or treat with contempt every promiſe to reſtore health to a diſeaſed body by ſupernatural means, or to foretell the incidents that can only be foreſeen by God.
Another inſtance of that feminine weakneſs of character, often produced by a confined education, is a romantic twiſt of the mind, which has been very properly termed ſentimental.
Women ſubjected by ignorance to their ſenſations, and only taught to look for happineſs in love, refine on ſenſual feelings, and adopt metaphyſical notions reſpecting that paſſion, which lead them ſhamefully to neglect the duties of life, and frequently in the midſt of theſe ſublime refinements they plump into actual vice.
Theſe are the women who are amuſed by the reveries of the ſtupid noveliſts, who, knowing little of human nature, work up ſtale tales, and deſcribe meretricious ſcenes, all retailed in a ſentimental jargon, which equally tend to corrupt the taſte, and draw the heart aſide from its daily duties, I do not mention the underſtanding, becauſe never having been exerciſed, its ſlumbering energies reſt inactive, like the lurking particles of fire which are ſuppoſed univerſally to pervade matter.
Females, in fact, denied all political privileges, and not allowed, as married women, excepting in criminal caſes, a civil exiſtence, have their attention naturally drawn from the intereſt of the whole community to that of the minute parts, though the private duty of any member of ſociety muſt
