he does not utter a falſehood when he borrows the language of adoration. His imagination may raiſe the idol of his heart, unblamed, above humanity; and happy would it be for women, if they were only flattered by the men who loved them; I mean who loved the individual, not the ſex; but ſhould a grave preacher interlard his diſcourſes with ſuch fooleries?
In ſermons or novels, however, voluptuouſneſs is always true to its text. Men are allowed by moraliſts to cultivate, as Nature directs, different qualities, and aſſume the different characters, that the ſame paſſions, modified almoſt to infinity, give to each individual. A virtuous man may have a choleric or a ſanguine conſtitution, be gay or grave, unreproved; be firm till he is almoſt overbearing, or, weakly ſubmiſſive, have no will or opinion of his own; but all women are to be levelled, by meekneſs and docility, into one character of yielding ſoftneſs and gentle compliance.
I will uſe the preacher's own words. 'Let it be obſerved, that in your ſex manly exerciſes are never graceful; that in them a tone and figure, as well as an air and deportment, of the maſculine kind, are always forbidding; and that men of ſenſibility deſire in every woman ſoft features, and a flowing voice, a form, not robuſt, and demeanour delicate and gentle.'
Is not the following portrait—the portrait of a houſe ſlave? 'I am aſtoniſhed at the folly of many women, who are ſtill reproaching their huſbands for leaving them alone, for preferring this or that company to theirs, for treating
