rib, and make one moral being of a man and woman; not forgetting to give her all the 'ſubmiſſive charms.'
How women are to exiſt in that ſtate where there is to be neither marrying nor giving in marriage, we are not told.—For though moraliſts have agreed that the tenor of life ſeems to prove that man is prepared by various circumſtances for a future ſtate, they conſtantly concur in adviſing woman only to provide for the preſent. Gentleneſs, docility, and a ſpaniel-like affection are, on this ground, conſiſtently recommended as the cardinal virtues of the ſex; and, diſregarding the arbitrary economy of nature, one writer has declared that it is maſculine for a woman to be melancholy. She was created to be the toy of man, his rattle, and it muſt jingle in his ears whenever, diſmiſſing reaſon, he chooſes to be amuſed.
To recommend gentleneſs, indeed, on a broad baſis is ſtrictly philoſophical. A frail being ſhould labour to be gentle. But when forbearance confounds right and wrong, it ceaſes to be a virtue; and, however convenient it may be found in a companion—that companion will ever be conſidered as an inferior, and only inſpire a vapid tenderneſs, which eaſily degenerates into contempt. Still, if advice could really make a being gentle, whoſe natural diſpoſition admitted not of ſuch a fine poliſh, ſomething towards the advancement of order would be attained; but if, as might quickly be demonſtrated, only affectation be produced by this indiſcriminate counſel, which throws a ſtumbling-block in the way of
