ness of behaviour muſt be worn out before one being could eat immoderately in the preſence of another, and afterwards complain of the oppreſſion that his intemperance naturally produced. Some women, particularly French women, have alſo loſt a ſenſe of decency in this reſpect; for they will talk very calmly of an indigeſtion. It were to be wiſhed that idleneſs was not allowed to generate, on the rank ſoil of wealth, thoſe ſwarms of ſummer inſects that feed on putrefaction, we ſhould not then be diſguſted by the ſight of ſuch brutal exceſſes.
There is one rule relative to behaviour that, I think, ought to regulate every other; and it is ſimply to cheriſh ſuch an habitual reſpect for mankind as may prevent us from diſguſting a fellow-creature for the ſake of a preſent indulgence. The ſhameful indolence of many married women, and others a little advanced in life, frequently leads them to ſin againſt delicacy. For, though convinced that the perſon is the band of union between the ſexes, yet, how often do they from ſheer indolence, or, to enjoy ſome trifling indulgence, diſguſt?
The depravity of the appetite which brings the ſexes together, has had a ſtill more fatal effect. Nature muſt ever be the ſtandard of taſte, the guage of appetite—yet how groſsly is nature inſulted by the voluptuary. Leaving the refinements of love out of the queſtion; nature, by making the gratification of an appetite, in this reſpect, as well as every other, a natural and imperious law to preſerve the ſpecies, exalts the appetite, and mixes a little mind and affection
