the impoſſibility of regaining reſpectability by a return to virtue, though men preſerve theirs during the indulgence of vice. It was natural for women then to endeavour to preſerve what once loſt—was loſt for ever, till this care ſwallowing up every other care, reputation for chaſtity, became the one thing needful to the ſex. But vain is the ſcrupuloſity of ignorance, for neither religion nor virtue, when they reſide in the heart, require ſuch a puerile attention to mere ceremonies, becauſe the behaviour muſt, upon the whole, be proper, when the motive is pure.
To ſupport my opinion I can produce very reſpectable authority; and the authority of a cool reaſoner ought to have weight to enforce conſideration, though not to eſtabliſh a ſentiment. Speaking of the general laws of morality, Dr. Smith obſerves,—'That by ſome very extraordinary and unlucky circumſtance, a good man may come to be ſuſpected of a crime of which he was altogether incapable, and upon that account be moſt unjuſtly expoſed for the remaining part of his life to the horror and averſion of mankind. By an accident of this kind he may be ſaid to loſe his all, notwithſtanding his integrity and juſtice, in the ſame manner as a cautious man, notwithſtanding his utmoſt circumſpection, may be ruined by an earthquake or an inundation. Accidents of the firſt kind, however, are perhaps ſtill more rare, and ſtill more contrary to the common courſe of things than thoſe of the ſecond; and it ſtill remains true, that the practice of truth, juſtice, and humanity, is a certain and almoſt infallible method
