hearts[1]. The regulation of the behaviour is not modeſty, though thoſe who ſtudy rules of decorum are, in general, termed modeſt women. Make the heart clean, let it expand and feel for all that is human, inſtead of being narrowed by ſelfiſh paſſions; and let the mind frequently contemplate ſubjects that exerciſe the underſtanding, without heating the imagination, and artleſs modeſty will give the finiſhing touches to the picture.
She who can diſcern the dawn of immortality, in the ſtreaks that ſhoot athwart the miſty night of ignorance, promiſing a clearer day, will reſpect, as a ſacred temple, the body that enſhrines ſuch an improvable ſoul. True love, likewiſe, ſpreads this kind of myſterious ſanctity round the beloved object, making the lover moſt modeſt when in her preſence[2]. So reſerved is affection that, receiving or returning perſonal endearments, it wiſhes, not only to ſhun the human eye, as a kind of profanation; but to diffuſe an encircling cloudy obſcurity to ſhut out even the ſaucy ſparkling ſunbeams. Yet, that affection does not deſerve the epithet of chaſte, which does not re-
- ↑ I have converſed, as man with man, with medical men, on anatomical ſubjects; and compared the proportions of the human body with artiſts—yet ſuch modeſty did I meet with, that I was never reminded by word or look of my ſex, of the abſurd rules which make modeſty a phariſaical cloak of weakneſs. And I am perſuaded that in the purſuit of knowledge women would never be inſulted by ſenſible men, and rarely by men of any deſcription, if they did not by mock modeſty remind them that they were women: actuated by the ſame ſpirit as the Portugueſe ladies, who would think their charms inſulted, if, when left alone with a man, he did not, at leaſt, attempt to be very familiar with their perſons. Men are not always men in the company of women, nor would women always remember that they are women, if they were allowed to aquire more underſtanding.
- ↑ Male or female; for the world contains many modeſt men.
