lives with women, and with whom they have ſought for pleaſure with eager thirſt, entertain the meaneſt opinion of the ſex.—Virtue, true refiner of joy!—if fooliſh men were to fright thee from earth, in order to give looſe to all their appetites without a check—ſome ſenſual wight of taſte would ſcale the heavens to invite thee back, to give a zeſt to pleaſure!
That women at preſent are by ignorance rendered fooliſh or vicious, is, I think, not to be diſputed; and, that the moſt ſalutary effects tending to improve mankind might be expected from a revolution in female manners, appears, at leaſt, with a face of probability, to riſe out of the obſervation. For as marriage has been termed the parent of thoſe endearing charities which draw man from the brutal herd, the corrupting intercourſe that wealth, idleneſs, and folly, produce between the ſexes, is more univerſally injurious to morality than all the other vices of mankind collectively conſidered. To adulterous luſt the moſt ſacred duties are ſacrificed, becauſe before marriage, men, by a promiſcuous intimacy with women, learned to conſider love as a ſelfiſh gratification—learned to ſeparate it not only from eſteem but from the affection merely built on habit, which mixes a little humanity with it. Juſtice and friendſhip are alſo ſet at defiance, and that purity of taſte is vitiated which would naturally lead a man to reliſh an artleſs diſplay of affection rather than affected airs. But that noble ſimplicity of affection, which dares to appear unadorned, has few attractions for the libertine, though it be the charm, which by cement-
