It is not impious thus to ſcan the attributes of the Almighty: in fact, who can avoid it that exerciſes his faculties? For to love God as the fountain of wiſdom, goodneſs, and power, appears to be the only worſhip uſeful to a being who wiſhes to acquire either virtue or knowledge. A blind unſettled affection may, like human paſſions, occupy the mind and warm the heart, whilſt, to do juſtice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, is forgotten. I ſhall purſue this ſubject ſtill further, when I conſider religion in a light oppoſite to that recommended by Dr. Gregory, who treats it as a matter of ſentiment or taſte.
To return from this apparent digreſſion. It were to be wiſhed that women would cheriſh an affection for their huſbands, founded on the ſame principle that devotion ought to reſt upon. No other firm baſe is there under heaven—for let them beware of the fallacious light of ſentiment; too often uſed as a ſofter phraſe for ſenſuality. It follows then, I think, that from their infancy women ſhould either be ſhut up like eaſtern princes, or educated in ſuch a manner as to be able to think and act for themſelves.
Why do men halt between two opinions, and expect impoſſibilities? Why do they expect virtue from a ſlave, from a being whom the conſtitution of civil ſociety has rendered weak, if not vicious?
Still I know that it will require a conſiderable length of time to eradicate the firmly rooted prejudices which ſenſualiſts have planted; it will alſo require ſome time to convince women that
