and that for a moment, alone engroſſes the thoughts. So voluptuous, indeed, often grows the luſtful prowler, that he refines on female ſoftneſs. Something more ſoft than woman is then ſought for; till, in Italy and Portugal, men attend the levees of equivocal beings, to ſigh for more than female langour.
To ſatisfy this genus of men, women are made ſyſtematically voluptuous, and though they may not all carry their libertiniſm to the ſame height, yet this heartleſs intercourſe with the ſex, which they allow themſelves, depraves both ſexes, becauſe the taſte of men is vitiated; and women, of all claſſes, naturally ſquare their behaviour to gratify the taſte by which they obtain pleaſure and power. Women becoming, conſequently, weaker, in mind and body, than they ought to be, were one of the grand ends of their being taken into the account, that of bearing and nurſing children, have not ſufficient ſtrength to diſcharge the firſt duty of a mother; and ſacrificing to laſciviouſneſs the parental affection, that ennobles inſtinct, either deſtroy the embryo in the womb, or caſt it off when born. Nature in every thing demands reſpect, and thoſe who violate her laws ſeldom violate them with impunity. The weak enervated women who particularly catch the attention of libertines, are unfit to be mothers, though they may conceive, ſo that the rich ſenſualiſt, who has rioted among women, ſpreading depravity and miſery, when he wiſhes to perpetuate his name, receives from his wife only an half-formed being that inherits both its father's and mother's weakneſs.
