces and coquetry will likewiſe pall on the ſenſes: why then does he ſay that a girl ſhould be educated for her huſband with the ſame care as for an eaſtern haram?
I now appeal from the reveries of fancy and refined licentiouſneſs to the good ſenſe of mankind, whether, if the object of education be to prepare women to become chaſte wives and ſenſible mothers, the methods ſo plauſibly recommended in the foregoing ſketch, be the one beſt calculated to produce thoſe ends? Will it be allowed that the ſureſt way to make a wife chaſte, is to teach her to practiſe the wanton arts of a miſtreſs, termed virtuous coquetry, by the ſenſualiſt, who can no longer reliſh the artleſs charms of ſincerity, or taſte the pleaſure ariſing from a tender intimacy,
- ↑ Rouſſeau's Emilius.
